Brazilian President Michel Temer on Monday denied suggestions that he is trying to protect a minister implicated in a corruption scandal. Temer is under fire in the media and judiciary for controversially naming his close adviser Wellington Moreira Franco to a cabinet-level position.
A bitterly divided Senate on Monday confirmed Steven Mnuchin as United States treasury secretary despite strong objections by Democrats that the former banker ran a foreclosure machine when he headed OneWest Bank. Republicans said Mnuchin's long tenure in finance makes him qualified to run the department, which will play a major role in developing economic policy under President Donald Trump.
Children returned to school and most public transport began operating again Monday in the Brazilian state of Espirito Santo state, which had been paralyzed by a protest that prevented military police from patrolling. Amid fears a similar protest could erupt in the days before Carnival, the Brazilian government announced it would deploy troops to police the state of Rio de Janeiro.
Talks between Uruguay's government and Finnish pulp and paper maker UPM on a new pulp plant project in the Latin American country are proceeding, Uruguay's president Tabare Vazquez said on Monday.
Argentine farmers are expected to harvest at least 15 million tons of wheat in the 2016/17 crop year versus 11.3 million in the previous season, Agriculture Minister Ricardo Buryaile said last week. Wheat planting in Argentina expanded dramatically when President Mauricio Macri eliminated export taxes soon after his December inauguration.
The offices of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers leak, were raided on 9 February as part of an ongoing investigation into Brazil's biggest corruption scandal, the so called Operation Carwash (Lava Jato in Portuguese) involving the state-run oil company Petrobras.
More than 1,200 military police returned to patrols in Espirito Santo on Sunday as the n Brazilian state inched toward normalcy after a protest left a security vacuum that fueled a crime wave. Schools in the state (north of Rio de Janeiro) are scheduled to reopen Monday and public transport will resume a full schedule, the president's office said on Twitter.
Argentine president Mauricio Macri and US vice-president Mike Pence spoke last Friday on the phone and agreed that the two countries need to redouble their efforts to enhance job creation and economic growth. The vice-president also noted that president Donald Trump looks forward to speaking with president Macri.
UK is interested in strengthening bilateral relations with Argentina, building confidence, dialogue, leaving aside sanctions and conflicts, and when it comes to the Falklands/Malvinas and sovereignty, “we must recognize Islanders, their wishes, their lives”, indicated British ambassador in Buenos Aires Mark Kent in an interview with Martin Dinatale, political and diplomatic analyst from La Nacion.
The Organization of American States Electoral Observation Mission (OAS/EOM) to the general elections and referendum that will be held in Ecuador on February 19 began its deployment this week.