A 4.8 billion peso Pemex scandal at the Dos Bocas refinery — running at 42% of design capacity after five workers died, two oil spills hit the Gulf Coast, and $20 billion in public funds were consumed — arrives seven days before the third round of USMCA negotiations
Peru’s top court reverses 2022 ruling to strip Congress of spending power 15 days before Fujimori takes office while Washington sanctions 10 Cuban entities, and outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro bars de la Espriella from a military base inauguration & suspends the transition process
Trump administration designates 10 Cuban entities on July 13 — the sixth sanctions round since May 1 and the most direct targeting yet of the regime's domestic repression apparatus
Argentina’s country risk dropped to an eight-year low of 406 basis points after Fitch and S&P both upgraded the sovereign. Paraguayan senator Celeste Amarilla ignites international incident with racism scandal involving French striker Kylian Mbappé
Argentina’s country risk drops to 406 basis points — an eight-year low — after Economy Minister Caputo presents debt roadmap that convinces markets of Argentina’s economic forecast
Two teenage gunmen assassinate gang leader in Guayaquil’s airport — prompting Ecuador’s Noboa to issue decree granting immunity to foreign security personnel, while in Brooklyn, El Mayo Zambada accepts life sentence as Sinaloa cartel civil war kills nearly 2,000 people
El Mayo Zambada accepts life imprisonment without parole in a Brooklyn sentencing memorandum — his one request: a medical facility other than El Chapo’s supermax
Two teenage gunmen assassinate rival gang leader of Ecuador’s Los Águilas gang in Guayaquil’s airport — one day after President Noboa declared a 60-day state of emergency — prompting a decree the next day granting immunity to foreign security personnel
De la Espriella rules out U.S. incursion while advocating for American military bases, joint fumigation, and bombing of narco groups alongside U.S. forces. Washington declines renewal of USMCA on July 1, converting the trade deal governing $1.3 trillion into permanent annual renegotiation
U.S. declines to renew USMCA on July 1 — triggering annual reviews that will repeat every year until 2036 — while the agreement itself remains fully in force, U.S.-Mexico negotiations are already in their third round
Brazil’s October 4 election — the last domino in Latin America’s right-wing wave, Venezuela’s Rodríguez blames private enterprise for earthquake-collapsed buildings, and Cuba’s national electric grid is in blackout for the fourth time in 2026, leaving 10 million in the dark
Bolivia’s President Paz declares 90-day state of emergency after road blockades kill 14 while Venezuela’s earthquake response descends into chaos, and viral video showing U.S.-indicted Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello blocking a U.S. rescue delegation from entering a La Guaira disaster site
