Latin America

• Friday, January 19th 2024 - 10:27 UTC

  Lithium: Bolivia's YLB signs new agreement with China's CBC

  

  A new agreement between Bolivia's state-owned Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB) and the Chinese consortium CATL, BRUNP & CMOC (CBC) was signed Thursday to install a lithium carbonate pilot plant with Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology in the Uyuni salt flat and would have a production of 2,500 tons per year after an investment worth US$ 90 million.

• Friday, January 19th 2024 - 10:10 UTC

  Paraguay's BCP confirms CPI in 2023 within target range

  

  Paraguay's Central Bank (BCP) Thursday released a report showing that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for 2023 was 3.7%, making it the fourth lowest in South America in addition to falling within the target range (3.8%). It also meant a decrease from 2022's 8.1%.

• Thursday, January 18th 2024 - 10:56 UTC

  Ecuadorean prosecutor handling last week's TV station seizure shot dead

  

  Ecuadorean Prosecutor César Suárez who was handling the investigation into the Jan. 9 seizure of a Public TV station by a drug-trafficking gang, was shot dead Wednesday in Guayaquil, adding to the South American country's wave of crime and violence. Suárez took over 20 gunshots, it was reported. National Police “specialized units” have been assigned to the case.

• Thursday, January 18th 2024 - 10:55 UTC

  Argentina: New oil spill recorded off Bahía Blanca

  

  Argentine authorities in the city port of Bahía Blanca in the province of Buenos Aires said a new oil spill had been reported after the one late last month. However, this time around the damage would have been controlled in less time, it was explained.

• Wednesday, January 17th 2024 - 10:05 UTC

  Essequibo about to become military conflict, Colombia's Petro tells WEF

  

  Colombian President Gustavo Petro Tuesday said during his appearance at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, that oil- extracting in the Essequibo area held by Guyana but claimed by Venezuela should not go on. He also reckoned the dispute was on the verge of becoming a military conflict.

• Tuesday, January 16th 2024 - 11:20 UTC

  Boric keen on not mirroring Ecuador's crisis

  

  Chilean President Gabriel Boric Font Monday said during an engagement in the Coquimbo Region that his administration needed to do things to not have to go through the crisis Ecuador is experiencing. “We have to ask ourselves how we do things so that we don't get to that place,” Boric underlined.

• Tuesday, January 16th 2024 - 11:17 UTC

  Ecuador: 48 prison inmates escape, only 5 recaptured

  

  Only five of the 48 prison inmates that escaped Monday from the Esmeraldas jailhouse were recaptured later in the day according to sources from Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa's administration quoted by local media.

• Tuesday, January 16th 2024 - 11:10 UTC

  Peru: Repsol argues area affected by La Pampilla spill is fit for use

  

  The Spanish oil company Repsol said Monday that the Peruvian beaches affected by the 2022 La Pampilla spill were again fit for travelers.

• Tuesday, January 16th 2024 - 10:17 UTC

  Venezuela: Maduro says Milei a “fatal mistake”

  

  Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Monday said his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei was a “fatal error” because of his State-capping economic policies. “You are a mistake in the history of Latin America, Milei, a fatal mistake in the history of Argentina,” Maduro said during his annual message before the National Assembly in Caracas.

• Monday, January 15th 2024 - 20:59 UTC

  Nicaraguan clergymen said to have been freed and deported

  

  Nicaraguan authorities released from prison and deported Catholic Bishops Rolando Álvarez and Isidoro Mora, 13 priests, and three seminarians, it was reported Sunday in Managua. Álvarez was sentenced in February 2023 to 26 years and 4 months in prison for treason.