Latin America

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 23:30 UTC

  Brazil will have its own national-made secure communications satellite by 2016

  

  Brazil's state-owned telecom provider Telebras signed a 560m dollar contract to deliver a satellite for secure communications on Thursday, following months of outrage over revelations of US cyber spying. A statement said a joint venture between Telebras and Embraer would deliver the geostationary satellite for strategic communications by late 2016.

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 07:44 UTC

  Mujica questions Argentine trade policies towards Mercosur that “take us back to the sixties”

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica again questioned Argentine president Cristina Fernandez administration trade policies which he said take us back 'to the sixties, when everybody locked in', and in effect deny Mercosur and harm other members.

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 07:39 UTC

  Mercosur must have an only voice and act as a block, advises former leader Sarkozy

  

  “Mercosur must have greater integration, act with an only voice and operate as a block”, advised former French president Nicholas Sarkozy at a business conference in Buenos Aires, where he also underlined that without the European Union, “France or Germany could have disappeared from the world map”

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 07:23 UTC

  Desperately dollar-short Venezuela planning gold reserves swap operation

  

  Venezuela is evaluating a swap agreement involving gold reserves as a way to fortify dollar supplies in a country which suffers chronic product shortages and inflation close to 55%. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said last week that the government was negotiating a swap operation with Goldman Sachs involving 1.45 million ounces of gold worth around 1.86 billion dollars.

• Friday, November 29th 2013 - 07:17 UTC

  Youth gangs raids in Rio beaches are back challenging police; US consulate alert

  

  A truck with fourteen cameras with a 360 degree angle and a range of eight kilometers plus a fourfold increase in police numbers has been displayed along Rio do Janeiro most iconic beaches following an outbreak of 'arrastraos' or dragnets in which tens of teenagers stampede on to beachgoers to steal whatever they can get hold off.

• Thursday, November 28th 2013 - 20:51 UTC

  Poor ratings for Chile in health care and pensions' system, according to OECD

  

  Two biannual reports revealed Chile as one of the countries with the worst pension statistics and the highest citizen out-of-pocket expenditure on health among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations.

• Thursday, November 28th 2013 - 11:28 UTC

  North west England trade mission scheduled to visit Chile, Argentina and Brazil

  

  Attracted by Chile’s positive economic climate a trade mission for North West England will be arriving in Santiago on 2nd-3rd December. The delegation from one of the most dynamic areas of the UK economy has representatives from Covering Cheshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and the cities of Manchester and Liverpool.

• Thursday, November 28th 2013 - 10:31 UTC

  Maduro tells Central bank he expects 5% deflation in November because of the mandatory price cuts

  

  President Nicolás Maduro has sent clear messages to the Venezuelan central bank arguing that following the 'economic war' he declared on big business and hoarding with the mandatory cuts in prices, November should register “5% deflation and not inflation”.

• Wednesday, November 27th 2013 - 06:43 UTC

  Sound fiscal policy is new target of Brazilian economy: subsidies to be lessened

  

  Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said on Tuesday the government will remove some subsidies and delay tax breaks to keep the country's fiscal policy sound. Likewise the state development bank, BNDES, will stop funding lines for regional government next year.

• Tuesday, November 26th 2013 - 20:55 UTC

  Chile turns left again

  

  By R Viswanathan (*) The Leftist coalition candidate Michelle Bachelet won 47% of the votes in the presidential elections held on 17 November while her rightist rival Evelyn Matthei got just 25% votes.