Latin America

• Saturday, December 8th 2018 - 07:38 UTC

  Former president during one of Colombia's bloodiest periods has died

  

  Former Colombian President Belisario Betancur, who attempted to broker peace with Marxist rebels during his administration, died on Friday at the age of 95, the Fundacion Santa Fe de Bogota hospital said.The hospital did not provide a cause of death, but media reports said he had been admitted with kidney problems.

• Friday, December 7th 2018 - 16:39 UTC

  Angry Bolivians demonstrate against Evo's candidacy

  

  Demonstrators marched in most Bolivian big cities Thursday to complain against the Electoral High Court (TSE)'s decision to allow incumbent President Evo Morales and Vice-president Álvaro García Linera to seek re-election despite the country's Constitution and what the people voted for in the February 21, 2016 referendum.

• Friday, December 7th 2018 - 06:41 UTC

  Mexican president wants more investment from oil companies before awarding new contracts

  

  Mexico’s new president says he will take a three-year break from awarding new oil exploration contracts in order to judge the results of contracts already awarded.

• Thursday, December 6th 2018 - 09:47 UTC

  Venezuela importing 300.000 bpd of refined products to ease fuel shortage

  

  Venezuela this month plans to import over 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of refined products to ease domestic fuel shortages caused by hobbled refineries and need to prioritize exports, according to internal documents, reports Reuters.

• Thursday, December 6th 2018 - 09:28 UTC

  Populism is not an ideology, it's a political technique which thrives on angry people

  

  Five of the world’s largest democracies now have populist governments, claimed The Guardian last week, and proceeded to name four: the United States, India, Brazil and the Philippines. Which is the fifth? At various points it name-checks Turkey, Italy and the United Kingdom, but it never becomes clear which. (And by the way, India’s prime minister Narendra Modi is not a populist. He’s just a nationalist.)

• Thursday, December 6th 2018 - 09:20 UTC

  Illegal financing of political parties now punishable by jail in Peru

  

  Peru's Congress Wednesday passed the bill which adds illicit financing of political organizations to the Penal Code, it was announced.

• Thursday, December 6th 2018 - 08:28 UTC

  Mexican president pressing foreign oil companies to show results

  

  Mexico’s newly inaugurated president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, AMLO, is turning up the heat on foreign oil companies to show results before he holds new auctions.

• Thursday, December 6th 2018 - 08:24 UTC

  Guyana's tenth oil discovery makes her a future Latin American powerhouse

  

  Thanks to ExxonMobil’s run of success in oil exploration offshore Guyana, the country is on a path to becoming a Latin American powerhouse, Wood Mackenzie said. The super-major announced its tenth Guyana discovery this week, increasing the discovered recoverable resource in its Stabroek Block to more than five billion barrels.

• Wednesday, December 5th 2018 - 21:40 UTC

  3G cellphone technology reaches Cuban customers, at long last

  

  Cubans will have access for the first time to 3G mobile telephone technology starting this coming Thursday, the state-run telecoms monopoly in Cuba, Etecsa, announced Wednesday.

• Wednesday, December 5th 2018 - 10:21 UTC

  Bolivia's electoral court allows Evo to seek reelection despite 21F referendum

  

  Bolivia's Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) Tuesday ruled by 3 votes to 2 that incumbent President Evo Morales and Vice-president Álvaro García Linera were allowed to run at the Movement to Socialism (MAS)'s primary elections to be held on January 27, 2019, where candidates for December's general elections are to be picked.