Latin America

• Wednesday, December 16th 2009 - 04:13 UTC

  Lula da Silva has a new declared admirer: Chile’s Piñera

  

  Conservative Sebastián Piñera, winner of Chile’s first presidential round last Sunday said his development model for Chile is on the lines of those applied by Brazil, Mexico and Peru, but distant from those under Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez or Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega.

• Tuesday, December 15th 2009 - 14:20 UTC

  Brazil, Peru plan to build five hydroelectric dams in the Amazon

  

  Brazil expects to reach an accord with Peru by March on a 5 billion US dollars power project to secure energy supplies for both countries, according to Energy minister Edison Lobao. The two governments plan to build five hydroelectric plants in Peru that will produce 6,000 megawatts of electricity

• Tuesday, December 15th 2009 - 14:07 UTC

  S&P lowers Mexico’s foreign currency debt rating to BBB

  

  Mexico’s credit rating was cut one level by Standard & Poor’s after tumbling oil output and the worst recession since the 1930s swelled the budget deficit.

• Tuesday, December 15th 2009 - 10:58 UTC

  US and Brazil agree on road map for Honduras national reconciliation

  

  United States and Brazil agree ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya must have safe passage to leave Honduras and want the country's de facto president to step down to pave the way for national reconciliation, a senior Brazilian official said on Monday.

• Tuesday, December 15th 2009 - 07:58 UTC

  Dengue “yellow alert” in north-east Argentina next to Paraguay

  

  Argentine sanitary officials from the north-eastern province of Misiones declared a “yellow alert” following reports of several cases of the mosquito transmitted dengue disease in several locations of neighbouring Paraguay.

• Tuesday, December 15th 2009 - 07:57 UTC

  Indigenous “medicinal plant” tourism a few miles from Punta Arenas

  

  When most of us need digestive, analgesic, anti-inflammatory or antibiotic medicinal treatments, we walk down the street to the nearest pharmacy. When the indigenous Huilliche in the south of Chile need medicine, they stroll into the forest.

• Monday, December 14th 2009 - 13:23 UTC

  Castro and Chavez criticize US at alternative trade summit in Cuba

  

  Cuba's President Raul Castro and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez have criticised the US during a key alternative trade summit in Havana. Castro accused the US of treating Latin America as its “backyard” and denounced a deal giving US armed forces access to Colombian military bases.

• Monday, December 14th 2009 - 12:58 UTC

  Conservative Piñera faces tougher race in Chile’s January 17 run-off

  

  Chilean Conservative candidate Sebastián Piñera moved on Sunday a step closer to the presidency but he now faces a tougher run-off January 17 when the government is expected to again put its full weight behind incumbent candidate and former president Eduardo Frei in alliance with the Communists.

• Monday, December 14th 2009 - 12:50 UTC

  Mounting pressure for letting Zelaya leave embassy in Honduras

  

  Honduran president elect Porfirio Lobo said on Sunday he is committed to enable ousted president Manuel Zelaya to leave the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he remains under refuge following a frustrated attempt last week.

• Monday, December 14th 2009 - 08:52 UTC

  US Congress facilitates sales of farm goods to Cuba

  

  The United States Senate approved a provision on Sunday to facilitate cash sales of US farm goods to Cuba, overturning restrictions by former President George W. Bush's administration, a senator said.