Weekly Report - 08 October 2020 (WR-20-40)

The authorship of one of the most infamous political assassinations in Colombia’s history has been shrouded in uncertainty for nearly a quarter of a century.... Read More

Upon coming to power in November 2019, Bolivia’s interim government faced two key tasks: to act as a neutral administrator of new elections to replace the annulled October 2019 vote; and to prevent a repetition of the violent unrest that followed that elections [WR-19-47].... Read More

In rejecting an offer by the European Union (EU) to send a mission to observe Venezuela’s upcoming legislative election (in exchange for a six-month delay to the vote, and further negotiations to “improve democratic conditions”), Nicolás Maduro’s government seems to have finally ended the possibility of any meaningful opposition participation on 6 December.... Read More

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has made the first of his presidency’s two planned nominations to the country’s 11-member supreme court (STF), as the dean of the court, Justice José Celso de Mello, reaches the compulsory retirement age of 75 on 1 November (Justice Marco Aurélio Mello will reach the compulsory retirement age next July).... Read More

The Chilean government is once again facing intense domestic and international scrutiny over the actions taken by the security forces while policing social protests.... Read More

ARGENTINA | Back in discussions with the IMF.... Read More

The government led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has launched an assault on obesity in Mexico.... Read More

President Carlos Alvarado is facing a serious challenge to his authority.... Read More

Civil-society groups have called on the attorney general’s office (FGR) to investigate El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and military leaders for supposedly “covering up” the 1981 ‘El Mozote’ massacre, when some 1,000 villagers suspected of sympathy with left-wing guerrillas were killed - one of the worst human rights abuses of the 1980-1992 civil war.... Read More

Opposition groups such as Alianza Cívica por la Justicia y la Democracia (ACJD), civil-society organisations, and the international community have all expressed concern about two new legislative bills tabled by President Daniel Ortega’s Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) - a new cyber-security bill and the so-called ‘foreign agents’ bill.... Read More

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC | Proposed tax rises spark concern.... Read More

Andrés Arauz welcomed the decision by Ecuador’s national electoral council (CNE) on 30 September to accept his presidential candidacy, with the left-wing Unión por la Esperanza (Unes) coalition, as “an important step towards the preservation of democracy”.... Read More

“We are revealing the truth, and we are going to continue revealing the truth.... Read More