Cuban lawmakers will meet to name a new head of state for the first time in nearly a half-century on Sunday, just five days after an ailing, 81-year-old Fidel Castro said he would not accept another term as president.
In spite of the smiles and pictures the Buenos Aires presidential summit of leaders from Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia could not agree on a way out to the energy and distribution situation that threatens the three countries this coming winter and apparently could only be solved in the mid term.
Raul Castro was unanimously selected Sunday by Cuba's National Assembly as president succeeding his ailing brother Fidel who stepped down last week after nearly half a century in charge.
Fidel Castro strongly criticized United States calls for change in Cuba, following his resignation earlier this week as president more than 49 years after seizing power. In a column published Friday Castro rejects US President Bush's assertion that the resignation could put Cuba on the path to democracy.
In a declaration spanning energy, transport and space satellite cooperation, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and visiting Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, instructed their governments to begin negotiations over the next 120 days toward creating the binational commission.
Directors at Marine Harvest in Chile, the largest salmon producer in the world, will begin to lay off nearly 1,200 workers in June to compensate for financial losses incurred as a result of an infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) viral outbreaks that took place is some of its production sites.
A commercial airliner with 46 people aboard disappeared in southwestern Venezuela on Thursday, and authorities feared it had crashed after residents reported hearing a thunderous noise in the mountains.
The Peruvian government declared a state of emergency in several coastal provinces after a farmers' protest left at least four dead and more than 700 under arrest.
Western leaders are hailing news of Cuban President Fidel Castro's plans to retire as an opportunity for political change in the island and to reestablish long frozen links.
Venezuela agreed on Tuesday to compensate Eni of Italy 700 million US dollars in cash for the takeover of an oil field but warned that Exxon Mobil Corp nationalized assets are worth less than a billion US dollars, far below what the US company is seeking.