In the summer of 2005, the biggest corporate operation in Colombia's history took place, when the country's main brewery was sold to the South African company SABMiller for 7.8 billion dollars. Behind this transaction was Julio Mario Santo Domingo, the most important magnate in that Latin American country. His family had been the main shareholder of the brewery company since the sixties, with a tradition in the sector even further back in time, when in 1933 his father acquired Cervecería Barranquilla y Bolívar.

Early Wednesday morning, the roof of a nightclub in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, collapsed while the venue was in full swing. The Emergency Operations Center (COE) has so far recorded the death toll of 184 people, while approximately 500 are injured.