Overview

• Seven high-level officials including Vice President Stephan Brunner and Finance Minister Nogui Acosta tendered their resignations effective July 31 to pursue possible seats in the next legislature.
• Resigners also include Planning Minister Marta Esquivel, Housing Minister Ángela Mata and Women’s Affairs Minister Cindy Quesada along with Esmeralda Britton of the Junta de Protección Social and Juan Manuel Quesada of the national aqueducts agency.
• These departures occur nine months before Chaves’s term ends and reflect constitutional limits on consecutive presidential reelection prompting cabinet members to pivot toward legislative races.
• Chaves affirmed he will not step down to run for deputy and will finish his constitutional mandate while facing two criminal charges for alleged illicit campaign financing and a Supreme Court request to lift his immunity.
• The officialist Partido Pueblo Soberano is mobilizing to win at least 40 of the 57 Assembly seats to ensure policy continuity for the outgoing administration’s reform agenda.