Bloomberg YPF SA, Argentina’s state-controlled energy firm, named Total SA managing director Ricardo Darre as chief executive officer to lead the country’s biggest company. Darre, the head of the U.S. exploration and production unit since August 2014 at France’s largest oil company, will start July 1, according to an e-mailed statement from Buenos Aires-based YPF. “With the incorporation of …

  Bloomberg Brazil’s interim government is seeking a market-driven approach for the electricity industry amid waning power demand, growing debt and consecutive losses at the country’s largest power company. The administration of Acting President Michel Temer will scale back heavy-handed policies in the power industry and reduce dependence on state development bank BNDES for financing, said Paulo Pedrosa, executive secretary …

  Venezuela / AFP Venezuelans facing severe food shortages might have been expected to welcome heavily subsidized bags of rice, milk and other staples — but the controversy didn’t take long to set in. The bags, distributed to poor families every three weeks, represent President Nicolas Maduro’s latest plan to combat the increasingly desperate economic crisis that has taken hold …