Latin America

The US president for days has been pledging to broaden the effort, which comes after the Pentagon has launched a series of attacks on what it has called drug-smuggling boats

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the US military is deploying an aircraft carrier to the waters off South America, in the latest escalation and buildup of military forces in the region. The US military has conducted its 10th strike on a suspected drug-running boat, Hegseth said earlier Friday, blaming the Tren de Aragua gang for operating the vessel and leaving six people dead in the Caribbean Sea. In a social media post, Hegseth said the strike occurred overnight, and it marks the second time the Trump administration has tied one of its operations to the gang that originated in a Venezuelan prison. The pace of the strikes has quickened in recent days from one every few weeks when they first began to three this week, killing a total of at least 43 people since September. Two of the most recent strikes were carried out in the eastern Pacific Ocean, expanding the area where the military has launched attacks and shifting to where much of the cocaine from the world'

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum celebrated her government's handling of its tumultuous relations with the Trump administration, progressive gains and controversial judicial reforms in her first state of the nation address Monday. Sheinbaum, who is nearing the end of her first year in office, notably left out some of the major problems still simmering in Mexico, including ongoing cartel violence plaguing much of the country and democratic concerns over wider concentration of executive power. Mexico's first female president took office in October and has led the Latin American nation of 131 million at a time of radical global shifts. Despite that, the 63-year-old progressive leader has enjoyed soaring approval rates between 70% and 80% in Mexican polls. Things are going well, and they're only going to get better, she promised. Here are some of the top takeaways from Sheinbaum's State of the Nation address. Navigating the Trump era Chief among Sheinbaum's challenges has been ...

A pending US-Mexico security deal will enable joint monitoring of criminal groups and enhance coordination between security forces along the shared border

China's growing influence in the Latin American region raises concerns

UnitedHealth's shares tumbled 25.5 per cent in May alone, and year-to-date are down 40 per cent. UnitedHealth left Brazil in 2023 and Peru in March

A 69-year-old Leo has been elected as the 267th pope of the Catholic Church, following the death of Pope Francis last month

The faithful in Pope Francis' hometown lit candles in the church where he found God as a teenager, packed the cathedral where he spoke as archbishop and prayed Monday in the neighbourhoods where he earned fame as the slum bishop." For millions of Argentines, Francis who died Monday at 88 was a source of controversy and a spiritual north star whose remarkable life traced their country's turbulent history. Conservative detractors criticised the only Latin American pope's support for social justice as an affinity for leftist leaders. They pointed to his warm meetings with former President Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner, a highly divisive left-leaning populist figure whose policies many Argentines blame for the nation's economic ruin. They compared their enthusiastic encounters to his curt meeting with centre-right former President Mauricio Macri, captured in an unusually stern-faced photo in 2016. Like every Argentine, I think he was a rebel, said 23-year-old Catalina Favaro, who had

The South Asian nation became the biggest buyer of Russian seaborne oil sold at a discount after Western nations imposed sanctions on Moscow

Venezuelan migrants handed over to Mexico like it's a US immigration detention facility. Families from Central Asia flown to Panama and Costa Rica to await voluntary repatriation to their countries. Venezuelans from Guantanamo Bay handed off on a Honduran tarmac and returned to Caracas. It all sends the unmistakable message that trying to get to the US border is no longer worth it. US President Donald Trump's administration has laid the groundwork to reverse the region's migration flow. And while the numbers remain modest, an outline of how the US hopes to overcome limited detention space as it gears up its deportation machine is emerging. Making deals across Latin America In its first month, the Trump administration has reached deals with Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama to act as stopovers or destinations for migrants expelled from the U.S. It has brokered deals with Venezuela to pick up its people in Texas, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Honduras. But no

The company's net sales in Latin America, a major revenue contributing region, fell 7.2 per cent and dropped 1 per cent in North America. On an adjusted basis, its profit of 91 cents per share

Slim now owns 24.2 per cent of Talos, prompting the board in October to introduce a poison pill to prevent him from acquiring more than a quarter of the stock

Gross domestic product expanded 3.9 per cent from July to September compared to the previous three-month period, better than analysts' expectations for 3.4 per cent growth

South American nation has become a significant contributor to world crude supply

Growing up in Miami among Cuban exiles who fled Fidel Castro's revolution, Sen. Marco Rubio developed a deep hatred of communism. Now as President-elect Donald Trump's choice for America's top diplomat, he's set to bring that same ideological ammunition to reshaping US policy in Latin America. As the first Latino secretary of state, Rubio is expected to devote considerable attention to what has long been disparagingly referred to as Washington's backyard. The top Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a longtime member of the Foreign Relations Committee, he's leveraged his knowledge and unmatched personal relationships to drive US policy in the region for years. For decades since the end of the Cold War, Latin America has faded from the US foreign policy agenda even as US adversaries like Russia, Iran and especially China have made deep inroads. If confirmed, the Florida Republican is likely to end the neglect. But Rubio's reputation as a national security ha

It did not mention the United States, but added that sister brand IM, a luxury electric-vehicle line, also plans to enter the Mexican market

Bolivia's embattled president on Monday announced the discovery of vast natural gas reserves, describing it as the biggest find in nearly two decades that could help the cash-strapped country reverse its falling production. President Luis Arce called the trove just north of the capital a mega field," saying it has some 1.7 trillion cubic metres of gas at a likely market value of $6.8 billion. He said the field named Mayaya X-1 is way to revive the gas industry. That was the engine of robust growth in the early 2000s, a period of booming exports and declining poverty that experts have termed Bolivia's economic miracle. This marks the beginning of a new chapter for the northern sub-Andean region, offering hope of maintaining our country as an important gas exporter, said Arce, who is the alleged target of a military coup attempt last month and the main focus of anger among Bolivians over shortages of fuel and foreign currency. "It's the most important discovery since 2005. In more

The Brazilian real has weakened around 13% against the US dollar this year

Bolivian President Luis Arce said Friday a former general had intended to take over the government and become president in a failed coup, and he denied that the Andean nation was experiencing an economic crisis. In an interview with The Associated Press, the embattled leader denied once again that Wednesday's attack on the government palace was a self-coup designed to garner him political points. I didn't escape, I stayed to defend democracy," Arce said. About ongoing political spats with his one-time ally Evo Morales, Arce said we've been politically attacked by Morales, underscoring a legislative boycott which has hamstrung the government in taking on economic turmoil. Arce washed his hands of claims by family members of the 21 detained by the government who were innocent of attempting a coup, and that they were tricked by the ex-military General Juan Jose Ziga. It's a problem of those who were involved, it's not the government's problem, Arce told the AP.

Brazil's Supreme Court on Tuesday voted to decriminalize possession of marijuana for personal use, making the nation one of Latin America's last to do so, in a move that could reduce its massive prison population. With final votes cast on Tuesday, a majority of the justices on the 11-person court have voted in favor of decriminalization since deliberations began in 2015. The justices must still determine the maximum quantity of marijuana that would be characterized as being for personal use and when the ruling will enter into effect. That is expected to finish as early as Wednesday. All the justices who have voted in favor said decriminalization should be restricted to possession of marijuana in amounts suitable for personal use. Selling drugs will remain illegal. In 2006, Brazil's Congress approved a law that sought to punish individuals caught carrying small amounts of drugs, including marijuana, with alternative penalties such as community service. Experts say the law was too va