Weekly Report - 14 January 2021 (WR-21-02)

Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro is in the political ascendancy.... Read More

In an interview with national newspaper La República this week, Peru’s interior minister José Elice discussed the prospect of police reform, claiming that “there is a culture within the police institution that needs to change, but that does not necessarily mean that the police way of thinking needs to be radically changed”.... Read More

A decree issued by Colombia’s government on 5 January introduced a new protocol regarding “the use and verification of the legitimate force of the state, and the protection of the right to peaceful protest”.... Read More

It looks as if parties on the right of the political spectrum will have a greater input into Chile’s new constitution than those on the left.... Read More

US carmaker Ford’s announcement this week that it will be closing its factories in Brazil and ending all manufacturing activities there by the end of the year is a big blow to the South American giant.... Read More

President Alberto Fernández went in early and hard to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) in Argentina last March, an approach that contrasted starkly with his Brazilian peer Jair Bolsonaro.... Read More

Paraguayan authorities are implementing a new strategy for dealing with the leaders of the powerful Brazilian drug trafficking organisations (DTOs) that operate in the shared border but are based in Paraguay.... Read More

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has accused the country’s national electoral institute (INE) of trying to censor him for suggesting that the broadcasting of his daily morning press briefings should be suspended during the official campaign period leading up to the June midterm elections.... Read More

The director of Haiti’s electoral commission (CEP), Max Délices, has unveiled the electoral calendar for the 2021 presidential, legislative, and municipal elections, as well as a constitutional referendum.... Read More

The office of the special prosecutor against impunity (Feci), a unit within Guatemala’s attorney general’s office (AG), last week called for a local judge, Mynor Moto, to be stripped of his immunity from prosecution to face legal action for the crimes of conspiracy to obstruct justice and breach of trust.... Read More

After the storming of the US Capitol by radical supporters of President Donald Trump on 6 January, interrupting the congressional vote to certify Joe Biden’s victory, leaders the world over spoke out to condemn the events and defend democracy.... Read More

“It is ours! It belongs to the Venezuelans and we are going to retake it in peace and with national unity.”... Read More