Weekly Report - 08 August 2024 (WR-24-31)

Venezuela’s supreme court (TSJ) began the process of “certifying” the presidential elections this week, summoning each of the competing candidates, while investigating claims by President Nicolás Maduro and his coterie that there had been a foreign cyberattack orchestrated by the opposition to subvert democracy.... Read More

The central pillar of the Colombian government’s peace agenda is swaying after a ceasefire with the country’s largest guerrilla group, the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), expired on 3 August.... Read More

Facing resistance on both flanks in congress, disruptive protests, and a fratricidal power struggle within the ruling left-wing Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), Bolivia’s President Luis Arce has said he will convene a referendum to resolve some of the country’s thorniest political issues.... Read More

In a move similar to last month’s US Supreme Court ruling that widened former president Donald Trump’s immunity from prosecution, Peru’s President Dina Boluarte is also seeking to protect herself from criminal investigations.... Read More

Four ministers in President Daniel Noboa’s government are facing impeachment votes after Ecuador’s national assembly voted on 6 August to approve a report accusing them of dereliction of duty.... Read More

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited Chile on 5-6 August, his first state visit to Santiago in his current term.... Read More

President Gabriel Boric received his Brazilian peer Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Santiago days after returning from the first-ever official visit by a Chilean head of state to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) under which the two countries will seek to boost trade and investment.... Read More

During a visit to Ceará state on 2 August, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promulgated a bill approved by congress in July to create a regulatory framework for the production and distribution of low-carbon hydrogen fuel.... Read More

BRAZIL | Hawkish tone on interest rates.... Read More

Mexico’s President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum announced the latest additions to her incoming cabinet on 1 August.... Read More

Mexico’s Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena met with her Guatemalan counterpart, Carlos Ramiro Martínez, to discuss migration and security on 2 August.... Read More

Guatemala’s President Bernardo Arévalo has presented a second criminal complaint against discredited attorney general María Consuelo Porras, calling for her to be stripped of her immunity from prosecution for abuse of authority and violating the constitution.... Read More

Haiti’s national police (PNd’H) director Rameau Normil has provided his first partial balance sheet of operations involving the PNd’H and Kenya-led multinational security support mission (MSS), the first deployment of which arrived in the country in June [WR-24-25].... Read More

NICARAGUA | Remittances jump.... Read More

“A grave step backwards in anti-corruption efforts”.... Read More

“Nobody said this would be easy, but let the world be very clear, there is no turning back, this is irreversible and to the end.”... Read More