Latin America

• Friday, September 30th 2011 - 01:47 UTC

  Cuba replacing Sugar Ministry for a holding company ‘efficiency oriented’

  

  Cuba is closing its once powerful Sugar Ministry in favour of a state holding company charged with pulling the sector out of a long decline, official media announced on Thursday.

• Friday, September 30th 2011 - 01:39 UTC

  Education reform debate begins in Chile while angry students clash with riot police

  

  Chilean students and government leaders met Thursday in an angry atmosphere for long-awaited negotiations on the country’s education reform while tens of thousands of protesters challenged police in the streets of Santiago.

• Thursday, September 29th 2011 - 06:16 UTC

  Bolivian will resume month-long protests against a road in the Amazon

  

  Bolivian demonstrators opposed to the construction of a road in the Amazon vowed on Wednesday to resume a month-long protest march that has become a major challenge to leftist President Evo Morales.

• Thursday, September 29th 2011 - 06:12 UTC

  Ecuador land of exquisite cacao, major sponsor at Chocolate Week in London

  

  Ecuador has been announced as a major sponsor and exhibitor of the National Chocolate Week in London, the UK’s biggest and most indulgent chocolate celebration.

• Thursday, September 29th 2011 - 00:48 UTC

  Raul Castro drops 50-year ban: Cubans allowed buying and selling cars

  

  Cuba authorized auto sales among individuals Wednesday, easing a 50-year-old ban that has helped make the Castro brothers-ruled island a living museum of vintage cars.

• Wednesday, September 28th 2011 - 14:51 UTC

  Obama proposes Roberta Jacobson for Western Hemisphere Affairs

  

  US President Barack Obama suggested that acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roberta Jacobson, be ratified in office, the White House announced.

• Wednesday, September 28th 2011 - 06:29 UTC

  Chilean president support plummets; 67% “believe little or anything” Piñera says

  

  A poll from the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Reality (CERC) released Tuesday confirmed that Chile’s beleaguered President Sebastián Piñera continues to lose popular support.

• Wednesday, September 28th 2011 - 02:34 UTC

  Bolivia’s Interior minister steps down and controversial jungle road is suspended

  

  Bolivia's Interior minister and his Deputy resigned Tuesday after mounting recriminations over a violent police crackdown on marchers opposed to a jungle highway that they say would despoil an indigenous preserve.

• Wednesday, September 28th 2011 - 01:21 UTC

  Falklands’ governor says relations with Chile go back over 200 years

  

  Falklands’ Governor Nigel Haywood said UK relations with Chile go back over 200 years and it was “natural to have a strong relationship with a good neighbour”, reports the latest edition of Penguin News.

• Tuesday, September 27th 2011 - 22:42 UTC

  Latam currencies weakness ‘transitory’ says Mexican central bank

  

  Mexican central bank Governor Agustin Carstens said the Peso’s weakness is “transitory” and the currency is likely to resume its upward trend, along with other Latin American currencies.