Daily Headlines: May 16, 2014

* Brazil: With less than one month to go until the start of the World Cup, anti-government protests were held in several major Brazilian cities including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan opposition members are expected to meet this weekend with foreign ministers of the UNASUR bloc days after they suspended talks with the Maduro regime.

* Argentina: The Argentine government is expected to appeal a federal tribunal’s ruling that a pact between the South American country and Iran to investigate the 1994 AMIA bombing was unconstitutional.

* Colombia: Several recent polls indicated that staunch Uribista presidential candidate Oscar Ivan Zuluaga is in a statistical tie or leading President Juan Manuel Santos ahead of the May 25th election.

Video Source – euronews via YouTube (Brazil “is in the grip of unrest with teachers, civil servants, police officers, bus drivers and the homeless furious at the cost of hosting the upcoming football World Cup.”)

Online Sources – SI.com; The Economist; Reuters; Bloomberg