Weekly Report - 28 March 2024 (WR-24-12)

Following a last-minute reprieve from the national electoral council (CNE), Venezuela’s opposition coalition Plataforma Unitaria Democrática (PUD) will compete in the 28 July election against President Nicolás Maduro.... Read More

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa is facing the first major corruption scandal of his presidency, after the son of Vice President Verónica Abad was arrested and charged with influence peddling.... Read More

Two magistrates sitting on Peru’s judicial council (JNJ) who were impeached by congress have been reinstated in their positions following a judicial ruling this week.... Read More

BOLIVIA | First biodiesel plant inaugurated.... Read More

Argentina’s President Javier Milei said this week that 70,000 public employees would be laid off at the end of March.... Read More

The justice minister of Brazil, Ricardo Lewandowski, hailed the long-awaited arrest on 24 March of the suspected masterminds who allegedly ordered the assassination in 2018 of Rio de Janeiro city councillor Marielle Franco.... Read More

France’s President Emmanuel Macron kicked off his first-ever state visit to Brazil on 26 March in the city of Belém, Pará state, the venue of the United Nations climate change conference in 2025 (COP30).... Read More

Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña claimed in a radio interview this week that strong ties with Taiwan have not prevented a good trade relationship with China, to which it still exported soybeans.... Read More

ARGENTINA | Record beef exports.... Read More

Both the Mexican government and the political opposition have seized on the 25 March derailment of a carriage of the new Tren Maya tourist train, one of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s high-profile projects, in an attempt to gain political capital.... Read More

As many as 66 people were kidnapped in Culiacán, the capital of Mexico’s north-western state of Sinaloa, on 22 March.... Read More

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sought to defuse incipient tensions with China by insisting that Mexico does not want to get involved in any kind of war, “not even a trade one”.... Read More

MEXICO | Interest rates cut.... Read More

Days after Guatemala and the US held their first-ever High-Level Economic Dialogue (HLED) in Guatemala City [WR-24-11], President Bernardo Arévalo paid his first visit to Washington since taking office in January, meeting President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.... Read More

Last week United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed reports that Haitian stakeholders had all nominated candidates to the nine-member transitional presidential council in Haiti.... Read More

HONDURAS | Annual growth exceeds expectations.... Read More

The president of El Salvador’s central bank (BCR), Douglas Rodríguez, reported that El Salvador’s GDP grew by 3.5% in 2023, up from 2.8% in 2022, with growth of 3%-3.5% projected for this year.... Read More

“[Opposition candidates are] pieces in the game being played by the US empire, which wants to take advantage of Venezuela…they seek violence, civil war, they ask for sanctions against society and the economy, they want the blockade and invasion of their own country.”... Read More