
Colombia’s highest court has told the government it must take urgent action to protect its Amazon rainforest and stem rising deforestation, in what campaigners said was an historic moment that should help conserve forests and counter climate change.

Brussels, 09 April 2018 - Three out of four Latin Americans today show little or no confidence in their national governments. Around 80% think corruption is widespread. These levels are both up from 55% and 67% respectively in 2010. Mistrust is rising as in most regions of the world and risks deepening the disconnect between people and public institutions, harming social cohesion and weakening the social contract. Reconnecting public institutions with citizens by better responding to their demands is thus critical for strengthening growth and sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and for the well-being of the region’s citizens, according to the Latin American Economic Outlook 2018, Rethinking Institutions for Development. The region needs more transparent, capable, credible and innovative institutions if it wants to put itself on a higher and more inclusive development trajectory.

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told Folha de Sao Paulo early Friday that he has decided not to turn himself at the Federal Police in Curitiba where he must serve a 12-year prison sentence for corruption, as ordered by judge Sergio Moro.

United States President Donald Trump, engaged in an escalating confrontation with Beijing over trade, will urge Latin American leaders next week to work with the United States – not China – on trade, a senior US official said on Thursday. Trump’s trip to Lima, Peru, for the Summit of the Americas has been prefaced by aggressive moves on trade and immigration.

The first female submarine officer in Argentina, who remains missing in the Atlantic Ocean, was honored by the country’s Jewish community on International Women’s Month. Eliana María Krawczyk, 35, who is Jewish, is one of 44 crew members of the Argentine submarine ARA San Juan, which remains missing in the Atlantic four months after it fell off the radar with a one week supply of oxygen on board.

An earthquake of at least 6.6 magnitude shook Bolivia early on Monday, causing no damage or injuries but driving people out of office buildings as far away as Brasilia and Sao Paulo in neighboring Brazil, officials said.

Former Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, better or simply known as Lula, said Donald Trump doesn't care about Latin America in the least and added that Bush and Condoleezza Rice pursued a much more democratic policy towards Brazil than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.” In his view, Obama could give magnificent speeches, but never actually delivered.

The United States will shift the processing of immigration visas for Cuban nationals from Colombia to Guyana starting April 1, the State Department announced. Immigrant visa applications and interviews with Cuban citizens will be conducted and processed at the United States Embassy in Georgetown, Guyana.

The Ecuadorean government of President Lenin Moreno has left Wikileaks founder Julian Assange without access to the internet at their embassy in London, it was reported Wednesday. The decision was made following Assange's recent activity on social media decrying the arrest of a Catalonian separatist leader.

Martin Vizcarra explained he received supporting phone calls from various regional leaders for the April gathering. Maduro's invitation is a matter for the Foreign Ministry to decide.