LATAM POLITICS TODAY-Brazil markets tumble on Lula's first full day in office

The full opening of the border follows years of tense relations between the two countries that have eased after Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a leftist, took office last August.

The latest in Latin American politics today: Brazil markets tumble on Lula's first full day in office

BRASILIA - Brazilian markets delivered a withering verdict on leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's first full day in office, after he pledged to prioritize social issues and ordered a budget-busting extension to a fuel tax exemption. Lula's decision to extend the fuel tax exemption, which will deprive the Treasury of $9.9 billion a year, was a stinging rebuke of Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, who had said it would not be extended. Haddad also took office on Monday, pledging to control spending.

New Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira, meanwhile, said Petrobras would play a leading role in expanding the oil refining sector, and new Agriculture Minister Carlos Favaro said Brazil would have the "most sustainable" agricultural production in the world. Mexico elects first female Supreme Court president

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's Supreme Court elected its first female president, who has pushed back against the government's nationalist energy agenda, amid a succession process clouded by allegations of plagiarism against another justice competing for the job. Pina has defended Mexico's transition to renewable energy, setting her against parts of a contentious electricity law championed by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that favors the country's state-run, fossil fuel-dependent energy firms.

She takes over amid a charged debate about who should lead the court fueled by a December media report alleging that another contender, Justice Yasmin Esquivel, had plagiarized her undergraduate thesis. Esquivel vehemently denied the accusation, which triggered an investigation by her alma mater, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Bolivia farm region blocks borders, grain transport as protests lead to clashes SANTA CRUZ/LA PAZ, Bolivia - Protesters in Bolivia's Santa Cruz farming region are blocking highways out of the province, threatening to snarl the domestic transport of grains and food, as anger simmers following the arrest of local governor Luis Camacho.

The region, a stronghold of the conservative opposition to socialist President Luis Arce, is in its sixth day of protests that have seen thousands of people take to the streets and nights of clashes with weaponized fireworks and cars burned. Private vehicles cross Colombia-Venezuela border again

URENA, Venezuela - Private vehicles have started crossing between Colombia and Venezuela for the first time in years, marking the total opening of the shared border, in addition to cargo and people that have been transiting. The full opening of the border follows years of tense relations between the two countries that have eased after Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a leftist, took office last August. (Compiled by Sarah Morland and Isabel Woodford; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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