
BAL Chile SA is dedicated to farming algae on the island of Chiloé and in a second stage, plans to produce bio-fuels for industrial use, announced the company’s CEO Benjamin González.

A Uruguayan government delegation will begin talks on Tuesday in Brazil to address the latest restrictions imposed by Mercosur largest member and which threaten several manufacturing sectors, particularly the auto industry, said Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos dismissed reports that he has discussed a scenario of an orderly default by Athens with International Monetary Fund Chief Christine Lagarde and European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet.

Argentine Economy Minister Amado Boudou urged countries in the region to “seize the opportunity created as a result of the crisis affecting developed nations and implement their own solutions.”

Nicolas Eyzaguirre, the IMF director for Latin America, stated that Argentina must apply “major measures” to improve its method of measuring the inflation.

The Economist in its latest edition has a two-chapter piece on trade restrictions imposed by South America’s two biggest economies. The first (“Keep Out”) refers to Argentina and the second (“A self made siege’) to Brazil.

An Argentine Judge has subpoenaed six newspapers for the names and phone numbers of all reporters and editors who have covered Argentina's economy the past five years, so they can be called as witnesses against their sources.

A massive power blackout on Saturday paralyzed crucial copper mines in Chile and darkened vast swaths of the country including the capital Santiago before energy started to be restored, officials said.

The head of the IMF for the Western Hemisphere Department Nicolás Eyzaguirre discards an outflow of capitals from Latin America as a consequence of the current global situation and pointed out that the region’s position is solid.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has called on European leaders to take urgent new steps to create a 'firewall' against the crisis spreading. He added that decisions on how to tackle Euro zone debt could not wait until the crisis gets more severe.