Latin America

• Monday, June 17th 2013 - 07:01 UTC

  Brazilian protestors clash over excessive expenditure in World Cup stadiums

  

  Police deployed tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse around 3,000 protestors from outside Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium ahead of the Confederations Cup match between Italy and Mexico on Sunday.

• Sunday, June 16th 2013 - 16:56 UTC

  Controversial media law approved in Ecuador conditions freedom of the press

  

  Creating official media overseers, imposing sanctions for smearing “people's good name” and limiting private media to one third of radio and TV licenses, Ecuador's congress on Friday passed a restrictive new media law championed by President Rafael Correa.

• Sunday, June 16th 2013 - 15:39 UTC

  ”Venezuela is not part of Mercosur; it was not ratified by Paraguayan congress”

  

  Venezuela “is not part of Mercosur, it was not ratified by the Paraguayan congress” according to one of the main foreign policy advisors of president elect Horacio Cartes who is scheduled to take office next August 15. Meanwhile Paraguay continues to advance it its intention of belonging to the Alliance of the Pacific.

• Sunday, June 16th 2013 - 14:39 UTC

  Booing down of President Rousseff reflects growing dissatisfaction with the economy

  

  Inflation, slower growth, street protests over the increase in bus fares smacked full on at an ill-humoured Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff during the opening ceremony of the Confederations Cup in Brasilia when she was booed down three times and simply had to declare the event open.

• Saturday, June 15th 2013 - 04:10 UTC

  Simultaneous raids in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay after links between football transfers and money laundering

  

  An estimated 150 search warrants were simultaneously implemented in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile in financial institutions, football clubs and players’ representatives looking for evidence on an organization dedicated to money laundering through the sale of soccer players.

• Friday, June 14th 2013 - 23:17 UTC

  Brazil pumps more consumer credit lines trying to bolster the economy

  

  The administration of President Dilma Rousseff will hand out 17 billion Reais (8 bn dollars) in cheap loans for home appliance purchases it was announced this week, a further attempt bolster Brazilians' buying power as an anemic economy and high inflation erode its approval rating.

• Friday, June 14th 2013 - 08:20 UTC

  Nicaragua approves transoceanic canal to rival with Panama and to be built by Hong Kong company

  

  The Nicaraguan Congress has approved a proposal to have a canal built linking the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. A Hong Kong-based company has been granted a 50-year concession to build the waterway, which will rival the Panama Canal.

• Friday, June 14th 2013 - 03:32 UTC

  Menem will appeal sentence to seven years in prison for smuggling weapons

  

  An Argentine court sentenced former President Carlos Menem to seven years in prison for smuggling weapons to Croatia during the Yugoslav civil war of the 1990s, and to Ecuador. Last year Menem was acquitted along with 17 other defendants, but the Cassation Court convicted 12 of them and urged the judges to change the verdicts.

• Friday, June 14th 2013 - 03:25 UTC

  Structural reform to ensure faster growth remains a main challenge for Latam economies

  

  Finding the optimal balance between macroeconomic policies to stimulate domestic demand in the short term and structural reforms to enable faster growth over the longer run, remain as the main challenges for the Latinamerican economies, according to the latest report from the World Bank.

• Friday, June 14th 2013 - 00:16 UTC

  Falklands have never been part of Argentina and Islanders overwhelmingly voted to remain British

  

  The following piece was written by Andrew Ayre, British High Commissioner in Georgetown, Guyana and published in StabroekNews from Guyana.