Nicaragua

• Nicaraguan riot police have taken over the city halls of five municipalities led by opposition parties. The move comes four months before scheduled municipal elections. (Confidencial, Associated Press)
  

Regional

• Latin America’s leftward political swing is testing the U.S. Biden administration’s true commitment to democracy in the region, argues Jacob Sugarman in The Nation.
  

Brazil

• Brazilian presidential frontrunner Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva maintains a strong lead against incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro ahead of October’s election, according to the latest Genial/Quaest poll released today. Lula has 45 percent voter support in a first-round vote, a 14 percentage point lead over Bolsonaro, who is up one point from his 30 percent support level in June. The poll predicts a Lula victory in an expected run-off, though by a narrower 19 point gap. (Reuters)
  

Colombia

• Colombian president-elect Gustavo Petro proposed a “bilateral ceasefire” with the ELN in hopes of restarting stalled peace negotiations, reports Al Jazeera. Government talks with the ELN, Colombia’s last major guerrilla group, broke down following a 2019 attack on a Bogotá police academy.
  

Cuba

• A year after mass protests shook Cuba, the government’s harsh crackdown against dissidents has largely quieted the upheaval, though the underlying causes of discontent still simmer, reports Reuters. More than 140,000 Cubans, from all walks of life, have left for the United States since October, the largest exodus from Cuba in decades.
  
  
  
• An increase of police killings in Cuba, where use of firearms by security forces has been minimal since 1959, is a symptom of a poor preparation of law enforcement officers in situations of maximum tension and, in some cases, of a dangerous feeling of police impunity, argues La Joven Cuba.
  

Chile

• Official campaigns in support or against Chile’s proposed constitution begin today. While polls suggest voters would reject the new magna carta if elections were today, opinions could shift significantly as the formal campaigns get underway, notes the Latin America Risk Report. (See yesterday’s post.)
  
  
• The latest Pulso Económico poll puts rejection of the new constitution close to 50 percent, with support from 25 percent of the population. Criteria found that 57 percent of the population disapproves of the convention’s work, while Cadem found that a similar percentage doesn’t trust the convention. Mori found that 32 percent of the population felt the convention had done its work poorly. (See today’s Chile Constitutional Updates.)
  
  
• The proposed magna carta is “a woke constitution propelled by left-leaning millennials and built for a modern nation led by one. The question is whether Chileans are ready for it,” according to the Washington Post. (See yesterday’s post.)
  
  
• Former President Ricardo Lagos published a letter supporting a “third way” option that wants a new constitution that is not the current draft. Supporters of the new constitution say there is no legal third way option and are concerned that discussion of it could cause the constitution to be rejected. (Latin America Risk Report)
  
  
• Headed into winter vacation, Chilean school children leave behind a semester marked by violent protests, reports Reuters.
  

Trinidad and Tobago

• Trinidad and Tobago’s capital, Port of Spain, was paralyzed on Monday by demonstrators protesting police killing of three young men over the weekend. At least eight people were arrested in relation to the protests, which police claim were instigated by an “outside force.” (Trinidad Express, Loop News, Caribbean Media Corporation) 
  
  
• Protesters say the deaths form part of a larger pattern of police violence against poor, Black youths.The deaths were also part of a broader problem Trinidad faces with gun violence: 13 people were killed this weekend within 36 hours, four believed to be police-involved shootings. (Guardian)
  

El Salvador

• A year into El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment, the government’s cryptocurrency holdings have lost about 60 percent of their presumed value, highlighting the gap between utopian expectations and economic realities, reports the New York Times.
  

Costa Rica

• Costa Rica’s political outsider President Rodrigo Chaves, in power for less than three months, is struggling to establish his credibility and launch his agenda, writes Ilka Treminio at the Aula Blog.
  

Ecuador

• Ecuadorean President Guillermo Lasso accepted the resignations of four government ministers, in the wake of significant protests that paralyzed the country for two weeks. (Al Jazeera)
  
  
  Jordana Timerman/Latin America Daily Briefing
  http://latinamericadailybriefing.blogspot