Mexico City gentrification said to have shuttered beloved boutique

One of Mexico City's emblematic shops, established in 1935, was to shut after a sudden rent hike neighbors blamed on "gentrification" and ruthless speculation. The shop, Artículos ingleses (English Articles), was reputed for selling English-style clothing and accessories "not to be found anywhere else in the city," the newspaper La Jornada reported on 31 December. It was located in a busy avenue of the historical district, at the heart of the city's vast tourist economy. Local shopkeeprs told the daily Artículos regularly paid its monthly rent of around 78,000 pesos (well over 3,000 euros) a month, but that a "mafia of brokers" or real estate agents were offering landlords up to four million pesos to change for higher paying tenants that tend to be big brands or retail chains. The capital witnessed protests in July 2025 over the steeply rising cost of home rentals, largely due to tourism and the proliferation of short-term rentals for visitors. 

Bike rentals expand in Mexico City, now fourth network worldwide

The mayor of Mexico City praised the city's bicycle rental system on its fifth anniversary on 16 February, and boasted that the network was now the fourth biggest in the world, after Hangzhou, London and Paris. The city has taken a range of measures in past years to cut traffic and pollution, including boosting public transport and promoting residential property in the city center, which would reduce commuting. Mayor Miguel Ángel Mancera was speaking at the ECOBICI rental system's expansion into a third, southern sector of the city, Benito Juárez. He said the city now had 444 bike stations and 6,500 bicycles operating in 42 neighbourhoods or colonias. "We are going to keep reinforcing and pushing for bicycle use in Mexico City," Milenio cited him as saying. The ECOBICI rental system estimated that use of its bicycles in 2010, 2011 and 2012 had in total saved 232 tonnes of CO2 emissions, equivalent to planting 697 trees. Yet cycling remains hazardous in this car-dominated megalopolis, and biking associations earlier asked the city's Environment Secretary Tanya Müller to act to ensure safer cycling, including by forcing the city's sometimes ramshackle, and often intimidating, minibuses to drive sensibly. The newspaper Excelsior separately reported the first act of vandalism against a bicycle station inaugurated in Benito Juárez, suspected to have been the work of local residents who had lost their habitual "parking space" to bicycles.

Mexico City recycles asphalt to cut pollution, costs

They used to throw it out, but now the Mexico City government is recycling the asphalt and pavement material it removes from roads, to produce a cheaper, less polluting and more abundant "asphalt mix" to repave and repair city roads. The head of the recycling plant making the material in the district of Coyoacán, Mariano Plascencia, said the mix produced 90 per cent less dust and pollutants, without elaborating, Milenio newspaper reported on 22 July. It consisted of a mix of crushed stones, cement and "additives," merged in temperatures of 120-151 degrees celsius. The plant had most recently produced 57,900 tonnes of the asphalt mix, which the city government distributed between the capital's delegaciones, the larger city sectors or districts, to meet their stated needs. The use of the new asphalt was made obligatory in 2010. The new material was described as requiring little maintenance, which produced a further "40 per cent savings," the daily cited city authorities as saying.

Parliament gives Venezuelan President extraordinary powers "to fight corruption"

Venezuela's legislature voted in on 19 November an Enabling Law giving the socialist President Nicolás Maduro powers to "dictate decrees with the rank, value and force of law," to fight corruption and defend the economy, El Universal reported on 20 November. The law was to last 12 months from 20 November, and allowed Mr Maduro to impose by decree punitive measures against the "inadecuate use" of public resources, act to prevent capital flight and defend the national currency against "attacks." It effectively gave him greater powers over the economy. Opponents likely saw this as another step toward a communist dictatorship. The opposition MP Maria Corina Machado called it a "shameful day" for Venezuela and the opposition coalition Table of Democratic Unity dubbed the law "fraudulent," Spain's El Mundo reported on 20 November. The leading opponent Henrique Capriles, the Governor of the northern state of Miranda, had urged Venezuelans to ignore its future provisions in October, Europa Press reported on 20 November. According to the agency, the President proposed the law on 8 October but this could not be approved as the Government lacked by one vote the majority needed to pass the law. The problem was resolved when a week before the vote, Venezuela's Supreme Court of Justice prevented one opposition parliamentarian from voting after she was accused of corruption. After approval, Mr Maduro announced he would lead from January a "hair-raising offensive" against corruption and hoarding in Venezuela, which has witnessed shortages in a range of consumer goods in recent months. Authorities have blamed shortages on unspecified sabotage or attacks on the socialist economy; Europa Press cited the President as accusing opposition forces of planning a power blackout on 8 December, when municipal elections were to be held.

Colombian President delighted with results of year in trade pact with US

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said in the northern port of Cartagena on 15 May that a year after the application of a free-trade pact with the United States, Colombian exportation to the United States had risen and 775 firms made the United States their first export market. These firms "exported to the United States for the first time," a year after the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (CTPA) began, when they "had not exported any product between 2010 and 2012," the Presidential website reported on 15 May. Mr Santos observed on an 18-per-cent rise in exports of farming products excluding coffee and flowers - two of Colombia's best known and established exports - while 200 products arrived in the United States for the first time, most notably he observed, exotic fruit, but also ceramic tiles, packaging machines, stainless steel sinks and sowing machines. "Behind this are more jobs for Colombians...if this is how we did in a year of global contraction, imagine what we can achieve in a stabilised global economy." He said agro-industrial exports to the United States rose 5.7 per cent that year and industrial exports 6.2 per cent, providing "many motives for us to feel optimistic."

Venezuelan President travels to boost trade, denounces "fascist" opponents

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro told a gathering of left-wing activists in Buenos Aires on 8 May that his country was seeing the resurgence of a "fascist-style" opposition that had allegedly resorted to violence when rejecting the results of the 14 April presidential elections. He was referring to parties in the Table of Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition led by the former candidate Henrique Capriles Radonsky. Maduro began on 7 May a tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, intended he said to "strengthen food sovereignty" and replenish Venezuela's food reserves, El Nacional and Globovisión reported on 6 May. In Argentina he accused unspecified opposition groups of attacking Cuban medical centres in Venezuela after the elections, El Universal reported on 8 May. The conservative forces emerging in Venezuela he said, had "clear fascistoid signs," and were "intolerant" and hostile to "brother nations" like Argentina and Cuba, key allies of Venezuela's socialist regime." Where he asked "has anyone seen a political current challenging political elections just before attacking Cuban doctors providing a service" to Venezuelans? Venezuela's opposition was "anti-Latin American" and would "immediately" leave regional associations like Mercosur "if they had power," he told activists gathered in a stadium. Maduro denied in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 7 May that the opposition was being harrassed and said "all political currents have full liberty in Venezuela." He signed 10 accords with Uruguay before going to Argentina, where he signed 12 agreements on 8 May intended he said to eliminate "the severe shortages we have had and have, among other reasons for sabotage," Venezuela's AVN news agency reported.The agreements also envisaged joint food production and farming ventures in Venezuela, and trade and exchanges in areas of energy, media and technology.

Property prices rise in Colombia, "no bubble" yet

Property prices rose 11 per cent in Colombia's main cities in 2012 a sector representative said on 14 March, though he rejected warnings given intermittently including by the Central Bank, that prices were starting to balloon. The head of the real estate sector association Fedelonjas, César Augusto Llano, was reported as saying that day that property prices rose in part for an "outbreak of speculation" but also for dearth of building land in places like Bogotá. While cities like Cali and Medellín witnessed price rises below the national average - eight and nine per cent respectively - prices rose 19 per cent in the northern coastal city of Bucaramanga and 12 per cent in Bogotá, RCN La Radio cited him as saying. Prices were described as having risen "like palm trees" in the port of Cartagena de Indias, a World Heritage Site on Colombia's Caribbean coast. RCN cited a local estate agent Rosario Hernández as saying that prices in Cartagena's historical quarter of Cartagena hovered around 10-12 million Colombian pesos per square metre, or roughly 4,200-5,000 euros depending on sectors. Llano separately told RCN radio on 15 March that Cartagena was now "at an international level" in terms of prices and foreign pensioners were among buyers. He observed a "vertiginous" rise in prices in the most expensive parts of the capital Bogotá, where he said certain "projects" were being offered at "historic" prices of some 14 million pesos or a little under 6,000 euros per square metre. This he attributed to "high liquidity, affluence of resources and insufficient land." But he denied a day earlier that a real-estate bubble was taking shape in Colombia. He said indicators showed "stable behaviour" in the macro-economy and "we do not have excess offer, we do not have have very high credit levels and mortgage credit maintains an ordinary growth," Cali's El País reported.

Venezuelan devaluation affects border trade

Venezuela announced on 8 February a devaluation of its currency the bolívar, in what a local economist termed a "confiscation" of Venezuelans' purchasing power that would also impact exporters from neighbouring Colombia, El Tiempo reported. The Colombian daily observed that traders in the frontier district of Cúcuta were waiting to see the devaluation's impact on demand in Venezuela for local products. Venezuela's Finance Minister Jorge Giordani told the press in Caracas on 8 February that the exchange rate of 4.3 bolívars to the USD was now 6.3, which made the dollar more than 46 per cent more expensive, El Tiempo reported. The daily stated that this was the bolívar's fifth devaluation since Venezuela's socialist government imposed currency controls in 2003. On Venezuela's black market the USD was reportedly trading for as much as 28 bolívars, signifying much higher prices for an array of imported consumer goods. As Venezuelans pointed out on networking websites, the devaluation of the official rate now signified a price hike of 46 per cent in imported goods. Giordani blamed speculation for the inflationary "bout" the country was suffering, but the opposition politician and governor of the state of Miranda Henrique Capriles accused the government of squandering its petrodollars, El Tiempo reported. He observed on the website Twitter that "oil is at 106 [USD per barrel] and they do a devaluation. They spent the money on their campaign, corruption and foreign gifts. Lying government!" In Cúcuta, a money changer told El Tiempo that the devaluation would impact supply and demand in the frontier zone. It might ensure an "abundance" of cheaper but mostly smuggled Venezuelan goods, while Venezuelan importers would be dissuaded from buying Colombian products that would soon cost more. The president of the Colombian exporters' association Analdex Javier Díaz told El Tiempo on 8 February that he hoped the market and inflation in Venezuela would soon absorb the rate change.