Weekly Report - 01 December 2022 (WR-22-48)

More than a year after the previous attempt at dialogue collapsed in acrimony, Venezuela’s government and opposition reached an agreement on 26 November to request access to frozen assets abroad in order to address the social and humanitarian crises afflicting the country.... Read More

After 36 days of disruptive anti-government protests in Bolivia’s eastern department of Santa Cruz, the opposition-affiliated departmental business lobby Comité pro Santa Cruz (CPSC) called on protesters to stand down on 26 November.... Read More

Peru’s President Pedro Castillo appointed Betssy Chávez as prime minister on 25 November after Aníbal Torres tendered his resignation in the midst of an intensifying political confrontation with congress.... Read More

Paraguay has been consumed by a scandal sparked by revelations that the son of the president of the supreme court (CSJ), a lawyer, represented a Brazilian citizen arrested for drug trafficking and seeking a ‘legal way out’ of extradition to the US.... Read More

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro is running out of options in his attempts to cast doubt on the result of the second round of elections on 30 October, which he narrowly lost to leftist former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.... Read More

A large crowd accompanied the Madres de Plaza de Mayo on 24 November to scatter the ashes of Hebe de Bonafini, the group’s leader, in the square in the hub of Buenos Aires city where she made her name protesting against the abuses of the military dictatorship.... Read More

BRAZIL | Spending waiver bill presented to congress.... Read More

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has come out fighting following protests against his proposed electoral reform on 13 November [WR-22-46].... Read More

US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack pulled no punches following a meeting with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City on 28 November.... Read More

Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel recently embarked on a rare international tour of Algeria, Russia, Turkey, and China in a bid to shore up support for the island which has been badly hit by the impact of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, longstanding US sanctions, the war in Ukraine and, most recently, Hurricane Ian, which caused major devastation [WR-22-41].... Read More

Honduran President Xiomara Castro has declared ‘war’ on extortion and a national security emergency, which allows for the partial suspension of constitutional rights in certain crime hotspots.... Read More

Peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) guerrilla group got off to a positive start in a hotel in the Venezuelan national park Waraira Repano near Caracas on 25 November.... Read More

“We reiterate our willingness to review sanctions policies if the regime makes meaningful progress in the announced talks to alleviate the suffering of the Venezuelan people and bring them closer to a restoration of democracy.”... Read More