The latest report from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) released Tuesday in Santiago foresees low regional growth for at least the next two years. For 2023, the organization projects a 1.7% increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while in 2024 it would fall to 1.5%, while the world's GDP is expected to grow by 3% in 2023 and 2024, down from 3.5% in 2022.
Mexico's Supreme Court Wednesday ruled in favor of suppressing the articles of the Federal Criminal Code criminalizing the termination of pregnancy, thus turning abortion legal nationwide, it was reported.
Former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum has been appointed to run for president on behalf of the ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) Party in 2024. Sheinbaun was elected through a controversial process of surveys which ended up showing she had about 40% of the voting intention. Sheinbaum's main rival in the primaries, former Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, questioned the validity of the mechanism.
Bolivian president Luis Arce, announced on September 1st. that the country’s natural gas reserves have been depleted, and exports to Argentina and Brazil will be interrupted, leaving a massive hole in the economy of the country.
Vessels in queue for transit across the Panama Canal stood at 128 ships on September first, some 42% above the 90 average, but 21% below the figure a month ago. While container ships, which have fixed schedules, tend to have reserved slots, the voyage plans for the tramp trades continue to be hit hard by the ongoing congestion brought about by drought and subsequent draft and transit restrictions put in place by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP).
Four Peruvian troops and two members of the Shining Path terrorist group were killed in a gunfight in the department of Ayacucho where a law enforcement patrol was performing territorial control actions, it was reported from Lima by the Joint Command of the Armed Forces. Remnants of the Maoist rebel group once focused on overthrowing the government have turned to drug trafficking.
Peru's Government extended for another 60 days starting Monday the State of Emergency decreed around the erupting Ubinas volcano in the Moquegua region, some 1,250 km south of Lima, it was published Sunday in El Peruano (Official Gazette).
Uruguay announced the resumption of meat exports to Mexico after three years, with 22 slaughterhouses authorized to sell beef and sheep meat to that country for the next two years, it was reported in Montevideo.
Guatemalan President-elect Bernardo Arévalo de León Friday said there was “a coup d'état in progress” in his country, with many organizations wanting to “break the constitutional order and violate democracy” by attacking him and his Semilla Movement party.
Around 2,500 people have died in Haiti this year while 1,000 have been injured and nearly 970 have been kidnapped, according to a statement from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released this week.