The 2003 edition of the Palermo Agriculture Show in Buenos Aires closed its doors last Tuesday after giving ample and positive evidence of Argentine farmers' optimism about the future. Argentina's main agriculture show and where the best livestock of the rich pampas country is exhibited was visited by over a million people in twelve days and ended with several promising sales.
Chilean retail prices in July dropped 0,1%, with an accumulated inflation of 1,5% in the seven months of 2003 and 3,1% in the last twelve months according to the latest release from the Chilean Institute of Statistics.
The man who provided the unsmiling, some say sinister, face to the 1970s Argentine dictatorship, Junta leader Jorge Videla, has rejected the jurisdiction of a Spanish judge who wants him extradited to face atrocities charges.
Argentine Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna will be meeting this week with United States Secretary of the Treasury John Snow in Washington to assess financial relations between both countries.
The Argentine Tourism Office reports an excellent winter season with record numbers compared to a year ago. With 7,350,000 tourists, a 15% increase over the 6,400,000 in 2002, the season exceeded our most optimistic expectations, reads an official report indicating that the South, followed by the Northern provinces proved the main attractions.
A massive protest was the first popular reaction to the approval by the Brazilian Lower House of the controversial public pensions' system reforms. An estimated 35,000 protesters marched along Brasilia's streets destroying public property and finally tried to break into Congress where riot police pushed them back.
A testing week full of tension, uncertainty and turbulence has begun for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his seven months administration that took office full of optimism and hope for millions of Brazilians who granted his a landslide victory.
Spanish owned Aerolíneas Argentinas expects to end 2003 with a considerable profit, quiet an event, according to Mr. Antonio Mata, president of the company's Executive Committee.
Peru expects to join Mercosur this month in similar conditions as Chile and Bolivia that are associate members of the regional block. The announcement was made following the Mercosur and Andean Community, CAN, Foreign Secretaries summit held in Montevideo to speed the South American integration timetable.
Mercosur and Andean Community Foreign Affairs Ministers will be holding a crucial meeting this Monday in Montevideo in an attempt to conclude a common free trade area between the two regional blocks by December 31.