Latin America

• Thursday, August 23rd 2012 - 00:58 UTC

  Chavez pledges 130bn investment to boost oil production to 6 million bpd by 2019

  

  Some 130 billion dollars will be invested in Venezuela's Orinoco Oil Belt between 2013 and 2019 to boost national production from 3 million barrels per day to 6 million bpd, President Hugo Chavez announced on Tuesday evening.

• Thursday, August 23rd 2012 - 00:50 UTC

  Where’s the cheapest to ‘fill her up’? Venezuela: 12.8 US cents a liter of petrol

  

  Venezuela, the latest entry as full member of Mercosur has the cheapest petrol price in the world, 8 pennies per liter, (1 £ trading at 1.59 dollars on 22 August) according to the latest report from UK website, “This is money”, based on a research from Evans Halshaw.

• Wednesday, August 22nd 2012 - 05:44 UTC

  Double standards in Ecuador: Correa ready to extradite Belarus who faces death threat

  

  Less than a year ago an Ecuadorean judge denied a request to extradite Aliaksandr Barankov to Belarus, the former Soviet bloc nation whose president has been nicknamed “Europe's last dictator”, reports the US and European media.

• Wednesday, August 22nd 2012 - 05:24 UTC

  UN: Latam 20% richest earn on average 20 times more than the 20% poorest

  

  The gap is widening between the rich and poor in much of Latin America which is the world’s most economically unequal and its most urbanized region, the UN said Tuesday. The richest 20% of the population now earn on average nearly 20 times more than the 20% poorest, a study by the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT) found.

• Tuesday, August 21st 2012 - 22:49 UTC

  Argentina hits back at US and will complain in WTO trade barriers on meats and lemons

  

  The Argentine Foreign Ministry on Tuesday hit back at the United States amid various trade barrier complaints and allegations of illegality saying that it would report the country for violating the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) rules for stopping imports of Argentine meat and citrus fruits to the US.

• Tuesday, August 21st 2012 - 22:08 UTC

  Peru to punish “negationism”, denying a past of killings and destruction by terrorist gangs

  

  The Peruvian government announced that it will be sending Congress a bill that punishes the negation of the terrorist violence suffered by the country during the last decades of the last century. The bill against “negationism” is in ‘support of democracy and a unified front against terrorism’ which is still active in some parts of the country in alliance with the drug lords.

• Tuesday, August 21st 2012 - 22:01 UTC

  Brazil with the lowest performance in the first half of 2012 among BRIC countries

  

  Russian GDP growth in percentage terms surpassed Brazil in the first half of the year and even if the market still prefers Brazil’s diverse economy over Russia, the South American country is now dead last in terms of economic growth in the big four emerging markets, BRIC.

• Tuesday, August 21st 2012 - 20:40 UTC

  Sweden will not extradite Assange if he faces death penalty in the US

  

  The Swedish government will not extradite Julian Assange to the US should he face the death penalty there, as any possible extradition request from Washington is then subject to strict conditions, an official from the country’s Justice Ministry.

• Tuesday, August 21st 2012 - 18:43 UTC

  Paraguay Electoral Tribunal officially announces April 2013 general election

  

  Paraguay officially announced holding elections on April 2013, when a new president and congress will be voted. The three branches of government attended the launching of the announcement that took place at the Superior Electoral Justice Tribunal on Tuesday, one day ahead of the OAS Permanent Council debate on “the Paraguayan situation”.

• Tuesday, August 21st 2012 - 05:21 UTC

  Ecuador ready for dialogue with UK, but with eyes on Friday’s OAS meeting

  

  The Ecuadorean government reiterated on Monday that dialogue with UK on the Julian Assange case will continue once London officially “withdraws” the original message with threats. Quito also is hopeful that the coming OAS extraordinary meeting will ratify full support for Ecuador as has happened with other regional organizations.