Latest news with #negocios
Reuters
27-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Crime costs Chile $8 billion a year as violence chokes economic growth
SANTIAGO, June 27 (Reuters) - La Piojera in downtown Santiago has been a lively bar for over a century, drawing locals and tourists with typical Chilean foods, drinks and music, but now its doors are shutting earlier and sales are plummeting as rising crime has strangled the country and the economy. Chile is losing an average of 2.6% of its gross domestic product, about $8.2 billion a year, due to rising crime according to a study released by CLAPES UC, a research center at Chile's Universidad Catolica. The report attributed the economic impact due to businesses, like La Piojera, closing earlier or shutting down in high-crime areas, the loss of investment and increased spending in security. "My sales are down 60%," Mauricio Gajardo, manager of La Piojera, told Reuters on a Saturday night, when only a few patrons were at the bar. Gajardo said La Piojera used to be full at 8 p.m. on a Saturday night and would close past midnight. Now, on average, he closes at about 8:30 p.m. "The city helped me with a few municipal guards, but people still insist the area is dangerous," Gajardo said. Other businesses are trying another approach, offering discounts to customers to keep them throughout the night. "After 10 p.m. we've noticed our business drops ssignificantly," said Cristian Gonzalez, manager of Bar & Vuelvo. "So we try to prepare and face this with discounts or offers after 11 or 12 at night." Chile has seen an uptick in murders since 2016, rising to 6.0 in 2024 from a low of 2.32 per 100,000 in 2015. The elevated rate is still one of the lowest in Latin America, but researchers say this makes the economic impact more significant than a similar rise in more dangerous countries like Colombia or Mexico. "Countries (with a high murder rate) have in some way normalized the situation and the impact of a rise in the murder rate is less when the rate is already very high," said Leonardo Hernandez, a professor and one of the authors of the study. This has been the case for Jose Tomas Rodriguez, a local university student, who says he and his friends have already changed the way they go out. "It's not just me, but my whole social circle, we're changing our routine and going out earlier, maybe go out in the afternoon," Rodriguez said. "I think it's something that everyone has been changing."
Bloomberg
26-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Colombian Firms Brace for Gas Crunch as Deficit Seen Widening
Colombian businesses are bracing for a deepening shortfall in natural gas supply that threatens to shutter some operations. Supplies of the fuel are expected fall at least 10% short of demand next year, compared with 5% currently, according to the commodities exchange. In a worst case scenario, the shortfall could reach 20%.
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Spain's Telefonica sells its Ecuador unit at $380 million
MADRID (Reuters) -Spanish telecom company Telefonica said late on Friday it had reached an agreement with Luxembourg-based Millicom International to sell 100% of the shares of its Ecuador unit Otecel S.A. for 380 million dollars. The transaction aimed to further reduce the Spanish company's exposure to Latin America, after it recently sold its businesses in Uruguay, Peru and Argentina to focus on Spain, Brazil, Britain and Germany. Telefonica had agreed a month ago to also sell its Uruguayan unit to Millicom, which operates telecom companies all over Latin America under the brand Tigo. The company had to book an accounting loss of 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion) during the last quarter from the disposals in Peru and Argentina.
New York Times
10-06-2025
- New York Times
‘We All Live in Fear': How Gang Violence Has Gripped Peru
Jorge Tejada was examining the charred remains of a bus in the parking lot near his recycling business in Lima. It had been set on fire overnight in what residents said was retaliation from a gang shaking down local bus companies. Mr. Tejada, 50, has lost count of how many attacks like this have struck his neighborhood in the past year. Explosives set off at bodegas. Restaurants riddled with bullets. His own recycling yard was set ablaze and damaged after he ignored a gang's demand to pay it $530 per month. It could have been worse. A pharmacist was shot dead behind the counter of his store and several shop owners have gone into hiding, he said. 'This used to be a tranquil area,' Mr. Tejada said, describing how the former shantytown developed into an official district of the capital through decades of hard work and community organizing. 'Now we all live in fear here.' A growing number of Peruvians feel the same way. The South American nation is grappling with an extraordinary crime wave, fueled by a surge in extortion schemes as gangs exert increasing control over urban areas. Reports of extortion across the country have ballooned since 2017, from a few hundred per year to more than 2,000 per month this year, according to the national police. And the number of killings by hired hit men has also jumped significantly in recent years, statistics show. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
10-06-2025
- New York Times
‘We All Live in Fear.' How Gang Violence Has Gripped Peru
Jorge Tejada was examining the charred remains of a bus in the parking lot near his recycling business in Lima. It had been set on fire overnight in what residents said was retaliation from a gang shaking down local bus companies. Mr. Tejada, 50, has lost count of how many attacks like this have struck his neighborhood in the past year. Explosives set off at bodegas. Restaurants riddled with bullets. His own recycling yard was set ablaze and damaged after he ignored a gang's demand to pay it $530 per month. It could have been worse. A pharmacist was shot dead behind the counter of his store and several shop owners have gone into hiding, he said. 'This used to be a tranquil area,' Mr. Tejada said, describing how the former shantytown developed into an official district of the capital through decades of hard work and community organizing. 'Now we all live in fear here.' A growing number of Peruvians feel the same way. The South American nation is grappling with an extraordinary crime wave, fueled by a surge in extortion schemes as gangs exert increasing control over urban areas. Reports of extortion across the country have ballooned since 2017, from a few hundred per year to more than 2,000 per month this year, according to the national police. And the number of killings by hired hit men has also jumped significantly in recent years, statistics show. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
