LATAM POLITICS TODAY-New call to boost public works spending in Latin America

Mexico raises lab raids data amid U.S. pressure on fentanyl MEXICO CITY - Mexico's army has dramatically revised upward the number of drug lab raids it says it conducted under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, according to government data and leaked military documents reviewed by Reuters.

The latest in Latin American politics today: IDB to Latin America: more infrastructure will dent poverty

PANAMA CITY - Latin America must double its spending on infrastructure from roadways to bridges to faster internet in order to reduce the region's stubbornly high poverty and inequality rates, the president of the Inter-American Development Bank said. "To close the gap with other regions in terms of both quantity and quality, we should at least double our current level of investment in infrastructure," IDB chief Ilan Goldfajn told an assembly of IDB governors in Panama City.

Across Latin America, one of the world's poorest and most unequal regions, politicians are under pressure to spend more on public works to boost living standards while at the same time building up support about voters. IDB data shows that Latin America and the Caribbean have invested barely 1.8% of GDP on infrastructure over the last decade, which the bank would like to see rise to at least 3% over 10 years to meet the United Nations' sustainability goals.

Brazil eyes regulating monetized content online SAO PAULO - The Brazilian government is studying whether to regulate internet platforms with content that earns revenue such as advertising, its secretary for digital policies, Joao Brant, said.

The idea would be for a regulator to hold platforms like Facebook and Twitter, not consumers, accountable for monetized content, Brant told Reuters. Another goal is "to prevent the networks from being used for the dissemination and promotion of crimes and illegal content," especially after the January riots by supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro in the capital Brasilia.

The riots were fueled by misinformation about the election he lost last October. Mexico raises lab raids data amid U.S. pressure on fentanyl

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's army has dramatically revised upward the number of drug lab raids it says it conducted under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, according to government data and leaked military documents reviewed by Reuters. The documents, found among a trove of millions of emails leaked last year by the Guacamaya hacker group, show the upward revision being due to the army retroactively including hundreds of inactive labs on its seizures list under Lopez Obrador's presidency. Figures for the years of previous administrations were left unchanged.

The issue has generated a heated exchange this month by politicians on both sides of the border, including suggestions from some U.S. Republican lawmakers that military incursions be authorized to attack cartels behind fentanyl trafficking in Mexico. (Compiled by Steven Grattan, Milagro Vallecillos and Carolina Pulice; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Lincoln Feast.)

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