Weekly Report - 30 March 2023 (WR-23-13)

President Guillermo Lasso’s prospects of survival are hanging by a thread after Ecuador’s constitutional court (CC) ruled on 29 March that the national assembly could proceed with an impeachment trial against him.... Read More

Peru’s President Dina Boluarte has taken great pains to distance herself from Pedro Castillo, under whom she served as vice president until his impeachment and arrest in December.... Read More

Peasant farmers in various coca-producing areas are suffering an unexpected crisis: coca leaf and coca paste prices have dropped sharply, sales have dried up, and local communities are facing hardship.... Read More

Photo opportunity The photograph of Presidents Biden and Fernández at the White House is regarded as an electoral asset, as it serves to portray the latter as an international statesman, rebuffing centre-right opposition claims that Argentina is diplomatically isolated and directionless.... Read More

It was all mutual backslapping when Paraguay’s foreign minister, Julio César Arriola, visited Washington DC on 27 March to discuss a range of issues of bilateral importance with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.... Read More

Citing illness (he was diagnosed with a mild case of bronchopneumonia) Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva postponed his state visit to China, initially planned for 27-31 March.... Read More

The bill in question is an amalgamation of two earlier drafts and is named after Eugenio Nain and Carlos Retamal, policemen killed on duty, respectively in October 2020 and October 2022.... Read More

BRAZIL | Interest rate battle continues.... Read More

A legal battle is brewing over President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s controversial ‘Plan B’ electoral reform, which was passed by the senate in December [WR-23-04].... Read More

Local and international human rights organisations have forcefully condemned the deaths of 38 migrants in a fire at a federal migration facility in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua state.... Read More

President Xiomara Castro’s instruction to commence negotiations to open diplomatic relations with mainland China [WR-23-11] has now been carried out.... Read More

“The numbers say more than words.... Read More

The Colombian government suffered a notable reverse on 23 March when President Gustavo Petro announced that he was withdrawing a planned political reform bill, because it had been altered beyond recognition in congress.... Read More

“[We have] a very mindless opposition that does not respect that electoral periods are for four years.... Read More