Weekly Report - 07 April 2022 (WR-22-14)

The victory of anti-establishment candidate Rodrigo Chaves in the 3 April presidential run-off has upended politics in Costa Rica, one of the region’s most stable democracies.... Read More

Russia’s war in Ukraine has been bad news for all major Latin American countries, offering a cocktail of global supply chain disruption, sharply increased energy prices, and a politically damaging squeeze on the cost of living.... Read More

Frontrunner Gustavo Petro, of the left-wing Pacto Histórico coalition, is stamping on the accelerator in his campaign to win in the first round of Colombia’s presidential election on 29 May.... Read More

A six-week power struggle in Ecuador’s legislature intensified this week, with the president of the national assembly, Guadalupe Llori of the indigenous Pachakutik (PK) party, securing a judicial order preventing deputies from forming an ‘ad hoc’ commission to investigate her alleged failures of leadership.... Read More

After two false starts, on 4 April the trial of Bolivia’s former president Jeanine Áñez (2019-2020) finally began.... Read More

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague announced on 31 March that it will open an office in Caracas, from where it will base its investigation into alleged crimes against humanity under President Nicolás Maduro [WR-21-44].... Read More

With six months to go until Brazil’s presidential elections in October, the race is set to become more polarised between incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro and his left-wing rival, former president Lula da Silva (2003-2011).... Read More

For the first time, public opinion in Chile seems to be turning against the partially drafted new constitution, the work of the country’s specially elected Constitutional Convention (CC).... Read More

The 40th anniversary of the start of the South Atlantic military conflict, when Argentina invaded the Falklands/Malvinas islands in 1982 and was eventually defeated by British forces, fell on 2 April.... Read More

ARGENTINA | Food subsidies expanded.... Read More

The second half of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s term is centred on passing three controversial constitutional reforms.... Read More

Municipal elections in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas were marked by violence this week.... Read More

Last week the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted a resolution establishing a Group of Experts to investigate alleged human rights violations committed in Nicaragua since April 2018, when the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) government led by President Daniel Ortega began a crackdown on its opponents following the eruption of social unrest.... Read More

The Cuban government’s heightened sensitivity to criticism was on full display last week after the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, expressed concern at the “disproportionate” verdicts handed down to those involved in the protests that erupted across the island in July 2021.... Read More

“In Costa Rica political transformations are only possible through democratic consensus.... Read More