MONTEVIDEO (Reuters) – Swift growth by nimble Latin American countries like Chile, Colombia and Peru has put renewed focus on regional heavyweight Brazil, whose relatively closed, high-tax economy is now sputtering below its potential.

The three Andean countries grew more than twice as fast as Brazil last year and are expected to outpace it again this year. Brazil has also lagged its peers in the BRIC club of emerging market heavyweights that includes China, India and Russia.

MONTEVIDEO, March 17 (Reuters) – The Inter-American
Development Bank has proposed allowing member countries to tap
loans in case they need to respond to natural disasters, the
multilateral lender’s president said on Saturday.

Luis Alberto Moreno said the disaster funding would be
financed by credits normally set aside for counter-cyclical
spending in sharp economic downturns.

LIMA (Reuters) – Beatriz Merino, arguably the most respected public figure in Peru, is taking on a new role as the advocate for holders of the country’s infamous land bonds who want the government to finally pay billions of dollars in old debts.

Merino, a lawyer by training and Peru’s first woman prime minister, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that the time has come for the executive branch to end a 40-year-old controversy and take care of a liability estimated at $1 billion to $3 billion, or nearly 2 percent of gross domestic product, by paying off the bonds issued to people whose land was seized for redistribution.

LIMA, March 13 (Reuters) – Beatriz Merino, arguably
the most respected public figure in Peru, is taking on a new
role as the advocate for holders of the country’s infamous land
bonds who want the government to finally pay billions of dollars
in old debts.

Merino, a lawyer by training and Peru’s first woman prime
minister, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that the time
has come for the executive branch to end a 40-year-old
controversy and take care of a liability estimated at $1 billion
to $3 billion, or nearly 2 percent of gross domestic product, by
paying off the bonds issued to people whose land was seized for
redistribution.

LIMA (Reuters) – Got 48 hours to explore Lima? Long considered just a stopover on the way to the famous Inca ruins at Machu Picchu, Lima has emerged as a destination spot of its own in recent years and boasts the best cuisine in Latin America.

Reuters correspondents with local knowledge help visitors get the most from a weekend visit in the Peruvian capital:

LIMA, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Got 48 hours to explore Lima?
Long considered just a stopover on the way to the famous Inca
ruins at Machu Picchu, Lima has emerged as a destination spot of
its own in recent years and boasts the best cuisine in Latin
America.

Reuters correspondents with local knowledge help visitors
get the most from a weekend visit in the Peruvian capital:

LIMA, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Stung by higher fuel costs,
LAN Airlines flew Latin America’s first flight on Thursday using
a navigational system from takeoff to landing that it says will
save time and money and reduce pollution.

LAN said the Required Navigation
Performance system by General Electric will cut 19 miles
(31 kilometers), 6.3 minutes, 67.5 gallons of fuel and 1,420
pounds of carbon emissions from each flight on its popular
Cusco-Lima route, which takes tourists from the Inca ruins of
Machu Picchu in the treacherous Andes to the capital on the
Pacific Coast.

LIMA (Reuters) – The most important leader of Peru’s leftist Shining Path insurgency has been captured by security forces after being shot in a remote jungle rife with drug trafficking, President Ollanta Humala said on Sunday, announcing his first major victory against what remains of the rebel group.

Artemio, the nom de guerre of Florindo Eleuterio Flores, was seriously wounded and receiving medical attention, Humala said.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) – Trailing in opinion polls, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum headed home to Pennsylvania on Friday for a short visit, effectively turning his back on the Florida primary that has become a two-man race between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.

While Romney and Gingrich battle it out in Florida, Santorum is returning to attend a fundraiser, prepare his tax returns for release and hold a news conference in West Chester.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) – Trailing in opinion polls, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum headed home to Pennsylvania on Friday for a short visit, effectively turning his back on the Florida primary that has become a two-man race between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney.

While Romney and Gingrich battle it out in Florida, Santorum is returning to attend a fundraiser, prepare his tax returns for release and hold a news conference in West Chester.