Weekly Report - 02 December 2021 (WR-21-48)

The term ‘historic victory’ is overused in politics, but it is apt to describe the triumph in the presidential elections on 28 November by Xiomara Castro.... Read More

Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate (2002) and long-term kidnap victim (she was held by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia [Farc] guerrillas from 2002-2008) told assembled journalists on 28 November that “we have white smoke”.... Read More

Just as Colombia was marking the fifth anniversary of the peace agreement with left-wing guerrillas from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) there were reports (later denied) that the right-wing government of President Iván Duque has been considering exploratory talks with the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN).... Read More

Officially the regional elections of 21 November are done and dusted with the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) registering another overwhelming victory, taking 19 out of 23 states, as well as the capital Caracas.... Read More

Three right-wing opposition parties presented a motion of impeachment against Peru’s President Pedro Castillo on 25 November, after gaining enough signatures to make the motion eligible for debate in Peru’s congress.... Read More

Massive pro-government demonstrations were held in the Bolivian capital, La Paz, on 29 November, with President Luis Arce’s administration claiming that over 1m citizens took to the streets in support of the ruling left-wing Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS).... Read More

After being stalled for months, André Mendonça’s nomination to Brazil’s supreme court (STF) was finally approved by the senate on 1 December.... Read More

President Jair Bolsonaro sealed his alliance with the Partido Liberal (PL) on 30 November, formally joining the party ahead of Brazil’s October 2022 presidential elections in which he is expected to seek a second term.... Read More

Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benítez travelled to the Brazilian capital Brasília to meet his counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, on 24 November.... Read More

Although left-winger Gabriel Boric was pushed into second place by far-right candidate José Antonio Kast in the first round of the presidential ballot in November, opinion polls are now suggesting positions could reverse in the second round.... Read More

The economy minister, Martín Guzmán, will travel to Washington at the end of this week for another round of talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), increasing speculation that a deal could be imminent.... Read More

BRAZIL | Unemployment rate falling.... Read More

Over 100,000 people gathered on 1 December in the Zócalo, the central plaza in Mexico City, to celebrate the third anniversary of the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador - the mid-way point in his six-year term in office.... Read More

On 24 November the federal government announced it was sending a detachment of national guard (GN) troops to the state of Zacatecas, in an attempt to control a growing wave of violence.... Read More

With democracy-related concerns already rife following the Salvadorean government’s recent unveiling of a proposed foreign agents law [WR-21-46], authorities have set off further alarm bells among civil-society groups after the attorney general’s office (FGR) and national police (PNC) carried out a string of raids on seven NGOs.... Read More

Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso signed a controversial new tax reform bill into law on 29 November, exercising his right to do so because the opposition-dominated congress had failed to discuss, approve, or reject the legislation within the allotted 30-day time period.... Read More

“We will transform 12 years of tears and pain into joy.”... Read More