Latin America

• Monday, December 23rd 2019 - 08:55 UTC

  Bolivia's interim government decides to join the Lima Group to address the Venezuela situation

  

  Bolivia on Sunday announced its entry into the Lima Group regional bloc that was set up to find a way out of the Venezuelan crisis. The Bolivian foreign ministry said in a statement that it hoped to “contribute to a peaceful, democratic and constitutional solution to the crisis in Venezuela, which must be guided by the Venezuelan people.”

• Saturday, December 21st 2019 - 11:05 UTC

  Maduro trying to block Guaido's re-election; US anticipates further sanctions

  

  The United States on Friday promised further sanctions to pressure Venezuela's leader Nicolas Maduro, accusing him of bribing lawmakers to block the re-election of his opponent Juan Guaido.

• Friday, December 20th 2019 - 09:58 UTC

  Boris Johnson: Political status of the Falkland Islands is not going to change

  

  Prime Minister Boris Johnson in his Christmas message to the Falkland Islands points out the second commercial flight to South America as the great achievement of 2019, and assures that his government's support “for your right to determine your own political status is not going to change”

• Friday, December 20th 2019 - 09:46 UTC

  IMF releases loan tranche to embattled Ecuadorean government

  

  The International Monetary Fund on Thursday approved a delayed loan tranche for Ecuador, releasing nearly US$500 million under a three-year aid program. The IMF board gave the go-ahead for a US$4.2 billion loan in March to help support the oil-rich nation's economic reforms, but massive protests led by indigenous groups erupted in October when President Lenin Moreno scrapped fuel subsidies, causing gasoline prices to soar.

• Thursday, December 19th 2019 - 09:40 UTC

  McDonald Peru outlets closed on mourning after two employees were electrocuted

  

  Every McDonald's in Peru has been closed for two days of mourning, after two young employees were electrocuted at a branch in the capital, Lima. Alexandra Porras Inga, 19, and Gabriel Campos Zapata, 18, reportedly died on a night shift while cleaning the kitchen. Apparently they were killed by a loose cable on Sunday.

• Wednesday, December 18th 2019 - 09:58 UTC

  Latin America as deadly as Middle East for journalists, RSF annual report

  

  Forty-nine journalists were killed across the world in 2019, Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday, the lowest death toll in 16 years.

• Wednesday, December 18th 2019 - 09:45 UTC

  Brazil/China finalizing sanitary protocol for soy-meal exports to the Asian giant

  

  Brazilian and Chinese government authorities are finalizing a protocol setting health standards for domestic processors to export soy-meal to the Asian country, André Nassar, president of oilseeds industry group Abiove, announced.

• Wednesday, December 18th 2019 - 09:31 UTC

  Strong subscription growth for Netflix in Latin America and Asia

  

  Netflix is seeing rapid subscriber growth in regions including Asia and Latin America as it girds for tougher competition in the streaming market, newly detailed figures show.

• Tuesday, December 17th 2019 - 09:51 UTC

  Mexico rejects US labor inspectors: they are not included in the USMCA trade pact

  

  Mexico’s trade negotiator for North America said that Mexico categorically opposes allowing foreign labor inspectors to operate in the country, saying that was not contemplated in the recent agreement with Washington and Ottawa on the USMCA pact to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.

• Tuesday, December 17th 2019 - 09:27 UTC

  Double burden of undernutrition, rapidly expanding in Latin America among children and women

  

  Low and middle-income countries risk seeing their development progress slashed by the double-edged sword of obesity and under-nutrition, both caused by a lack of access to affordable healthy food, a report in The Lancet warned on Monday.