
Colombia's FARC rebels will officially transform into a political party on September 1, a major step in reintegrating the former guerillas into civilian life as part of a historic peace deal.

President Evo Morales has highlighted the total Bolivian independence from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), which have carried out “devastating economic policies for many years” in this South American nation.

Mercosur inked a trade deal with Colombia last Friday to allow limited quantities of tariff-free trade in products including automobiles, textiles and agrochemicals, Argentina's and Colombia's governments said.

(*)By R. Viswanathan - For those who think that Latin America is too far and cost of freight is too high and therefore the region should be less important for India’s trade, here is the eye opener from the 2016-17 (April-March) statistics of the Commerce Ministry of India.

The members of Mercosur trade bloc called for an end to violence in Venezuela in a joint statement on Friday. However again opinions were divided: while Brazil and Argentina sponsored a more explicit warning to President Nicolas Maduro and his regime, Uruguay had it redrafted in a more conciliatory tone and Paraguay finally came out with a compromise option.

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Government of Peru signed the agreement on preparations for the Eighth Summit of the Americas, which will bring together all heads of state and government of the Hemisphere in April 2018, in Lima.

Ecuador will not honor the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) agreement to cut oil output, Ecuador’s Oil Minister Carlos Perez said this week. The country, one of OPEC’s 14 member countries, is rethinking its commitment to drop oil production to 522,000 barrels a day.

Mexico will delay its next offshore oilfield auctions by a month, giving international bidders more time to evaluate recent major crude discoveries that highlight the potential value of the assets. A new billion-barrel find announced last week confirms that the Mexican side of the Gulf of Mexico is very prolific, said Juan Carlos Zepeda, Mexico’s chief oil regulator in an interview.

The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reports that no further outbreaks of foot and mouth disease have been reported in Colombia, however, the investigation is ongoing.

Venezuelan bishops called for an end to the inhuman repression, urged the government of Nicolas Maduro to hold elections and to dismantle and censure pro-regime civilian armed groups and also addressed the armed forces recalling they must serve the people, not a regime.