LATAM POLITICS TODAY -Brazil's Haddad says Mercosul should be strengthened

The latest in Latin American politics today: Brazil's Haddad says Mercosul should be strengthened, have more members

DAVOS - Brazil's Finance Minister, Fernando Haddad, said on Wednesday that the Mercosur should be strengthened, including the addition of new members, signaling that the economic bloc will be prioritized in the newly inaugurated government of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay has been abandoned in recent years, Haddad said at a World Economic Forum panel about Latin America in Davos, Switzerland, referring to the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro.

Brazil's Lula says minimum wage has to rise in line with economic growth BRASILIA - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday that the country's minimum wage must rise in line with its economic growth, after government approved a 7.43% increase in 2023 from a year earlier to 1,302 reais ($253.59) per month.

"We have already proved that it is possible to raise the minimum wage above inflation," Lula said after a meeting with unionists. He added he is set to travel to the United States to meet President Joe Biden on Feb. 20, while also planning a trip to China in March.

Argentina to buy back $1 bln in foreign debt in signal to markets BUENOS AIRES - Argentina will buy back overseas bonds equivalent to over $1 billion to improve the South American country's debt profile, economy minister Sergio Massa said on Wednesday, looking to send a positive signal to markets despite low reserves levels.

The move will focus on sovereign notes maturing in 2029 and 2030, the minister added, with the program set to start immediately as the country looks to take advantage of a "window of opportunity" after a debt risk index recently fell. Brazil's Vale expects to pay out $1.5 billion for Brumadinho reparations in 2023

RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian miner Vale plans to pay out about 7.8 billion reais ($1.53 billion) in 2023 on reparations related to the collapse of a tailings dam in the mining town of Brumadinho, which happened four years ago at the end of this month, its director of Reparations and Territorial Development, Marcelo Klein, told Reuters. The rupture of the structure unleashed a giant wave of mud that killed 270 people, most of them employees of the company, in addition to affecting communities, forests and rivers in the region. Three people are still missing, and the executive stressed that the search for them is a "top priority". (Compiled by Steven Grattan)