Caracas is furious over a Wednesday meeting between Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elías Jaua told state television the meeting “will bring a derailment of the good relations that we have” while Parliament Speaker Diosdado Cabello compared the meeting to placing a bomb on the train.
Brazil's economy grew 0.6% in the first quarter of 2013, compared with the final quarter of last year, the government said this week. The figure could confirm official projections that the economy would recover following the slowdown experienced over the past two years.
Brazil's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday to 8% from 7.5%, as part of an effort to battle high inflation in an economy that keeps struggling with slow growth.
Falkland Islands Government Director of Natural Resources John Barton said that he is confident that there won’t be any repetition in the future of recent offences by companies licensed to fish in Falklands waters.
Fifteen members of the Royal College of Defense Studies (RCDS) visited Chile in mid-May as part of their study tour to Latin America. The visitors came from the UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lebanon, India, Netherlands, Uganda, Turkey and Estonia.
Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman met on Thursday with Interpol top officials and said he received ‘very strong support’ for the memorandum signed with Iran, which includes the questioning of those allegedly involved in the 1994 attack on the Jewish organization AMIA in Buenos Aires that killed 85 and left dozens injured.
The Falkland Islands are only asking the international community to support the fundamental human right of Falkland Islanders to choose their own form of government, to exercise their right to self determination, said lawmaker Mike Summers during his presentation at the United Nations Decolonization Committee (24) Caribbean regional seminar, in reference to the recent referendum held in the Islands, whose sovereignty is disputed by the UK and Argentina.
Argentine president Cristina Fernandez shuffled her cabinet appointing Defence minister Arturo Puricelli at the Security ministry and Agustin Rossi until now head of the government’s block in the Lower House, in Defence. Removed Nilda Garré is to be appointed as the new ambassador before the Organization of American States, OAS.
On World No Tobacco Day, May 31, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) is calling on countries throughout the Americas to ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. Such bans are one of the most effective ways to reduce consumption of tobacco, which kills some 1 million people every year in this hemisphere.
The secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, plans to finish his term as head of the organisation. In an interview with El Pais (Madrid), the Chilean socialist political veteran has said that he still has two more years as head of the OAS thus quelling rumours about his resignation.