LATAM POLITICS TODAY-Colombia faces very large challenge to stop ‘endemic violence’ -Amnesty
The latest in Latin American politics today: Colombia faces very large challenge to stop ‘endemic violence’ -Amnesty
BOGOTA – Colombia’s government faces big challenges in stemming endemic violence, advocacy group Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard said, while calling for an end to impunity for sexual violence meted out by security forces during protests in 2021. Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the first leftist to lead the country, took control in August. He has pledged to reform security forces, including the feared ESMAD riot police, and establish “total peace” in a country where almost six decades of conflict have left at least 450,000 dead.
However, the scale of the challenges Petro faces are “very large,” Callamard told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday, particularly due to how quickly certain actors choose violence for solving problems in the country. Ecuadorean president decrees hike of minimum wage to $450 in 2023
QUITO – Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso decreed the monthly minimum wage be hiked nearly 6% to $450 for 2023, a measure that worries the country’s employers. Lasso, a conservative former banker who took office in May 2021, announced the additional $25 wage increase after employers and workers were unable to reach an agreement, a move he is taking for a second consecutive year.
“The country is doing well, we are growing, companies are selling and it would be good that this success is also shared with workers,” Lasso said on Wednesday night in a televised speech. Brazil’s Petrobras new business plan points to ‘continuity,’ CFO says
RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil’s Petrobras’ newest five-year strategic plan sent a message of “continuity,” the state-controlled company’s chief financial officer said on Thursday, despite doubts on how the country’s incoming leftist government might run the firm. Rodrigo Araujo Alves said that Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the oil giant is formally known, was still actively working to improve its debt profile, expecting gross debt to hover around $55 billion between 2023 and 2027.
Brazil’s Lula to meet with U.S. President Biden before inauguration, says aide BRASILIA – Brazil’s president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is likely to meet U.S. President Joe Biden before his government inauguration in January next year, his close aide and former Sao Paulo mayor Fernando Haddad said on Wednesday.
The meeting should be in person, but if not possible, it will be conducted virtually, he added. (Compiled by Steven Grattan Editing by Marguerita Choy)
About the Author
