LatinNews Daily - 08 May 2024

*Brazil’s minister for mining & energy, Alexandre Silveira, has travelled to Paraguay to lead negotiations over the tariff for electricity generated by the binational Itaipú hydroelectric dam. After Silveira held a meeting with Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña, the Brazilian government announced that a “definitive agreement” has been reached in the talks to renegotiate Annex C of the Itaipú Treaty – the part of the treaty which establishes that each country owns 50% of the electricity generated by the dam and covers financial arrangements such as the terms under which they can sell surplus electricity from their respective share back to each other. Even though the Brazilian government has hailed the end of the negotiations, the Paraguayan government released a statement with a more cautious tone, suggesting that “substantial progress” was made in the negotiations but there are still more details to be finalised and legal documents to be signed before the terms of an agreement can be officially confirmed and announced by President Peña and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.