MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

South America breaking news.

FAM: concern in Punta Arenas.

Concern is growing in Punta Arenas over Santiago's delay in approving and transferring necessary funds to set up preventive sanitary barriers given the fact that foot and mouth in Argentina seems to have extended very close to parallel 42 south, where Patagonia officially begins. The 70,000 US dollars requested and promised by the Ministry of Agriculture, which anyhow will come from the Magallanes Region Development Fund, apparently have got lost in Santiago's red tape in spite of the fact that the Regional Agriculture and Livestock Office labeled the request "urgent". Punta Arenas fears that the over 500 FAM cases reported is Argentina could begin moving south and affect Magallanes region. Magallanes officials have recently visited Santiago urging the release of the funds. Chile isolated from the rest of the continent (Argentina and Bolivia) by the Andes, and in the north from Peru by the Atacama desert is geographically privileged and considered free of FAM disease. The only sensitive area is in the extreme south, but Argentine Patagonia has also traditionally been free of FAM

Chile combats unemployment.

Chile will invest 516 million US dollars in creating 150.000 jobs this year in an attempt to combat unemployment that is increasing, almost 9%, and experts consider it could reach two digits in the winter months. President Lagos administration claims it already created 50.000 jobs and in the coming months will generate another 100.000, financed from a special Unemployment Contingency Fund, which should help alleviate some of 512,000 Chileans out of work. However opposition members consider the figure "over ambitious" and public opinion polls indicate a degree of skepticism about the official announcement. After going through a severe 1998/99 recession, the Chilean economy recovery has been strong but unemployment remains stubbornly high, far above the 5 to 7% previous to the crisis. Chilean economic growth last year reached an encouraging 5,4%, but investment is lagging and inflation seems to be cropping, 0,5% last April.

Too many Malvinas veterans.

The National Committee of Malvinas Veterans was gran