Emerging market chaos is now front page news. Let’s start with Argentina, where the peso has resumed its plunge:

In response:

Argentina Central Bank hikes interest rate to 60 percent

(AP) — Argentina’s Central Bank has increased its benchmark interest rate to 60 percent in efforts to halt a sharp slide in the value of the peso.

The sliding value of the currency prompted Argentina to seek a financing deal earlier this year with the International Monetary Fund and President Mauricio Macri now is asking for an early release of those funds.

The peso slipped about 7 percent against the dollar Wednesday and was down another 5 percent early Thursday. It’s been trading at 35.9 to the dollar.

The Central Bank said Friday that it was hiking its benchmark interest rate in response to the current currency scenario and the risk of greater impact on local inflation. The rate was set to 45 percent earlier this month.

It’s hard for developed world readers to grasp the implications of 60% interest rates. Suffice it to say normal life is on hold – in some cases permanently – for most Argentines.

Brazil, meanwhile, has currency issues of its own, with the real falling hard in the past year. But a much bigger problem is looming just across the border, where Venezuela is in the throes of a full-on hyperinflation that’s sending its citizens fleeing in every direction. In response:

Brazil sends army to border as Venezuelans flee crisis at home

(Reuters) – Brazil said it was sending armed forces to keep order near the Venezuelan border area, while Peru declared a health emergency, as a regional crisis sparked by thousands of Venezuelans fleeing economic collapse escalated on Tuesday.

In Brazil, where residents rioted and attacked Venezuelan immigrants in a border town earlier this month, President Michel Temer signed a decree to deploy the armed forces to the border state of Roraima. He said the move was aimed at keeping order and ensuring the safety of immigrants.

Peru, meanwhile, declared a 60-day health emergency in two provinces on its northern border, citing “imminent danger” to health and sanitation. The decree, published in the government’s official gazette, did not give more details on the risks, but health authorities have previously expressed concerns about the spread of diseases such as measles and malaria from migrants.

The exodus of Venezuelans to other South American countries is building toward a “crisis moment” comparable to events involving refugees in the Mediterranean, the United Nations said this week.

Temer blamed the socialist Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro for the migration crisis.

“The problem of Venezuela is no longer one of internal politics. It is a threat to the harmony of the whole continent,” Temer said in a televised address.

There are close to 1 million Venezuelans now living in Colombia and more than 400,000 in Peru, the countries said in a joint statement after the meeting on Tuesday. Just 178,000 of those in Peru have legal permission to stay or are being processed.