
Colombia’s government announced it had signed two exploration and production contracts with Shell in offshore areas of the Caribbean Sea that will require the company to make initial investments of US$ 100 million.

Negotiations aimed at resolving a months-long crisis in Nicaragua stalled Sunday when the opposition called on President Daniel Ortega's government to release all political prisoners before any new talks. The opposition Civic Alliance for Justice and Democracy said it would “return to the negotiating table only when the government of Nicaragua provides the country with convincing signs they want to find solutions to the crisis,” which began in April 2018.

A DC-3 model aircraft with registration number HK2494 that had been declared in emergency fell on Saturday to land in the center-east of Colombia after not finding where to land, local media reported.

Latin American stocks hovered near 2019 lows on Wednesday led by steep losses in Argentina and Brazil which resumed trading after a two-day Carnival holiday, while currencies of oil exporters in the region fell as crude prices came under pressure. MSCI's index of Latin American stocks fell 1.3%, tracking losses across the region, barring Chile and Colombia which ended higher.

Peru opened this week a military base in the Amazon in a bid to tackle illegal mining, the main culprit for deforestation in the world's largest rainforest. “The government has taken the political decision to be present in this region to eradicate illegal mining,” said Defense Minister Jose Huerta at the inauguration of the base in the Tambopata nature reserve.

Venezuela's government expelled the German ambassador on Wednesday as embattled President Nicolas Maduro cracks down on a challenge to his rule. Ambassador Daniel Kriener was expelled two days after he and diplomats from other embassies welcomed home opposition leader Juan Guaido at the Caracas airport.

Colombia and its state-run oil company, Ecopetrol, announced they have signed an offshore exploration and production deal for a nearly 400,000-hectare (988,000-acre) bloc in the Caribbean, the country's first new oil and gas contract in more than four years.

Rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) slashed the credit rating for Mexico’s national oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, piling more pressure on the government to tighten up the debt-laden oil firm’s finances.

The Trump administration announced Monday that it is tightening the six-decade trade embargo on Cuba by allowing lawsuits against Cuban companies using properties confiscated after its 1959 revolution.

Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido received a hero's welcome from thousands of flag-waving supporters chanting “Yes, you can!” as he returned to Caracas on Monday, defying the threat of arrest from embattled President Nicolas Maduro's government.