Briefings & Intelligence
17-09-2015: Latin American Weekly Report
Maduro pursues aggressive tactics ahead of Venezuelan elections
Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro appears to be playing a high-stakes game which could have profound repercussions. If it is hard not to view Maduro’s escalation of diplomatic tension with Colombia through the prism of December’s legislative elections, it is even more difficult not to see the timing of the prison sentence handed down last week to one of the country’s most prominent opposition politicians, Leopoldo López, as forming part of an electoral calculation by the beleaguered Bolivarian government.
- LatinNews
Canning Papers
The Canning Agenda: A long way to go
In 2010 the British government announced its intention to re-engage with Latin America. Five years on, this report seeks to establish the degree to which the UK has succeeded in this, and how the government can help maintain and accelerate the progress of a revitalized relationship between the UK and Latin America.
- Canning House
Briefings & Intelligence
10-09-2015: Latin American Weekly Report
A new era for Guatemala?
The resignation of Guatemala’s President Otto Pérez Molina on 3 September amid corruption allegations, three days before the staging of general elections, led to predictions of a new era of accountability and a sign that the notorious impunity afflicting the country would no longer be tolerated. It remains unlikely, however, that the winner of the 25 October presidential run-off between the victor in the first round, the ‘outsider’ and anti-establishment candidate, Jimmy Morales, and his as-yet-unde- fined rival will be able to live up to these heady expectations.
- LatinNews
Briefings & Intelligence
03-09-2015: Latin American Weekly Report
Confrontation between Colombia and Venezuela escalates as cross-border migration continues
The crisis triggered by the closure of a stretch of Venezuela’s border with Colombia by Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro – invoking the need to act against smuggling and ‘paramilitarism’ – has worsened. Deportations of Colombians and the flight of many more in fear have continued to increase, and Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos has failed to get a hearing in the Organization of American States (OAS). While Santos seeks other avenues, Maduro has been raising the stakes.
- LatinNews
Briefings & Intelligence
27-08-2015: Latin American Weekly Report
Guatemala’s Cicig makes the ultimate accusation
The United Nations-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig) has made the most dramatic claim since its creation nearly a decade ago. Cicig, together with the attorney general’s office (AG), directly accused President Otto Pérez Molina and his former vice-president, Roxana Baldetti, of heading up the corruption ring, ‘La Línea’, uncovered in the tax authority (SAT) in April [WR-15-19] – the first of various scandals to rock the political establishment. Pérez Molina’s Partido Patriota (PP) government is in total disarray after six ministers resigned in the wake of the allegations. The supreme court (CSJ) ordered the 158-member unicameral legislature to determine whether to strip Pérez Molina of his immunity in order to face investigation. The institutional and political crisis comes with just over a week until the general elections on 6 September.
- LatinNews
Briefings & Intelligence
21-08-2015: Latin American Economy Business report
Towards a single digital market
- LatinNews