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Bolsonaro’s assurances on the economy, corruption and violent crime were a direct response to Brazil’s biggest problems. They convinced a number of voters in October 2018 and have helped him maintain a reasonable level of support throughout his first year in office. But Bolsonaro’s most staunch supporters buy into a different narrative, a common thread that cut across all these pledges, and more: his promise to return Brazil to moral rectitude by fighting dangerous left-wing ideology.

This promise has been repeatedly conveyed throughout his first year in office in his bellicose rhetoric; his dismissal of anything remotely leftist as the scourge of communism; his admiration for Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985); and his apparent delight in causing offence and outrage amongst those who espouse liberal social values, with the kind of sexist, racist, homophobic, and authoritarian statements for which he was known before 2018.

Hopes that Bolsonaro would moderate his discourse and settle into a more statesmanlike posture have been repeatedly dashed over the course of the year. Each provocative tweet or statement is usually followed by a retraction minimising the controversy, but it is more than mere noise. The ebb and flow of scandal keeps hardline ‘bolsonaristas’ fired up; culture wars have paralysed certain government ministries and their work; and some of Bolsonaro’s moralistic judgements and opinions have trickled down into government policy in a number of sectors, most notably education and foreign policy. 

 ‘Brasil acima de tudo, Deus acima de todos’ was Bolsonaro’s campaign slogan, capturing his promise to return Brazil to greatness and uphold traditional Christian values. This found resonance amongst the conservative parts of a Brazilian society divided by culture wars. He has the support of Evangelicals, a demographic which has grown in size and influence over the past three decades. Evangelical Christians now make up an estimated 31% of the population and the evangelical parliamentary bloc in congress is composed of 195 deputies (out of 513) and eight senators (out of 81).

Education, gender politics, and abortion are some of the issues on which the evangelical lobby is pushing its so-called ‘traditions agenda’. An ultra-conservative education project known as the ‘escola sem partido’, which would seek to end supposed indoctrination in schools, has been contained by congress. But Brazil, where social conservatism has tended to cohabitate with a culture of tolerance, is undergoing a cultural shift. In his study of middle-class Bolsonaro voters who are just above the poverty threshold, Barbosa from the USP has observed a reactionary pushback against affirmative action measures like racial quotas in public universities (introduced in 2012) and the recent social rights gains of minority groups such as members of the LGBTQ+ community – an opinion these bolsonaristas are not ashamed to voice.

President Lenín Moreno’s staunch commitment to upholding Ecuador’s reputation in the international financial market has cost his government much of its domestic support – and, according to his opponents, the lives of many Ecuadoreans, in the face of spending cuts and the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. All eyes are now on the ongoing debt restructuring negotiations with foreign bondholders, the endgame of Moreno’s long-term strategy, and perhaps the final chance to salvage his presidential legacy.

The early stages of this process were remarkably successful, a rare beacon of hope among the country’s parallel health and economic crises, as initial requests to suspend debt repayments were accepted, and a large group of bondholders - representing 53% of the total US$17.4bn debt at stake - quickly accepted the government’s (admittedly relatively generous) restructuring proposal [WR-20-27]. However, as the 31 July deadline approaches, by which time two-thirds of bondholders need to have approved the deal, a dissenting group of creditors has thrown a late spanner in the works.

A group of bondholders calling themselves the ‘Steering Committee’ issued a counter-offer last week, calling for interest repayment rates to remain at 9.2%, rather than the proposed 5.9%, and for a reduction of the grace period for capital repayment. Economy Minister Richard Martínez quickly rejected this proposal, noting that the increased repayments would require “an enormous additional sacrifice on the part of the Ecuadorean people”. He emphasised that the Steering Committee represents a minority of bondholders (thought to be between 25%-35%), but they are nonetheless being treated with caution, for fear that their intervention could destabilise negotiations.

• Legal challenge

Two investment funds that form part of the Steering Committee, Contrarian Capital Management (CCM) and Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co (GMO), filed a legal complaint against the Ecuadorean government on 29 July before a New York federal district court, following the rejection of the Steering Committee’s counter-proposal. CCM and GMO hold only 3% of the bonds under negotiation, but their complaint that forcing a restructuring deal upon them would amount to “market fraud” and “coercive exchange” risks destabilising the entire negotiation process. Ecuador’s economy ministry condemned the lawsuit as an “aggressive” attempt to secure “preferential treatment”, and pledged to resist “this attempt to boycott the process”.

The Ecuadorean government has no shortage of international support - as well as the approval of various major investors, multilateral organisations including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have all indicated their support for the government’s proposal. Many at home, by contrast, remain sceptical - even if the proposal is approved, critics will suggest the government paid over the odds and will continue to condemn the decision to prioritise restructured repayments over emergency spending. If it is rejected, the picture will be worse still, as all of Moreno’s sacrifices will appear to have been for nothing.

Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo and his government are sailing in choppy waters as international credit ratings agencies, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, both downgrade the country, and the private sector lobby raises concerns over the handling of the economy in response to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

On 18 March Moody’s downgraded Panama’s Long-term Issuer and Senior Unsecured Debt ratings to ‘Baa2’ from ‘Baa1’. It cited as the key driver for its decision, “the very material deterioration in Panama’s fiscal strength driven by the severe economic shock” from pandemic. According to Moody’s “while most sovereigns have experienced some diminution in their fiscal strength, in Panama’s case the erosion has been unusually large relative to rating peers”.

Moody’s, which expects Panama’s economic recovery to be gradual (see sidebar), also highlighted that the country’s GDP fell 17.9% in 2020 compared with its expectation of a 10% contraction in October 2020. This was the biggest contraction in the whole of Central America. Meanwhile the sharp slowdown in economic activity weighed on government revenue, which fell 21.2% last year. The fiscal deficit reached 10.1% of GDP, up from 3.1% in 2019 while at US$37bn, government debt stood at 69.8% of GDP in 2020, up from 46.4% in 2019. Moody’s downgrade came the month after Fitch downgraded Panama's Long-Term Foreign Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) from ‘BBB’ to ‘BBB’, citing the economic impact of the pandemic. In a 3 February statement Fitch also outlined the worsening fiscal situation.

Further echoing these concerns, on 4 March Amauri Castillo, the head of Panama’s banking superintendence (SBP) heaped more pressure on the government to address the fiscal situation by highlighting the need for Panama to retain its investment grade rating. Castillo also urged the need to comply with the action plan agreed with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which includes Panama on its ‘grey list’ of countries considered non-cooperative in the global fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, in order to improve competitivity.

Even prior to credit rating downgrades, Panama’s leading private sector lobby, the Cámara de Comercio, Industrias y Agricultura de Panamá (CCIAP), complained about the government’s handling of the economy. In a 31 January statement, it bemoaned a “grave economic crisis” which has driven up unemployment from 7.1% in 2019 to 18.5% in 2020, the highest rate in 20 years. CCIAP also more generally raised concerns over competitivity, warning that Panama has been in “free-fall” in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business indicator, ranking 86th out of 190 countries in 2020, down from 55th in 2014. It similarly complains that Panama has plummeted in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, to 66th out of 141 countries in 2019, down from 40th six years earlier.

President Cortizo faces the same pressures as other world leaders in balancing public health with the economy during the pandemic but cannot blame sliding competitiveness or the inclusion in the FATF’s grey list on the coronavirus. That said, his government is taking action to kickstart the economy. Among other measures, on 19 March, the government announced that various ministries were working together to speed up the approval process for the building of export plants in order to boost exports; while on 5 April he sanctioned a new law which creates a national authority to attract investment and promote Panama’s exports (ProPanamá).

• Gradual recovery

Moody’s considers that improvements on the fiscal front will be at best “very gradual” given its expectation that the government deficit will remain relatively large at around 7.5% of GDP in 2021; and that economic output will not return to pre-pandemic levels until late 2023.

PERU | Chancay-Shanghai route. In the first two months of operation, over 22,000 tonnes of cargo have been transported along the new direct maritime route between the Chinese-funded Chancay mega port on the Peruvian Pacific coast, and the Chinese city of Shanghai, according to a report from Peru’s state news agency on 5 March.

Citing Chinese customs authorities, Andina reported that the total value of goods transported amounted to US$84.06m since the route began operating on 18 December 2024. It notes that the route is used twice a week and has cut transport time between Peru and China from over a month to approximately 23 days, as well as reducing maritime transport costs by at least 20%.

Last month Andina reported that Peru’s exports to China, its leading export destination, were worth US$25.2bn in 2024, accounting for 34% of total exports.

VENEZUELA | Cost of basic food basket. A report released on 1 March by Centro de Documentación y Análisis Social (Cendas-FVM), a research branch of the Venezuelan teachers’ federation (FVM), calculated that teachers in Venezuela need the equivalent of 35.9 times their salary in order to afford the basic basket of food, valued at US$476.82 per five-member family in January. According to Cendas-FVM, an average teacher’s salary is some US$13.30 a month.

Two weeks earlier, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, urged the government led by Nicolás Maduro to “address root causes of hunger and malnutrition”, citing reports that nearly 82% of Venezuelans live in poverty and 53% in extreme poverty, with incomes insufficient to access a basic food basket.

In a statement issued on 14 February at the end of a two week visit to Venezuela, Fakhri called on “all relevant States to immediately review and lift sectorial sanctions imposed on Venezuela” while also urging the government to “develop an urgent action plan on the right to food, based on existing legislation, through a socially inclusive process and existing participatory mechanisms”.

Maduro, meanwhile, announced a new government drive this week to make Venezuela self-sufficient. Speaking on 1 March in a video released on social media, alongside the agriculture minister, Julio León Heredia, Maduro said that his government would increase national production and substitute 100% of the country’s imports. Maduro said that a “regenerated agricultural sector” would “produce organic food and guarantee [internal] supply”.

Given that Venezuela has for some time faced food shortages, the idea that it is suddenly going to boost agricultural production sufficiently to become wholly self-sufficient stretches credulity. A litany of similarly extravagant promises in the past have gone nowhere and with Maduro failing to provide details about this latest plan, it is difficult to imagine that this will be any different.

COLOMBIA | FMD outbreak. On 24 June Colombia’s agricultural institute (ICA) reported that it had detected an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in a herd of bovine cattle in a ranch in the north-eastern department of Arauca, on the border with Venezuela. Colombia was declared FMD free in 2009, so the ICA’s report forced the agriculture ministry to notify the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) immediately of the outbreak of the disease, which could lead to a review of Colombia’s status. The loss of the FMD free status would lead to the imposition of restrictions on Colombian beef exports in international markets.

Agriculture Minister Aurelio Iragorri said that seven cows of a 136-head herd had tested positive for FMD and that the entire herd would now have to be sacrificed. But Iragorri emphasised that the outbreak was localised and that the authorities did not believe that there was a risk of the virus spreading to other areas, which he said may have been introduced from Venezuela, which does not have FMD-free status.

Iragorri lamented the fact that the outbreak comes at a time when Colombia has been seeking to secure increased international market access for its beef, with the opening of eight new markets last year alone, and said that this would be a setback. Pointedly, after news of the outbreak spread the animal health authorities in Peru, Ecuador, Panama, and Chile all announced the imposition of temporary bans on the import of Colombian beef and cow’s milk dairy products until the Colombian authorities can certify that the FMD outbreak in Arauca has been contained.

Meanwhile the OIE has also suspended Colombia’s FMD free certification until it sends a technical mission to the country to certify that the outbreak has been dealt with properly (which could take up to four months). In response to all of this Colombia’s trade, industry & tourism minister, María Claudia Lacouture, said that Colombia’s beef exports this year, which were estimated to reach US$206.5m after the country exported US$93.4m of beef in 2016, would suffer.

The so-called ‘anti-crime package’ came into force in Brazil on 23 January. The new legislation is a heavily modified version of the bills which Justice & Public Security Minister Sérgio Moro had presented to congress as his flagship public security initiative in February 2019.

Moro’s initial ‘anti-crime package’ aimed to update legislation relating to criminal punishments, police investigations, judicial proceedings and fighting corruption [SSR-19-03]. The final version approved last December leaves out the more criticised points of Moro’s project, while adding some new measures. 

The version which passed congress introduces stricter rules for prisoners’ regime progression, making it harder to be released on bail; increases the maximum prison sentence from 30 to 40 years; makes the immediate execution of a sentence after conviction by jury obligatory (jury trials are used only in cases of crimes against life in Brazil); defines whistleblowing; and updates rules on the confiscation of criminal goods, amongst other measures.

When he sanctioned the law on 24 December 2019, President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed several measures which had been introduced by congress. He notably rejected stricter punishments for crimes committed or disseminated on social networks; the classification as a homicide of any crime committed with a restricted-use firearm; and new rules on the collection and use of DNA information. Bolsonaro also modified the clause relating to the legal defence of public security officers who use lethal force.

A contentious point Bolsonaro did not veto was the creation of the figure of a ‘warranties judge’, but this has since been suspended indefinitely by the supreme court (STF). The measure, criticised by Moro, members of the judicial profession, and several political parties, would have split responsibilities between different judges with the aim of ensuring the impartiality of judicial processes.

Moro, who was initially critical of the many changes introduced by congress to his anti-crime package, celebrated the “important advances” of the law when it came into force in January. He has nevertheless promised to push for more and better legislation against crime and corruption in 2020.

COSTA RICA | Exporting pineapples to Israel. On 21 February Costa Rica’s agriculture and livestock ministry (MAG) announced the inking of a bilateral agreement between MAG’s phytosanitary service (SFE) and the equivalent body in Israel which will permit Costa Rica to export fresh pineapples, one of the country’s leading agricultural exports, to Israel. According to a MAG press release, since 2017 the two countries had been exchanging information regarding the issue while in 2019 Israeli phytosanitary authorities visited various pineapple production sites in Costa Rica to verify conditions of production among other things. According to the MAG press release, the process of reaching the agreement was supported by Costa Rica’s national chamber of pineapple producers and exporters (Canapep), and Costa Rica’s official export promotion agency (Procomer). Procomer figures, cited by leading daily La Nación, put Costa Rica’s pineapple exports at some US$1bn in 2021, up 12% on 2020.

HAITI | International donors conference. On 16 February foreign governments and international financial institutions pledged US$600m in immediate and long-term aid for reconstruction and recovery in Haiti in response to the devastation wreaked by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake which struck in August 2021. The earthquake caused some 2,200 deaths and resulted in over 12,500 people injured, directly impacting up to 800,000 people on estimates from the United Nations (UN). The pledges were made at an international pledging conference held by the Haitian government with the hope of raising US$2bn needed for reconstruction. According to the UN, over US$1bn will be needed to rebuild, repair, or reinforce 137,585 houses. The next most costly intervention is health and education which needs at around US$400m while the health sector will require around US$40m. Food security measures have been costed at almost US$55m, and rehabilitating and building an improved transport infrastructure at US$142m.

Central America & Caribbean: inflation rate
Percentage variation (year-on-year)

Central America & Caribbean: GDP growth (%)
Quarterly figures are year-on-year growth

The decades-old maritime border dispute between Colombia and Nicaragua moved closer to resolution on 13 July, when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague dismissed a Nicaraguan appeal for the boundaries of the country’s continental shelf to be extended into Colombian waters. Whilst the legal status of the dispute for now appears settled, bilateral tensions look likely to persist amid accusations that Colombia is illegally attempting to control maritime activity within Nicaragua’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The ICJ voted by 13-4 to dismiss a Nicaraguan lawsuit that sought a review of the boundaries of the country’s continental shelf, which would have caused this boundary to overlap with Colombia’s continental shelf surrounding the islands of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina. Those islands, which lie far closer to Nicaragua than to Colombia, were reaffirmed as part of Colombia’s sovereign territory in a previous ICJ case in 2012, although in that verdict the court did award a significant concession to Nicaragua, ruling that an 80,000km² area of sea around the islands was part of Nicaragua’s EEZ.

In the latest case, Nicaragua argued that, due to a natural bulge in its continental shelf, the maritime boundary should be extended beyond the standard 200-nautical-mile delimitation. This, however, would have caused Nicaragua’s maritime borders to overlap with Colombia’s, and would have given Nicaragua a claim to offshore oil deposits around the Colombian islands. Speaking before the ICJ issued its verdict, Walter Arévalo, a law professor at Colombia’s Universidad del Rosario, told Spain’s El País on 12 July that upholding the Nicaraguan request would set a potentially dangerous precedent which would encourage other countries to demand an extension of their continental shelves to the detriment of their neighbours, with unpredictable geopolitical consequences.

Presenting the ICJ’s verdict, the court’s president, Joan Donoghue, said that “irrespective of any scientific and technical considerations, Nicaragua is not entitled to an extended continental shelf within 200 nautical miles from the baselines of Colombia’s mainland coast”. The ruling was welcomed by the Colombian government, with President Gustavo Petro hailing “a great victory for Colombia” and Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva saying that the maritime dispute should be settled “once and for all” by the ruling, which he said had avoided setting “a terrible precedent for the whole region”.

The response from President Daniel Ortega’s government in Nicaragua was uncharacteristically mild mannered. Vice President Rosario Murillo said that the Ortega administration “recognises this ruling as firm, definitive, and of mandatory compliance,” and stated that the government has a “firm commitment to the rule of law at the international level and the peaceful resolution of controversies between states”. In a sign that tensions look likely to persist, however, Murillo also called on the Colombian government to “recognise the value and effectiveness of all of the court’s rulings, in particular the sentence issued in 2012”.

Murillo was referring to Colombia’s interference in Nicaragua’s EEZ following the 2012 verdict, which led to another Nicaraguan appeal to the ICJ; in April 2022, the court ruled that Colombia had “breached its international obligation to respect Nicaragua’s sovereign rights and jurisdiction in its EEZ” by “interfering with fishing and marine scientific research activities… and with the operations of Nicaraguan naval vessels”.

1928 treaty

The roots of the dispute lie in a 1928 treaty signed between Colombia and Nicaragua which defined the maritime boundary between the two countries. In 1979, following the Nicaraguan revolution, Nicaragua disowned the treaty on the grounds that it had been signed under the US occupation of the country from 1912-1933.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an international organisation headquartered in Switzerland, has published economic assessments of proposals to reduce plastics pollution in Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, and St Lucia. The assessments are part of a wider project called Plastic Waste Free Islands (PWFI).

Plastic waste pollution is a global problem with particularly severe impacts in the Caribbean. Globally some 400m tonnes of plastic waste are produced every year.  About 85% of single-use food and beverage containers end up in landfills and are leaked into the sea. Microplastic fragments have been found throughout island and marine habitats. Single-use plastics and polystyrene account for around 80% of all Caribbean marine litter. The IUCN economic assessments, the summaries of which were made available in late October, found that this pollution has a significant negative effect on a range of economic sectors in the Caribbean, including tourism and fishing, aquaculture, and transport. The IUCN estimated that in Antigua and Barbuda’s fishing sector alone, losses caused by marine pollution amount to around 9.2% of total revenues. 

The IUCN highlights a series of steps that can be taken to try and reduce plastics pollution. The Antigua and Barbuda government has increased taxation on imported plastic cans and bottles and banned the use of plastic shopping bags and Styrofoam.  It is also seeking to encourage a nascent recycling sector. IUCN supports the development of national and regional recycling strategies.

Plastic pollution

In a separate US$42m initiative supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and launched in August 2023, the governments of Colombia, Jamaica, and Panama agreed to collaborate to reduce plastic pollution from coastal and urban environments. This project aims to increase “circularity” the use of recycled materials. It is estimated that the global economy is only 7.2% circular. The UNEP project aims to reduce the use of unnecessary and toxic plastics, end the burning of plastic waste, and investigate “new circular business models”. 

*** Jordan’s Islamists state new demands.  On 4 November, Jordan’s Islamic Action Front (IAF), presented a list of demands for reform in a speech by Secretary-General Hamzah Mansur.  The speech was, in essence, the Muslim Brotherhood’s response to overtures from new prime minister  Awn al-Khasawinah. 

The key demand was for “the right of the people to form governments on the basis of a parliamentary majority” and the protection of parliament from early dissolution.  Mansur also called for the release of all political prisoners and for the end of the “intrusion” into public life by the security forces.  He said: “Enough of the security services’ interference in political and public life.”

Both the speech and the accompanying rally avoided Islamist rhetoric, and there also appeared to be a shift away from the traditional Islamist focus on the Palestinian cause.  But this is likely to be a tactical shift rather than a strategic reorientation.

On the Palestinian front, on 1 November Prime Minister Khasawinah had said that the expulsion of the Hamas leader Khaled Meshal and his advisors from Jordan 12 years ago was a political mistake made illegally. 

*** Turkey says no Arab Spring for the Kurds.  Yalcin Akdogan, political adviser to Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told the newspaper Zaman on 7 November that a crackdown on the Assembly of Communities of Kurdistan (KCK) was in part intended to thwart an attempt by the group to pursue its goals by “getting the people to pour out into the streets as in the Arab Spring”.

*** Kyrgyz leader bargaining on US base.  Kyrgyzstan’s new president, Almazbek Atambayev, campaigned on a promise to end the US’s tenure of the Manas military base in 2014.  The view in Moscow is that this is, pure and simple, a bargaining ploy to get more money out of the United States.  Judging by the US’s apparently relaxed attitude to the new president’s statements, this is also Washington’s view.

US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said: “We have concluded a firm treaty with with government [of Kyrgyzstan] on the use of the base through 2014...We expect to hold consultations with the new government concerning what will happen after 2014.  They have clearly intimated to us that they want to hold such a discussion.”

PARAGUAY | Economic cooperation with Japan. On 2 December Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benítez and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signed a series of bilateral economic cooperation accords. The agreements were signed during Abe’s official visit to Paraguay, the first by a Japanese head of state. Among the agreements signed, the two leaders highlighted the one under which the Japanese government will donate US$4.4m to develop a healthcare programme in Paraguay, and another that will see the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) donate US$23.5m to Paraguay’s national navigation and ports administration (ANNP) to pay for the construction of a dredger that will allow the ANNP to dredge the River Paraguay, the country’s main waterway, regularly.

President Abdo Benítez noted that the building of the new dredger with Japanese technology would mean Paraguay would not have to depend on hiring dredgers from other countries to ensure the navigability of the River Paraguay. Meanwhile Abe, whose whistle-stop appearance in Paraguay came after he attended the G-20 summit in Argentina, and after a short visit to Uruguay, noted that bilateral trade and investments have been consistently increasing in recent years and that he hoped that his visit and the new cooperation agreements would “give this a further boost”.

Abe’s visit to Paraguay was preceded by that of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who became Turkey’s first head of state to visit Paraguay on 1 December following his participation in the G-20 summit and ahead of a visit to Venezuela. During his brief stop in Paraguay, Erdoğan inaugurated Turkey’s first embassy in the country and pledged to work with Abdo Benítez to promote bilateral trade.

PERU | Exports. Peru’s President Martín Vizcarra revealed on 20 February that Peru reached a historic record in non-traditional exports in 2019, mainly linked to the fishing and agro-export sectors. Vizcarra said it was quite a feat given “global uncertainty and tensions”.

Exports reached a total of US$45.98bn, of which US$13.79bn were non-traditional, an increase of 4.1% on the previous year. Peru became the world’s biggest exporter of blueberries in 2019 as well as asparagus, and the second largest exporter of mandarins, cuttlefish, and scallops.

According to Peru’s association of exporters (Adex), shipments of fruits and vegetables increased by 10.8% and 2.9% respectively in 2019. Fruit exports amounted to US$3.54bn, with grapes leading the way, making up US$875m, 25% of total fruit exports, closely followed by blueberries, which increased by 51% on the previous year to US$825m.

There are concerns, however, that exports could be affected in 2020 by the coronavirus outbreak in China, which is Peru’s number one destination for fruit exports.

After two false starts, on 4 April the trial of Bolivia’s former president Jeanine Áñez (2019-2020) finally began. Over a year has passed since her arrest in March 2021, when she was charged with a wide array of offences including sedition, terrorism, conspiracy, and corruption. Her supporters maintain that she is entering a kangaroo court and have little hope for a fair trial. The government, meanwhile, insists that due process will be followed and have portrayed the commencement of the trial as an important step towards justice for the 21 demonstrators killed by the security forces shortly after Áñez took power in November 2019.

The charges against Áñez have been whittled down over the last year, with some – such as ‘crimes against public health’ – dropped, and another – ‘sedition’ – dropped from the penal code [WR-22-12]. In the current court proceedings against her, Áñez is accused of ‘illegally assuming the presidency’, due to the lack of a quorum at the legislative session in which she proclaimed herself Bolivia’s interim leader. She will face a second trial, which will include the terrorism charges, at a later date.

The long wait for the trial, which saw Áñez’s preventive detention extended four times, saw two failed attempts to kick off proceedings. A first attempt at a virtual trial was suspended shortly after it began on 10 February due to technical issues; a second attempt on 28 March was also suspended after Áñez suffered a panic attack at the start of proceedings, prompting the justice department to issue a statement accusing her of making “excessive use of judicial resources.” Áñez has repeatedly alleged that her various health conditions have been neglected during her detention.

When the trial finally got going on 4 April, Áñez participated remotely from the Miraflores prison in La Paz, sat in a wheelchair. Her lawyer, Luis Guillén, presented a number of technical objections to the charges against her, arguing that the wording of the indictment goes against the presumption of innocence. Áñez’s team also voiced concern that journalists’ access to the trial was limited to certain media outlets. “It’s strange that only state media or those close to the government have managed to get permission to enter,” said Áñez’s daughter, Carolina Ribera.

The defence’s technical objections were not resolved on the opening day of the trial, and at a media appearance the following day, Guillén accused the authorities of overseeing “a simulation of a trial, a fantasy that they’re carrying out which doesn’t respect due process” and which “doesn’t comply with rights, international treaties, the constitution, or procedural norms.”

Drug czar replaced amid alleged corruption

The director of Bolivia’s counter-narcotics agency (FELCN), José María Velasco, was replaced on 6 April following allegations that an FELCN team was ordered to ignore a cocaine laboratory in Chapare province, in the department of Cochabamba. The allegations were made by none other than former president Evo Morales (2006-2019), who released audio recordings that he said backed his claims. Announcing that Velasco will be replaced by Colonel José Illanes, Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo said that he had ordered a full investigation of practices within the FELCN and said that “100%” of FELCN agents will be subjected to a polygraph test. Morales claimed that Velasco had been attempting to smear him and the Seis Federaciones del Trópico de Cochabamba coca union that he presides over, by “planting false evidence” implicating him in drug trafficking.

MEXICO | Inflation continues to rise. On 8 August, Mexico’s national statistics institute (Inegi) reported that the consumer price index (INPC) increased by 1.05% in July compared to the previous month. This brings the annual inflation rate to 5.57%, up from 4.98% in June, when inflation increased by 0.38% in monthly terms. This marks the fifth consecutive month of annual increases. The same day, Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) announced it was lowering its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 10.75%.

MEXICO | Sales, production of vehicles up as exports fall. On 6 August, Mexico’s national statistics institute (Inegi) announced that 124,761 light vehicles were sold in the domestic market in July, up 12.6% on July 2023. According to the same report, 302,309 light vehicles were produced in July 2024, up 2.7% on the same month in 2023. As regards exports, 271,469 light vehicles were exported in July 2024, down 1.6% from July 2023.

MEXICO | Job creation in July. On 5 August, Mexico’s national social security institute (IMSS) released a new report showing it had registered 22.33m jobs as of 31 July – an increase of 12,344 as compared to the end of June. With this figure, the IMSS has registered an increase of 446,649 jobs in the past 12 months, equating to a yearly increase of 2%.

MEXICO | GFCF up again. On 2 August, Mexico’s national statistics institute (Inegi) reported that gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) in the country grew by 5.6% in May 2024 in annual terms and 0.7% in monthly terms. Yearly growth was driven by a 9.2% increase in investment in construction and a 2.1% increase in investment in machinery & equipment. In monthly terms, investment in construction increased by 2.4%, while investment in machinery & equipment decreased by 1.3%.

Mexico: GDP growth
Percentage variation (year-on-year)

Mexico: unemployment rate
Economically active population

Mexico: inflation rate
Percentage variation (year-on-year)

Source (all graphs): National Statistics Institute (Inegi)

A recent report published the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) supports the general view that China is now in the forefront of the global EV industry. The report says that China-based automakers “are building significant leads in the zero-emission (ZEV) vehicle market”. It says they have “leveraged their massive domestic market to build economies of scale and advance technologies”. Manufacturers such as Geely and SAIC met their target of taking EV production higher than 50% of their total annual output a year early. In contrast ICCT says, US and EU automakers face a double challenge to catch up technologically while navigating “increasingly uncertain regulatory environments”.

The report notes that China’s BYD exceeded US manufacturer Tesla’s worldwide battery electrical vehicle (BEV) sales for the first time in 2024, with a 25% increase in BEV sales and a 47% increase in plug-in hybrid battery (PHEV) sales. In the BEV sector there were generalised improvements in energy consumption, charging speeds, and driving ranges. While US and Japanese companies GM and Honda introduced high performance models to upgrade their previously limited BEV offerings, Chinese companies like Geely, Chang’an, and Chery “improved substantially” with new high-performance lines.

In March this year BYD announced what many consider to be something of a technical game-changer – a platform that allows an EV to fully charge its batteries in five minutes. It said its Super e-platform offers “charging speeds never before seen in mass-production electric cars”. It reportedly can achieve a one-megawatt charging rate, meaning a five-minute charge could deliver up to 400kms of driving rage. The system is being offered on HAN L and TANG L, two new BYD models featuring a 580kW motor capable of achieving speeds of up to 300kms/hour. BYD president Wang Chuanfu said, “to completely eliminate users’ charging anxiety our goal is to make EV charging as fast as refuelling a petrol car – achieving ‘oil-electric parity’ in charging speed”.

ICCT president Drew Kodjiak said: “As China-based automakers expand globally, other leading global manufacturers face urgent pressure to accelerate their own transitions or risk losing competitive ground…the rapid evolution of the EV market in China has created technological and manufacturing advantages there. For the wider global industry this is no longer just about meeting future goals, it is about remaining competitive today in a market that’s charging up.”   

With opinion surveys frequently showing violence and crime as among the top public concerns in Chile, it was unsurprising that discussion about security proposals dominated the first televised presidential debate on 10 September. The current frontrunners for the presidency, the far-right José Antonio Kast (Partido Republicano, PR) and the left-wing Jeannette Jara (Partido Comunista de Chile, PCCh), presented vastly different views on how to reduce crime and also clashed on issues such as migration, which right-wing candidates state is a factor that has driven up crime rates.

Election polls in September indicated a neck-and-neck race ahead of the first-round vote on 16 November. National pollster Cadem carried out a survey on 12 September which showed Jara, the candidate for the ruling left-wing coalition, polling on 26% of voter intentions, while Kast polled on 25%. The current third-place candidate, Evelyn Matthei, of the right-wing Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI), polled on 18%, followed by the right-wing populist Franco Parisi (Partido de la Gente, PDG) on 11%, and the far-right libertarian Johannes Kaiser (Partido Nacional Libertario, PNL) on 8%. 

While Jara led the polling figures for the first round of the election, the survey responses for second-round voting intentions suggest that Chileans could lean towards a right-wing candidate with more hardline security proposals. In a projected head-to-head between Jara and Kast, 32% of respondents said they would vote for Jara and 43% chose Kast. Between Jara and Matthei, 31% of respondents chose the left-wing candidate while 45% said they could vote for Matthei, the representative of Chile’s main right-wing coalition, Chile Vamos. 

Eight candidates participated in the presidential debate on 10 September, which was broadcast by national TV network Chilevisión. In addition to Jara, Kast, Matthei, Parisi, and Kaiser, three independent candidates are also competing: Marco Enríquez-Ominami, a former legislator for the left-of-centre Partido Socialista (PS) who has since left the party; Eduardo Artés, the former leader of the far-left Unión Patriótica (UPA); and Harold Mayne-Nicholls, a journalist and former head of the national professional football association (ANFP) and football federation (FFCh), who has framed his presidential campaign on calls for dialogue and moderation amid a polarised political climate. 

This was the first debate since the start of the official campaign period on 18 August, and the most heated discussions were on issues such as crime, insecurity, and migration. Kast argued that the way to reduce crime was to crack down migration and close the borders. He also called for the creation of a special prison for foreign criminals, stating migrants convicted of a crime should complete their full sentence in Chile before being deported.

Other right-wing candidates expressed similar anti-migration views. Parisi said that the situation at the country’s northern border was a “disaster” and proposed planting landmines on the border to deter migrants. Matthei agreed that illegal immigration was a problem and that border security should be tightened, but said that foreign convicts should be sent back to their countries of origin to serve their sentences. She also said there was no silver bullet for eradicating crime in Chile, diverging with Kast’s emphasis on closing the borders and expelling migrants as the main solution to lowering crime rates.

Meanwhile, Jara said that she would do what was done by right-wing former president Sebastián Piñera (2010-2014, 2018-2022) during both his terms, which was to boost the technological capabilities at the borders to identify and register migrants. She said that while “some may believe that digging trenches or even laying antipersonnel or antitank mines is going to solve this”, the length of the northern border, which stretches well over 800km, meant that “technology” was the answer. Jara’s praise for the actions taken under the previous right-wing administration of Piñera could suggest that she is trying to appeal to a broader voter base and avoid being seen as too left-wing.

Jara was also keen to refute claims that she was going to “regularise” the status of 200,000 illegal migrants, saying Kast had spread this false claim in his campaign material. During the debate Kast insisted on this point, asking Jara why an illegal immigrant should have the same access to public services as a native-born Chilean. Jara replied that what she was proposing was the process of ‘empradonamiento’ (registration) or collecting information about migrants, which is an action that she said was already being carried out and was a key step towards addressing the issue of illegal migration and putting things in order; she denied that it was a question of who gets priority access to public services. 

Throughout the debate, Jara appeared to receive the most direct attacks from other candidates. Given that she is the candidate backed by the left-wing government of President Gabriel Boric (Frente Amplio, FA), candidates on both the left and right of the political spectrum can use her to criticise what they perceive to be the failings of the incumbent administration and highlight what they would change. According to the Cadem poll on 12 September, 55% of survey respondents believed that Jara received the most attacks from other debate participants, while 34% said Kast was the most attacked.

Other left-wing candidates on the stage sought to differentiate themselves from Jara by arguing that the Chilean State has failed to provide good services and raise living standards for local communities. Enríquez-Ominami said that Jara has not engaged in any “self-criticism” and argued that where the State is absent, the “narcos” step in.

Artés said that crime prevention must be “in the hands of the people” and that a policing approach that can truly address insecurity would need a strong emphasis on community engagement rather than what he argued was police “being deployed from barracks” and committing acts of repression. Artés also criticised the Boric administration for its continuation of states of exception in the south of the country, comparing the current status quo of militarised security responses to the Pacification of the Araucanía, Chile’s violent occupation of the lands of the indigenous Mapuche people in the mid-to-late 19^th century. The moderate, centrist independent candidate, Mayne-Nicholls, also emphasised crime prevention instead of a militarised response.

Parisi defended the militarised approach in the south, saying that the country needs more troop deployments. “We need military personnel on the streets, just as in the [southern region of] Araucanía.” He also called for more enforcement of Chile’s antiterrorism law. Meanwhile, Kaiser sought to differentiate himself from other right-wing candidates by saying that he was the only candidate who was stressing judicial reform as the answer to reducing crime rates.

The one right-wing candidate who seemed to portray herself as more moderate was Matthei. “We need to have better intelligence, better financial intelligence, we need to control our ports and airports,” Matthei said. This overlapped with Jara’s arguments that the key to tackling organised crime was to investigate illicit cash flows and “lift banking secrecy to follow dirty money”. This approach suggests that Matthei is trying to appeal to the more centrist right-wing vote, in opposition to the polarisation posed by Kast. While Matthei has been gaining ground in the polls, it appears she still has some work to do if she is to make it into the second round in December.

Jara and Kast rejection rates

A week after the televised debate, Cadem carried out another survey on 17 September in which it asked respondents how firm they were in their voting intentions. The poll showed that Jeannette Jara and José Antonio Kast had the largest portion of voters who have already firmly decided to vote for them in November, but they also had the highest rejection rates. When asked if they would vote for Jara, 25% of respondents expressed firm support while 60% expressed firm rejection, stating they would definitely not vote for her. Regarding Kast, 24% said they had already made up their minds to vote for him and 50% said they were firmly opposed to voting for him.

Gun control

In the debate on 10 September, the candidates were asked who owned a firearm, and José Antonio Kast was the only one who said he had a gun at home, although he did not go on to call for loosening gun control. Instead, he said that he wanted to boost the firepower of police forces. Johannes Kaiser said that access to guns should be facilitated for law-abiding citizens and restricting legal gun ownership would not address the problem of illegal arms trafficking. Jeannette Jara disagreed with Kaiser and claimed that over half of the guns confiscated by police are licenced firearms, suggesting that authorities should be concerned about crimes committed by legal gun owners as well.

A scandal over revelations that Chileans for years paid too much for their electricity bills led Energy Minister Diego Pardow to resign on 16 October and risks further damaging the prospects of leftist candidate Jeannette Jara in next month’s presidential elections.

The scandal broke when the Superintendencia de Electricidad y Combustibles, a government watchdog that reports to the energy ministry, discovered that the power regulator CNE for years had overweighted inflation in calculating power rates that companies charged users. While electricity rates are a sensitive issue in most countries, the topic is particularly explosive in Chile. It consistently ranks as a top concern for Chileans in opinion polls and was considered one of the main reasons for particularly high inflation rates and, as a result, punishing interest rates that helped slow the economy. Power rates also conjure up recent political events. The previous right-wing government of Sebastián Piñera (2010-2014; 2018-2022) was forced to freeze electricity prices during the country’s 2019 social uprising that marked the rise of Gabriel Boric on the national political scene for brokering an accord for a constitutional referendum.

And so, with the presidential election on 16 November fast approaching, the power rate fiasco became a flashpoint in the campaign. Opposition candidates were quick to point the finger at now-president Boric, as well as the left-wing Frente Amplio (FA) coalition that he leads. “The sustained rise in electricity bills has impacted the budgets of millions of Chileans,” said José Antonio Kast, the far-right candidate who polls show currently has the best chance of succeeding Boric. “If the energy ministry and the national electricity commission (CNE) had handled the job properly, the impact would have been less severe.”

Jara, who sensed a political hot potato being hurled her way, immediately sought to distance herself from the administration and all but called on Boric to fire Pardow. “The truth is that in my government ministers will have to assume their political responsibilities,” she said when asked about the scandal. That left Boric no other choice but to let Pardow go. Government spokesperson Camila Vallejo said that while neither the ministers of energy, nor the CNE nor the companies had noticed the problem in eight years, the current government would “take responsibility” for the mistake. Marco Mancilla, executive secretary of the CNE, also resigned. Álvaro García Hurtado, who was appointed minister of economy, development and tourism in August, took on the energy portfolio as well. He said that Chileans would be “compensated” for the error. According to a study by the CNE, the overestimation of the impact of inflation added around US$100m to consumers’ bills.

Damaged legacy

President Boric, who had already been struggling to defend his legacy as a president who improved the lives of working-class Chileans through higher wages and a shorter working week, now looks increasingly isolated. Boric has failed on campaign promises to rewrite the constitution and fell short on far-reaching reforms to make the country’s health, education and pension systems more equitable. According to the latest opinion survey published by the pollster Cadem on 19 October, Jeannette Jara would garner 26% in the presidential election, down two percentage points from the same poll a week earlier. José Antonio Kast dropped one point to tally 22%. Yet, in the very likely case of a run-off election in December, Jara would lose by 16 points to Kast.

Chilean businesses are often praised for their efficient management, which has translated into an ability to quickly expand. Indeed they have proved very competitive, thriving at home and in global markets. Recently however, one of Chile’s success stories has gone wrong.

Agrosuper is one of Chile’s most successful agribusinesses. In the last 55 years it has expanded its operations from producing and supplying eggs and poultry (chicken) to the provision of turkey, salmon, pork and dried meats, becoming one of the country’s most important food suppliers. It is the largest domestic provider of pork, supplying 50% of the market. It also exports to lucrative Asian markets. However the firm’s operations are currently in the public spotlight for all the wrong reasons after the authorities forced the company to temporarily close its main pork production plant in Freirina, in the northern Atacama region.

Freirina may be located in a sparsely populated area of the Atacama Desert, but Agrosuper’s US$540m site, which houses over 500,000 live pigs, managed to upset its neighbours. For months local residents have complained about the smell coming from the farm. Back in December, Agrosuper admitted that it had experienced problems with the plant’s aeration system, which affected its biological waste management processes; but the firm said that it was working hard to resolve the issue. However by May the neighbours had had enough and staged demonstrations demanding that the situation be resolved immediately. On 19 May, the protestors decided to blockade all access roads to the plant, cutting it off completely, in an effort to raise awareness about the issue. When the protestors threatened to break into Agrosuper’s facilities the police intervened, resulting in violent clashes. At that point, the company evacuated all its personnel by helicopter, fearing for their safety, leaving behind all the livestock unattended.

Agrosuper informed the authorities of its decision to evacuate the plant, warning that if it could not regain access there was a high risk that the pigs would die of hunger and thirst, risking a public health hazard. At that point the national government was forced to step in. The health ministry issued a statement describing the situation as “very serious”, pointing out that untreated pig waste could overflow and contaminate the local water system; and that the presence of any dead pig carcases at the plant could also turn it into an epicentre for disease propagation.

Health Minister Jaime Mañalich travelled to the area in order to mediate with the protestors and lift the blockades. After reaching an agreement with the protestors and promising them that the situation at the plant would be resolved, Mañalich declared a sanitary emergency in the area, allowing the national authorities to formally intervene the Agrosuper plant. Mañalich explained that the plant would be temporarily closed for six months to allow Agrosuper to address the issue of the bad smells, otherwise it would be “closed down for good”. In making the announcement, Mañalich was very critical of the company’s decision to abandon the livestock, describing it as “incomprehensible and dangerous”. According to Mañalich the company was irresponsible towards the animals, the environment and the public alike.

Agrosuper maintains that it has tried to resolve the issues at the plant by investing some US$54m in environmental management. However it pointed out that the situation involves a “biological process that has no immediate solution”, stressing that the company was using all the human and economic resources it had available in Chile and abroad. In the meantime, Agrosuper’s general manager, José Guzmán, announced that as the pigs at the plant could not be transferred to any other sites, the company had decided to sacrifice all of them as quickly as possible. That announcement generated international headlines.

• Cencosud looking for US IPO

On 27 May the Chilean retail giant Cencosud submitted an application to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange. Cencosud, first created 50 years ago, is Latin America’s third largest publicly listed retailer behind Brazil’s Pão de Açucar and Wal-Mart de México. The company, which is looking to trade under the ‘CNCO’ symbol, intends to raise some US$718m in order to purchase from UBS AG London a 38.6% stake held by the Swiss subsidiary in Cencosud’s Jumbo Retail business in Argentina.

Peru is still one of the few bright spots in the region, enjoying fast and broad-based growth with low inflation.  With average real annual growth of 6% plus in recent years it has attracted intense investor interest. Local authorities are becoming a little uneasy about the large capital inflows, which are causing unwanted effects on the economy. Economy & Finance Minister Luis Miguel Castilla suggests that the government is considering g legislative measures to control speculative capital inflows.

According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac), in the first six months of 2012 alone, foreign capital inflows into Peru amounted to US$5bn. Eclac points out that this increase was the result of the Peruvian economys stability and dynamism and the high international prices of raw materials, which continue to stimulate investment in the mining and hydrocarbons sectors. While most capital inflows are destined for long-term investment, an increasing part is speculative capital looking to take advantage of short-term local opportunities.

The immediate impact is on the local currency. The Nuevo Sol has steadily strengthened against the US dollar. In the past five years it has appreciated by 17% against the dollar, the most of all the major Latin American currencies in the period. The exchange rate hit a 15-year high of PEN2.57/US$ on 22 October. This is hurting exports. According to the latest figures from the central bank (BCRP), Peru posted a trade surplus of US$403m in September, down 49% over the same year-earlier period. The BCRP attributed the negative year-on-year result to a decline in the countrys key mineral exports, even as overall imports continue to grow on the back of the strong Sol.

The BCRP president, Julio Velarde, expressed concern that the large amount of foreign capital coming into Peru was artificially pushing up the Sol. We dont want the currency to appreciate too much outside the fundamental indicators, he remarked. He noted that the BCRP has been relatively successful in managing the Sols appreciation in the last five years by intervening in the local currency market and by increasing reserve requirements for US dollars accounts. However, he hinted that the BCRP is now considering additional measures such as increasing the legal limits on investments that local pension funds can make abroad or, more radically, limiting the amount of dollars that banks can sell on the local market. Velarde said that the BCRP was not keen on adopting these measures but he stressed that when there is such a strong currency appreciation, the calls for [trade] protectionism increase. Peru, he emphasised, should avoid resorting to that.

Velardes concerns were echoed by Castilla on 24 October. The economy minister said that while the recent fall in exports appeared to be the result of a fall in commodity prices amid weaker global demand, the government was aware of the negative effects of the strong Sol. According to Castilla, the surge of capital now entering Peru is being closely monitored by the BCRP and the financial superintendence (SBS). We are evaluating possible measures that could be adopted by the corresponding institutions in order to stop the excessive inflow of footloose or short-term capital Castilla said. Without elaborating, he stressed that the Lima government has a range of instruments at its disposal.

• Courting US investors

The Lima government wants to deter speculative capital in favour of continued long-term foreign direct investment. In late October a delegation of US multinationals including GE, IBM, Pfizer, UPS, Fedex, Cisco systems, Exxon Mobile and Caterpillar arrived in Peru for a two-day business tour. The aim of the trip, organised by the national business confederation (Confiep) with the help of the government, was to explore possible investment avenues. Perus ambassador to the US, Harold Forsyth, said the tour was the first of its kind and reflected increased foreign investor confidence in Peru's economy.

Campaigning for primary elections on Sunday to select candidates for October’s legislative polls was suspended on 6 August, following a gas explosion in the city of Rosario. At least 10 people were killed and another 60 were injured after a building collapsed from the force of the blast. President Cristina Fernández immediately signed a decree to declare two days of national mourning; Martín Insaurralde, top of her party list, announced his intention to suspend all closing rallies. Sergio Massa, the mayor of Tigre, and the main threat to Fernández’s Frente para la Victoria (FpV) immediately followed suit.

Prior to the accident, the campaign had become vicious. Massa, a former Kirchnerista now heading the Frente Renovador (FR) ticket, was in the process of abandoning his moderate rhetoric as his poll lead shrank. In a press conference before the explosion he highlighted the extremist voices in the Kirchner political machine and stressed how “proud” he was to no longer be associated with the government, and in particular what he described as the official policy to demonise the middle classes. Government sympathisers attributed his comments to the narrowing gap between his approval rating and that of Insaurralde. An 11-point lead had dwindled to between 2.5 and five points by 4 August.

Insaurralde had been assisted in no small measure by the FpV political machine. Opposition candidates accused the government of violating the 2009 election law, which prohibits the government from carrying out actions that could sway voters, such as inaugurating public works or launching programmes, in the 15 days prior to the election. Following a complaint by  the NGO Association for Civil Rights, the national electoral court has ordered congress to clarify the law.

In a curious twist during the final days of compaigning, Massa acknowledged press reports that his home had been burgled. A pro-government daily, Página 12, had run the story to emphasise the disconnect between Massa’s campaign platform of implanting a successful security strategy in Tigre, and his silence over the crime committed in his own house. Murkier still was the suggestion in some opposition papers, tacitly approved of by Massa, that the burglary had been some kind of political set-up designed to discredit him.

The Open, Simultaneous and Compulsory Primaries (PASO) on Sunday will determine both which parties will be allowed to run in the 27 October legislative elections and the list of candidates representing each party. In order for a party to qualify to compete in the main elections, it must obtain at least 1.5% of votes cast.

• Supercard hits the shops

This week the government’s long-mooted Supercard began to work in shops across Argentina. The brainchild of the government’s economic enforcer, Guillermo Moreno, the card charges 22% interest, in comparison to some commercial lenders which charge up to 60%. Businesses that accept the card will only pay a 1% handling fee, in comparison to 3% to other, private credit card companies. A purchasing limit has been set at Arg$20,000 (US$3,600) and a credit limit of Arg$6,000 (US$1,080). Other discounts and promotions related to the card are expected to be announced in due course.

    A wide range of domestic and international firms have signed up for the card, including Coto, Carrefour, Jumbo, Disco, WalMart, and McDonalds. So far both industry and consumers have welcomed the idea: the supermarkets resent the 3% commissions they pay currently; consumers welcome the comparatively cheap interest rates. Even staunchly anti-government newspapers have enthused about the concept, though have claimed it was the idea of the supermarkets themselves, rather than the government. However, the government does benefit in two important ways: it’s a popular policy coming into effect just before Sunday’s primaries; and the data collected will allow officials to have much better understanding of the real rate of inflation.

• Tourist numbers down

The number of tourists arriving in Argentina fell 13.5% in the first six months of the year, compared to the same period last year, while the number of Argentines who travelled abroad increased 4%, according to newly released figures by the Indec statistics bureau. A total of 1,152,170 foreign visitors have arrived in Argentina so far this year, while 1,362,553 travelled abroad in the first half of 2013. As a result, tourism had a deficit of US$302m over the first six months of the year as foreign visitors in Argentina spent US$1.32bn in the first six months of the year, while Argentines spent US$1.62bn abroad.