Latin America

• Monday, October 7th 2019 - 09:37 UTC

  Pope Francis opens Amazon synod calling to listen the “cry of Mother Land” and condemning “destructive interests”

  

  Pope Francis opened a synod Sunday to champion the Amazon's poverty-stricken and isolated indigenous communities by condemning the destructive “interests” he blamed for the fires that devastated the region.

• Saturday, October 5th 2019 - 09:12 UTC

  Mexico does not seek control of Zama, the country's major oilfield discovery in decades

  

  Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that his government is not seeking to take control of the Zama oilfield discovery, which is currently operated by a private consortium led by U.S.-based Talos Energy. The statement follows on a report from Reuters earlier in the week saying that Mexico’s national oil company, Pemex, wants to take control of Zama from Talos.

• Friday, October 4th 2019 - 09:55 UTC

  Ecuador will eliminate fuel subsidies and tighten the belt of public employees

  

  Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno said that his government will eliminate subsidies for diesel and low-octane gasoline and create a new corporate tax as part of a package of measures to narrow the country’s fiscal deficit.

• Friday, October 4th 2019 - 09:50 UTC

  Ecuador declares state of emergency to contain protests against elimination of fuel subsidies

  

  Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno declared a state of emergency Thursday as protests broke out nationwide over the end of decades-old fuel subsidies as part of a $2 billion government fiscal reform package. Police responded with tear gas in the worst unrest for years in the oil-producing Andean nation.

• Friday, October 4th 2019 - 09:43 UTC

  OAS develops inter American cooperation network on counterterrorism

  

  The Organization of American States (OAS) will launch the Inter-American Network on Counterterrorism, a project aimed at strengthening cooperation between member states to prevent and address terrorist threats in the Western Hemisphere.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2019 - 09:24 UTC

  Honduran president brother accused of receiving bribes from “El Chapo”

  

  United States prosecutors alleged on Wednesday that convicted Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán personally gave US$1 million in bribes to the brother of Honduras' president to pass on to the Central American leader, who swiftly denied wrongdoing.

• Thursday, October 3rd 2019 - 09:20 UTC

  Colombian imprisoned ex senator escapes during a visit to the dentist

  

  Colombian officials have ordered a probe following the daring escape in Bogota of an imprisoned ex-senator from a medical center where she had gone to see a dentist. Aida Merlano managed to slip away from her escorts, climbed out a window, and slid down a cord, landing heavily on the sidewalk before calmly escaping on the back of a waiting motorcycle.

• Wednesday, October 2nd 2019 - 09:58 UTC

  Peruvian vice-president resigns as interim president and supports general election

  

  Peru's vice-president has resigned from her post after declining the opposition's nomination to be interim leader, saying she hoped it would pave the way for a new general election. Mercedes Aráoz said the “constitutional order had broken” and that the country faced a “grave institutional crisis”.

• Wednesday, October 2nd 2019 - 09:57 UTC

  Mercosur and South Korea fourth round of trade talks, this time in Busan

  

  South Korea’s trade ministry said on Monday it plans to hold the fourth round of trade talks with Mercosur as Seoul aims to expand its trade network with emerging countries and revitalize its ailing exports.

• Wednesday, October 2nd 2019 - 09:54 UTC

  OAS General Secretariat statement on the situation in Peru

  

  It is the political responsibility of the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (GS / OAS) to ensure compliance with the effective exercise of representative democracy as the basis of the rule of law and constitutional regimes.