MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

South America News.

Chilean peso recovers

The Chilean peso experienced a bullish recovery this week reaching its strongest value against the US dollars since September 13th. Santiago's money market was trading the US dollar at 690 pesos, a significant drop from the almost 720 pesos of just a few days ago. An encouraging international scenario after the turning point of the Afghanistan war, and the fact the Queens air crash was an accident and not a terrorist attack, had a full impact in Chilean markets. Besides the country's financial indicators show the worst could be over and the price of copper is bouncing back after reaching historic lows in the first week of November. Squid "charting" system blasted

Argentine high seas captains, merchant navy officers, the fisheries industry and harbour workers are protesting against the squid "charting" system, which they claim involves 60 million US dollars and the loss of 1,500 jobs. Protestors are demanding the approval of a fisheries bill that will eliminate Decree 1285/99 which upholds the charting system, and allegedly will be the framework of an agreement with Japan. The bill already has passed the Senate and is now waiting to be approved by the House of Deputies. In an official release from the different groups related to the industry, protestors claim that the Argentine government is about to hand over "60 million US dollars worth of squid for a five million US dollars annual licence", and they demand a quick action from Congress. "It's up to the House of Deputies to definitively solve a legal and labour aberration; it's up to their souls to vote and vindicate the workers of the Argentine Sea".

Good omen for Argentina

Argentine Finance Minister Domingo Cavallo will be meeting US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil next Friday in Washington. The meeting after months of waiting, is considered a very good omen for Argentina's desperate attempts to restructure its public debt and avoid a default, that could send shock waves to the rest of the continent. Mr. O'Neil is expected to tell Mr. Cavallo that the US Treasury will support Argentina's plan to restructure the 132 billion US dollars public debt, although it's not clear if d