Latin America

• Thursday, July 30th 2015 - 22:31 UTC

  UK Overseas Territories agree on a 'unified front' for December's JMC in London

  

  Leaders of several British Overseas Territories meeting in Bermuda released a joint statement following a Pre-Joint Ministerial Council two-day meeting held last week in Hamilton. The goal of the international gathering was to discuss matters of common interest in order to present a unified front next December at the JMC in London.

• Thursday, July 30th 2015 - 22:28 UTC

  For the sixth straight time, Brazil raises interest rate 50 points to 14.25%

  

  Brazil's central bank raised interest rates to 14.25% from 13.75% as expected on Wednesday, delivering another hefty increase to stifle inflationary risks from a sharp depreciation of the local currency. This is the highest rate since October 2006.

• Thursday, July 30th 2015 - 09:39 UTC

  Brazil's agriculture minister optimistic about a Mercosur/EU trade accord by end of the year

  

  Brazil' minister of agriculture Katia Abreu said she was very optimistic about Mercosur reaching a trade agreement with the European Union, and if there are problems look to Europe, because Mercosur members have almost agreed and finished their proposal.

• Wednesday, July 29th 2015 - 06:43 UTC

  Maduro formally requests UN mediation in border dispute with Guyana

  

  Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro said he asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for U.N. mediation in his country's century-old border dispute with neighboring Guyana. The controversy was discussed by Maduro and Ban at a meeting Tuesday morning in New York.

• Monday, July 27th 2015 - 06:18 UTC

  Peru's Humala begins his last year in office with defeat in congress and 80% disapproval

  

  Peruvian lawmakers elected an opposition legislator as head of Congress in a new but hardly unsurprising defeat for the ruling party and increasingly unpopular President Ollanta Humala who this week begins the last year in office. GfK polls indicate the president has a disapproval rating of 80%.

• Monday, July 27th 2015 - 05:20 UTC

  Guyana warns in Washington about the Venezuelan threat to its territory

  

  Guyana's territorial dispute with neighboring Venezuela represents a threat to its very survival, President David Granger warned Friday in Washington. After a recent offshore oil find, the row between the two countries has escalated, with Venezuela laying claim to a huge swathe of Guyana's territory.

• Friday, July 24th 2015 - 09:38 UTC

  ExxonMobil find in Guyana's waters could be worth 12 times the country's GDP

  

  The Exxon Mobil oil find in Guyana, which has triggered a strong reaction from neighboring Venezuela could be worth 12 times more than that nation’s GDP. In effect according to a Guyanese minister, the find at Liza-1well in offshore Guyana could be worth about $40 billion at current international crude prices.

• Thursday, July 23rd 2015 - 07:24 UTC

  Over half of Argentina households belong to the middle class; only second to Uruguay

  

  Argentina is the Latin American country where the middle class has grown the most in ten years, doubling in size, according to a report released by the Pew Research Center in the United States.

• Thursday, July 23rd 2015 - 06:40 UTC

  Scioli meets Raul Castro in Havana and praises political and economic opening of Cuba

  

  Argentina's presidential hopeful and Buenos Aires governor Daniel Scioli was received on Wednesday by President of Cuba Raul Castro for an official audience in Havana, making the incumbent candidate the first foreign politician to meet the head of state since the normalising of relations with the United States.

• Thursday, July 23rd 2015 - 05:41 UTC

  Falklands/Malvinas special session at Aladi's offices in Montevideo

  

  The Latin American Integration Association, Aladi, with main offices in Montevideo, will be holding on Thursday an extraordinary meeting on the Falklands/Malvinas Islands question in the framework of the recent Day of Affirmation of Argentine rights over the South Atlantic Islands (June 10), and the fiftieth anniversary of UN Assembly Resolution 2065, which called on Argentina and UK to dialogue and find a solution to the dispute.