The Uruguayan government granted Chilean company Graneles S.A. the rights to operate for 30 years the port of La Paloma on the Atlantic coast as an outlet for its forestry exports, reported the Montevideo press.
Summer time begins this weekend; Stronger Peso: 595 to the US dollar; New hospital for Punta Arenas; Insecurity and trust in democratic institutions; Sustainable tourism discussions; Bachelet leads vote intention opinion polls.
A vast majority of Argentines, 61% do not think highly of the United States, according to a public opinion poll published Sunday in the Buenos Aires Pagina/12 newspaper.
Devastation of grasslands in Brazil is accelerating and the ecosystems are in danger of disappearing as did the jungle that once covered the country's Atlantic coast, state news agency Agencia Brasil reported this Sunday.
Relations between Argentina and Uruguay, which have had their ups and downs over the past year, are once again troubled after an Argentine governor called Uruguayan President Jorge Battle a gorilla, a nickname for anti-Peronists.
Mercosur Foreign Affairs ministers agreed last week in Rio do Janeiro to a last political effort next October 20 when they meet with European Trade Commissar Pascal Lamy to discuss about the signing of a elusive trade agreement with the EU which so far has proved elusive and controversial.