Weekly Report - 13 June 2024 (WR-24-23)

Argentina’s President Javier Milei survived a cliffhanger in the senate on 12 June to get what he has sought for so long: passage of his omnibus bill of reforms.... Read More

Allies of Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales (2006-2019) attempted an audacious power grab in congress on 6 June, with senate president Andrónico Rodríguez declaring himself the acting president of the legislative assembly and tabling a vote to fire the country’s top elected justices.... Read More

Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has on several occasions justified crackdowns on the political opposition and civil society by claiming that the authorities were responding to a plot to assassinate him.... Read More

Colombia’s former president Juan Manuel Santos (2012-2018) has come out all guns blazing after former foreign minister Álvaro Leyva contended that President Gustavo Petro would be perfectly within his rights to convene a constituent assembly without any need for congressional approval.... Read More

Chile’s President Gabriel Boric delivered a keynote speech in Berlin on 11 June urging democracies to take action to combat the rise of far-right parties globally.... Read More

The federal police (PF) launched the latest phase of Operation ‘Lesa Pátria’ on 6 June, its investigation into the networks of far-right rioters who stormed the seats of government in Brasília on 8 January 2023.... Read More

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin spoke over the phone on 10 June, during which they discussed, among other topics, Brazil and China’s joint statement released last month which called for peace negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.... Read More

Following legislative setbacks in May, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has brought back a usual practice from his previous presidential terms (2003-2011), holding regular meetings with government-aligned legislators so that the president can take a more active role in negotiations to pass key legislation.... Read More

Mexico’s national electoral institute (INE) had scarcely released the definitive vote tally from the presidential elections on 2 June before it was down to business for President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who swept to victory for the ruling left-wing Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) with almost 60% of the vote.... Read More

Mexico’s President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum received her first visit from a high-level US delegation on 11 June.... Read More

Haiti’s prime minister, Garry Conille, swore-in an entirely new cabinet on 12 June, days after suffering a health scare and being hospitalised.... Read More

Guatemala’s President Bernardo Arévalo launched two cash transfer initiatives on 10 June.... Read More

The US-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Peru’s congress on 12 June of “accelerating steps that undermine judicial independence, restrict civic space, and hinder investigations into organised crime and human rights violations”.... Read More

“They seriously want us to delegate legislative powers to improve how the state functions to a president who says he loves being the mole that destroys the state from within?”... Read More