LATAM POLITICS TODAY-Costa Rica wants in on North America trade pact

The latest in Latin American politics today:

Costa Rica seeks entry to North America trade pact SAN JOSE - Costa Rica has told the United States it is interested in joining the North American trade pact between the United States, Mexico and Canada, said President Rodrigo Chaves.

Chaves noted he had sent the message to the White House expressing his desire to join the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA), the modern iteration of the quarter-century-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Separately, a Central American development bank approved a $700 million loan to Costa Rica to help rebuild hurricane damage, in what the CABEI bank said was the largest loan in its history.

Peru protests snarl supply routes to key mines LIMA - A wave of protests in Peru related to the ouster of former leader Pedro Castillo is affecting supply routes to key copper mines in the Andean nation, the world's No. 2 producer of the red metal, raising a potential risk to production.

The latest blockades have hit important mining roads, affecting supplies to copper deposits such as MMG's huge Las Bambas mine, which supplies some 2% of global copper. A source at the mine said those blockades remained on Wednesday. Brazil President-elect Lula to restart ties with Venezuela

BRASILIA - Brazil's future foreign minister said President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has asked him to restore relations with Venezuela once Lula is inaugurated on Jan. 1. Diplomatic relations were broken in 2020 by the current rightist government of Jair Bolsonaro.

Mauro Vieira said a diplomatic mission will be sent to Caracas at the beginning of January to organize the official Brazilian residence before an ambassador is appointed and approved by Congress. Lawsuit seeks to sanction Mexico for not protecting vaquita

MEXICO CITY - Environmental groups filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court, pressuring the U.S. government to sanction Mexico for failing to protect the critically endangered vaquita, the world's smallest porpoise, according to court documents. The lawsuit seeks to pressure the U.S. government to sanction Mexico under a fisheries law called the Pelly Amendment to the Fishermen's Protective Act, which authorizes the U.S. president to embargo imports of wildlife products, including fish, from another country.

Mexico Senate approves extending minimum vacation to 12 days MEXICO CITY - Mexico's Senate unanimously approved doubling the legal minimum vacation days companies must offer employees to 12 days per year.

The reform, which is expected to come into effect at the start of next year, follows a campaign by the private sector to only gradually increase the minimum holiday allowance. In a Senate statement, Labor Commission head Napoleon Gomez said the vote marked a historic moment, saying such an amendment to the law had not been put forward since 1970.

Mexico's Tamaulipas state reinstates use of face masks MEXICO CITY - Mexico's northern border state of Tamaulipas will from this Friday bring back obligatory use of face masks in closed public spaces as it looks to combat a resurgence of coronavirus, influenza and other respiratory diseases.

Local authorities said in a statement there were 587 active cases of COVID-19 in the state, and four people had died of influenza since October. The neighboring state of Nuevo Leon said on Monday it was reinstating its own mask mandate as daily cases rose to their highest level since September. (Compiled by Steven Grattan and Sarah Morland; Editing by Josie Kao and Cynthia Osterman)

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