Latin America

• Tuesday, January 26th 2016 - 07:34 UTC

  Venezuela could lose UN voting rights because of US$ 3m in arrears

  

  St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic are among nine countries that have lost their voting rights at the United Nations because of arrears in their annual contributions to the world body.

• Monday, January 25th 2016 - 10:01 UTC

  IMF estimates 2016 Venezuela inflation at 720% and 8% economy contraction

  

  Venezuela’s consumer inflation, already the world’s highest, will more than double this year surging to 720% in 2016 from 275% last year, according to a note published by the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Director, Alejandro Werner.

• Monday, January 25th 2016 - 08:29 UTC

  Paraguay's Dominguez, expected to be confirmed Conmebol president on Tuesday

  

  Conmebol the South American football confederation rattled by corruption and massive arrests of its former members (except Uruguay's), involved in the major FIFA scandal, has a president, and if nothing happens from here to election day, 26 January, he is Alejandro Domìnguez, (43) a Paraguayan economist, belonging to one of the richest families in the country.

• Saturday, January 23rd 2016 - 08:18 UTC

  One fifth of youngsters don’t study or work but still may have a chance

  

  By Jorge Familiar (*) - One out of every five Latin Americans between the ages of 15 and 24 wakes up every morning with no school to attend or paid job to do. Bogged down by economic constraints, early pregnancy, violence or low expectations, they are the so-called “ninis” — ni estudia, ni trabaja (neither studying nor working) — and they are more than 20 million strong.

• Friday, January 22nd 2016 - 07:21 UTC

  Ecuador disenchanted with OPEC policy will work as if the cartel 'did not exist'

  

  Ecuador President Rafael Correa said that his government was “tired” of pushing OPEC to decrease output and that the nation would keep working as if the oil cartel “did not exist.”

• Friday, January 22nd 2016 - 06:58 UTC

  Zika virus epidemic spreads in the region; women advised to delay pregnancy

  

  The mosquito-borne Zika virus has already infected more than 13,500 people in Colombia and could hit as many as 700,000, the health minister said on Wednesday. According to Pan-American Health Organization figures, the country is second only to Brazil in infection rates, health minister Alejandro Gaviria told journalists.

• Thursday, January 21st 2016 - 07:52 UTC

  Colombia's peace deal to end war almost there; joint request to UN Security Council

  

  Colombia’s government and rebel guerrillas Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) agreed to jointly ask the United Nations Security Council to help monitor and verify a future rebel disarmament, should the two sides reach a final peace deal to end their 50-year-old war, crossing a major stepping stone on the road to ending Latin America’s longest-running conflict.

• Tuesday, January 19th 2016 - 07:51 UTC

  Fourteen countries in a US travel alert for pregnant women because of Zika virus

  

  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued travel alert for people traveling to the Caribbean and other areas that have confirmed transmission of the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

• Saturday, January 16th 2016 - 10:42 UTC

  Guatemalan president Morales tells the military he wants “justice, not revenge”

  

  Guatemala's new president, Jimmy Morales, said on Friday he wants “justice, not revenge” in reference to ex-army personnel accused of atrocities during his country's 1960-1996 civil war. Following an armed forces ceremony recognizing him as commander-in-chief just one day after he was sworn in, Morales added that he did not want to see action that would “prejudice” the country's values.

• Friday, January 15th 2016 - 12:09 UTC

  FIFA fines federations for homophobic remarks from fans, including Argentina, Chile and Uruguay

  

  Anti-gay chants by fans have led to fines for six football associations. Match reports revealed that fans of Argentina, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay yelled homophobic remarks during qualifying matches for the 2018 World Cup.