Latin America

• Wednesday, July 15th 2015 - 08:10 UTC

  Mercosur summit in Brasilia with a conflicting agenda; Paraguay takes chair

  

  Mercosur will be holding its half year presidential summit in Brasilia next Thursday and Friday, an event which will expose an abundance of trade and political conflicts, discrepancies and recurrent challenges despite all its members commitment to integration. Besides full members, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela and Brazil, leaders from Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Guyana and Surinam have also been announced.

• Wednesday, July 15th 2015 - 07:34 UTC

  Guyanese president Granger will attend Mercosur summit in Brasilia

  

  Guyanese President David Granger and Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge plan to attend the biannual Mercosur summit in Brasilia later this next, a Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed to the Spanish news agency EFE.

• Wednesday, July 15th 2015 - 05:35 UTC

  Guyana declines UN good offices since they have only 'helped Venezuela'

  

  Guyana is no longer interested in the UN Good Offices Process as a means to settle its century-old border dispute with Venezuela, Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge said on Monday in a news briefing live-streamed online.

• Tuesday, July 14th 2015 - 06:37 UTC

  Mexico is offering 3.8 million dollars reward for the capture of drug lord “Chapo Guzmán”

  

  Mexico is offering a reward of 60 million pesos ($3.8m) for the capture of the country's most-wanted drug lord, who escaped from a top security prison. A huge manhunt is underway for Joaquin Guzman, who got out of his cell on Saturday through a 1.5km-long tunnel.

• Tuesday, July 14th 2015 - 06:07 UTC

  Caricom considering ECLAC proposal to write-off its multilateral debt

  

  The Caribbean Community, Caricom is considering a proposal for the region to pursue gradual write-off of its multilateral debt as a means of economic prosperity. The debt relief strategy was put forward by Alicia Barcena from the Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), at the 36th Regular Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, held in Barbados.

• Monday, July 13th 2015 - 09:21 UTC

  Venezuela will stop buying Guyana rice amid escalating border dispute

  

  Venezuela has decided to stop buying much of Guyana's rice crop amid an escalating border dispute between the two neighboring countries, the Guyanese finance minister said. The administration of president Nicolas Maduro has in the past four years purchased about 40% of Guyana's rice production, about 200,000 tons, paying for it with oil that amounts to about half of Guyana's daily supply needs.

• Monday, July 13th 2015 - 09:03 UTC

  The Peronist pope: Francis’s balancing act in Latin America, according to The Economist

  

  Under the heading of “The Peronist pope”, The Economist has a piece on “Francis's balancing act in Latin America” dedicated to the eight day tour of three of the continent's poorest countries, but with the largest percentages of Catholics. But for Francis it is also a delicate balancing act since several current leaders in the region tend to blend the Church's 'option for the poor' with Marxist ideology.

• Monday, July 13th 2015 - 06:36 UTC

  Argentina' Cristina Fernandez flies to Paraguay meets Francis for the sixth time

  

  President Cristina Fernández was present on Sunday in the Paraguayan capital, Asunción to hear Pope Francis give mass during his visit, and greeted the Argentine citizens who had travelled to see the leader of the Catholic church. The head of state left the open mass at around midday, handing Francis a gift before retiring after witnessing the ceremony with Paraguayan counterpart Horacio Cartés.

• Saturday, July 11th 2015 - 05:59 UTC

  Falklands/Malvinas, Puerto Rico and Bolivia's sea outlet claim, in Pope's agenda, reveals Morales

  

  Bolivian president Evo Morales revealed on Friday that Pope Francis told him that there are three pending issues in the continent, Puerto Rico, Falklands/Malvinas and Bolivia's sea outlet claim. The pope has been recognized by all sides as the 'bridge' which helped bring together Cuba and the US after over half a century of mutual distancing.

• Saturday, July 11th 2015 - 05:43 UTC

  Francis calls on Paraguay to consolidate democracy and end corruption

  

  Pope Francis urged Paraguay to consolidate democracy and end corruption and drug trafficking, after receiving a colorful welcome on Friday at the start of the last leg of his eight-day South American tour.