Canning House | Latin American Weekly Report

“Welcome to democracy.” With these words Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos shook hands with the maximum leader of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc), ‘Timochenko’ (Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri), after both men signed the final peace accord with a ‘balígrafo’ (a pen crafted from a bullet) during a ceremony in Cartagena de Indias on 26 September attended by the great and the good. Santos made frequent references to the final hurdle, a referendum on 2 October, appealing to the Colombian people to vote for peace. Timochenko’s speech might just have a greater impact. It contained an explicit apology and an avowed commitment to peace, conciliatory rhetoric that pervaded the Farc’s 10th conference, from 17 to 23 September, when delegates representing the numerous guerrilla blocs, fronts and units, ratified the peace accord.

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Chile’s Rear-View Mirror

"Anniversaries, like New Years’ Eve, offer opportunities to look back and to look forward. As Chile observes the 50th anniversary of the coup that toppled President Salvador Allende and ushered in a brutal 17-year dictatorship, Chileans are engaged in precisely that exercise. The problem is that with respect to both perspectives, looking ahead through the windshield and behind in the rear-view mirror, Chileans do not seem to agree on what they see. "

Post-election Spain: moderate majority, extremist parliamentary leverage

Following Spain's 23 July snap election, Michael Reid, former Madrid correspondent for The Economist and author of "Spain: The Trials and Triumphs of a Modern European Country," writes a new piece for Canning House's blog on the vote's results and outcomes for the country.

29-09-2016: Latin American Weekly Report

More recent briefings & intelligence

Chile’s Rear-View Mirror

Post-election Spain: moderate majority, extremist parliamentary leverage

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