The week at a glance...Americas

Ottawa

Corporate espionage? The Canadian intelligence agency has been spying on Brazil’s mining ministry to get information about commercial activity, Brazilian media reported this week, citing evidence from documents leaked by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden. “We came to realize that we need to protect our assets,” said former Canadian intelligence officer Michel Juneau-Katsuya. “The concept of economic security is part of national security as well.” He said all governments were engaged in such activities. Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to comment on what he said was a national security matter, but he did say his government was “reaching out” to Brazil, which has demanded an explanation.

Mexico City

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‘Virtual kidnapping’: Members of the Spanish rock band Delorean, in town this week for a music festival, were the latest victims in a rash of virtual kidnappings, in which victims aren’t actually held but their families are tricked into thinking they are. Someone posing as a cop called the four band members and told them that for their own safety they had to cancel all appearances and move to a new hotel. The virtual kidnappers then contacted their families in Spain and demanded $400,000 in ransom; it’s unclear whether that was paid. The band was “freed” after two days. Kidnapping has reached epidemic proportions in Mexico. Last week, the government released new figures suggesting that there were more than 105,000 kidnappings last year, only about 1,300 of which were reported to police.

Acapulco, Mexico

Back to beans: Mexican activists are promoting a return to the traditional Mexican diet as a way to combat obesity. Mexico overtook the U.S. this year as the world’s fattest nation, with 32.8 percent of inhabitants considered obese. Diabetes and heart disease are the nation’s top two causes of death. “The rupture of the system and the traditional Mexican diet” is at the root of these health problems, said Gloria López Morales, president of the Conservatory of Mexican Gastronomic Culture. She said a Mexican cuisine expo in Acapulco this week would emphasize indigenous ingredients like corn, beans, and chiles. Yet much of the problem is what Mexicans drink: an average of 46 gallons of soda a year per person, compared with 31 gallons for the average American.

La Paz, Bolivia

Official dealing in coca: Bolivian authorities have arrested the head of the government agency that regulates legal production of coca leaf. Prosecutors said Luis Cutipa illegally confiscated 35,000 tons of leaves and gave them to his relatives, who allegedly sold them to drug dealers. Coca leaf, a mild narcotic from which cocaine can be processed, is legal in Bolivia, where it is widely chewed, brewed in tea and liqueurs, and mixed into topical medicines. President Evo Morales, a former coca farmer, has promoted the crop.

Buenos Aires

Presidential brain surgery: Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is recovering from surgery to drain a subdural hematoma, or a collection of blood on the surface of the brain. The injury came in August, when Fernández, 60, tripped while carrying presents for her newborn grandson down the steps of the presidential jet. It’s a bad time for her to be out of commission, with midterm elections coming up in a few weeks and Argentina battling in court against bondholders who never accepted the country’s past debt-restructuring deals. Polls predict her leftist Front for Victory party will lose ground to the Right, which would mean she couldn’t change the constitution to run for a third term.