In Chile there's no room, and there can be no room, for violence or fear, President Michelle Bachelet said Thursday at a ceremony commemorating the 41st anniversary of the 1973 military coup and several days after a bomb blast injured 14 people in this capital. The 17-year military dictatorship remains controversial and a rift in Chilean society.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that while Argentina was facing potential financial instability, its solvency and the sound macroeconomic fundamentals in other countries of the region “should prevent the shock from developing into a regional financial crisis.”
The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza recalled on Thursday the tragic events that occurred on September 11, in Chile and the United States, in 1973 and 2001, and called on the international community “to observe tolerance and to respect diversity at a time when the world is shaken once more by violence.”
Despite all the negative news on government restrictions imposed on the Argentine economy and the shortage of hard currency, the country's Merval Index has skyrocketed almost 100% this year, the highest of any stock market in the world. It includes many of the largest companies in the country such as Telecom Argentina and Energy Petrobras, along with banks and a steel maker.
The World Bank says due to rising sea levels and recurring storms, the beaches in most Caribbean nations have started to disappear. In a new report, the Washington-based financial institution said, in some areas of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for instance, an estimated 18-30 meters of beach have been lost over the last nine years.
Cuba has implemented new rules that will restrict the personal importation of foreign goods into the country except where locally made items are expensive and scarce.
With less than fifty days to national elections when Uruguayans will vote for president and a new parliament (26 October), public opinion polls indicate that the ruling coalition until a few months ago the undisputed winner, faces a runoff and whoever wins will have to rule with a divided legislative.
Belize says it will support Uruguay for the position of secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS) and downplayed any suggestion that its non-support for the Guatemalan candidate was linked to the ongoing territorial dispute between the two countries.
Latin America and the Caribbean have the largest share of homicides among children and adolescents in the world, revealed a UNICEF report released yesterday. According to the study, in 2012 alone, “more than 25,000 homicide victims in the region were below the age of 20 — representing about one quarter of all homicide victims worldwide.”
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has adopted a more combative re-election campaign strategy after opinion polls showed her trailing popular environmentalist candidate Marina Silva. Two election surveys this week showed Rousseff was the frontrunner in the first round ballot scheduled for October 5, but would lose to Silva, a former environment minister, in a likely runoff.