President Juan Manuel Santos maintained that the peace process was back on track this week after government negotiators re-launched talks with their counterparts from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) in Cuba. Santos said 500 proposals from those who campaigned successfully against the peace accord in the national referendum on 2 October had been condensed into “57 thematic sections” and that progress had been made with the Farc in discussing these. Former presidents Alvaro Uribe (2002-2010) and Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002), two of the most prominent critics of the peace accord, insisted this week, however, that “cosmetic” changes to the…

Deputies from the left-wing Frente Amplio (FA) joined university students and trade unionists in marching through the historical centre of Lima on 8 November to protest against the decision by congress to appoint three new members of the central bank (BCRP) board of directors renowned less for their technical abilities than their affiliation with the right-wing Fuerza Popular (FP). FP used its congressional majority to make the three political appointments. Reluctant to antagonise FP over an issue it ultimately has no power to oppose, the government led by President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski offered mealy-mouthed criticism, leading to accusations that it…

President Nicolás Maduro has accused the distinguished Venezuelan economist and Harvard Professor Ricardo Hausmann of being the “principal promoter of the financial war against Venezuela” and “a thousand times a traitor”. Also in the Maduro government’s bad books is the US-based Citibank, which recently withdrew its services as correspondent bank to the Venezuelan government and central bank (BCV). Deputy Freddy Bernal of the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) has held Citibank responsible for food scarcity in Venezuela, accusing it of having “shot Venezuelans in the stomach”. In a press conference on 6 November, Bernal said that 29 cargo…