Weekly Report - 02 February 2023 (WR-23-05)

Paraguay’s electoral race took a twist on 26 January when the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) sanctioned Paraguay’s former president Horacio Cartes (2013-2018), who was blacklisted by the US Department of State last July for significant corruption.... Read More

Tensions are mounting between Peru’s President Dina Boluarte and congress over the date for early presidential and congressional elections.... Read More

Ecuador’s public security council (Cosepe), an advisory body to the presidency, has declared illegal mining to be a threat to national security due to its association with organised crime groups.... Read More

Colombia’s defence ministry announced on 28 January that seizures of cocaine reached an all-time high in 2022, when 671 tonnes (t) of the drug were impounded by the authorities.... Read More

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, arrived in Venezuela for a two-day visit on 26 January, landing in Caracas at a time when human rights under President Nicolás Maduro’s administration are once again under the spotlight.... Read More

The new Brazilian congress voted to extend the tenures of the president of the lower chamber of congress, Arthur Lira, and the senate president, Rodrigo Pacheco, for another two years at its inaugural session on 2 February.... Read More

Brazil’s supreme court (STF) has ordered an investigation into whether members of the former right-wing government led by Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023) were responsible for genocide and other crimes against the indigenous Yanomami.... Read More

A relatively small issue – a perceived political snub dealt to Argentina’s interior minister, Eduardo ‘Wado’ de Pedro – has threatened to trigger a new crisis and stand-off between President Alberto Fernández and Vice President Cristina Fernández.... Read More

BRAZIL | New Petrobras chief.... Read More

Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard is on a mission.... Read More

On 30 January, a new political platform launched in Mexico.... Read More

MEXICO | López Obrador bullish as inflation rises.... Read More

Just over a week after officially calling the 25 June 2023 general elections on 20 January, Guatemala’s electoral authority (TSE) rejected the presidential candidacy of Thelma Cabrera, an indigenous candidate for the left-wing opposition Movimiento para la Liberación de los Pueblos (MLP).... Read More

Armed individuals claiming to be police (PNd’H) officials recently staged violent protests in Port-au-Prince, targeting, among other things, the residence of Prime Minister Ariel Henry (who was away at the time).... Read More

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Brasília on 29 January for talks with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, after previous stopovers in Argentina and Chile.... Read More

“Today the world sees a significantly corrupt former president and a significantly corrupt vice president.... Read More