
The Brazilian Real slumped on Monday as mounting concerns over this year's presidential election added to global risk aversion, while the Argentine peso extended a recent sell-off that also spread into stock markets in Latin America.

The leaders of the United States and Canada expressed optimism on Wednesday that they could reach new NAFTA deal by a Friday deadline as negotiators prepared to talk through the night, although Canada warned that a number of tricky issues remained.

United States and Mexican law enforcement authorities will set up a joint team based in Chicago targeting the leaders and finances of drug cartels that ship opioids into the United States, aiming to stanch a spike in overdose deaths, officials said on Wednesday.

Mexican president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he will abandon the secret service-style protection used by his predecessor in favor of a security detail of 20 unarmed men and women, including lawyers, doctors and engineers.

Dozens were injured when a packed Aeromexico-operated Embraer jet crashed right after takeoff in Mexico’s state of Durango on Tuesday, but authorities said most were not seriously hurt and there were no fatalities.

The finance ministers for Mexico and Canada on Sunday said they were optimistic about NAFTA talks with the United States, even as trade tensions spurred by U.S. tariffs dominated the G20 meeting of world economic leaders in Argentina.

The European Union, Mexico and Canada have said they will retaliate against the US if the White House places new tariffs on foreign cars and vehicle parts. The countries delivered the warning on Thursday to a panel examining whether to recommend the taxes on grounds of national security.

Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has given his future interior minister carte blanche to explore the possibility of legalizing drugs in a bid to curb violent crime, she said on Tuesday.

The United States launched five separate World Trade Organization dispute actions on Monday challenging retaliatory tariffs imposed by China, the European Union, Canada, Mexico and Turkey following U.S. duties on steel and aluminum. The retaliatory tariffs on up to a combined US$28.5 billion worth of U.S. exports are illegal under WTO rules, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement.

The Electoral Observation Mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) deployed to Mexico to observe the federal and local elections of Sunday July first presented its preliminary report, in which it congratulated the Mexican people for the success of the largest and most complex electoral process in the country's history and for the massive participation in the election of more than 18,000 posts.