Politics

• Wednesday, July 15th 2015 - 05:45 UTC

  Brazilian politicians' property raided by police in connection with Petrobras corruption

  

  Brazilian police have carried out search operations across seven states amid an ongoing investigation into a major corruption scandal involving state-run company Petrobras. The police said in a statement on Tuesday that the 53 search and seizure operations took place in “residences, offices, company headquarters, law firms, and public institutions” and were aimed at saving evidence from destruction.

• Wednesday, July 15th 2015 - 05:35 UTC

  Guyana declines UN good offices since they have only 'helped Venezuela'

  

  Guyana is no longer interested in the UN Good Offices Process as a means to settle its century-old border dispute with Venezuela, Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge said on Monday in a news briefing live-streamed online.

• Tuesday, July 14th 2015 - 06:37 UTC

  Mexico is offering 3.8 million dollars reward for the capture of drug lord “Chapo Guzmán”

  

  Mexico is offering a reward of 60 million pesos ($3.8m) for the capture of the country's most-wanted drug lord, who escaped from a top security prison. A huge manhunt is underway for Joaquin Guzman, who got out of his cell on Saturday through a 1.5km-long tunnel.

• Tuesday, July 14th 2015 - 06:28 UTC

  Hillary Clinton vows banks cannot be “too big to fail” since it's still “too big a problem”

  

  US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton criticized Wall Street and her Republican rivals, promising to impose tougher regulations on banks and raise the wages of ordinary Americans if she wins the 2016 White House race. Under pressure from a campaign rival on the left, Clinton said she would appoint strict overseers to ensure that financial institutions never again indulge in the risky behavior that helped cause the 2008 banking crash.

• Tuesday, July 14th 2015 - 06:07 UTC

  Caricom considering ECLAC proposal to write-off its multilateral debt

  

  The Caribbean Community, Caricom is considering a proposal for the region to pursue gradual write-off of its multilateral debt as a means of economic prosperity. The debt relief strategy was put forward by Alicia Barcena from the Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), at the 36th Regular Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, held in Barbados.

• Tuesday, July 14th 2015 - 06:00 UTC

  Brazil's economic team reaching out to credit rating agencies for a vote of confidence

  

  Concerns that Brazil may lose its coveted investment grade credit rating are again on the rise among government officials and investors who worry that President Dilma Rousseff’s austerity push won’t fully offset plunging government revenues.

• Tuesday, July 14th 2015 - 05:29 UTC

  Barrage of accusations following a Judge's order to raid Maximo Kirchner's real estate agency

  

  The raid ordered by an Argentine Federal Judge at a real estate agency which belongs to president Cristina Fernandez' son, Maximo Kirchner's in Rio Gallegos, triggered a barrage of accusations from government officials, just a few days ahead of decisive primaries in August, in anticipation of the October presidential elections.

• Monday, July 13th 2015 - 09:30 UTC

  Petrobras faces major class action lawsuit in US next February

  

  Brazil's state-run oil producer Petrobras, said in a securities filing on Friday that its motion to dismiss a class-action lawsuit in the United States had been denied by the court. Petrobras said part of the complaint against the company relating to bonds issued in the United States in 2012 was denied.

• Monday, July 13th 2015 - 09:21 UTC

  Venezuela will stop buying Guyana rice amid escalating border dispute

  

  Venezuela has decided to stop buying much of Guyana's rice crop amid an escalating border dispute between the two neighboring countries, the Guyanese finance minister said. The administration of president Nicolas Maduro has in the past four years purchased about 40% of Guyana's rice production, about 200,000 tons, paying for it with oil that amounts to about half of Guyana's daily supply needs.

• Monday, July 13th 2015 - 09:03 UTC

  The Peronist pope: Francis’s balancing act in Latin America, according to The Economist

  

  Under the heading of “The Peronist pope”, The Economist has a piece on “Francis's balancing act in Latin America” dedicated to the eight day tour of three of the continent's poorest countries, but with the largest percentages of Catholics. But for Francis it is also a delicate balancing act since several current leaders in the region tend to blend the Church's 'option for the poor' with Marxist ideology.