Latin America

• Tuesday, February 9th 2010 - 20:30 UTC

  Looking for the Pinochet link in false accounting plea by British arms giant

  

  Chilean authorities investigating bribery and embezzlement charges against former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet hope a plea bargain agreement between British arms manufacturer BAE systems and judicial authorities in the U.S. and U.K. will provide them with fresh evidence.

• Tuesday, February 9th 2010 - 04:31 UTC

  Cuba renews attempt to boost farm production and cut food import bill

  

  Cuban President Raul Castro has announced a five-year plan that he hopes will ease the country's economic problems and reliance on food imports. Basically the agricultural reform this time will be to surround cities with small urban farms so private citizens can raise animals and grow fruits and vegetables.

• Tuesday, February 9th 2010 - 04:06 UTC

  Chavez ready “any time” to declare “electricity emergency”

  

  Venezuela is facing the worst drought in a century and needs to be placed under an “electricity emergency,” President Hugo Chavez said Monday in his new, “any-time” radio program “Suddenly With Chavez.”

• Tuesday, February 9th 2010 - 04:03 UTC

  Unasur summit on Haiti could help ease regional tensions

  

  Union of South American Nations, Unasur, leaders meet Tuesday in Quito, Ecuador to discuss the continent’s response to the crisis in earthquake devastated Haiti. The extraordinary summit’s initiative was sponsored by Ecuador’s president Rafael Correa following his visit to Haiti where he met with President René Preval.

• Monday, February 8th 2010 - 10:05 UTC

  Costa Rica elects Chinchilla first woman president

  

  Laura Chinchilla, a protege of Nobel peace laureate President Oscar Arias, won a landslide election victory in Costa Rica on Sunday to become the country's first woman elected president.

• Monday, February 8th 2010 - 05:08 UTC

  Russia displaces the US as main supplier of arms to Latinamerica

  

  The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a British research institute focusing on international security, revealed that Russia in 2009 became the main exporter of weapons to Latin America thanks to the purchases made by Venezuela, but also to Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Colombia.

• Monday, February 8th 2010 - 04:59 UTC

  A billion US dollars to purchase Piñera’s Lan airlines shares

  

  Costa Verde Aeronautica SA, the holding company owned by Chile’s Cueto family, plans to raise 1 billion US dollars in a move analysts say will finance the purchase of Lan Airlines SA shares from President-elect Sebastian Piñera.

• Saturday, February 6th 2010 - 09:00 UTC

  All Mercosur leaders present at Mujica’s inauguration next March

  

  Mercosur presidents have confirmed attendance to the inauguration next March first of Uruguayan president-elect Jose Mujica who will be heading a second consecutive government of the catch-all centre left coalition Broad Front.

• Thursday, February 4th 2010 - 18:21 UTC

  Costa Rica elects president and renews Legislative next Sunday

  

  Costa Rica next Sunday will be electing a successor to president Oscar Arias out of nine hopefuls among which leading public opinion polls is his sponsored candidate, Laura Chinchilla, followed by Conservative Otto Guevara and Socialist Ottón Solis.

• Thursday, February 4th 2010 - 16:11 UTC

  Chile enacts bill with sweeping changes to defence policy

  

  Chilean president Michelle Bachelet promulgated this week a bill with sweeping changes in the Defence ministry and Armed Forces structure including the creation of a post equivalent to that of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.