BOGOTA, April 29 (Reuters) – Colombia’s central bank raised
its 2011 growth forecast on Friday and increased interest rates
for the third time this year but did not take any new measures
to curb the strength of the country’s currency.

Latin America’s fifth-biggest economy is among regional
economies such as Brazil, Chile and Peru that have raised
interest rates to fight inflation spurred by higher fuel and
food costs.

CUETZALA DEL PROGRESO, Mexico (Reuters) – Mexican drug cartels greedy for new sources of revenue are targeting the country’s rich mines, pushing up companies’ security costs and prompting at least one project to be halted.

Vast mineral deposits have made Mexico the world’s top silver producer and a major source of gold and copper, and the potential riches are too attractive to walk away from, according to companies expected to invest more than $4 billion in the sector this year.

LA PATRONA, Mexico (Reuters) – Mexican drug gangs branching out into new criminal activity are earning a steady stream of cash from the mass kidnapping of migrants, making the already arduous journey to the United States even more lethal.

The trek across Mexico has long been dangerous for the hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, mostly Central Americans, who try their luck each year, risking robbery, death from fast-moving freight trains or dehydration in the desert.

MEXICO CITY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government lashed out at companies at the heart of last year’s Gulf oil spill on Monday, denying reports it had negotiated a deal with BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research)(BP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to resume drilling.

The tough talk by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar highlights the Obama administration’s sensitivity towards letting BP — the biggest holder of deepwater acreage in the Gulf of Mexico — drill there again a year after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig led to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

MEXICO CITY/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. interior secretary on Monday rejected reports that BP was striking a deal to resume deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico a year after the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

British media have said BP is in talks with Washington to restart drilling at existing fields following the blast on the Deepwater Horizon rig that ruptured the company’s underwater Macondo well, unleashing millions of barrels of oil.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Earthquake-prone Chile and Mexico are not shying away from nuclear power in the wake of Japan’s growing radiation crisis as both need to diversify the strained electric grids saddling industry with high costs.

Japan is living the world’s worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl after a 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami crippled the country’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, releasing radiation 4,000 times the legal limit into the nearby sea.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican Energy Minister Jose Meade said on Friday current oil shortages caused by the crisis in Libya could be covered by other countries, easing pressure on prices.

Libya, an OPEC member and the world’s 17th-largest oil producer, is estimated to have lost more than three quarters of its crude output as a result of fighting between government and rebel troops, helping to push prices to a 2-1/2 year high.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Grupo Mexico said the proposed merger between its U.S. and Latin American mining units could go through by the end of this year, strengthening its hold on the world’s largest copper reserves.

Senior executives from the global copper miner also said demand for the red metal would get a boost when Japan starts rebuilding regions affected by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami and nuclear plant problems.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Hundreds of police raided illicit markets to crack down on the lucrative trade in wild animals and rare flowers, arresting 15 traffickers across Mexico this weekend in one of the biggest swoops of its kind.

Rich in flora and fauna, Mexico is a major hub for animal trafficking where locals buy lizards, macaws and tropical fish in city markets and smugglers move endangered species across the country’s border with the United States.

MEXICO CITY, March 18 (Reuters) – Mexico’s state oil
monopoly Pemex found more new oil and natural gas deposits than
last year than it did in 2009, Mexican President Felipe
Calderon said on Friday.

The discovery of new fields and revisions to the estimated
size of older finds meant Pemex [PEMX.UL] replaced more than 80
percent of its 2010 production with new proven reserves.