URUGUAY | String of major burglaries in Punta del Este. A string of high-profile burglaries in and near Uruguay’s leading seaside resort, Punta del Este, has forced the police to review their usual summer season precautions, deploying more patrol cars and posting more officers to a new set of potential hotspots, which reflect a significant change in the makeup of the tourist inflow. The strict exchange controls imposed by the Argentine government has deterred many middle-class visitors from all but the briefest of excursions, and this has shifted the focus of criminal attention to the very affluent. On New Year’s…

A resurgence of violence in Mapuche territories that began in late December and continued into January provoked the government into placing the need to combat ‘terrorism’ at the top of its agenda — without appearing to have a clear idea of the kind of challenge it is facing or the extent to which it is willing to take repression. Against this backdrop Mapuche leaders announced that their aim is self-determination. After first dismissing this, President Sebastián Piñera granted priority to giving explicit constitutional standing to all ‘originary peoples’. On 4 January a particularly shocking act of violence in the Mapuche…