
Uruguay and Bolivia will be the only South American countries attending this Thursday the inauguration of Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro for a second five year mandate. A regime which has become an increasingly international pariah for its non democratic practices, human rights abuses, and disastrous management of the economy creating a major humanitarian crisis with food and essential pharmaceutical shortages while some three million of Venezuelans have fled the country in desperation.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday warned he could take “diplomatic measures” against Latin American nations that signed a statement last week describing his second term, which starts on Thursday, as illegitimate.

United States president Donald Trump has demanded funding for his long-promised US-Mexico border wall to halt “a growing humanitarian and security crisis”. But in his first TV address to the nation from the Oval Office, Mr Trump did not declare a national emergency to bypass Congress and build the barrier.

Guatemala has said it is withdrawing from a UN-backed anti-corruption commission which has been investigating the country's President Jimmy Morales. Guatemalan Foreign Minister Sandra Jovel said on Monday that the UN body had 24 hours to leave the country.

Mexico’s new government on Friday called on its peers to refrain from interfering in Venezuela’s internal affairs, declining to back a regional declaration that urged Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro not to take office on Jan. 10.

Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro said that he would be open to the possibility of the United States operating a military base on his country’s soil, a move that would form a sharp shift in direction for Brazilian foreign policy.

Brazil’s newly inaugurated President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday his election had freed the country from “socialism and political correctness,” and he vowed to tackle corruption, crime and economic mismanagement in Latin America’s largest nation.

Uruguay and Argentina finished last and next respectively in a study carried out by international consultants Expert Market on the difficulties faced by self-employed individuals in 57 countries, it was reported Saturday.

Bolivian Police Chief Rómulo Delgado Friday ordered the immediate dismissal of the director of the Special Force for the Fight against Violence (Felcv) of La Paz, Colonel Víctor Hugo Soria, who sparked controversy for having allegedly said that the consumption of alcohol and the double life of women caused feminicides.

Colombian former Secretary of Transparency Rafael Merchán, who had been slated to testify in the local version of the Odebrecht corruption scandal, was found dead, it was reported.