Merry Christmas to all visitors! Here’s the Carnival,

ARGENTINA
Macri’s Promising Start in Argentina. The new president lifts capital controls and moves to stabilize the peso.

Argentina Needs to Leave Tradition Behind

BOLIVIA
Disappearance of Bolivia’s 2nd Largest Lake Declared a Natural Disaster

BRAZIL
Scary signal: Brazil’s worrying change of finance ministers. Joaquim Levy’s resignation is reason for alarm. Calling Capt. Louis Renault,

That change is likely to make a terrible situation worse. It suggests that Mr Levy lost an argument within the government about whether austerity is the right cure for Brazil’s sickly economy, and that he lost it not because his economic remedy was wrong but because it was politically unpalatable.

Market Shudders As Brazil Risks “Succumbing To Fiscal Populism” With New FinMin

CARIBBEAN
Canada’s War on Drugs in the Caribbean Had a Very Good Year

CHILE
Chile and the Southeast Pacific. The South American country has a growing presence in the Asia-Pacific.

COLOMBIA
UAE sending Colombian mercenaries to Yemen: sources

COSTA RICA
Switzerland extradites Costa Rica ex-football chief to US

Mr Li is one of seven officials with Fifa, world football’s governing body, who were arrested in Zurich in May, amid a huge corruption investigation.

CUBA
Must-Watch: What Happens to Cuban ‘Entrepreneurs’ Who Aren’t Subservient

Cuba, U.S. reach agreement to resume direct passenger flights. The accord is a breakthrough, but it would be a few months before Americans could book flights.

ECUADOR
Chevron: surviving in the new world of low oil prices and nuisance law suits

Ecuador Makes History With $650 Million Payment to Bondholders

IMMIGRATION
Open-borders money backs Marco Rubio

LATIN AMERICA
Iran Taking Over Latin America

JAMAICA
The quest for leadership in Jamaica

MEXICO
Mexican Judges Release 9 Cops Convicted of Working with Los Zetas Cartel

U.S. Consulate Warns Americans Traveling to Mexico During Holidays

New traffic laws in the DF,

PANAMA
Wider Panama Canal has Wilmington port dreaming big, But some question port’s plans to attract larger vessels

PERU
Cambridge University graduate killed in psychedelic ceremony in Peruvian Amazon. Unais Gomes, a 26-year-old high-flying London financier, was killed by a friend during ayahuasca ceremony near the jungle city of Iquitos

PUERTO RICO
Inside the Billion-Dollar Battle for Puerto Rico’s Future

Some warn that Puerto Rico could be a test case for the rest of the country, paving the way for troubled states like Illinois to escape unsustainable debts.

Stephen J. Spencer, a restructuring expert representing Puerto Rico bondholders including some hedge funds, said letting the government renege on agreements with hedge funds and other investors would set a dangerous precedent, undermining the integrity of the bond market.

“It’s really a wealth transfer from the bondholders to the municipalities,” Mr. Spencer said.

The bondholders include large numbers of retirees.

VENEZUELA
Roberto Rincon arrested in Houston for money laundering

Roberto Rincón trades his little Woodlands house for a jail cell. Roberto Rincón, the enchufado of Tradequip and Ovarb Industrial fame, is spending tonight in a Houston-area federal jail cell awaiting arrainment [sic] on money laundering charges.