LATAM POLITICS TODAY-Honduran switch to China over Taiwan tied to money matters

The latest in Latin American politics today: China pivot by Honduras driven by debts, investment hopes

TEGUCIGALPA - Honduras' decision to seek official relations with the People's Republic of China and cut them with Taiwan was about "pragmatism, not ideology," driven by rising debt and investment needs, according to the Honduran foreign minister. China does not allow countries to hold diplomatic ties with both itself and Taiwan as it claims Taiwan as its own territory with no right to state-to-state ties, which Taiwan disputes.

Speaking on local television, Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina said Honduras was "up to its neck" in financial issues and debt - including the $600 million it owes Taiwan - and this had partly motivated Honduras' decision to open relations with China. U.S. to fast-track possible Bolsonaro extradition request

WASHINGTON - A senior U.S. diplomat, speaking at a Senate hearing, declined to comment on the status in the United States of far-right former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, but said any such request from Brazil would be handled "expeditiously." Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols did not comment on a request for a six-month visa to remain in the United States by Bolsonaro, who left Brazil in December two days before his term ended without conceding defeat at the polls by leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Venezuela opposition anxious for U.S. call on frozen funds CARACAS - Members of Venezuela's opposition are anxiously awaiting decisions by the United States to again allow the distribution of funds to support opposition legislators and humanitarian efforts, five sources told Reuters.

Under the Trump administration, the United States intensified its sanctions against the South American country. It froze and seized Venezuelan government funds at the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then used the funds to support opposition lawmakers who oppose President Nicolas Maduro. Now, opposition figures are complaining that the U.S. clearance process needed to replace its previous point-person for distribution of funds, the ousted leader Juan Guaido, is stretching on.

Mexico president takes hit as peso weakens, battered by market MEXICO CITY - The Mexican peso currency weakened by as much as 2.5% versus the U.S. dollar, passing the 19 pesos per greenback mark as concerns over the global banking sector deepened.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador often touts the strength of the peso as a key achievement of his administration, since his recent predecessors mostly oversaw a weakening of the local currency despite pursuing polices viewed as more business friendly. The peso's recent losses wiped out gains made by the widely-traded Latin American currency a day earlier, when it closed at 18.59 per dollar. (Compiled by Kylie Madry and David Alire Garcia)