Brazil & Southern Cone - June 2022

Six months before the end of President Jair Bolsonaro’s current term in Brazil – and three months before the presidential elections which could see former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011) return to power for a third term – this June edition of the Latin American Regional Report: Brazil and Southern Cone begins by looking at the progress of the ambitious privatisation programme that President Bolsonaro’s economy minister, Paulo Guedes, announced when the incumbent government took office in 2019.... Read More

On 1 January 2019, the day he took office three and a half years ago, Paulo Guedes, Brazil’s ‘super minister’ for the economy, announced a right-wing revolution.... Read More

Elon Musk, the world’s richest business leader, produced some excitement in Brazil in April and May.... Read More

The term ‘cracolândia’ is used in Brazil to designate an area where drug dependents, often crack users, congregate to take and buy drugs.... Read More

Uruguay’s President Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou visited the UK on 23-24 May to meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson for talks on collaboration and trade.... Read More

Traditionally safe and peaceful Uruguay is suffering from a wave of drug-related violence which poses a challenge for the government led by President Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou.... Read More

Members of the judicial profession congregated in the Argentine city of Rosario on 12 May to take part in an event organised by the association of federal judges (Ajufe) in a show of solidarity for their colleagues in the city, who have been facing threats due to their work fighting local criminals.... Read More

The targeted killing of Marcelo Pecci, a Paraguayan prosecutor who was overseeing high-profile drug investigations and had a reputation for incorruptibility, has produced shock due to both the brutality of the assassination, and what it says about Paraguay’s increasingly brazen and sophisticated criminal gangs.... Read More

President Gabriel Boric gave his first state of the nation address, known as the ‘cuenta pública’, to congress on 1 June, after exactly 82 days in office.... Read More

ARGENTINA| Government formalises extension agreement with Paris Club.... Read More