Latin America

• Thursday, November 17th 2011 - 20:08 UTC

  Colombian president tells new FARC leader: turn in or risk death

  

  Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos warned the new FARC rebel chief ‘Timochenko’ to reconsider waging war or risk the same fate as his predecessor, who was shot dead by Special Forces this month.

• Thursday, November 17th 2011 - 20:01 UTC

  Latin American economy has entered cooling phase, says Brazilian think-tank

  

  The Latin American economy has entered a declining phase and will further slow down in coming months according to a report from the Brazilian think-tank Getulio Vargas Foundation, FGV.

• Thursday, November 17th 2011 - 18:54 UTC

  Uruguay is Mexico’s strategic partner in Mercosur says President Calderon

  

  The Mexican president underlined the strategic importance of Uruguay since it is the only Mercosur member that has a free trade agreement with Mexico, thus making it the ‘strategic partner’ of Mexico in Mercosur.

• Wednesday, November 16th 2011 - 05:14 UTC

  Argentine Vice President elect urges Latam countries to use local currencies

  

  Argentine Economy Minister and Vice-President elect Amado Boudou urged Latin American countries to increase the use of local currencies in regional trade instead of depending on other currency such as the dollar.

• Tuesday, November 15th 2011 - 23:05 UTC

  Peruvian Vice-President suspended from Congress over corruption allegations

  

  The ethics committee in Peru's Congress voted on Tuesday to suspend Vice President Omar Chehade from the legislature over corruption allegations, increasing pressure on him to resign from both posts.

• Tuesday, November 15th 2011 - 23:03 UTC

  Colombia’s FARC name a new leader and promise to fight on

  

  Colombia's FARC guerrillas named Timoleon Jimenez, known as Timochenko, as the group's new leader after its previous boss was killed this month, according to a rebel statement published on a website.

• Tuesday, November 15th 2011 - 16:44 UTC

  President Mujica in Mexico to boost trade and relations with G20

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica arrived Tuesday in Mexico for a two day visit to promote bilateral trade and to address with his host Felipe Calderon issues related to recent discrepancies with the G20 that described Uruguay and Panama as “fiscal havens”.

• Monday, November 14th 2011 - 20:18 UTC

  Mercosur/EU confident of a first proposals exchange in mid 2012

  

  The seventh round of Mercosur/EU trade negotiations held in Montevideo ended with “progress in some areas at regulation and norms levels” and with the commitment of exchanging proposals in mid 2012, according to Joao Aguiar Machado head of the EU team.

• Monday, November 14th 2011 - 18:19 UTC

  Most Latam banks target the SME sector to expand business, shows survey

  

  A large majority of banks in Latin America and the Caribbean consider small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) as a strategic part of their business and are upbeat about expanding their business to this sector in the next two years, according to the Latin American Banking Federation, Feleban.

• Monday, November 14th 2011 - 17:11 UTC

  Mexican remittances rose in September at fastest pace in five years

  

  Mexican remittances rose at the fastest pace in five years in September as immigrant workers took advantage of the Peso’s decline to send more money to relatives, according to the Mexican Central bank.