Latin America News

By Richard Partington Argentina’s currency plunged on Monday after the country’s center-left opposition leader won an election primary, raising the prospect of a return to power for the former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. A stronger than expected victory for Alberto Fernández, whose running mate is the former populist leader, triggered a 30% fall in...

By Dan Collyns Unesco has sent a letter to the Peruvian government demanding information about the construction of a new airport near Machu Picchu and what impact it could have on the Inca citadel, the country’s biggest tourist attraction and a world heritage site. The letter, which has not been made public, reminds Peru of...

By Phil Keating Christy Ayers, her husband, Tom, and their two children came to Miami Beach for her 40th birthday. But when they stepped out to this world-famous beach, the celebrating immediately stopped, right on the sand. “We were shocked when we walked onto the beach, we had no idea, and it’s just full of weeds,”...

A 175-hectare (430-acre) section of Colombia’s banana crop has been contaminated with the fusarium R4T fungus, the national agricultural institute said on Thursday, as it called for a countrywide effort to increase sanitary controls to contain the malady. The fungus, popularly known as Panama disease, can remain in the soil for up to 30 years...

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered his government’s representatives not to travel to Barbados for scheduled talks with the political opposition starting on Thursday, blaming new U.S. sanctions for the impasse. Maduro “has decided to not send the Venezuelan delegation” for talks on Thursday and Friday with representatives of opposition leader Juan Guaido “due to...

By Nacha Cattan At the nightclub door, a security guard checks every bag, pocket and makeup pouch with a mini flashlight. In the bathroom, another stands watch as drug dealers sell cocaine in bags marked with skulls. That guard escorts revelers into a stall where they can snort in private. Drug gangs are ever more...

By Ken Parks Paraguay plans to turn its remote, sparsely populated northwest into an international transport hub and a key link between ports on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of South America, in a proposal its government likens to a latter-day Panama Canal. Investment of over $2 billion in basic infrastructure such as roads and...

Venezuela has been hit by another massive power cut with the capital, Caracas, among the areas affected. As of noon Tuesday, power was slowly being restored after the blackout reportedly hit 16 of the country’s 23 states as well as Caracas. Information Minister Jorge Rodríguez claimed the power cut was caused by an “electromagnetic attack”...

By June Webber and Frederica Cocca Once the world’s most prosperous emerging region, Latin America has fallen behind in recent years — due in part to its missing middle: a lack of medium-sized companies, and a shortage of middle-class consumers, according to recent research. Although emerging economies’ contribution to global growth has risen from 37...

By Alex Vasquez and Ben Bartenstein If Venezuelan politics weren’t convoluted enough, they just got a bit more complicated this week. The opposition-aligned Progressive Advance party hired Ari Ben-Menashe, a Montreal-based lobbyist, to “pursue Henri Falcon’s election as President of Venezuela,” according to a contract filed with the U.S. Justice Department. Days after the public...