Latin America

Brazil’s tumultuous political situation, including a possible presidential impeachment, could have a negative impact on the country’s credit rating, Fitch said.

Venezuelan opposition leader and former presidential candidate Manuel Rosales, who returned to his native country after years of self-imposed exile, was arrested after landing at the airport and will face corruption charges.

Brazil’s former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, gave a deposition on Thursday in which he defended business fees he received since leaving office and denied intervening on companies’ behalf with government banks.

Fitch Ratings downgraded Brazil’s sovereign credit rating on Thursday, leaving the country at one notch above junk status, citing the rising government debt burden and a worsening economic situation.

Nineteen businesses belonging to Grupo Continental and five homes owned by Jaime Rosenthal and two relatives were seized.

Peru is serving as a symbol of downgraded hopes across emerging economies buffeted by a collapse in commodity prices, the pullback in China and an upswing in the dollar.

Diplomat Bernard Aronson says the largely secret peace talks between Colombia and FARC guerrillas suffered ‘a near-death experience’ in April before reaching a breakthrough last month.

Brazil plans to auction contracts to operate hydroelectric power plants on Nov. 6, with no restrictions on foreign bidders, a finance ministry official told The Wall Street Journal on Friday

Brazil’s unpopular President Dilma Rousseff this week suffered two legal setbacks that have opened a possible path toward her impeachment, but the prospect still seems distant amid the country’s political stalemate.

Latin American central banks are looking to elected officials to keep their governments’ budgets healthy enough to cushion the region from low growth and global market turbulence. WSJ PRO

Brazil’s government-accounting watchdog decided on Wednesday that President Dilma Rousseff’s administration manipulated the country’s 2014 revenue and spending figures, deepening Brazil’s political and economic crisis and fueling impeachment talk.

The Brazilian government’s auction of exploratory oil blocks met with little demand on Wednesday as the low price of oil and local content-rules weighed on interest.

The president of the Central Reserve Bank of Peru said Wednesday that the monetary authority probably won’t increase its reference interest rate again in anticipation of the start of tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto plans to send to Congress a bill to improve and coordinate efforts between federal and state authorities in the search for 25,000 people missing since the war on drugs began almost nine years ago.

Brazil’s consumer-price inflation slowed in the 12-month period ended in September, but it remained well above the central bank’s tolerance band.

Peru’s economy, hit by the decline in commodity prices during the past year, is starting to recover as many of its neighbors in Latin America continue to grapple with weak or no growth, a top government official said.

The hope of finding survivors in a landslide in a Guatemalan village just outside the capital turned to resignation Sunday as rescue workers removed dozens of victims’ remains, but found no sign of life.

Rescue workers recovered four more bodies following Thursday’s hillside collapse on the outskirts of Guatemala’s capital that killed at least 69 people. It is feared hundreds more could be still be buried.

A major cabinet revamp by Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has spared central bank President Alexandre Tombini, who some people in the government thought could be stripped of his minister title. WSJ PRO