Weekly Report - 27 October 2022 (WR-22-43)

Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaidó, already battling slipping international support for his claim to be the country’s legitimate president, is now facing widening fissures within his fractious Plataforma Unitaria Democrática (PUD) coalition.... Read More

An ‘indefinite’ strike was launched by the political opposition in Bolivia’s eastern department of Santa Cruz on 22 October, as part of efforts to force President Luis Arce’s government into a U-turn over its postponement of a national census.... Read More

Potential production of cocaine in Colombia rose 14% last year to 1,400 tonnes (t) and the area cultivated with coca, the drug’s base ingredient, shot up 43% to 204,000 hectares, the highest figures in two decades of monitoring, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).... Read More

Brazilians are deeply divided into two ideologically opposing groups as they prepare to head to the polls for the second-round presidential run-off on 30 October, but few would dispute that this will be the most difficult test for the country’s democracy since the demise of the military dictatorship in 1985.... Read More

The Paraguayan government has confirmed that Osvaldo Villalba, one of the main leaders of the Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo (EPP) insurgent group, was killed in a shootout with the security forces at the weekend.... Read More

ARGENTINA | Budget approved by lower chamber.... Read More

The Council of Europe’s Venice Commission, an advisory committee composed of independent experts in constitutional law, has issued warnings against proposed changes to Mexico’s electoral system.... Read More

Same-sex marriage is now legally recognised in all of Mexico’s 32 states.... Read More

MEXICO | Inflation slows.... Read More

The main opposition Partido de la Liberación Dominicana (PLD) has named Abel Martínez, mayor of Santiago de los Caballeros, the capital of Santiago province and the country’s second city, as its presidential candidate ahead of the general elections in May 2024.... Read More

Human rights groups are urging that the process of appointing Guatemala’s new comptroller general (CGC), which is currently under way, should be “fair and transparent”.... Read More

EL SALVADOR | Trade deficit balloons.... Read More

The US and Cuban governments have confirmed that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will send US$2m to help the victims of Hurricane Ian which recently devastated Cuba.... Read More

“We will be ready to defeat you and your dictatorship.”... Read More