The Royal Bank of Canada, RBC, is abandoning Uruguay following a raid in its offices at Zonamerica ordered by a Uruguayan magistrate on request from Argentina during which computers, documents on clients and even cell phones from staff were seized by the intervening party which included on-watching Argentine treasury police.
Ecuador has abandoned a conservation plan that would have paid the country not to drill for oil in previously untouched parts of Yasuni National Park in the Amazon rainforest. President Rafael Correa said rich nations had failed to back the initiative, leaving Ecuador with no choice but go ahead with drilling.
South American defense ministers gathered in the northern Brazilian city of Manaus on Thursday to discuss how to improve monitoring of the huge Amazon region. Attending the seminar which runs through Friday are Brazil's Celso Amorim, Colombia's Juan Carlos Pinzón and Ecuador's María Fernanda Espinosa.
Conservative businessman Horacio Cartes was sworn in as president of Paraguay on Thursday, amid slowly improving relations with South American neighbors, and Mercosur members, damaged by the 2012 removal of populist President Fernando Lugo, who was impeached on incompetence.
Most presidents and top authorities that will attend the inauguration of Paraguayan president-elect Horacio Cartes on Thursday morning arrived in Asunción on Wednesday and most of them have already held private meetings with the future leader of the country.
In an extremely aggressive speech in the aftermath of primaries defeat, Argentine president Cristina Fernandez blasted the media for misinterpreting electoral results, charged against the Mayor of Tigre Sergio Massa who was the big winner on Sunday, pressed for full commitment from her allies and promised more of the same in support of the ‘socially inclusive model’.
Argentina’s inflation according to the ‘congressional index’ reached 2.55% in July and 24.9% in the last twelve months was announced on Wednesday by members from the opposition in the Lower House.
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro appointed the third central bank president this year as Latin America’s biggest oil exporter seeks to rein in the fastest inflation among the world’s major economies.
Chile's presidential frontrunner Michelle Bachelet says she is studying possible changes to mining policy in the world's top copper producing country. The possible changes include altering mining royalties and funding programs for state-owned mining company Codelco.
US petroleum giant Chevron has warned that the continuing legal battle with Ecuador's government over pollution charges could put in jeopardy the company's partnership with YPF to exploit the Vaca Muerta shale reserves in the Patagonian province of Neuquén, Argentina.