Latin America posted a decrease in high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) as falling commodity prices affect the continent’s economies, especially Brazil which accounts for more than 50% of Latin America’s HNWI wealth.
Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa announced he would temporarily withdraw two controversial tax bills from the legislature, saying he would give the public time to debate them. The bills, which would have raised taxes on inheritances and capital gains, generated uproar that led to mass street protests in recent days.
The European Union also has difficulties in completing a draft proposal of goods and services to exchange with Mercosur in the search for a long delayed trade agreement between the two blocks, revealed Uruguayan vice-president Raul Sendic during a report to the Senate on his recent 10/11 June trip to Brussels for the Celac/EU summit. However in the third quarter of the year there should be positive news.
The America Copa (Cup) currently being played in Chile, and the region's national teams main football competition, has not been without incidents. The one that has attracted most headlines, so far, was the host's leading squad player, Arturo Vidal who went on public television to apologize for drunk driving after crashing his Ferrari.
The Organization of American States (OAS) will send an Electoral Observation Mission to the presidential, legislative, municipal and local elections to be held in Haiti in 2015, according to the agreement signed on Tuesday by Secretary General Luis Almagro, and Haiti's Foreign minister, Lener Renauld.
British High Commissioner to Guyana, James Gregory Quinn has dismissed Venezuela’s most recent claim on Guyana’s oil rich Essequibo Coast, stating that it lacks solid grounds. Venezuela’s President Nicholas Maduro on May 27 signed a decree that now claims an entire portion of Guyana’s territory into the Atlantic Ocean and includes the Stabroek Block where a significant portion of oil was recently discovered by US oil giant, ExxonMobil.
Guyana is turning to the United Nations to reach a legal settlement in its border dispute with Venezuela, describing Caracas’ claim of a portion of maritime space where oil was recently discovered as “a baseless and shameless attempt” at usurping Guyana’s territory.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff stated on Thursday in Brussels she was not upset by differences with Argentina over the trade agreement Mercosur is to sign with the European Union, despite president Cristina Fernandez administration's cold feet on the issue.
The Princess of Asturias Award for Literature has gone to the Cuban novelist and journalist Leonardo Padura. There were 27 nominations from around the world for the prestigious award which has been won in the past by people of the stature of writer John Banville, Leonard Cohen and dramatist Arthur Miller.
Mercosur is ready to deliver its proposal on goods, services and tariff reductions as part of the negotiations with the European Union for a trade and cooperation agreement, said Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff on Wednesday, following a meeting in Brussels with Charles Michel, Belgium's Prime minister.