
Brazil’s industrial output plunged by 4.5% last year as the coronavirus pandemic battered Latin America’s largest economy, particularly the auto and clothing industries, the national statistics institute reported on Tuesday.

Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou will be flying to Brasilia on Wednesday to share an informal lunch with his peer Jair Bolsonaro, his first overseas trip since taking office, but also a clear balancing act of the country's foreign policy regarding its two huge neighbors.

Brazil independent truckers strike got off on Monday to a weak start because of internal divisions on how to protest fuel prices. The government said traffic was flowing freely on all of the country's highways far from fears of a repeat of the 2018 protest that disrupted food and fuel supplies.

The Falkland Islands Government can confirm that commercial air links with both Chile and Brazil will remain suspended for a further three months until 29 June 2021.

Brazil's oil and gas giant Petrobras announced a hydrocarbon discovery in the pre-salt Campos Basin offshore Rio de Janeiro state, some 200 kilometers from the coast and at a depth of 2,950 meters.

Only a week ago, President Jair Bolsonaro said Brazil was “broke” and the latest Treasury numbers have come close to backing the statement. Last year the country reported a record primary budget deficit of 743.1 billion reais (US$138 billion), a record 10% of GDP.

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has been s skeptical of the coronavirus pandemic and the effectiveness of different vaccines to contain it, arguing that the economy, jobs and activity, were the priority above sanitary recommendations. As a result of this approach, his administration's federal spending jumped almost 40% between January and November, according to the Institute of International Finance. And Bolsonaro had even admitted the country is “broke.”

The Director of the Butantan Institute on Tuesday contradicted the words of Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou, assuring that there is not yet a closed agreement between the Uruguayan government and the Chinese laboratory Sinovac for the purchase of the vaccine against Covid-19. However, the institute affirmed that there is a pre-agreement and talks are still ongoing. Lacalle Pou announced on Saturday at a press conference the purchase of 1.75 million doses from this laboratory.

A.P.Moller-Maersk announced the arrival of Douglas Piagentini as its new commercial director for the East Coast of Latin America made up of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

China's Huawei has just hired a former president of Brazil to act as an advisor on 5G networking in the region. Through the new hiring, the company aims at ensuring the growth of the newer and faster bandwidth in the local market just prior to the auction for 5G wireless networks.