The Peruvian Finance Ministry said that the government has approved a legislative package that is to provide about 3 billion soles ($1.07 billion) in investments for the prevention of natural disasters. 

Brazil has authorized the use of the genetically modified version of the mosquito Aedes aegypti in its fight against Dengue Fever, which infected 1.5 million Brazilians last year and caused 545 deaths. 

In Costa Rican agriculture, coffee production is responsible for 25% of carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.  In order to reduce this percentage, a new project aims to help 800 coffee farmers reduce their carbon emissions without affecting production and competitiveness. 

The Chinese Foreign Minister has underscored the “strategic” significance of Brazil for Beijing, Chinese companies are looking to Guatemala, and President-elect Luis Guillermo Solís of Costa Rica says ‘no deal’ to an agreement his predecessor cut with China. 

Cuba and the European Union are now negotiating over new agreements regarding political dialogue and economic cooperation. 

On his first trip to Central America in the 1980s, the now sainted Pope John Paul II blithely disregarded the bloody deeds of his hosts in Guatemala and El Salvador as well as those of the U.S. supported Contras attacking Nicaragua. 

The government of President José Mujica in Uruguay offered his country as a refuge for Syrian child victims of war in that country, shortly after becoming the first South American nation to accept a U.S. proposal to host Guantanamo detainees. 

Iran’s influence in the Triple Border Area (TBA) of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay has raised security concerns for the U.S. government. 

During the one-hour oral argument concerning hedge fund NML Capital Ltd’s efforts to seek payment of court judgments it says are worth around $1.7 billion, several U.S. Supreme Court justices suggested that military and diplomatic assets should be off-limits, which would narrow the scope of the ruling. 

Ecuador’s government asked the U.S. embassy in Quito for withdrawal of the so-called “military group” of 50 military personnel because the “bilateral security relationship should be governed by mutual respect.”