Key Points — Ecuador signed a US$1.7 billion mining contract Monday April 27 with ODIN Mining del Ecuador, the local subsidiary of China’s CMOC Group, for the Los Cangrejos gold-copper project in El Oro province. The Ecuador China gold mine deal projects total state revenue of US$4.39 billion over the project’s 26-year mine life through […]

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Peru F-16 Crisis: Chancellor and Defence Minister Resign, US Ambassador Threatens Reprisals, MEF Pays $462M Anyway — Brazil Expands Minha Casa Minha Vida to R$600,000, Middle Class Enters Housing Programme — Argentina: Milei Bans All 60 Journalists from Casa Rosada, Hosts Peter Thiel Same Day, Approval Crashes to 14th of 18 LATAM Leaders — Peru […]

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Key Points —Ecuador’s Corte Nacional de Justicia approved the Topo extradition on April 22 at 15:00, clearing Darío Javier Peñafiel Nieto — second-in-command of Los Choneros after Fito’s July 2025 transfer — for delivery to the Eastern District of New York on seven charges tied to large-scale narcotics trafficking and firearms offenses. —The decision was […]

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Key Points — NOAA’s April 2026 outlook gives a 61% probability of El Niño emergence in the May-July window rising to 62% for June-August, with a 1-in-3 chance the event classifies as “strong” during October-December 2026. — A moderate-to-strong event would cut Andean GDP by 0.6-1.7 percentage points, threaten 50% of LATAM’s hydro-dependent electricity supply, […]

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An Ecuadorian fishing crew describe their ordeal as victims of Trump’s purported war on ‘narcoterrorists’

By 4pm, the light was softening over the Pacific, and the crew of the Don Maca were finishing a long day hauling in lines of swordfish and albacore. Down in the hold, the mood had settled into the familiar rhythm of a fishing day drawing to a close.

“We were just working, waiting for the last trawler to return,” said Jhonny Sebastián Palacios, one of the fishers. “Everything was perfectly fine.”

Key Points — President Daniel Noboa on April 20 announced a nationwide night curfew covering nine provinces and four cantons from May 3 through May 18, running daily from 23:00 to 05:00. — The curfew layers on top of the existing state of exception declared April 2 under Decree 353, which suspended constitutional protections on […]

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Key Points — Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa told Semana magazine that Colombia’s Gustavo Petro “dances merengue with the mafia” — accusing the Colombian government of providing official documents to Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitives, withdrawing troops from the shared border, and meeting with figures linked to narco-boss alias “Fito” of Los Choneros — Petro responded on April […]

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In 2018, EL PAÍS launched an investigation into pedophilia within the Spanish Church and maintains an up-to-date database of all known cases. If you know of any cases that have not yet been reported, you can write to us at: abuses@elpais.es. For cases in Latin America, the address is: abusesamerica@elpais.es

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Hormuz Reopened: Iran Declares Strait “Completely Open,” Brent Crashes 9% Below $90, WTI Hits $83 Intraday — Trump: “Deal Is Close,” Claims Iran Will Suspend Nuclear Programme and Ship 441kg Uranium to US — Tehran: “Nothing Is Certain Yet” — Petrobras Crashes ~7%, Ibovespa Falls Third Straight Session to 195,733 (−0.55%), but Real Strengthens to […]

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The 18th and 19th centuries marked the golden age of natural history. In the midst of the Enlightenment, naturalists and explorers set out to traverse the globe with one ambition: to discover, describe, and classify life in all its diversity. Aboard maritime expeditions or venturing into remote territories, they collected plants, animals, and minerals that were then transported to Europe, where they were studied and organized, expanding our understanding of the world.

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Key Points — At least 108,838 people were murdered across Latin America and the Caribbean in 2025, with contract killings accounting for a growing share in countries from Colombia to Peru — In Bogotá, half of all homicides are now classified as sicariato — professional hits carried out as outsourced services between criminal networks, with […]

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Key Points — The IMF’s April WEO cut global growth to 3.1% (down 0.2pp from January) and raised global inflation to 4.4%, citing the Iran war as the primary risk. Chief Economist Gourinchas said the world is “somewhere between the baseline and the adverse scenario.” — Latin America was raised to 2.3% growth (up 0.1pp), […]

The post Brazil Upgraded, Argentina Cut, Bolivia in Freefall: The IMF’s New Latin America Growth Map appeared first on The Rio Times.