Latin America

• Sunday, November 23rd 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Venezuelan vote seen as key test for Chavez

  

  President Hugo Chavez knows just how important Sunday's state and municipal elections are to his own grip on power.

• Saturday, November 22nd 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Venezuelan municipal elections, key test for Chavez “revolution”

  

  Sunday's elections in Venezuela will be a key test for President Hugo Chavez a year after voters defeated his effort to change the constitution which was targeted to ensure his XXI Socialist-Bolivarian revolution.

• Saturday, November 22nd 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Before Peruvian congress China promises aid to Latam

  Chinese President Hu Jintao offered his nation's economic muscle to help Latin America weather global economic turmoil, in a speech on Thursday in Peru that marked another step in Beijing's campaign to raise its profile in the region.

• Friday, November 21st 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Ecuador auditing commission suggests halting bond payments

  A commission auditing Ecuador's foreign debt has recommended that the country halt payments on three bonds worth 3.9 billion USD after finding “illegalities” in the obligations.

• Friday, November 21st 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Chile's balanced budget threatened by less copper surplus

  Plummeting prices for copper and molybdenum, Chile's main exports, are expected to have a negative impact on the country's finances and for the first time in six years, in 2009, the country could end with a budget deficit.

• Friday, November 21st 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Santiago airport plan to double passenger traffic

  

  Santiago de Chile's international air terminal Pudahuel will be expanded to receive 20 million passengers annually from its current 9 million. The original plan was for the reform to become operational in 2018/19 but given the rapid growth of air traffic plans were advanced to 2013/14.

• Friday, November 21st 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Spanish bank says Latinamerica will avoid global crisis

  

  For the first time a global economic crisis will not hit Latinamerica and in 2009 “the region's economy will experience positive growth” in the range of 2%, according to the president of one of Spain's leading banks.

• Friday, November 21st 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Magallanes ten years of growth based on energy projects

  

  In spite of the global recession and the international gloomy atmosphere, Magallanes region in the extreme south of Chile has been forecasted ten years of 6.3% annual average growth speared by investments in energy related projects.

• Thursday, November 20th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Chile shocked with surfacing of vanished political prisoner

  The reappearance of a man who was officially dead has shaken and outraged some in Chile which still mourns 1,196 other political prisoners who vanished in the hands of the 1973/1990 military dictatorship.

• Wednesday, November 19th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Communist allies China, Cuba hold landmark summit

  

  China's President Hu Jintao on Wednesday was to wrap up a landmark visit to Cuba where he brought millions of dollars in aid and promises of closer trade ties.