Weekly Report - 29 April 2021 (WR-21-17)

Mexico’s political opposition has been convinced from the outset that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a populist autocrat.... Read More

One electoral survey might be wrong.... Read More

News on the violence in Venezuela’s Apure state is coming in dribs and drabs, with murky details emerging in contradictory reports from the Venezuelan authorities and human rights organisations.... Read More

Bolivia’s President Luis Arce has repealed three decrees introduced by his predecessor, interim president Jeanine Áñez (2019-2020), which had liberalised the use of genetic modification (GM) techniques in agriculture.... Read More

Ecuador’s president elect, Guillermo Lasso, has named eight cabinet ministers, five of them women, to form the “social front” of his incoming government.... Read More

Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera has once again been forced to sanction a bill that allows individuals to withdraw part of their pension pots to help them deal with the economic hardship produced by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.... Read More

Speaking at the US-hosted virtual Leaders Summit on Climate on 22 April, President Jair Bolsonaro made several promises regarding Brazil’s climate commitments, including that of doubling funding for environmental enforcement efforts.... Read More

A protest staged by public health sector workers in Argentina’s southern province of Neuquén over salaries is having repercussions across the border in Chile.... Read More

The failure by Guatemala’s congress to swear-in justice Gloria Porras, who was recently reappointed to the five-member constitutional court (CC), has reignited concerns regarding judicial independence.... Read More

Panama’s leading private-sector lobby, Cámara de Comercio, Industrias y Agricultura de Panamá (CCIAP), has issued a statement reiterating calls for constitutional reform.... Read More

President Luis Abinader is facing growing demands to decriminalise abortion in the Dominican Republic, one of the few countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, along with El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Jamaica where there is a total ban, even when a pregnancy is life-threatening, unviable, or the result of rape or incest.... Read More

During a virtual summit of the foreign and economy ministers of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) on 26 April, Uruguay formally presented a proposal to flexibilise the regional trade bloc.... Read More

“It sends out a message that seriously damages the rule of law…that the constitution doesn’t matter and that the ends justify the means”.... Read More