Latin America

• Thursday, July 22nd 2010 - 09:44 UTC

  Santiago de Chile shows strong divide between the rich and poor

  

  The Chilean national CASEN Survey revealed last week that even though poverty in the capital Santiago is below the national poverty rate of 15.1%, the city’s poverty levels grew from 10.6 to 11.5% in the last three years.

• Thursday, July 22nd 2010 - 09:36 UTC

  Ecuador leader will be in Bogotá when Colombian president-elect takes office

  

  Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa announced Wednesday he would be attending Colombian president-elect Juan Manuel Santos taking-office ceremony next August 7, according to a report from the government news agency ‘Andes’.

• Thursday, July 22nd 2010 - 09:30 UTC

  Human Rights Watch calls on Chavez to eliminate office to control public debate

  

  Venezuela should close a recently created office that grants President Hugo Chávez administration broad powers to limit public debate, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday in a release. The government should also stop seeking to discredit human rights defenders and prosecuting critics.

• Thursday, July 22nd 2010 - 09:19 UTC

  Former president Bachelet joint Inter-American Dialogue think-tank

  

  Former president of Chile Michelle Bachelet has joined the Inter-American Dialogue’s Board of Directors to serve as its Latin American Co-Chair.

• Thursday, July 22nd 2010 - 02:31 UTC

  Mercosur driving the strong recovery in Latam and Caribbean, says UN

  

  Latin America and the Caribbean is consolidating its recovery from the global economic slowdown, posting higher-than-expected growth in recent months. Although some countries in the region face serious pitfalls, according to a new United Nations report, Mercosur stands out as driving the revival.

• Wednesday, July 21st 2010 - 07:07 UTC

  Hundreds of dead penguins washed up on Brazilian beaches

  

  Hundreds of penguins have been washed up dead on the beaches of Brazil southern state of Sao Paulo.

• Wednesday, July 21st 2010 - 07:04 UTC

  Peru and Chile agree on confidence building measures in defence affairs

  

  Peruvian Defence Minister Rafael Rey said this week that representatives from Chile and Peru would meet next Monday for the first time in an effort to establish common criteria for approving military expenditures. Rey also said he would meet with his Chilean counterpart, Jaime Ravinet, in Lima in August.

• Wednesday, July 21st 2010 - 06:43 UTC

  Lan Chile renews fleet and purchases 50 Airbus A320 family

  

  Chile’s flag air carrier Lan Airlines S.A. and its subsidiaries, one of the leading airlines in Latin America, announced Tuesday an agreement for the purchase of 50 modern Airbus A320 family aircraft to be delivered between 2012 and 2016.

• Wednesday, July 21st 2010 - 06:16 UTC

  Chile begins reconstruction of cities hit by February earthquake

  

  Nearly five months after the Feb. 27 earthquake in Chile, the cities of Talca and Curicó, two of the hardest hit areas have begun the first steps to rebuild their historic centres, which together account for almost 364 blocks of severely damaged landscapes.

• Wednesday, July 21st 2010 - 05:49 UTC

  BP sells assets in US, Canada and Egypt to pay clean up bill

  

  British Petroleum is to sell assets in Texas, Canada and Egypt, to part-fund the clean-up cost of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The oil giant said it had reached a 7 billion US dollars deal with US-based oil production firm Apache Corp.