Politics

• Monday, October 3rd 2016 - 08:52 UTC

  Colombians turn their back on peace deal: Santos and FARC allies in rejection

  

  Colombian voters appeared to have shocked their government, world leaders and pollsters by blasting away its hopes for a historic peace deal with the Marxist FARC rebels on Sunday, near-complete referendum results showed. Reversing the trend of earlier opinion polls, voters appeared to have narrowly defied the government's pleas to ratify its plan to put 52 years of bloody conflict behind them within months.

• Monday, October 3rd 2016 - 08:36 UTC

  Brazilians voters punish corruption-involved parties; Lula's drops to tenth place in municipal rating

  

  Brazilians expressed their disenchantment and frustration on Sunday's municipal elections punishing parties involved in the major corruption schemes and political disputes as the country's economy has plunged into the worst economic recession almost a century including the loss of millions of jobs.

• Monday, October 3rd 2016 - 08:09 UTC

  Argentina claims Falklands' sovereignty at UN Human Rights Council in Geneva

  

  Argentina again claimed Falkland Islands' sovereignty and called for bilateral negotiations, as indicated by the UN General Assembly, at the closing 33rd session of the Human Rights Council last Friday in Geneva.

• Monday, October 3rd 2016 - 07:54 UTC

  Yuan becomes global reserve currency but China will have to relax capital controls and the exchange rate

  

  The Chinese currency Yuan entered a new phase in its journey to become more important to the world economy: starting on Saturday the Yuan is officially a member of the International Monetary Fund’s basket of global reserve currencies. Together, this group of currencies, known as Special Drawing Rights (SDR), forms a kind of pseudo-currency—used only by the IMF—to supplement countries’ official reserves.

• Monday, October 3rd 2016 - 07:40 UTC

  Temer visits Macri to address trade and making Mercosur more flexible and universal

  

  Argentine president Mauricio Macri will be receiving his Brazilian peer Michel Temer in Buenos Aires on Monday morning to address bilateral relations in several fields, mainly political, trade, Mercosur, and security and development in the long shared border areas. According to official sources Temer´s delegation arrives with foreign minister Jose Serra, Industry and trade minister Marcos Pereira and head of defense Raul Jungmann.

• Monday, October 3rd 2016 - 07:03 UTC

  PM May announces Brexit process should be over by 2019 with strong limits on immigration policy

  

  Prime Minister Theresa May said on Sunday that Britain would begin the process of withdrawing from the European Union by the end of March and suggested that she would seek a clean break that makes limits on immigration a priority.

• Saturday, October 1st 2016 - 02:55 UTC

  Malcorra summoned to Senate to explain Falklands' clauses in the joint statement

  

  Foreign minister Susana Malcorra is scheduled to attend the Argentine Senate next Wednesday morning to expand on the recent Argentina/UK joint statement, particularly the South Atlantic chapter which deals with the Falkland Islands and alleged softening of the Argentine sovereignty claim.

• Saturday, October 1st 2016 - 02:46 UTC

  Sao Paulo mayor race has become a puppets' dispute between presidential hopefuls

  

  Next Sunday Brazilians will be going to the polls to elect mayors and councilors in 5.570 cities and towns across the country in what is the first test of the mood of voters since the impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff last month.

• Friday, September 30th 2016 - 11:24 UTC

  Spate of killings ahead of Sunday's municipal elections, the dark side of Brazilian politics

  

  The gunning down of a string of candidates ahead of nationwide municipal elections this Sunday is stoking fears that Brazil's toxic politics are headed into dangerous new territory. The main headline from Sunday's polls is expected to be the hammering of the populist Workers' Party, which many here blame for Brazil's punishing recession and sprawling corruption scandals.

• Friday, September 30th 2016 - 11:05 UTC

  Colombia peace referendum has national support but regional vote shows battle lines

  

  Two public opinion polls released on Wednesday indicate that the recently peace deal between the government with the FARC is likely to be ratified by Colombia’s electorate on Sunday. President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC leader “Timochenko” signed peace on Monday, but before this agreement can be fully ratified, Colombians will vote on the deal in a referendum first.