Weekly Report - 13 August 2020 (WR-20-32)

Bolivia’s acute political and social volatility was thrown into sharp relief this week by a standoff between the interim government led by Jeanine Áñez and protesters supportive of former president Evo Morales (2006-2019).... Read More

Colombia’s President Iván Duque reached the midpoint of his tenure on 7 August with a political and judicial crisis to add to the health and economic crises he already faces.... Read More

Two former US Special forces soldiers, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, were sentenced to 20 years in prison in Venezuela on 8 August for their role in a botched amphibious ‘invasion’ in May this year (with the aim of abducting the de facto president Nicolás Maduro and members of his coterie and flying them to the US).... Read More

Precisely one week after suffering the setback of becoming the first Peruvian head of state to see a cabinet rejected by congress in its debut vote of confidence [WR-20-31], President Martín Vizcarra was able to celebrate the overwhelming support extended by the country’s legislators to his new choice for prime minister, Walter Martos, a retired army general, and his cabinet.... Read More

The deep political differences that separate Argentina’s ruling Partido Justicialista (PJ, Peronists) on the Left and its political opponents on the Right, known as ‘la grieta’ (‘the chasm’) is once again resurfacing in Argentina.... Read More

Concern with deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, and the closely linked issue of wildfires, has been growing and spreading: the government led by President Jair Bolsonaro is facing increasing pressure to tackle forest loss, with international investors and Brazilian businesses now adding their voices to the chorus of NGOs, foreign governments, and international civil society [WR-20-27].... Read More

Brazil passed the grim milestone of 100,000 dead from the coronavirus (Covid-19) on 8 August.... Read More

It did not take long for the right-wing Cabildo Abierto (CA) to come knocking.... Read More

After a particularly violent flare-up in tensions between the indigenous Mapuche and Chilean authorities in early August, arson attacks by Mapuche activists in the southern region of La Araucanía have continued.... Read More

CHILE | Good FDI results give hope.... Read More

The former CEO of Mexico’s state-owned oil firm Pemex, Emilio Lozoya Austin (2012-2016), who is currently being prosecuted in Mexico in relation to the bribery scheme centred around Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, has directly implicated former president Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018) in the scheme for the first time.... Read More

MEXICO | Falling investment.... Read More

“A Honduran tragedy”.... Read More

“Costa Rica listens, proposes, and dialogues”.... Read More

President Nayib Bukele recently announced that the first phase of reopening El Salvador’s economy, shuttered to halt the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19), would extend until 23 August.... Read More

The ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) under Prime Minister Keith Rowley declared victory in Trinidad & Tobago on 10 August in a close contest against the opposition United National Congress (UNC) under former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar (2010-2015).... Read More

“Why are we fighting over the matter of a week here or there? For the sake of two or three weeks there is no point.”... Read More