Weekly Report - 10 February 2022 (WR-22-06)

Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández paid an official visit to Russia, China, and Barbados between 3 and 8 February with a focus on reducing his country’s dependence on the US and seeking more diverse trade and investment opportunities.... Read More

When Héctor Valer took over as the third prime minister in the sixth months since Peru’s President Pedro Castillo has been in office he boldly stated that “the political crisis is over”.... Read More

A month on from Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov’s suggestion that Moscow could deploy military assets to its Latin American allies [WR-22-03], Colombia’s government is appearing increasingly concerned by military activity across the border in Venezuela.... Read More

“The consummation of the robbery of the century from independent journalism,” was how Jorge Canahuati, president of the US-based press watchdog Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) described the court-ordered transfer of national daily El Nacional’s headquarters to government strongman Diosdado Cabello, the vice president of Venezuela’s ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV).... Read More

Bolivia’s President Luis Arce announced the successful drilling of a major gas well on 5 February, which he said would add an additional US$260m to the treasury in royalties each year.... Read More

Hundreds of people gathered outside Paraguay’s presidential palace Mburuvicha Róga on 5 February to demand justice for the murdered model and popular social media ‘influencer’, Cristina ‘Vita’ Aranda.... Read More

On 24 January Moïse Mugenyi Kabagambe, a Congolese refugee who had arrived in Brazil fleeing armed conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo some 10 years earlier, was beaten to death by at least three men at a beachside kiosk in Barra da Tijuca, an upmarket neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro.... Read More

President Jair Bolsonaro travelled to three states in Brazil’s Nordeste region this week to visit infrastructure works which aim to deliver water to the semi-arid region.... Read More

This week Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador once again outlined intentions to nationalise lithium production.... Read More

On 4 February, Mexico’s national electoral institute (INE) formally announced the presidential recall vote, which will take place on 10 April.... Read More

MEXICO | Economy minister predicts modest GDP growth.... Read More

An uneventful electoral campaign featuring a record 25 presidential candidates concluded on 6 February with an unexpected result.... Read More

Nicaragua’s attorney general’s office has announced the start of trials of political prisoners, which include those arrested ahead of the November 2021 general election which produced a victory for President Daniel Ortega but was widely slammed as a “sham” [WR-21-46].... Read More

This week marked the end of the term of the late president Jovenel Moïse (2017-2021) whose assassination last July plunged Haiti into further crisis.... Read More

EL SALVADOR | Deepening China ties.... Read More

Honduras’s new President Xiomara Castro, of the ruling leftist Partido Libertad y Refundación (Libre), received a fillip this week after a deal was reached ending a dispute over the leadership of congress which threatened both a constitutional crisis and to derail her administration before it had begun its work [WR-22-04].... Read More

“Argentina must end the huge dependence it has on the US and the IMF.”... Read More