BACRIM

Almost emblematic of Brazil’s current political and economic situation, a bike path collapsed, leaving two dead, as Ties emerge between city officials and the company responsible for building the elevated bike path that collapsed on Thursday, killing at least two people.

ARGENTINA
Leonardo Fariña, associate of Lázaro Báez, is singing like a bird claiming Báez and Ernersto Kirchner conspired to steal public money.

After a US Judge Allows Argentina to Resume Paying Creditors, Argentina Delivers $597 Million Windfall to Bond Investors

BELIZE
Belize-Guatemala border tensions rise over shooting

Tensions between Guatemala and Belize over a border dispute have risen sharply after a shooting incident in which a Guatemalan teenager died.

Guatemala says the 13-year-old boy was attacked by Belizean soldiers. Belize says its troops shot in self-defence after coming under fire.

Belize also accuses Guatemala of “amassing” troops along the border.

Guatemala’s claim to parts of territory governed by its neighbour dates back to when Belize was a British colony.

BOLIVIA
Today’s Capt. Loius Renault moment: Bolivia’s Morales Gives Pope 3 Books on Coca and Recommends Taking It

BRAZIL
Must-read: Brazil’s Giant Problem.Corruption is just a symptom of Brazil’s deeper issue: a vast state apparatus that has tried to be the country’s engine of economic growth. I don’t see a change in this miindset:

“The problem is, from time immemorial, Brazil’s political leaders only see one way forward, the growth of the state,” said Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former leftist intellectual who sought to reduce the size of Brazil’s government while president from 1995 to 2002. “But you need another springboard for progress, that doesn’t exclude the state but that accepts markets. This just doesn’t sink in in Brazil.”

Brazil’s political crisis: The darkest hour. The economy is in freefall. The president is likely to be impeached. Brazil’s democracy faces its toughest moment since the end of dictatorship

CHILE
What Is Behind Bachelet’s Push to Reform the Chilean Constitution? “Supervised” Town Hall Meetings Dishonest, Ineffective Method For Rewriting Founding Principles

Humberstone and Santa Laura Works, The GHOST TOWN declared a world heritage site: Inside the spooky mining settlement which has been abandoned for more than 50 years in Chile

COLOMBIA
Colombia’s Anti-Drug Policy Benefiting BACRIM: Inspector General

Inspector General Alejandro Ordóñez Maldonado said the criminalized paramilitary networks known as BACRIM (from the abbreviation of “criminal bands”), alongside rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC), have profited the most from the government’s decision in May 2015 to ban the aerial spraying of glyphosate on coca crops, reported El Espectador.

What the FARC’s Elusive Finances Mean for Peace

The Economist recently published estimates that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia –FARC) had assets worth 33 trillion Colombian pesos in 2012, even after paying to maintain its guerrilla army. That is $11.4 billion at the current exchange rate. The value was reportedly based on an “unpublished study by government analysts.”

CUBA
Change In Cuba — But Not For The Better

Another Sunday of repression in Cuba, April 10, 2016, but Smokey Robinson and other U.S. artists hail new ‘love’ with Cuba

ECUADOR
Ecuador death toll reaches 654

HONDURAS
Denials Follow Revelations in Honduras Drug Czar’s Assassination

MEXICO
U.S. Muslim Plotted with Islamic State to Smuggle Fighters Through Mexico, Say Feds

Mexico President Pena Nieto proposes relaxing marijuana laws

NICARAGUA
Thousands March to Protest Proposed Nicaragua Canal

PANAMA
Investigators raid property of ‘Panama Papers’ law firm Mossack Fonseca

PARAGUAY
Life Is Like Purgatory in the Squalid Shanty Towns of Paraguay

PERU
Peru’s Fujimori and Kuczynski seen tied in poll on June run-off

Discovery of 4,500-year-old female mummy sheds light on ancient Peru. Archaeologists say the mummified remains, found near one of the oldest cities in the Americas, probably belong to a noblewoman aged 40 to 50

PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Moving Closer to Deal With Some Bank Bondholders