LATAM POLITICS TODAY-Ex-Federal Police detectives criticize Brazil's 'authoritarian' Supreme Court

Social Development Minister Jeanette Vega resigned following a news report that one of her advisers had contacted a radical Mapuche indigenous leader who had called for an armed struggled against the state and who was arrested on Wednesday. The move is a blow to Boric's center-left administration, which came into office with a historic turnout.

The latest in Latin American politics today:

Ex-Federal Police detectives criticize Brazil's 'authoritarian and illegal' Supreme Court RIO DE JANEIRO - A group of retired Federal Police detectives has released a statement accusing members of Brazil's Supreme Court of using the force to take what they called "authoritarian and illegal measures".

The statement by about 100 ex-officers comes just days after Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized a Federal Police raid on wealthy supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro. According to a report by online news site Metropoles, the businessmen had discussed in WhatsApp groups the virtues of a military coup if the far-right leader lost his upcoming re-election attempt.

Colombia to meet rating agencies in bid to recover investment grade-minister BOGOTA - Colombia will seek to recover its investment grade credit rating in meetings with rating agencies in New York next month, said Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo.

Standard and Poors and Fitch both cut the Andean country's credit ratings last year amid anti-government protests against a tax reform that would have raised duties on food. Moody's maintained its investment grade rating.

"I am going to meet with the three ratings agencies to explain the economic policy of the government, with a view to them improving the ratings," Ocampo told journalists. Chile's Boric suffers first Cabinet resignation

SANTIAGO - Chilean President Gabriel Boric has said that he has accepted the resignation of his Cabinet's social development minister, the first shakeup of his young administration which began in March. Social Development Minister Jeanette Vega resigned following a news report that one of her advisers had contacted a radical Mapuche indigenous leader who had called for an armed struggled against the state and who was arrested on Wednesday.

The move is a blow to Boric's center-left administration, which came into office with a historic turnout. But Boric has seen his popularity quickly diminish as a key vote nears on a proposed new constitution that he has endorsed. Brazil's Lula vows to punish corruption if elected in October

BRASILIA - Former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who spent 19 months in prison on bribery convictions, has promised to crack down on corruption if elected in Brazil's October election. Lula said he would create new mechanisms to investigate anyone in his government accused of corruption and punish them if proven guilty. (Compiled by Steven Grattan; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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