
Buenos Aires expects 168 cruise calls in the 2012/13 season, according to Terminales Río de la Plata, up from 158 calls in 2011/12. National Geographic Explorer is booked as the first arrival, on Oct. 21, with Splendour of the Seas to wrap the season on April 15.

The second Seatrade South America Cruise Convention is scheduled to take place at the Quinquela Martin Cruise Terminal, Buenos Aires, Argentina next September 10-11. The event is organised in close partnership with the host port and Inprotur, the Argentine National Institute of Tourism Promotion.

Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold Corp. suffered a legal setback on Tuesday as Argentina's Supreme Court reversed preliminary injunctions that have blocked key parts of a glacier protection law.

Even when Uruguayan president Jose Mujica assumed full responsibility for the controversial support suspending Paraguay and embracing Venezuela during the Mercosur summit, other details of events have emerged with Uruguayan ambassador Guillermo Pomi in Argentina, allegedly playing a crucial role.

Argentina’s Federal Fisheries Council, (CFP), has decided to extend the deadline for fishing companies interested in presenting projects for the incorporation of jiggers to the authorised fleet, which currently consists of 85 vessels.

Brazil’s conservative but influential daily O Estado de Sao Paulo dedicated the main Tuesday editorial to the Mercosur suspension of Paraguay and the entrance of Venezuela arguing that what happened at the group’s summit in Mendoza was “a coup against” the block.

“It’s a major institutional blow, maybe the most serious in the 21 years of Mercosur” said Uruguayan Vice president Danilo Astori in direct reference to the group’s decision to incorporate Venezuela with the approval of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay and the absence of Paraguay.

Argentina underlined late Monday that the decision on the incorporation of Venezuela as full member of Mercosur was “unanimously” supported by the presidents from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay during the group’s summit last Friday hosted by President Cristina Fernandez.

The Uruguayan government said that it accepted the incorporation of Venezuela as full member of Mercosur as part of a “negotiation” in which it demanded no economic sanctions on Paraguay and that is why “the last word has not been said” on the issue.

The leading member from Brazil’s main opposition political party described Uruguay’s claim that consensus was absent in the Mercosur decision to suspend Paraguay and to incorporate Venezuela as “extremely serious” and complained Mercosur has become a merely “ideological” grouping.