Latin America

• Tuesday, July 10th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentine group interested in managing Punta Arenas airport

  

  An Argentine group firmly established in Patagonia is interested in participating in the tender for management of two of Chile's extreme south airports, Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales according to reports in the local press.

• Tuesday, July 10th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Pope confirms Patagonian Mapuche native en route to beatification

  

  Pope Benedict XVI signed last week a decree declaring the upcoming beatification of an Argentine Mapuche native from Patagonia. Ceferino Namuncurá, son of a native chieftain and student of the Salesian order of priests was born in the province of Rio Negro August 26, 1886 and died at Rome on November 11, 1905.

• Tuesday, July 10th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Cold weather snap hits South America and more to come

  

  Thousands of Argentines cheered and threw snowballs in the streets of Buenos Aires on Monday as the capital's first major snowfall since 1918 spread a thin white mantle across the region. The freezing spell also extended to Chile, Bolivia and Uruguay.

• Tuesday, July 10th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Venezuela/Iran deliver first 300 “anti imperialist” cars

  

  The first 300 units of the so called “anti imperialist automobile”, jointly produced by Venezuela and Iran were delivered this week in Caracas to recent graduates of the Venezuelan Military Academy.

• Saturday, July 7th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  June inflation in Chile reaches 0.9%, the highest since 1991

  The National Statistics Institute (INE) revealed this week that Chile's Consumer Price Index increased 0.9% in June. That figure is nearly double the 0.5% monthly government projection, and it revived calls for higher interest rates to calm inflation worries.

• Saturday, July 7th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Bush administration wakes up to South America's reality

  Several outstanding United States officials will be visiting “friendly” countries in South America to promote political and trade links in the framework of what has been described as the year of the “US commitment with Latinamerica”.

• Saturday, July 7th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Panama to start work on Canal expansion

  

  The first bid in a 5.2 billion-dollar project to widen the Panama Canal was issued on Friday to a Panamanian company, officials said.

• Saturday, July 7th 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  LAN holder, and conservative leader, fined for insider trading

  

  Chile's securities regulator on Friday fined a leading right-wing politician and former presidential candidate for insider trading of LAN Airlines SA stock

• Monday, July 2nd 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  World Bank names new Latam country directors

  

  Pamela Cox, World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, announced the appointment of three new country directors for the region to head the units of Mexico and Colombia; the Andes: Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela; and the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, effective July 1st, 2007.

• Monday, July 2nd 2007 - 21:00 UTC

  Colombian guerrilla accused of killing 11 lawmakers

  

  Colombia's guerrilla movement FARC (Colombian revolutionary armed forces) are the “main culprits” for the death of the eleven local Deputies which they held captive, but so is Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, said on Sunday Melanie Betancourt, daughter of Ingrid Betancourt held at ransom by the Marxist oriented guerrillas.