Latin America

• Thursday, January 12th 2012 - 12:32 UTC

  Chile ratifies its position and denies existence of a Malvinas blockade

  

  Chile ratified this week that vessels flying the Malvinas flag will continue to be barred from Chilean ports and that the country’s position relative to the issue has not changed and denies the existence of a blockade. A brief statement from the Chilean Foreign Affairs ministry indirectly refers to the latest statement by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague.

• Thursday, January 12th 2012 - 12:31 UTC

  Uruguay’s position on barring Malvinas flagged vessels “has not changed an iota”

  

  In an official communiqué Uruguay ratified full support for Argentina’s Malvinas sovereignty claim and underlined that the barring of Malvinas’ flagged vessel from Uruguayan ports stands and “has not changed an iota”.

• Wednesday, January 11th 2012 - 06:29 UTC

  Latin America a “top priority” for President Rajoy’s foreign policy

  

  Spanish president Mariano Rajoy said that Latin America is a “top priority” of his administration’s foreign policy and his target is to have the “best possible” relations with the Ibero-American community.

• Wednesday, January 11th 2012 - 06:27 UTC

  A divided EU to decide on oil embargo on Iran January 23

  

  European Union governments agreed Tuesday to bring forward a meeting of foreign ministers expected to decide on an oil embargo on Iran by one week to January 23. In its statement confirming the date, the EU said the decision to bring it forward from January 30 was taken to avoid a scheduling clash with a summit of EU leaders set for that day.

• Wednesday, January 11th 2012 - 06:24 UTC

  Chilean Patagonia in the 2012 top ten travel destinations of the New York Times

  

  Chile has been included in the New York Times’ list of top travel destinations in 2012, with Chilean Patagonia in 8th place, and Chiloé in 37th place out of a total of 45.

• Wednesday, January 11th 2012 - 06:22 UTC

  Argentina says no change in Mercosur decision to bar Falklands’ flagged vessels

  

  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.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 15:42 UTC

  UK tells Mercosur it will resist any attempts to coerce the Falklands

  

  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.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 06:02 UTC

  Rockhopper ends Faklands’ 2010/11 exploration round with three oil discoveries

  

  Rockhopper Exploration announced Monday that it has completed its successful round of drillings in Falkland Islands waters with the Ocean Guardian rig.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:59 UTC

  Chile preparing forest restoration plan for ravaged areas of Torres del Paine Park

  

  As emergency workers finish extinguishing the last traces of fire in Torres del Paine National Park, now the Chilean government is beginning to look at the next critical phase in handling the disaster in Chile’s world-famous adventure destination.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:57 UTC

  Chilean per capita meat consumption has doubled in the last two decades

  

  In the last two decades Chileans consumption of different meats has doubled according to data from the Agriculture Policy and Studies Office, ODEPA, released this week. From the 39.6 kilos of 1991, meats consumption soared in 2011 to 84.2 kilos on average, and not taking into account fish and sea food.