The Latin American Herald Tribune of Caracas lamented that lawmakers supporting the Venezuelan Government, along with three others from the opposition who recently switched sides, awarded President Nicolás Maduro special powers to rule for 12 continuous months

Doug Gray wrote in The Rio Times of Rio de Janeiro that some of the world’s biggest oil companies have joined forces in a successful bid for Brazil’s first Pre-Salt offshore oil field, Libra. 

La República of Lima interviewed Arnoldo Reyes of PayPal, the global leader in electronic payments, who travels to Peru regularly. 

Correio Braziliense of Brasília remarked on the rise and fall of fortunes carved out by business celebrities who were experts at leveraging their outsized lifestyles.  Many of their endeavors “now lie as muddled shipwrecks and don’t seem so glamorous anymore.” 

In El Espectador of Bogotá Edwin Bohórquez spoke with Luis Alberto Moreno, the president of the Inter-American Development Bank who says that “farming today should not be like it was for our great-grandparents.” 

La Jornada of Mexico City editorialized that as the nation debates President Enrique Peña Nieto’s so-called energy reform, a move that would increase the role of private companies in Mexico’s petroleum industry,

PáginaSIETE of La Paz reported that the government of President Evo Morales has decided to allow a “reasonable” increase in the level of legal coca cultivation in Bolivia,

The Buenos Aires Herald reported that Cuba has taken the first steps towards scrapping its two-tier currency. 

Dominican Today of Santo Domingo reported that a recent World Bank study indicated that the Dominican Republic is still grappling with obstacles to conducting business, and

The Buenos Aires Herald reported that a fire ravaged Copersucar’s sugar terminal in Brazil, paralyzing operations of the world’s biggest sugar trader and putting 10 million tons of export capacity offline for six months or more.