Latin America

• Sunday, April 19th 2009 - 04:54 UTC

  Obama more popular than Chavez in Venezuela, says US top aide

  

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rushed a photograph of him and President Obama shaking hands onto his government's website because Mr. Obama is more popular than Mr. Chavez in Venezuela, said Jeffrey Davidow, senior advisor to the US president on Latinamerican affairs.

• Sunday, April 19th 2009 - 04:43 UTC

  Obama tells Unasur members US and Cuba are “on a path of change”

  

  South American leaders pressed President Barack Obama on Saturday to end the US economic embargo on Cuba and abstain from interventionist policies as he attempts to reshape US hemispheric relations. Obama was quoted saying that the US and Cuba are “on a path of change”

• Sunday, April 19th 2009 - 04:24 UTC

  The U shaped “new beginning” table in Port Spain

  

  Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet, pro tempore president of the Union of South American Nations, Unasur, chaired this morning’s closed doors meeting or South American leaders with Barrack Obama.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 09:39 UTC

  Summit “first step for a new regional order” says Cristina

  

  Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said Friday that the Trinidad and Tobago summit “should be the first step for a new regional order” and recalled the previous summit in Argentina had signalled “an inflection point for the continent”.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 09:05 UTC

  Obama pledges a “new beginning” with Latinamerica and Cuba

  

  United States President Barack Obama pledged on Friday to seek a “new beginning” in ties with the Castro brothers ruled Cuba as part of a new era of US partnership and engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean. But he also pointed out he had come to speak about the future, not the past.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 08:56 UTC

  “I want to be your friend” says Chavez and shakes hands with Obama

  

  President Barack Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez shared a friendly handshake at the start of the Fifth Summit of the Americas Friday. The Venezuelan government called the handshake ''historic'' and hinted that it was the first step toward thawing chilly relations between the two nations.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 08:50 UTC

  LAN unveils three year plan to invest 1.3 billion USD to expand fleet

  

  Chile's flag air carrier LAN announced on Friday it will invest 1.3 billion US dollars between 2009 and 2011 to expand its fleet. LAN, which has operations across South America, will buy long- and short-haul planes as well as new-generation cargo aircraft, Chairman Jorge Awad said.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 08:03 UTC

  Mexico inaugurates new IMF flexible credit line with record 47 billion USD

  

  The International Monetary Fund on Friday approved a previously agreed 47 billion US dollars line of credit for Mexico, the first country to qualify for the new lending facility for strong-performing emerging economies. However Mexican authorities have stated they intend to treat the one-year arrangement as precautionary and do not intend to draw on the line.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 05:46 UTC

  ALBA summit support Paraguay’s Itaipu dam claims

  

  The ALBA group presidential summit, which has Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez as its main promoter, fully supported Paraguayan claims in its conflict with Brazil regarding the energy from Latinamerica’s largest hydroelectric dam Itaipú.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 05:34 UTC

  Latinamerica looks to China to increase trade and investments

  

  Latinamerica is hopeful that an increase in trade with China and investments from the Asian giant will help compensate lost business with the United States and the European Union because of the global crisis.