Latin America

• Tuesday, December 3rd 2013 - 17:38 UTC

  Chilean presidential candidates working together against voters' apathy

  

  Voter turnout in Chile's extreme north and south fell far short of national average, and candidates will look further afield for votes in upcoming elections December 15. As Chile’s presidential candidates turn their heads to the country’s far-flung regions, a report by La Tercera demonstrates the particularly high rates of abstention in rural areas in both the extreme north and south.

• Monday, December 2nd 2013 - 13:32 UTC

  Chile among leading exporters of 23 non-copper related products

  

  Chile leads the world in copper production but the country must do more to diversify its export-driven economy, according to experts. Precisely to diversify several government and industry bodies have spent years promoting Chile’s major non-mining related export items, which consist largely of produce, wood products and aquaculture.

• Saturday, November 30th 2013 - 19:49 UTC

  Panama reaffirms support for Argentina's Malvinas claim and promotes 'friendship groups' at congressional level

  

  Panama Foreign minister Fernando Núñez Fábrega underlined his country's traditional and committed support for Argentina's sovereignty claims over the Malvinas and other South Atlantic Islands and their adjoining maritime spaces, an issue that was discussed during this week's visit to Buenos Aires, a special guest of his peer Hector Timerman.

• Saturday, November 30th 2013 - 06:46 UTC

  Argentina, Brazil and Chile elected to the Int. Maritime Organization council

  

  Argentina, Chile and Brazil have been elected to be members of the International Maritime Organization Council for the 2014/15 biennium by the IMO assembly, which is meeting in London.

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 23:30 UTC

  Brazil will have its own national-made secure communications satellite by 2016

  

  Brazil's state-owned telecom provider Telebras signed a 560m dollar contract to deliver a satellite for secure communications on Thursday, following months of outrage over revelations of US cyber spying. A statement said a joint venture between Telebras and Embraer would deliver the geostationary satellite for strategic communications by late 2016.

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 07:44 UTC

  Mujica questions Argentine trade policies towards Mercosur that “take us back to the sixties”

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica again questioned Argentine president Cristina Fernandez administration trade policies which he said take us back 'to the sixties, when everybody locked in', and in effect deny Mercosur and harm other members.

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 07:39 UTC

  Mercosur must have an only voice and act as a block, advises former leader Sarkozy

  

  “Mercosur must have greater integration, act with an only voice and operate as a block”, advised former French president Nicholas Sarkozy at a business conference in Buenos Aires, where he also underlined that without the European Union, “France or Germany could have disappeared from the world map”

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 07:23 UTC

  Desperately dollar-short Venezuela planning gold reserves swap operation

  

  Venezuela is evaluating a swap agreement involving gold reserves as a way to fortify dollar supplies in a country which suffers chronic product shortages and inflation close to 55%. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said last week that the government was negotiating a swap operation with Goldman Sachs involving 1.45 million ounces of gold worth around 1.86 billion dollars.

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 07:17 UTC

  Youth gangs raids in Rio beaches are back challenging police; US consulate alert

  

  A truck with fourteen cameras with a 360 degree angle and a range of eight kilometers plus a fourfold increase in police numbers has been displayed along Rio do Janeiro most iconic beaches following an outbreak of 'arrastraos' or dragnets in which tens of teenagers stampede on to beachgoers to steal whatever they can get hold off.

• Thursday, November 28th 2013 - 20:51 UTC

  Poor ratings for Chile in health care and pensions' system, according to OECD

  

  Two biannual reports revealed Chile as one of the countries with the worst pension statistics and the highest citizen out-of-pocket expenditure on health among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations.