Weekly Report - 21 January 2021 (WR-21-03)

One of the first actions of US President Joe Biden upon taking office on 20 January was to issue an executive order halting construction of the Mexican border wall.... Read More

Peruvian voters will have an unprecedented choice of presidential candidates when they cast their ballots on 11 April, but two opinion surveys released this week suggest that none of the options hold any great appeal.... Read More

While Venezuela’s legislative election back in December did little to disrupt the country’s political status quo – except to reinforce the Nicolás Maduro administration’s grip on power [WR-21-02] – there has been widespread speculation that the inauguration of US President Joe Biden could have a more transformative impact.... Read More

Adam Boehler, the chief executive of the US government’s Development Finance Corporation (DFC), described last week’s US$3.5bn agreement with Ecuador as a “novel approach” to development financing.... Read More

After a five-hour meeting broadcast live and followed as eagerly as a football match, on 17 January Brazil’s federal heath regulator (Anvisa) gave the go-ahead for the emergency use of two vaccines against the coronavirus (Covid-19), Sinovac’s CoronaVac and the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.... Read More

Paraguay and Uruguay have done a better job than their neighbours in containing the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.... Read More

The hope that indigenous participation in drafting Chile’s new constitution [WR-21-02] would help to reduce tensions between the government and the Mapuche in the southern region of Araucanía has been dealt a serious blow.... Read More

BRAZIL | Coffee exports break records.... Read More

President Nayib Bukele refused to commemorate the anniversary of the signing of the peace accords on 16 January that ended El Salvador’s bloody civil war (1980-1992), dismissing them as “a farce”.... Read More

President Alejandro Giammattei has presented a state-of-the-nation address after completing his first year in office, a period largely overshadowed by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.... Read More

Three opposition deputies last week filed a request before congress calling for President Juan Orlando Hernández to be impeached and removed from office.... Read More

Bolivia’s 72-year-old health minister Édgar Pozo was forced to step down from the role on 16 January, after testing positive for coronavirus (Covid-19).... Read More

“I have never allowed myself to be unfairly represented or mistreated, I will not allow it on this occasion, not for me, but for Mexico and its institutions”.... Read More