
Nicaragua's military called for a halt to violence that has rocked the country during weeks of protests and a deadly crackdown by police and supporters of President Daniel Ortega's government. In a statement late Saturday, the army also expressed solidarity with families of those who have died — more than 60, according to a human rights group.

South America, including the Falkland Islands, has the highest number of planned and announced floating production, storage, and offloading units (FPSOs) to be commissioned by 2025, according to a report by GlobalData. World wide 74 planned and announced FPSOs are set to become operational for the outlook period between 2018 and 2025.

Uruguay on Friday deposited at the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington DC, the instrument of ratification of the Inter-American Convention against all Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance, becoming the first state to ratify it. Uruguay is also the only one that has ratified all the binding legal instruments of the inter-American system.

Argentina asked the International Monetary Fund for financing to help stem a run from the Peso to the US dollar that is sparking a surge in interest rates and threatening to derail the country's economic recovery. The sum requested is estimated between 25 and 30bn dollars, 500% Argentina's IMF quota and could be disbursed in two forms, a flexible credit line or a precautionary credit line.

The United Kingdom's International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, named a new Trade Commissioner to champion British trade with Latin America and the Caribbean, as the UK prepares for future trade agreements with countries around the world.

The dollar hovered near a four-month high on Tuesday, continuing to draw support from higher Treasury yields and upbeat prospects for the U.S. economy, leaving its major rivals such as the Euro struggling and other Latin American currencies including the Argentine peso down sharply.

US Vice President Mike Pence on Monday urged Venezuela to suspend a divisive May 20 election he denounced as a sham, as Washington slapped fresh sanctions on Nicolas Maduro's regime. In an address to the Organization of American States, Pence slammed the upcoming presidential vote -- boycotted by the opposition and branded illegitimate by much of the international community.

The Dominican Republic and China announced on Tuesday they were establishing diplomatic relations as the Caribbean country became the latest nation to dump Taiwan, leaving it with just 19 diplomatic allies around the globe. Taipei said it was “deeply upset” at the decision, which it blamed on “dollar diplomacy”. The move deepens the island's international isolation while its giant neighbor flexes its economic and political might on the global stage.

Thousands of Nicaraguans marched peacefully through the capital Managua on Saturday in a mass demonstration to demand justice following the violent suppression of a wave of protests that left at least 43 people dead. During the rally, which was called by the Catholic church, Managua's bishop issued a deadline of one month to see if there was a serious intention to achieve change through a national dialogue aimed at resolving issues that triggered the country's worst unrest in 11 years.

Nicaragua is a volcanic nation, geologically and politically. Forty years ago, seemingly out of nowhere, a series of popular eruptions shook the entrenched regime of Anastasio Somoza, who fell from power on 19 July, 1979. Today, one of the revolutionary architects of that dictator’s ouster, Sandinista party chief Daniel Ortega, rules the country of 6.1 million as high-handedly and corruptly as Somoza ever did.