Politics

• Monday, December 18th 2017 - 06:41 UTC

  Kuczynski appeals to an Odebrecht letter which says he was not in the “pay list”

  

  Brazilian builder Odebrecht said on Saturday that its recently-disclosed business ties to embattled Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski were not part of the corrupt deals it struck with politicians that it has acknowledged to prosecutors.

• Monday, December 18th 2017 - 05:55 UTC

  Piñera is Chile's next president: he beat the center left candidate by ten points

  

  Billionaire former President Sebastian Piñera easily won Chile's presidential runoff election on Sunday, moving the world's top-copper producing country back to the right. Piñera got 54.6% of the votes to 45.4% for center-left Senator Alejandro Guillier, with nearly all the ballots counted.

• Monday, December 18th 2017 - 05:27 UTC

  Hernandez declared Honduras president; opposition leader off to Washington to denounce “fraud”

  

  Honduras’ electoral tribunal on Sunday declared conservative President Juan Orlando Hernandez the official winner of the Nov. 26 presidential election, sparking fraud accusations and calls for renewed street protests after a bitterly disputed contest. Hernandez beat center-left challenger and TV star Salvador Nasralla by 1.53 percentage points, according to the official count.

• Saturday, December 16th 2017 - 17:19 UTC

  Hondurans take to the streets to demand proclamation of opposition leader as president

  

  Honduran protesters blocked roads and burned tires to press the authorities to cancel the election victory of incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernandez and to proclaim opposition leader Salvador Nasralla the winner.

• Saturday, December 16th 2017 - 17:18 UTC

  Argentina sacks the head of the Navy, first disciplinary action since the loss of ARA San Juan

  

  Argentina fired the head of its navy a month after a submarine disappeared in the South Atlantic with 44 crew members onboard, a government spokesman said on Saturday. Local paper La Nacion had reported earlier, citing anonymous sources, that Navy Admiral Marcelo Eduardo Hipolito Srur was let go by the defense minister.

• Saturday, December 16th 2017 - 16:53 UTC

  Fallout from Odebrecht: Peruvian congress initiates proceedings to impeach president Kuczynski

  

  Lawmakers in Peru initiated proceedings to impeach President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who refuses to resign after being accused of failing to disclose decade-old payments from a Brazilian company embroiled in Latin America’s biggest corruption scandal. In a brief session, 27 of 130 members of congress put forward a request to consider removing the former Wall Street banker for “permanent moral incapacity”. Lawmakers could summon Kuczynski to defend himself before congress as early as next week.

• Saturday, December 16th 2017 - 16:29 UTC

  A disenchanted Chile will elect the least unpopular of two candidates on Sunday

  

  Chile faces on Sunday one of the elections with most uncertain result. Longstanding disenchantment with the center left leaning coalition that has ruled Chile since the return of democracy in 1990, and a Latin American natural reaction which erupts every now and then when an economy stalls and the blame goes to the local elite in combination with outside “treachery capitalists”, seems to be the scenario.

• Friday, December 15th 2017 - 10:56 UTC

  Russian wheat for Brazil as Moscow and Brasilia look to increase bilateral trade

  

  Brazil’s government published a decree laying out procedures importers will have to follow to be able to buy and unload Russian wheat in Brazil, a step aimed at improving trade ties with Moscow. The decree, which takes effect immediately, outlines the documents importers will have to submit to bring Russian wheat to be processed in Brazil, which had not been previously allowed.

• Friday, December 15th 2017 - 10:50 UTC

  Brazil postpones until February 19 vote on bill to reform pensions system

  

  The lower house of Brazil’s Congress will delay a vote on a bill trimming social security benefits until Feb. 19, Speaker Rodrigo Maia said on Thursday, pushing a decision on the cornerstone of President Michel Temer’s fiscal reforms into an election year.

• Friday, December 15th 2017 - 10:45 UTC

  Internet neutrality repealed; legal challenges from consumer advocates announced

  

  The US Federal Communications Commission has voted to repeal sweeping 2015 net neutrality rules, in a move that gives internet service providers a free hand to slow or block websites and apps as they see fit, or charge more for faster speeds. The approval of FCC chairman Ajit Pai's proposal marked a victory for internet service providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon Communications and could recast the digital landscape.