
Argentina in two brief statements said on Tuesday that there has been no change in Mercosur members’ position to bar Falklands’ flagged vessels from the region’s ports and that the United Kingdom admits that such policy has become effective.

The British government said it would resist any attempts to coerce the Falkland Islands through economic or other pressures, and revealed it is holding ‘productive discussions’ with Uruguay, Chile and Brazil to ensure trade and commercial links between the Islands and South America are not compromised by political declarations.

Paraguay veterinary services concluded Monday midday the termination of 168 livestock mostly belonging to a farm where an outbreak of foot and mouth disease was confirmed 2 January in the county of San Pedro to the centre north of the country.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff signed the decree for the construction of five new hydroelectric dams in the Amazon basin and readies for a renewed attack from domestic and international environmentalists against the project.

Inflation in Uruguay was not only far above target domestically but also figures among the ten highest in the world, and in Latam only behind Argentina and Venezuela

Brazil's government just met its inflation target for 2011, which was a surprise victory forPresident Dilma Rousseff and for a central bank that struggled for most of the year with rising food and commodities prices. However it is the highest inflation since 2004.

Spain’s new Conservative Government announced this week a wide ranging plan against fiscal fraud and tax evasion by which it hopes to recoup over 8 billion Euros for treasury coffers in 2012 alone. And it has also announced it will be engaging countries which have ceased to be tax-havens in order to step up the Government’s efforts against tax evasion in Spain.

The Brazilian subsidiary of automaker Ford has unveiled a new version of its EcoSport SUV and says it will be sold in close to 100 countries. The car was introduced Wednesday in the Brazilian capital and at the Auto Expo show in New Delhi.

Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state placed emergency teams on maximum alert as heavy rains that have displaced 35.000 residents were forecast to continue, reviving fears of mudslides and flooding that killed about 900 people last year.

Brazil must expand electricity production over the next decade by an amount equivalent to the power generated by three Itaipú hydroelectric dams, according to a study released Wednesday by the state-run Energy Research Corporation, EPE.