
Uruguay's second pulp mill Montes del Plata started production this week following an investment of 2 billion dollars, the largest ever in the recent history of the country. The announcement was made by the Chilean-Swedish complex that is running the plant.

The British Minister of State for Latin America, Hugo Swire, arrived to Costa Rica on Monday June for his first official visit to the Central American country and the British Government’s first audience with the new government since the inauguration of President Luis Guillermo Solis on 8 May 2014.

Mercosur and Celac country-members expressed support for Argentina and its ongoing litigation with the holdout hedge funds, particularly last week's decision from the US Supreme Court, (which refused to consider the case), and the financial consequences emerging from such a position.

The ruling Workers Party, or PT, Latin America's largest political force of the left that has governed Brazil since 2003, proclaimed Saturday at its national convention the candidacy of President Dilma Rousseff for a second term in the coming Oct. 5 elections.

The Uruguay-Germany commerce and industry chamber (AHK), expressed its deepest concern over the current tension in relations between Uruguay and Argentina, and warned about the impact on the business climate for the two countries.

Argentina and Brazil have again clashed not over football but over trade and Mercosur according to the Sao Paulo media. Brazil believes there is a lack of ambition from Argentina to finish polishing the proposal to be exchanged with the European Union for a much delayed cooperation and trade agreement.

Mexico's stock exchange plans to be connected to bourses in Chile, Colombia and Peru by year-end through the Latin American Integrated Market, or MILA, nearly doubling the size of the bloc, it was announced in Mexico City.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet on Friday proposed a September gathering between officials and business leaders from Mercosur and the Pacific Alliance in hopes of creating a tie-up between the two Latin American trade groups.

Uruguay has released a draft map of four ultra-deepwater and seven shallow-water blocks in the Punta del Este-Atlantic basin that will be on offer in the country’s third oil and gas bid round next year, officials said in Moscow this week, according to the oil and gas site Upstream.

Colombia and Brazil's presidents Juan Manuel Santos and Dilma Rousseff met in Brasilia to address regional and bilateral affairs and the possibility of closer links between the Pacific Alliance and Mercosur, which are naturally complementary and do not compete among themselves.