Weekly Report - 23 January 2025 (WR-25-03)

The troubled peace process between Colombia’s government and the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) guerrilla group moved closer to total collapse on 16 January when the ELN launched a major offensive in the north-eastern department of Norte de Santander.... Read More

US President Donald Trump tried to exert “maximum pressure” to change the regime in Venezuela during his first term in office (2017-2021).... Read More

Ecuador’s 16 presidential candidates participated in a compulsory debate on 19 January.... Read More

On 21 January, Peru’s President Dina Boluarte, who was attending the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, held a cabinet meeting by video conference with her ministers back in Lima and promised a hard-handed response against “dangerous delinquents” who, she promised, would be sent to the remote mountain prison of Challapalca in the southern region of Tacna.... Read More

PERU | Mining GDP up.... Read More

A buoyant Evelyn Matthei is trying to knock all of her rivals on the right of the political spectrum out of the running before the first round of Chile’s presidential elections in November.... Read More

“A landmark in our history.” That is how Argentina’s economy minister, Luis Caputo, described the fiscal surplus of 0.3% of GDP which the government achieved in 2024, in a message on social media in response to a statement released by his ministry on 17 January.... Read More

Career diplomat André Corrêa do Lago was confirmed as the president for the United Nations climate change conference (COP30) to be held in Brazil this November.... Read More

Even though the next presidential election is not until October next year, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva urged his ministers during a cabinet meeting on 20 January to step up their performance and delivery on policy objectives, saying that “2026 has already begun”.... Read More

US President Donald Trump did not waste any time after being sworn in for a second presidential term on 20 January.... Read More

When he took office in July last year Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino, a pro-business conservative, probably never imagined he would have to deal with a US attempt, rhetorical or real, to re-take the Panama Canal.... Read More

EL SALVADOR | Bukele goes crypto – again.... Read More

Up until now the conventional wisdom has been that El Salvador’s far-right populist president Nayib Bukele has successfully reduced crime and for that reason remains intensely popular.... Read More

“The ELN has committed war crimes in Catatumbo.... Read More