Weekly Report - 10 August 2023 (WR-23-32)

Ecuador’s presidential election campaign was plunged into disarray on 9 August when one of the leading candidates was shot dead at a campaign rally.... Read More

Bolivia’s President Luis Arce declared on 6 August that the country’s natural resources are “threatened by external ambitions”, claiming that foreign powers are coveting Bolivia’s reserves of lithium and natural gas.... Read More

Venezuela’s supreme court (TSJ) issued a ruling on 4 August ordering an intervention in the Venezuelan Red Cross and firing its president, Mario Enrique Villarroel, who has headed the NGO for over 40 years.... Read More

Before this week, leaders from the eight member states of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (OTCA) had gathered only three times – in 1989, 1992 and 2009.... Read More

The former minister for justice & public security, Anderson Torres, has testified to the joint congressional inquiry committee (CPMI) investigating the 8 January riots, when supporters of right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023) stormed the seats of the country’s democratic institutions in Brasília.... Read More

On 9 August Morena Domínguez, an 11-year-old girl on her way to school in the Buenos Aires suburb of Lanús, was attacked and fatally beaten by two teenagers on a motorbike, who were reportedly stealing mobile phones to buy ‘paco’, a cheap drug made from cocaine residue.... Read More

ARGENTINA | Qatar boosts finances.... Read More

Mexico’s south-western state of Guerrero has faced a spike in violence in recent months, with several incidents targeting local government officials.... Read More

An arrest in relation to a femicide case has sparked a fierce political battle in Mexico.... Read More

MEXICO | US files another labour complaint.... Read More

The administrator of the Panama Canal Authority (PCA), Ricaurte Vásquez, revealed last week that it anticipated losing in the region of US$200m worth of toll fees in 2024 as a direct result of drought and climate change.... Read More

Honduras’s 128-member unicameral legislature has received the final shortlist of five names for the crucial post of attorney general.... Read More

COSTA RICA | Natural gas exploration.... Read More

While the unremitting crackdown on dissent by Nicaragua’s government led by President Daniel Ortega continues to make headlines, indigenous groups and environmental organisations like Fundación del Río are denouncing that mining concessions are being awarded in protected indigenous territory.... Read More

“What we witnessed was like a horror film.... Read More