Latin America

• Wednesday, July 6th 2016 - 04:02 UTC

  Temer extends a Rio Olympic Games open arms message to the world

  

  With just a month to go to the Olympic Games, Michel Temer Brazil’s interim president, invites the world to experience the beauty of Rio de Janeiro. The following is his welcome message to the world’s athletes, officials and fans:

• Monday, July 4th 2016 - 09:56 UTC

  Exxon-Mobil-Hess confirm that off Guyana coast oil discovery is largest in two years

  

  ExxonMobil and its partner Hess Corp. have announced that the major discovery off the coast of Guyana, in the north of South America and bordering with Venezuela, is a discovery that is much larger than previously expected.

• Friday, July 1st 2016 - 08:45 UTC

  Pacific Alliance after stronger integration and closer links with the EU

  

  The presidents of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, the four member states of the Pacific Alliance, met on Thursday in the Chilean town of Puerto Varas to strengthen their economic integration in order to deal with the ravages of global finance. They also called for closer links with the European Union to bolster education for development.

• Monday, June 27th 2016 - 08:01 UTC

  Temer will be absent from Mercosur summit; displeasure with Venezuela

  

  Brazilian interim president Michel Temer will be absent from the next Mercosur summit scheduled to take place in Montevideo, and this decision is considered a strong message to the Venezuelan government of president Nicolas Maduro that will be taking the group's chair for the next six months.

• Monday, June 27th 2016 - 07:15 UTC

  Brazil's recession greater risk than Brexit for Argentina: could chip 1.5 percentage points from GDP

  

  Argentina’s annual rate of inflation was likely to have reached an annualized 42% through May, but should begin to slow in June with a return to growth also on the horizon, Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said in an address to investors in New York. The minister also said that for Argentina, Brazil's recession had a greater impact than Brexit.

• Monday, June 27th 2016 - 06:53 UTC

  Panama opens long-delayed US$ 4.5bn canal expansion: massive litigations looming

  

  Panama opened the long-delayed US$5.4 billion expansion of its shipping canal amid cheering crowds on Sunday, despite looming economic uncertainty in the shipping industry and a heated battle over billions in cost overruns.

• Friday, June 24th 2016 - 08:28 UTC

  Colombia-FARC, “a historic event and exemplary implementation of peace”

  

  United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon attended in Cuba the signing of a bilateral ceasefire agreement and laying down of weapons between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) and described the historic event as an exemplary implementation of peace.

• Friday, June 24th 2016 - 04:12 UTC

  Colombia signs historic cease fire to end half a century armed conflict

  

  An agreement aimed at ending more than five decades of conflict between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla group was signed in Havana on Thursday at a ceremony presided over by Cuban head of state Raul Castro.

• Thursday, June 23rd 2016 - 08:09 UTC

  Colombia and FARC are to sign bilateral and definitive ceasefire 23 June in Havana

  

  Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) reached an agreement on a bilateral and definitive ceasefire that will pave the way for a referendum on a peace deal between the warring parties, a senior FARC negotiator said on Wednesday.

• Thursday, June 23rd 2016 - 06:03 UTC

  Maduro-Shannon discuss restarting relations; OAS debates implementing Democratic Charter on Venezuela

  

  Veteran U.S. diplomat Tom Shannon spoke for nearly two hours with Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday to re-start relations between the ideologically opposed governments amid a punishing economic crisis in the oil rich country.