Latin America & Caribbean Review | Ambassador Deepak Bhojwani | September 2022
HIGHLIGHTS ● Political Developments● Economic Developments● Focus India-LAC Political Developments The 15th biennial Conference of Defence Ministers of the Americas (CDMA) was held in Brazil 26-28 July. The CDMA brings together defence ministers from 34 member states across the Americas since 1995. Attended by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, the meeting issued a declaration with a sentence (not in the original Brazilian draft) […]
Latin America & Caribbean Review | Ambassador Deepak Bhojwani | July 2022
HIGHLIGHTS ● Political Developments● Economic Developments● Focus India-LAC Political Developments US-LAC Relations: The Los Angeles Summit of the Americas in June was the ninth in the series that commenced in 1994. The hosts did not invite Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, the “trio of tyranny”. Reaction from the region was negative. The Mexican President sent his Foreign Minister. The Bolivian, Guatemalan, Salvadoran […]
Latin America & Caribbean Review | Ambassador Deepak Bhojwani | May 2022
H I G H L I G H T S ● Political Developments● Economic Developments● Focus India-LAC Political Developments Ukraine-Russia: Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) continue to be divided in their response to the war in Ukraine. Cuba and Nicaragua – along with Bolivia – voted on April 7 in the UN General Assembly against expelling Russia from […]
Latin America & Caribbean Review | Ambassador Deepak Bhojwani | March 2022
HIGHLIGHTS ● Political Developments● Economic Developments● Focus India-LAC Political Developments Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine elicited a range of reactions in LAC, from outright support to outright condemnation, more or less along expected lines. With high level visits from Russia’s Deputy PM and Head of the Duma, days before the action began, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro strongly supported Russia, and […]
Latin America & Caribbean Review | Ambassador Deepak Bhojwani | January 2022
HIGHLIGHTS ● Overview 2021● Political Developments● Economic Developments● Focus India-LAC Overview 2021 The most notable event across Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC) was undoubtedly the continuing devastation caused by the COVID 19 pandemic. A study by the UN in October estimated the region lost 1.5 million lives and had more than 44 million confirmed cases since February 2020. This accounts […]
Latin America & Caribbean Review | Ambassador Deepak Bhojwani | November 2021
HIGHLIGHTS ● Political Developments● Economic Developments● Focus India-LAC Political Developments Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro suffered another setback in mid-October with the publication, and public broadcast of a 1179-page report by the Senate, accusing him of crimes against humanity (intentional ‘extermination’ of half the Brazilians dead) and other charges for allegedly bungling Brazil’s response to COVID- 19, leading to the […]
Latin America & Caribbean Review | Ambassador Deepak Bhojwani | September 2021
HIGHLIGHTS ● COVID 19● Political Developments● Economic Developments● Focus India-LAC COVID 19 As infections continue to rise, Latin America & the Caribbean appears one of the more threatened regions on the planet. By August, vaccinated populations ranged from 65 percent in Chile and Uruguay to 2 percent in Guatemala and 4 percent in Paraguay and Venezuela. Governments were scrambling […]
Latin America & Caribbean Review | Ambassador Deepak Bhojwani | July 2021
HIGHLIGHTS ● COVID 19● Political Developments● Economic Developments● Focus India-LAC COVID 19 On 21 May Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC) passed the grim milestone of 1 million deaths from the pandemic. Over a third of COVID-19 deaths in the world by June end were in this region, with around 8 percent of the world’s population. Brazil remains the third hardest-hit in the […]
Latin America & Caribbean Review | Ambassador Deepak Bhojwani | May 2021
HIGHLIGHTS ● COVID 19● Political Developments● Economic Developments● Focus India-LAC COVID 19 The region continued to reel from successive – second and third – waves of infection. Brazil had almost 15 million cases, with over 400,000 deaths by end April. Chile was the fastest to vaccinate almost half its population but continued to see case rates cross 1 million (of a population of […]
Latin America & Caribbean Review | Ambassador Deepak Bhojwani | March 2021
HIGHLIGHTS ● COVID 19● Political Developments● Economic Developments● Focus India-LAC COVID 19 The World Health Organisation published the following statistics on the pandemic in Latin America & the Caribbean as on 15 February: Cases : 20,268,965 Deaths : 641,740 (28 per cent of the world total with 8% of world population) Recovered 17,866,730 The region – which has hardly […]