INFRASTRUCTURE: The week in 10 stories

Brazil

Brazil's ground transport agency ANTT is planning to launch a US$2.24bn tender for the construction and operation of a high-speed passenger railway connecting Brasília to Goiás state capital Goiânia this year.

Uruguay

Uruguay's public works ministry took part in the opening ceremony for a new minerals terminal at Nueva Palmira port, which was built with US$150mn investment by private terminal operator Corporación Navíos. The company now aims to ship some 10Mt of minerals per year and expand its operations on the Paraná-Paraguay waterway.

Colombia

After a landslide destroyed part of Mocoa, capital of Putumayo department, killing more than 300 people, the Colombian government stated that it will issue a decree to expand its "works for taxes" program to include reconstruction efforts, which include potable water systems, bridges, energy infrastructure and housing.

Meanwhile, the head of infrastructure agency ANI, Luis Andrade, announced in an op-ed published in newspaper La República that last year private investment in infrastructure reached a record US$2.3bn and now represents 65% of overall spending on transport infrastructure projects.

Paraguay

Paraguay's public works ministry announced that during the first three months of the year the amount of funds disbursed for projects jumped 107% in comparison with the first quarter of 2016, reaching US$127mn.

Argentina

Argentine federal judge Claudio Bonadio charged former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner with illicit association and money laundering in the investigation of a series of alleged irregularities in public works contracts awarded during her administration, known as the Los Sauces probe.

Her children and a number of other individuals also face charges in the case.

Costa Rica

Costa Rica's public works and transport ministry (MOPT) launched tenders to carry out two road projects that are part of a US$450mn transport infrastructure program financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Chile

Companies interested in the project to build the Américo Vespucio Oriente urban highway in Chilean capital Santiago expressed their concerns this week, as Chile's environmental regulator SEA decided to suspend the environmental evaluation of the US$900mn El Salto-Príncipe de Gales stretch of the road, while public works ministry MOP postponed the opening of bids for the US$800mn Príncipe de Gales-Los Presidentes section.

Mexico

President Enrique Peña Nieto and Danish prime minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen attended the opening ceremony for the US$400mn first phase of the so-called TEC II specialized container terminal in the port of Lázaro Cárdenas in Mexico's Michoacán state. The new terminal covers an area of 49ha and has the capacity to move over 1.2mn containers a year.

Peru

Peru's cabinet chief Fernando Zavala said that the government plans to have repairs finished by early June on 3,000km of roads damaged by flooding caused by heavy rains due to the El Niño phenomenon, under a sweeping repair and reconstruction program.