BOLIVIA | Drug deal breakthrough. The government of President Evo Morales has finally signed two agreements with the US and Brazil to cooperate on coca control. The inking of the accords is a major breakthrough after various delays, attributed to concerns in the Morales government that the deal could undermine its authority in terms of determining how drug control would be carried out within Bolivia’s borders. The timing of the accords provides a plausible explanation for Morales’ decision not to invite Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to La Paz during his recent mini-tour of the region [WR-12-02]. According to Bolivia’s state…

President Hugo Chávez claimed this week that it would not be “the end of the world” if he lost power in elections on 7 October, and that he would order his supporters, moderate and radical alike, to accept the result. A lot could still happen between now and then but the opposition Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD) is looking like a more formidable rival day by day. Henrique Capriles Radonski is a strong bet to face Chávez after one of his two main contenders, Leopoldo López, withdrew from the MUD party primaries on 12 February and threw his weight…

A “politically high voltage cabinet” was how the local media dubbed the new ministerial team selected by President Evo Morales in his now customary annual reshuffle marking the start of each year of his mandate. With half of his 20-member cabinet replaced, the assignment of Morales’ top aides to politically sensitive portfolios (namely the interior ministry) is the latest response to the current problems afflicting his Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) government, which is entering its seventh year in office. These were caused by unpopular policies such as his December 2010 proposal to ditch fuel subsidies (the so-called gasolinazo), and a…