Weekly Report - 13 March 2025 (WR-25-10)

Faced yet again with the failure of his labour reform bill to get through congress, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro announced on 11 March that he would instead put the legislation, as well as a divisive health reform bill, to the people in a national referendum.... Read More

Venezuela’s government is warning that it will cease its cooperation with US President Donald Trump’s deportation programme in response to a 4 March order by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac), which gave the oil firm Chevron one month to wind down its Venezuela operations [WR-25-09].... Read More

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa announced on 11 March that he had reached a “strategic alliance” with Erik Prince, the founder of US private security company Blackwater, to fight organised crime.... Read More

The trial of Peru’s former president Pedro Castillo (2021-2022) began on 4 March, over two years after he was arrested and charged with rebellion for his attempted dissolution of congress in December 2022 [WR-22-49].... Read More

Argentina is getting close to finalising a new loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which the government maintains will help it to reduce dollar-denominated debt, lift capital controls, and attract much needed foreign investment into the country.... Read More

Chile’s President Gabriel Boric began his final year in power on 11 March.... Read More

Brazil’s annual GDP growth has accelerated for the third consecutive year, expanding by 3.4% in 2024.... Read More

Brazil’s centre-right opposition Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB) of former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2003) was once the main rival of the left-wing Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but the party has faded in influence over the past decade, and on 10 March it lost one of its few governors.... Read More

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum staged a large rally in the Zócalo, the main square in Mexico City, on 9 March.... Read More

Saturation coverage of the tariffs threat from the US has somewhat overshadowed but not eclipsed a story that would otherwise be dominating the headlines in Mexico: the discovery of three secret makeshift crematoriums in the western state of Jalisco at a ranch in an area controlled by the organised criminal group Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).... Read More

Honduras held national primaries on 9 March ahead of presidential and general elections which are due on 30 November.... Read More

A group of Panamanian trade unions and civil society organisations has called a 24-hour national strike in protest at government plans to reform the state pension system.... Read More

NICARAGUA | Remittances boost reserves.... Read More

Albert Ramdin was elected by acclamation this week as the new secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS) to serve a five-year term.... Read More

“The institutional blockade by the establishment is a dictatorship against the popular vote.... Read More