The head of the Unasur delegation sent to Venezuela to follow Sunday’s electoral process, Carlos Alvarez said that the country had given the world a lesson of democracy because of its extraordinary electoral system and the attitude of the opposition, among other positive elements.
President Federio Franco said he trusted Paraguay would be fully re-incorporated to Mercosur before the general election scheduled for 21 April 2013. Paraguay is currently suspended from the trade block following the removal of Fernando Lugo as president, a decision voted almost unanimously by the country’s Senate but condemned by Mercosur and Unasur.
The British government said that the military exercises scheduled to be carried out in the Falkland Islands beginning Monday are “annual and routine exercises.” The move had been strongly condemned by the Argentine government.
Next Tuesday the Ghana Supreme Court will be holding a hearing to consider a motion from the government of President Cristina Fernandez requesting the annulment of the injunction retaining Argentina’s navy training vessel ARA Libertad following a legal proceeding from a hedge fund holding Argentine defaulted sovereign bonds.
Brazilian banks have room to cut consumer lending rates in half, Brazil's Finance Minister Guido Mantega said in remarks published this weekend in the O Globo newspaper.
Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes has been re-elected with an overwhelming majority in the first round of Brazil's municipal elections. Paes from the centrist Democratic Movement Party will be in charge when Rio hosts the 2016 Olympics.
The Argentine Coast and Border Guards conflict remains unchanged Sunday night with the government advancing with some disciplinary actions while the big event is scheduled for Monday/Tuesday when the Cristina Fernandez administration is supposed to come up with a ‘satisfactory’ reply to the salary and working conditions petitions.
Britain will have to keep cutting public spending to reduce the budget deficit, Prime Minister David Cameron said, underlining the government's tough task of trying to shunt the economy out of recession and winning back waning public support.
Thousands of Spaniards on Sunday marched in cities across the country to decry tough austerity measures, part of a growing protest movement that shows no signs of abating and could culminate in a general strike in November.
Portugal’s auction of state-owned airline TAP SA has been shunned by Europe’s three biggest carriers, boosting prospects for a Latin American takeover of a company analysts say may fetch 500 million Euros.