Latin America

• Monday, December 18th 2017 - 05:27 UTC

  Hernandez declared Honduras president; opposition leader off to Washington to denounce “fraud”

  

  Honduras’ electoral tribunal on Sunday declared conservative President Juan Orlando Hernandez the official winner of the Nov. 26 presidential election, sparking fraud accusations and calls for renewed street protests after a bitterly disputed contest. Hernandez beat center-left challenger and TV star Salvador Nasralla by 1.53 percentage points, according to the official count.

• Saturday, December 16th 2017 - 17:19 UTC

  Hondurans take to the streets to demand proclamation of opposition leader as president

  

  Honduran protesters blocked roads and burned tires to press the authorities to cancel the election victory of incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernandez and to proclaim opposition leader Salvador Nasralla the winner.

• Saturday, December 16th 2017 - 16:53 UTC

  Fallout from Odebrecht: Peruvian congress initiates proceedings to impeach president Kuczynski

  

  Lawmakers in Peru initiated proceedings to impeach President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who refuses to resign after being accused of failing to disclose decade-old payments from a Brazilian company embroiled in Latin America’s biggest corruption scandal. In a brief session, 27 of 130 members of congress put forward a request to consider removing the former Wall Street banker for “permanent moral incapacity”. Lawmakers could summon Kuczynski to defend himself before congress as early as next week.

• Saturday, December 16th 2017 - 16:29 UTC

  A disenchanted Chile will elect the least unpopular of two candidates on Sunday

  

  Chile faces on Sunday one of the elections with most uncertain result. Longstanding disenchantment with the center left leaning coalition that has ruled Chile since the return of democracy in 1990, and a Latin American natural reaction which erupts every now and then when an economy stalls and the blame goes to the local elite in combination with outside “treachery capitalists”, seems to be the scenario.

• Friday, December 15th 2017 - 14:53 UTC

  Brazilian beef exporters expect a record year in 2018: 1.68 million tons

  

  Brazilian beef exporters expect shipments to grow 10% in 2018 after rising an estimated 9% this year despite corruption and food safety scandals that temporarily closed off major markets. Trade group Abiec on Thursday said Brazil, the world’s largest beef exporter, would likely sell 1.68 million tons of beef abroad next year, up from 1.53 million tons in 2017. Revenue is expected to rise about 11% to US$6.9 billion in 2018, after a 13% rise this year to US$6.2 billion.

• Friday, December 15th 2017 - 08:38 UTC

  Falklands' call for “the world's greenest cruise ship”, MS Roald Amundsen

  

  From an environmental perspective, it’s easy to see how cruise ships have long been one of the harshest modes of travel. They’re big, slow, fuel-hungry, and rife with excess. However, forward-thinking cruise line Hurtigruten is looking to change the game with the launch of what they’re calling “the world’s greenest cruise ship.”

• Friday, December 15th 2017 - 01:40 UTC

  Brazilian police raids offices and homes of two members of Congress

  

  Brazilian police raided the offices and homes of two members of Congress on Wednesday in the country’s latest corruption probe as the government makes a last-ditch effort to vote on an overhaul of the national pension system.

• Thursday, December 14th 2017 - 05:53 UTC

  Mercosur/EU accord will have to wait until 2018; Europe needs more time to assess latest proposal

  

  Negotiations for a trade deal between the European Union and Mercosur will extend into next year, officials from both sides said on Wednesday, after the Europeans asked for more time to analyze proposed changes.

• Thursday, December 14th 2017 - 05:13 UTC

  Chile: Sunday's winner will have to learn to cohabit with the opposition

  

  With only a few days left for next Sunday's runoff in Chile's presidential election two factors have become decisive and a challenge for the two hopefuls, opposition candidate conservative Sebastian Piñera, and Alejandro Guillier, the incumbent, reluctantly accepted by the current system in office.

• Wednesday, December 13th 2017 - 21:50 UTC

  OAS observers will be deployed in Brazil's general election of October 2018

  

  The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal of Brazil signed the Procedural Agreement for the first deployment of an Electoral Observation Mission to Brazil.