Brad Zions, who helped to launch AOL Europe and is an active investor in Los Angeles, announced the close of his Pitbull Ventures $5M Fund I this week to support vertical SAAS entrepreneurs. According to the company, the fund is looking for back founders building AI-enabled vertical SAAS companies across a range of industries, and that have promising early traction. Founder and Managing Partner at Pitbull Ventures, Brad Zions, said, “The launch of our new fund’s closing is thanks to the unwavering dedication of our investment team and the support of our amazing LPs. Now, we’re eager ..read more

Techstars Startup Weekend, the three-day immersive program where entrepreneurs experience building minimum viable products in just 54 hours, has announced its 2024 Colombia Roadshow. The Roadshow will visit Santander on May 3-5 and the city of Cali on May 24 to 26, followed by Manizales in August and Bogotá in October. In Colombia Techstars Startup Weekend has been present for more than a decade, with more than 20 editions held across the country. Julian Arango (Photo Credit: LinkedIn) Said Julián Arango, Organizer and facilitator of Techstars Startup Weekend, “This is a commitment that seeks ..read more

The Bitcoin Company announced this month the launch of its new Remittances API, enabling individuals and institutions to send instant payments to bank accounts in Mexico. The API marks the company’s expansion into international remittances, with the company planning to extend services to the United States and Europe. Said Ben Price, Founder and CEO of The Bitcoin Company, “Disrupting the remittance market is a key milestone in our roadmap to provide easy to use Bitcoin-native financial services and has always been a compelling application for the Bitcoin network. With Bitcoin, payments ca ..read more

São Paulo, Brazil – A woman in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday took the corpse of an elderly man into a bank to try to take out a loan of R$17,000 (USD $3,400), local Brazil media reported.  Suspicious bank employees filmed the incident and called the police. The woman was reportedly taken into custody, and the bizarre video soon went viral on social media.  The story was first reported by TV Globo, the largest news broadcaster in Brazil, which shared a blurred version of the video.  In it, a woman, identified as Érika de Souza Vieira Nunes, is standing next to a pale, elderly man in ..read more

Mexico City, Mexico — A police officer on the run for allegedly shooting a student from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College was arrested on April 10, according to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. On April 11, “David R” was arrested and remanded in custody. The two other police officers implicated in the murder were Francisco “N” and Sigifredo “N.” Both face charges for the crimes of homicide and attempted homicide and have already been indicted. “All those who participated are already in prison. He [the police officer] was in a ranch, guarded, protected, in Guerrero, near Aca ..read more

Mexico City, Mexico — Following the raid by Ecuadorian security forces on Mexico’s embassy in Quito — which resulted in the arrest of former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas who was seeking asylum there — Mexico denounced Ecuador before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and requested that the country be expelled from the United Nations.  “Mexico’s demands seek to strengthen the international legal framework for the peaceful settlement of disputes that should govern international coexistence. This demand is based precisely on the conviction that the use of force is not the mech ..read more

São Paulo, Brazil – Brazil’s lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, on Wednesday upheld the arrest of a suspected mastermind behind the 2018 murder of Rio de Janeiro city councilor Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes.  In a 277 to 129 vote with 30 abstentions, the deputies surpassed the 257 votes needed to uphold the arrest of the suspect, Chiquinho Brazão, who is a federal deputy for Rio de Janeiro. Under Brazilian law, whenever a deputy is arrested, the Chamber must analyze the court order before it can be upheld.  At the end of March, Chiquinho Brazão was arr ..read more

Mexico City, Mexico — The United States Embassy in Mexico last week announced criminal charges against 41 members of the Jalisco Cartel Nueva Generación (CJNG), currently one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in Mexico, linked to the smuggling of illegal drugs into the U.S. Through a press release dated April 3, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico announced decisive action against the largest drug cartels in the country.  “Working with our partners in Mexico, we have criminally charged the leaders of the world’s largest drug cartels, such as the Sinaloa cartel ..read more

Mexico City, Mexico—– Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called on local authorities to provide security to candidates for the upcoming general elections amidst a spate of 22 murders of candidates for public office thus far.  Mexico’s 2024 general election is making history; both for being the largest election in recent memory, as well as for being the most violent. The June 2 general election will see 97 million Mexican voters elect more than 20,000 federal and local elected officials, including eight governorships, 500 members of the lower house, 128 senators, city hall ..read more

São Paulo, Brazil – Free speech laws in Brazil garnered international attention over the weekend as Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire owner of Tesla, SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter), went on a rant about Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Moraes has been leading investigations into the dissemination of fake news during the country’s 2022 presidential elections.   Musk criticized Moraes’ decisions to suspend accounts on X that were allegedly spreading fake news about the country’s electoral process. In retaliation, Moraes included Musk in a Supreme Court investigatio ..read more