(Reuters) – Peru’s foreign minister has resigned, the government said on Wednesday, days after he was criticised for contributing to a diplomatic spat with Venezuela.

Rafael Roncagliolo, 68, resigned “strictly because of health reasons,” the office of President Ollanta Humala said in a statement.

Justice Minister Eda Rivas will be Peru’s new foreign minister, the government said. Daniel Figallo, a deputy minister of human rights, will replace Rivas as justice minister.

“He has done an impeccable job with the foreign relations of our country,” the statement said of Roncagliolo.

Roncagliolo, appointed by Humala in 2011, faced increasing criticism from the left and right in recent weeks over his handling of diplomatic tussles.

In early May, Roncagliolo called for “tolerance” in Venezuela and urged the South American bloc Unasur to mediate political tensions in Caracas after a disputed election there won by President Nicolas Maduro.

Maduro complained that Roncagliolo was giving voice to opposition leaders.

“You may be Peru’s foreign minister, ... Read More

BY CARLOS ALBERTO MONTANER

How’s your wife? It depends — compared to whom?

That’s a frequent dialogue among witty Spaniards. I imagine that women could respond the same way. We husbands fare badly when compared with Brad Pitt, much better if contrasted with Eduardo Gómez, the super-ugly doorman’s father in the comedy series Nobody Can Live Here on Spanish TV.

The same happens with countries and regions. To understand where we stand, we have to know where the others are and at what pace we move.

All this becomes relevant apropos the recent report on the most successful countries in Latin America. According to the news, the three wealthiest economies in Latin America are Chile, Panama (which has been growing at the rate of 8 percent for almost a decade) and Uruguay.

Argentina is relegated to fourth place, a fact perhaps explained by its lack of transparency. The government of Cristina Kirchner adulterates the rate of inflation ... Read More

BY PAUL MERRION

The expiration of trade incentives for Ecuador this summer could wilt a new flower distribution center at O’Hare International Airport just as it’s about to get off the ground.

The joint venture developing the nearly $2 million refrigerated processing center expects to have it ready by July, and a rose exporter from Ecuador has been lined up to start bringing two flights a week into Chicago.

But on July 31, the cost of importing cut roses from Ecuador will jump 7 percent when duty-free treatment under the Andean Trade Preference Act expires, reinstating the U.S. tariff in that amount.

Ecuador has expressed great interest in the O’Hare center, and “their support on the project is very crucial,” said Shlomo Danieli, a flower grower in Wilmette and one of three partners in the O’Hare flower distribution center. “If we have to pay a tax, it will put a burden on the project, but it ... Read More

Quito – El oficialismo de izquierda asumió el martes el control del Congreso de Ecuador al iniciarse una nueva legislatura en la que tendrá mayoría absoluta, previo a la asunción del reelecto presidente Rafael Correa el 24 de mayo.

Las sesiones para el período legislativo 2013-2017 comenzaron con la elección de las nuevas autoridades y resultó designada presidenta la exgobernadora Gabriela Rivadeneira, de 29 años.

Rivadeneira obtuvo la mayor votación de un candidato en las elecciones del pasado 17 de febrero (3,5 millones de sufragios), en las que Correa fue reelecto en primera vuelta para un segundo mandato de cuatro años y su movimiento, Alianza País (AP), logró 100 de los 137 escaños parlamentarios.

Desde que Correa asumió el poder en 2007, es la primera vez que la AP logra la mayoría absoluta en la Asamblea unicameral.

Rivadeneira, quien se convirtió en la primera mujer en presidir el Parlamento ecuatoriano, fue elegida con 107 votos. ... Read More

BY MERCEDES ALVARO

QUITO, Ecuador–Ecuador’s Congress begins a new legislative period Tuesday, with the ruling party tied to President Rafael Correa in control.

Alianza Pais secured 100 of the 137 seats and is preparing to pass several laws considered key for leftist President Correa, whose third term will begin on May 24.

Alianza Pais lawmakers have already defined the legislative agenda for the first 100 days, giving priority to a controversial media law, regulations to redistribute idle land, and mining sector reforms, among other proposals.

“We worked for two months to prepare the agenda for the first 100 days,” said Juan Carlos Cassinelli, a lawmaker of Alianza Pais and former Vice President of the National Assembly. “There are about 130 laws that should be treated by lawmakers.”

Mr. Correa won re-election on Feb. 17, with 57% of the vote and topped his closest opponent by almost 35 percentage points.

Political analysts say the majority in Congress ... Read More

Some believe the Latin American socialism of the 21st century is heading for a dead end. Growing debt and trade deficits are putting pressure on regimes there – does this mean the end of an ideology?

Growing economic problems in Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia are putting pressure on Latin America’s left-populist governments. In the struggle for power, competition has broken out among socialism, Peronism and liberalism. But some believe all three are in decline.

The fight for “21st century socialism,” as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez put it, is particularly marked in the deceased statesman’s country. That Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles has refused to recognize the victory of Chavez’ successor, Nicolás Maduro, who won disputed elections in April, is one sign.

Last week a fistfight broke out in Venezuelan parliament between Chavistas and the opposition. Meanwhile, Capriles is challenging the election results in Venezuela’s high court.

Ideological decline

Virgílio Arraes, a professor of contemporary history ... Read More

BY RAUL LOTITTO

CARACAS – With the death of Hugo Chávez, Chávismo has lost its supremacy in Venezuela. It does not matter that so-called Chávistas still control Venezuela’s parliament, 17 of 23 provincial governments, and all key state institutions, including the judiciary. Nor does it matter that Chávez’s handpicked successor, Nicolás Maduro, has already assumed the presidency. All of the signs point to the decline of Chávismo and to the end of Venezuela’s role as Latin America’s populist core.

Between last October’s presidential election and the one held last month, Chávismo lost almost 700,000 votes to Henrique Capriles’ Democratic Unity Roundtable – a shift that many, including Chávistas, attribute to “Maduro not being Chávez.” This was the first presidential election in Venezuela that resulted in an almost even split among voters (and the outcome itself remains hotly contested). If Venezuela continues along this path, Chávismo could not only lose its majority; it could collapse altogether.

... Read More

BY NATHAN GILL

Ecuador’s bid to reduce poverty by taxing its banks is threatening to deepen the nation’s economic slump, as lenders curb credit and ratchet up interest rates after profits plunged to a three-year low.

Non-government banks, including Citigroup Inc (C).’s local unit, raised rates on corporate loans by an average 0.21 percentage point in the first quarter to 8.88 percent, the highest since November 2010, according to central bank data. That compares with a decline of 0.72 percentage point to 8.81 percent in Colombia and an increase of 0.01 percentage point to 5.79 percent for similar loans in Peru.

President Rafael Correa fast-tracked the tax bill through Congress during his re-election campaign last year to pay for a 43 percent boost in cash subsidies to low-income families after his opponent, the former chief of the nation’s second-biggest bank, said he wasn’t doing enough to alleviate poverty. The move is backfiring as ... Read More

An Ontario court rejected an attempt by Ecuadorean plaintiffs to collect a multibillion-dollar environmental award from Chevron Corp. (CVX) in Canada, giving the oil company a fresh victory in a legal battle that has sprawled far beyond the Amazonian jungles where it began.

The Ecuadoreans sued Chevron for contamination in the South American country, and in 2011 a court in Ecuador awarded them a verdict that has risen to $19 billion after appeals. Chevron has refused to pay, arguing it isn’t responsible for the contamination and attacking the ruling as illegitimate. Since Chevron doesn’t have assets in Ecuador, plaintiffs have sought to collect the judgment against Chevron subsidiaries in Canada, Brazil and Argentina.

On Wednesday, Judge D.M. Brown of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario dealt a blow to the Ecuadoreans, ruling that that Chevron’s subsidiaries are legally separate from the company and not subject to the Ecuador court’s verdict.

The San ... Read More

BY RICHARD ROUSSAEU

Hugo Chavez, who died on March 5, lavished the Venezuelan people with oil earnings for more than a decade. As in so many other Latin American countries, natural resources were used to prop up an economy characterized by a plethora of imbalances and economic contradictions.

Part of Latin America’s problem lies in its generous natural resources endowment – let’s call it the “commodity curse.” The region abounds with natural resources and the current Latin American countries’ economic boom can largely be attributed to the high prices of natural resources and other commodities that they exports. Currently, over 90% of Latin Americans reside in countries that are mostly commodity-dependent exporters. This figure includes Mexico which, despite having achieved remarkable success in diversifying its exports, still depends on oil export to finance the lion’s share of its state budget.

The undulations in the economic development of many Latin American economies are strongly ... Read More

For entire report , click here

Argentina

Argentina is a federal constitutional republic. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was reelected to the presidency in October 2011 in multiparty elections that media and various nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) described as generally free and fair. Security forces reported to civilian authorities but occasionally acted at lower levels independently of civilian control.

The principal human rights problems included reports of torture by provincial police, harsh prison conditions, and increased incidence of gender violence.

Other human rights problems included use of excessive force by police; occasional arbitrary arrest and detention; prolonged pretrial detention; actions that risk impairing freedom of the press; continued concerns about judicial efficiency and independence; official corruption; child abuse; sex trafficking and forced labor, primarily within the country; continuing discrimination against and infringements on the rights of indigenous people; and child labor.

Judicial authorities prosecuted a number of officials who committed abuses during the year; however, some officials ... Read More

By Nathan Gill

Ecuador President Rafael Correa, re-elected in February on pledges to “radicalize” his socialist push, is proposing to modernize the country’s markets after the fashion of capitalist countries he has criticized.

Correa, a 50-year-old former economics professor with a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, sent legislation to congress on April 5 that would integrate the country’s two securities exchanges and require them to convert into for-profit entities, according to a copy of the bill obtained by Bloomberg News and confirmed by a congressional press officer.

The bill also creates a regulatory framework under which financial firms could set up investment banks and mutual funds, and makes it easier for medium-size and small companies to raise financing on exchanges.

“While the securities market has been seen as a classic tool of capitalism and of large economic groups, as also happens in our country, this market could be an ideal mechanism to democratize ... Read More

CARACAS, Venezuela — National Guard troops beat dozens of opposition supporters inside a barracks for refusing to accept the government-certified electoral victory of Hugo Chavez’s heir, a leading human rights lawyer charged Thursday in what he called Venezuela’s worst political repression in six years.

Alfredo Romero said his group’s lawyers also compiled evidence supporting opposition activists’ claims that National Guard troops had used excessive force against protesters, including shooting some point-blank with plastic shotgun pellets.

As details of the crackdown emerged, Nicolas Maduro prepared to be sworn in as president and the speaker of the National Assembly again threatened to bar the opposition from its only remaining political platform, the legislature, unless it recognized Maduro’s legitimacy.

Romero said the beatings occurred at National Guard barracks No. 47 in the western city of Barquisimeto after at least 300 protesters were arrested across Venezuela for backing opposition candidate Henrique Capriles’ demand for a recount of ... Read More

By Paul M. Barrett

Bit by bit, the largest environmental verdict in history—a $19 billion judgment pending against Chevron for polluting the rainforest in Ecuador—is disintegrating. The collapse threatens to cause collateral damage to a major Washington law firm and a Colorado scientific consultancy that counts state and federal agencies among its clients.

On April 17, the hedge fund Burford Capital, which had invested millions of dollars to bankroll the long-running litigation on behalf of poor farmers and indigenous villagers, leveled accusations of fraud against the lead plaintiffs’ lawyer, Steven Donziger, and his allies at the large Washington-based law firm Patton Boggs. Burford renounced any potential profit from the case because of what its chief executive, Christopher Bogart, described in a sworn declaration as “mounting evidence of fraud and misconduct” by Donziger and Patton Boggs. Bogart said his $300 million litigation-finance outfit had been misled about dubious lobbying of Ecuadorean judges and the ghostwriting of expert ... Read More

By Roger Parloff

In the latest in a series of bombshell filings, Chevron today submitted a 26-page sworn declaration from the CEO of Burford Capital, a $300 million, publicly traded fund that in late 2010 agreed to finance Patton Boggs’s representation of the plaintiffs bringing an environmental suit against Chevron in Lago Agrio, Ecuador.

In it Burford CEO Christopher Bogart says his firm would never have invested in the case were it not for “false and misleading representations” made not only by Steve Donziger, the Lago Agrio team’s longtime New York lawyer, but also by Patton Boggs, a prominent Washington-based, AmLaw 100 law firm that agreed to take on the plaintiffs’ troubled environmental suit in February 2010 on a partial contingency basis. (Read the full declaration here.)

Burford relied on a misleading analysis of the case made by Patton Boggs partner James Tyrrell, Jr., with whom, Bogart says, Burford had a “‘special’ and ... Read More

BY CLIFFORD KRAUSS

An environmental case that has pitted Chevron against Ecuadorean Amazon villagers for two decades has taken another bizarre twist, with an American consulting firm now recanting research favorable to the villagers’ claims of pollution in remote tracts of jungle.

The consulting firm, Stratus Consulting of Boulder, Colo., announced late Thursday that it had originally been misled by Steven R. Donziger, a lead lawyer for the Ecuadorean villagers, and had decided to disavow its contributions to scientific research about whether there was groundwater contamination that sickened the residents in swaths of rain forest.

The move prompted the plaintiffs to assert that Chevron was coercing parties to the case, citing this as another example of strong tactics employed by the company as it tries to overturn an Ecuadorean judge’s decision two years ago that it pay $18 billion in damages, one of the largest environmental awards ever. In this instance, the plaintiffs ... Read More

BY JONATHAN WATTS

Amazonian forest cleared in Ecuador, a mountain levelled in Peru, the Cerrado savannah converted to soy fields in Brazil and oil fields under development in Venezuela’s Orinoco belt.

These recent reports of environmental degradation in Latin America may be thousands of miles apart in different countries and for different products, but they have a common cause: growing Chinese demand for regional commodities.

The world’s most populous nation has joined the ranks of wealthy countries in Europe, North America and east Asia that have long consumed and polluted unsustainably. This has led to what author Michael T Klare calls “a race for what’s left” and its impact is particularly evident in the continent with much of the untapped, unspoiled natural resources.

Even more than Africa, Latin America has become a major focus of Beijing’s drive for commodities. A study last year by Enrique Dussel Peters, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, found that the region has ... Read More

BY BRADEN REDDALL

A U.S. judge has rejected efforts by Chevron Corp to secure documents from a California environmental advocacy group in a fraud case related to a $19 billion award for rainforest pollution in Ecuador.

Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins on Wednesday quashed Chevron’s subpoena for a deposition and documents from Amazon Watch, which the group’s own lawyer described as the U.S. oil company’s “sharpest critic.”

The subpoena was related to a case scheduled to go to trial on October 15 in which Chevron accuses Ecuadorean residents, their lawyers and advisers of fraud in obtaining a multi-billion dollar judgment from a local court.

Cousins said he had to weigh the free speech rights of Amazon Watch under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment against the possibility of Chevron uncovering evidence for its case.

“I must err on the side of protecting the First Amendment activity,” he said in his ruling in San Francisco federal court, although he left ... Read More

The director of a foundation that works in Ecuador’s rainforest says Amazon tribesmen apparently carried out a revenge attack and killed an undetermined number of people from a rival indigenous group that lives in voluntary isolation.

Foundation director Milagros Aguirre says Huaorani war party attacked a settlement of Taromenane, likely over the weekend. She says an unknown number of people were killed and at least two children were carried off in retaliation for the March 5 spearing deaths of a Huaorani couple.

It is common for the region’s tribes to kidnap foes’ offspring as war trophies.

An Ecuadorean Justice Ministry official said Wednesday the Huaorani involved had refused to receive a government delegation trying to investigate the attack in the Pompeya region, about 120 miles east of Quito.

Click here for original ... Read More

Latin American countries have finally rallied and rejected a bid by leftist regimes to silence the region’s human rights watchdog. Now regional democracies must restore the organization’s credibility after years of yielding to Chavistas.

In what might be remembered as the end of the line for Chavismo as a regional political force, last week key Latin American countries soundly rejected a bid by leftist regimes to silence the region’s human rights watchdog. Those democratic nations – along with the United States – must now retake some of the momentum that they ceded to Venezuelan caudillo Hugo Chávez’s destructive agenda.

Left-wing leaders – principally Chávez and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa – spent much of the last decade waging a bitter feud with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) because it dared to criticize brazen and systematic rights abuses in countries governed by authoritarian populists.

Chávez hurled personal insults at the commission’s members and staff, and even engineered the ... Read More