
Mexico’s new president says he will take a three-year break from awarding new oil exploration contracts in order to judge the results of contracts already awarded.

Venezuela this month plans to import over 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of refined products to ease domestic fuel shortages caused by hobbled refineries and need to prioritize exports, according to internal documents, reports Reuters.

Five of the world’s largest democracies now have populist governments, claimed The Guardian last week, and proceeded to name four: the United States, India, Brazil and the Philippines. Which is the fifth? At various points it name-checks Turkey, Italy and the United Kingdom, but it never becomes clear which. (And by the way, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi is not a populist. He’s just a nationalist.)

Peru's Congress Wednesday passed the bill which adds illicit financing of political organizations to the Penal Code, it was announced.

Mexico’s newly inaugurated president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, AMLO, is turning up the heat on foreign oil companies to show results before he holds new auctions.

Thanks to ExxonMobil’s run of success in oil exploration offshore Guyana, the country is on a path to becoming a Latin American powerhouse, Wood Mackenzie said. The super-major announced its tenth Guyana discovery this week, increasing the discovered recoverable resource in its Stabroek Block to more than five billion barrels.

Cubans will have access for the first time to 3G mobile telephone technology starting this coming Thursday, the state-run telecoms monopoly in Cuba, Etecsa, announced Wednesday.

Bolivia's Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) Tuesday ruled by 3 votes to 2 that incumbent President Evo Morales and Vice-president Álvaro García Linera were allowed to run at the Movement to Socialism (MAS)'s primary elections to be held on January 27, 2019, where candidates for December's general elections are to be picked.

The United Nations said on Tuesday it was seeking US$ 738 million in 2019 to help neighboring countries cope with the inflow of millions of Venezuelan refugees and migrants, who have “no prospect for return in the short to medium term”.

Ecuador's Vice President Maria Vicuna announced her resignation on Tuesday, one day after President Lenin Moreno relieved her of duties amid an investigation into payments she received as a legislator years ago.