Stories we're watching

1. Nicaragua's Congress has ordered national banks to disregard international sanctions so they can't suspend services or seize accounts linked to government officials at any level.

• This comes right after the National Assembly last Friday passed a series of reforms to make President Daniel Ortega and the newly minted "co-president" Rosario Murillo have total power over the legislative, judicial, and electoral branches.
• Ortega, Murillo, and over 1,000 Nicaraguan officials are sanctioned by the U.S. or the EU with visa restrictions or financial restrictions for anti-democratic actions.

2. Brazil's attorney general's office this week is set to review the criminal charges against former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was accused last Thursday of helping to orchestrate an attempted coup in 2022.

• The review is to determine whether to move forward with a single indictment and trial or to combine all the criminal cases against Bolsonaro.
• Bolsonaro denies all the allegations.

3. Venezuela's opposition is calling for mass worldwide protests this Sunday after the regime of President Nicolás Maduro opened a criminal investigation for alleged treason against opposition leader María Corina Machado.

• Machado was accused after she celebrated the passing of the Bolívar Act, a bipartisan U.S. House bill that would forbid the U.S. government from entering into contracts with members of Maduro's government.

4. Uruguayan President-elect Yamandú Orsi met yesterday with President Luis Lacalle Pou to discuss the transition.

• Orsi on Sunday won 49.8% of the vote with his Frente Amplio coalition. Álvaro Delgado, a member of Lacalle Pou's center-right National Party, got 45% of the vote. 
• Orsi and Vice President-elect Carolina Cosse are set to be inaugurated in March and will have a slight parliamentary majority.