An Argentine prosecutor has requested that former President Cristina Kirchner be investigated as suspect in a wide-ranging money-laundering probe allegedly involving a prominent government contractor and associate of Mrs. Kirchner, The Wall Street Journal reported. State news agency Telam reported on Saturday that federal prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan made the request to the judge in charge of the investigation focusing on Lázaro Báez, the owner of leading construction firms and partner of hotel and property businesses with Mrs.

Bankruptcy protection requests in Brazil more than doubled in the first quarter from the year-earlier period, as businesses suffered from the highest borrowing costs in a decade and a steep recession dragged down revenue, credit research company Serasa Experian said on Wednesday. Companies filed 409 requests for court protection from creditors last quarter, the highest number since the country enacted a bankruptcy law in 2005, Serasa said in a report. In the first quarter of last year, 191 companies sought bankruptcy protection, Serasa said.

State-controlled Petróleo Brasileiro SA unsuccesfully sought the appointment of arbiters to rework a long-term contract with debt-laden drilling rig leaser Sete Brasil Participações SA, according to three sources with knowledge of the situation, Reuters reported. The proposal, made in recent weeks, called on each party to name three mediators to rework the contract, said the sources, who requested anonymity since the plan is private. The contract between Petrobras and Sete Brasil has been in dispute for two years.

Argentina’s Senate gave the green light to a landmark deal to repay creditors holding defaulted debt in the early hours of Thursday, marking the end of a 14-year legal battle that had made the country a global financial pariah, the Irish Times reported. The deal, which had already been approved by the lower house of Congress, is the cornerstone of new President Mauricio Macri’s plan for revitalising an economy hobbled by low investment, high inflation and precarious central bank reserves.

Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA said Monday it has hired U.S.-based PJT Partners Inc. as a financial adviser, as the country’s deep economic recession is hurting demand for air travel, The Wall Street Journal reported. Gol said in a statement it hired “PJT Partners to advise the company in connection with measures to strengthen its capital structure and liquidity and to improve the profile of its debt.” In February, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded its rating on Gol because the airline faces a cash crunch in coming months as debt payments come due.

Brazil’s economic crisis is as bad as its political one, The Wall Street Journal reported. Latin America’s biggest economy appears headed for one of its worst recessions ever. It stalled in 2014, shrank 3.8% last year and now faces a similar contraction this year. Unemployment rose to 9.5% on Thursday as wages fell 2.4%, both trends forecast to worsen. One in five young Brazilians is out of work, and Goldman Sachs says Brazil may be facing a depression. The deteriorating outlook forms a dire backdrop for Brazil’s political straits.

Acute energy shortages, historically a warning sign for unpopular Latin American leaders, are threatening to undermine the government of Colombia and plunge neighbouring Venezuela deeper in to crisis, the Financial Times reported. Free-market Colombia, until recently a regional star, and the crisis-ridden, socialist Venezuela have both been forced to introduce energy-saving measures amid a combination of factors aggravated by a lack of rain due to the El Niño weather phenomenon. Venezuela’s government even extended the Easter holiday from three to five days to save electricity.

Argentina settled with an additional 115 individual creditors holding defaulted sovereign bonds for $155 million, Daniel Pollack, the court-appointed mediator in the long-running case, said on Friday, Reuters reported. Pollack's announcement brings the total amount of settlements agreed in principle with U.S. creditors for more than the original $6.5 billion pot of money committed to end the dispute. The most recent settlement also moves Latin America's No. 3 economy closer to ending a festering 14-year legal battle over its historic default.

Brazil’s economic quagmire, with an ever-growing corruption scandal on top of the longest and deepest recession in at least a century, is producing an unprecedented era of corporate debt restructuring in the country, Bloomberg News reported. The borrowing binge Brazilian companies went on during the country’s economic boom earlier this decade has now turned into an albatross as tens of thousands of protesters take to the streets and lawmakers move toward impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff.

Latin America’s largest independent oil producer, Pacific Exploration & Production Corp., is evaluating six buyout offers to avoid bankruptcy, according to people familiar with the negotiations, The Wall Street Journal reported. The final offers, which include a management buyout and up to $500 million in loans, are due Wednesday, with the board expected to make a decision by the end of the week, the four people said.