(Reuters) – Haiti has made “significant progress” on governance issues such as transparency, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday, as its management wrapped up a final review of an informal agreement to monitor its economic program. In a second and final review of its Staff-Monitored Program (SMP), approved in June last year, the…
By Nicolás Misculin BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – The Clooney Foundation for Justice has accused Venezuelan security forces of crimes against humanity against government opponents since 2014 in a legal complaint filed in Argentina on Wednesday. The foundation said that for lack of a response from Venezuelan authorities, it filed the complaint in Argentina where universal…
By Mayela Armas, Corina Pons and Rodrigo Campos CARACAS/MADRID/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Small funds and investors outside the United States are looking to increase their exposure to Venezuelan bonds, on the expectation of debt renegotiations or of legal action tied to a looming expiry of repayment rights, investors and four financial sector sources said. Many…
By David Lawder MANDEVILLE, Jamaica (Reuters) -World Bank President Ajay Banga wants to focus on improving the development lender so that he can earn the right to press member countries for more capital, as the new chief looks to expand its role in fighting climate change, pandemics and other crises. Banga said in an interview…
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Thursday his country’s economy will grow at least 2% this year, “maybe even more,” echoing upbeat forecasts from his economic team after a better-than-expected performance in the first quarter. Lula, speaking in an interview with a pool of radios from Goias state,…
By Takaya Yamaguchi TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s administration will pledge to boost childcare spending and focus on sustaining wage hikes in its mid-year economic policy roadmap, a final draft seen by Reuters showed on Thursday. The blueprint, expected to be approved by cabinet on Friday, comes amid speculation Kishida could dissolve parliament…
By Sofia Menchu GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) -A Guatemalan court on Wednesday sentenced Jose Zamora, a well-known journalist whose work has criticized successive governments, to six years in prison for money laundering in a case that rights groups have branded an attack on free speech. Zamora has said the case against him is a “political persecution”…
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum will nominate the city’s interior minister, Marti Batres, to replace her as she steps down Friday to pursue the ruling party’s candidacy in next year’s presidential election, Sheinbaum said Wednesday. The office of Mexico City mayor is one of the most prominent political posts in the…
By Dave Sherwood and Matt Spetalnick BEJUCAL, Cuba (Reuters) – Just outside the sleepy Cuban village of Bejucal, a winding track, rutted with potholes and losing ground to the jungle, ends at a barbed wire fence. A sign warns: “KEEP OUT, MILITARY ZONE.” What lies beyond remains largely a mystery, though the U.S. government has…
By Miguel Lo Bianco BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Anahí Robledo feeds 50 families each day at the community kitchen she runs in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, struggling with the chronic inflation that has thrown four in every ten people in the country into poverty. Argentina is battling an economic crisis…
