Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez promoted a general criticized for vowing not to cooperate with opposition leaders should they take power after 2012 elections, raising tensions in the run-up toward the vote.
United States president Barack Obama confirmed to his Chilean counterpart Sebastian Piñera an upcoming trip to Chile as part of his next South American tour. The two leaders met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Yokohama, Japan, this weekend.
With the staring participation of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations' Assembly held a special session Monday to pay tribute to former Argentina president and UNASUR Secretary General, Néstor Carlos Kirchner, who passed away on October 27, reported Argentine ambassador to the UN Jorge Argüello.
A new business association promoting Chile’s thermal hot springs hopes to bump visits up 12% to 1 million people by 2015. Last year only 700,000 people visited Chile’s hot springs, which exist in all corners of this mountainous, volcano-rich country.
In spite of healthy economic growth in Latin America, local and foreign companies alike single out one area as deficient, especially compared with Asia: infrastructure.
The nudism and naturism movement in Chile will soon be in the international spotlight, as the country was recently named headquarters for the Latin American Nudism-Naturism Conference, scheduled for March 2012.
A 3.85 billion US dollars pipeline to carry freshwater some 1,000 kilometres from central Chile to the country’s northern desert will provide a cheaper alternative for users now reliant on desalinization of ocean water, a business news Web site said this week.
Finance Minister Ismael Benavides said Peru's economy should grow between 8% and 8.5% this year, with inflation ending the year from 2.2% to 2.5%. The Peruvian Central Bank latest forecast was annual growth of 7.5% to 8%.
Ecuadorean Foreign Affairs minister Ricardo Patiño hailed the approval by the Colombian Senate of the Union of South American Nations, Unasur, charter which leaves the group one short of its legal constitution. The Uruguayan parliament is expected to follow suit in coming days.
Japan’s Sumitomo and Mitsubishi will send experts and equipment to Bolivia to support efforts to produce value-added lithium by-products in the Andean nation, state media reported.