Stories for November 17th 2009
Che Guevara, “the worst that could have happened to Cuba” says Juanita Castro
The presence of Ernesto Che Guevara in Cuba was “the worst that could have happened to my country” said Juanita Castro, sister of the ruling brothers of Cuba, (Fidel and Raúl Castro) and fellow fighters with the Argentine-born doctor in the Caribbean island revolution half a century ago
Influential US Congress members call for an end to Cuba travel ban
Two key United States lawmakers say that Washington should allow its citizens to travel to Cuba to help promote 'democratic reforms' in that country. Veteran Republican Senator Richard Lugar and Democratic Congressman Howard Berman insist that the Cuba travel ban has been obsolete and should be discarded as a foreign policy measure.
Argentine fruit exports to Brazil loosing 300.000 USD per day
Argentine exporters claim they are loosing huge sums of money because of Brazilian delays at Customs posts and in extending import licences. This is particularly sensitive for fruit and other perishable exporters.
Cristina and Lula da Silva meet to address bilateral trade conflict
Argentina and Brazil presidents are scheduled to address trade disputes, Mercosur and other coming foreign policy issues when they meet Wednesday in Brasilia for their agreed regular contacts.
“Generous” contributions to US lawmakers to uphold embargo of Cuba
Since the United States 2004 election cycle, a network of Cuban-American donors and political action committees (PACs) has donated in excess of 10 million US dollars to more than 300 US federal candidates in order to thwart any changes in the US embargo of Cuba, claims Public Campaign, a US citizens group working for “clean money, clean elections”
Zelaya claims US and Micheletti are involved in “laundering” the coup
Honduran ousted president Manuel Zelaya claims the United States in partnership with de facto leader Roberto Micheletti are involved in an operation to “launder” the coup d’etat of June 28th.
Unfriend, with real lex-appeal, word of the year for Oxford American Dictionary
Unfriend“ has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, chosen from a list of finalists with high technical jargon. Unfriend was defined as a verb that means to remove someone as a ”friend” on a social networking site such as Facebook or MySpace.
Chile and Uruguay, least corrupt in Latam and an inspiration for the region
Chile, Uruguay and Costa Rica have the lowest perceived levels of corruption in Latinamerica, a benchmark and inspiration for the Americas according to the latest report from Transparency International. Argentina and Venezuela are among the low performers in a region where there are serious indications of “rampant corruption”.
Diplomatic row between Chile and Peru over spying accusations
In separate statements this weekend, Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez and government spokesperson Carolina Toha refuted the spying accusations made by Peruvian officials late last week.
“Chile does not spy” said the Chilean government officials.
The Chilean currency at its highest in 16 months: 496 to the US dollar
The Chilean peso rose to its strongest level against the US dollar in 16 months after copper prices and global stocks rallied. The peso climbed 1.1% to 496.6 per dollar during trading and touched 494.15, the strongest since July 2008.
