Latin America

• Sunday, August 28th 2016 - 03:56 UTC

  Rousseff takes the stand on Monday, following the round of defense witnesses

  

  Suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff's former economy minister testified Saturday that Rousseff did not break any laws justifying impeachment, as her trial closed in on next week's climax. Rousseff is accused of taking illegal state loans to help bridge budget shortfalls and mask the true state of the economy during her 2014 reelection campaign. The president argues the charges are trumped up and amount to a rightwing coup.

• Saturday, August 27th 2016 - 05:12 UTC

  PM Theresa May congratulates President Santos on the historic peace deal

  

  British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke with President Juan Manuel Santos to congratulate him about the historic peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). President Santos thanked the UK for its central role in helping reach the agreement.

• Friday, August 26th 2016 - 11:07 UTC

  Striking Bolivian mines kidnap and kill deputy Interior minister

  

  Bolivian Deputy Interior Minister Rodolfo Illanes has been killed after being kidnapped by striking mineworkers, the government said late on Thursday. Illanes had gone to talk to protesters earlier on Thursday in Panduro, around 160 km from the capital, La Paz, but was intercepted and kidnapped by striking miners.

• Friday, August 26th 2016 - 07:28 UTC

  Colombia launches referendum campaign; doubts remain on peace accord terms

  

  After sealing a historic peace accord with the FARC rebels, the Colombian government launched a campaign on Thursday to persuade voters to adopt it in a referendum on October 2.

• Friday, August 26th 2016 - 07:10 UTC

  Santos announces definitive ceasefire starting midnight Monday 29 August

  

  Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos ordered the army on Thursday to observe a definitive ceasefire with the FARC rebels after the two sides reached a deal to end their half-century conflict

• Thursday, August 25th 2016 - 09:14 UTC

  Mercosur fractured and in disarray: Venezuela isolated

  

  Mercosur on Wednesday displayed another chapter of its internal disarray, almost farcical, when Venezuela which proclaims the presidency of the group convened a meeting at the Montevideo administrative offices that was only attended by full member Uruguay and aspiring member Bolivia.

• Wednesday, August 24th 2016 - 06:06 UTC

  A Mercosur/EU trade agreement will not include UK, warns European Parliament president

  

  The president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz said in Buenos Aires that if finally a trade and cooperation agreement is reached between the European Union and Mercosur the United Kingdom will not benefit as a consequence of Brexit.

• Saturday, August 20th 2016 - 05:40 UTC

  Peru Supreme Court overturns sentence against ex president Fujimori for alleged diversion of public funds

  

  Peru’s Judiciary overturned an eight-year sentence against former president Alberto Fujimori for alleged diversion of public funds to tabloids to facilitate his second re-election in 2000. The Supreme Court said in a ruling “there isn’t enough material evidence” to declare any criminal responsibility of Fujimori, who is serving another 25-year sentence in prison for crimes against humanity.

• Saturday, August 20th 2016 - 01:50 UTC

  Falklands allows return of abandoned Argentine yacht rescued in Islands waters last October

  

  The Argentine flagged yacht “La Sanmartiniana” which was rescued in October 2015 while abandoned and adrift, by a Falkland Islands Fisheries Protection Vessel and towed to Stanley, where it has remained since waiting for claimants, has finally been released, after the Argentine group FIPCA complied with all the formalities for its recovery.

• Saturday, August 20th 2016 - 01:45 UTC

  UN acknowledges role in the Haiti imported cholera epidemic that killed thousands

  

  For the first time since a cholera epidemic believed to be imported by the United Nations peacekeepers began killing thousands of Haitians nearly six years ago, the office of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has acknowledged that the United Nations played a role in the initial outbreak and that a “significant new set of U.N. actions” will be needed to respond to the crisis.