Latin America

• Wednesday, March 27th 2013 - 19:56 UTC

  Brazil’s Dilma seems unbeatable 18 months ahead of the presidential election

  

  Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff leads comfortably vote intention according to two public opinion polls published by leading newspapers, which indicate that she would have an easy win in the first round of the 2014 presidential election.

• Wednesday, March 27th 2013 - 19:12 UTC

  Conservative candidate leads polls in Paraguay April 21 presidential election

  

  Paraguay businessman Horacio Cartes a newcomer to politics and the presidential candidate for the conservative Colorado party that ruled the landlocked country for decades leads public opinion polls less than a month ahead of the general election.

• Wednesday, March 27th 2013 - 07:57 UTC

  Francis scheduled to visit Argentina, Chile and Uruguay next December

  

  Pope Francis is scheduled to make his first official visit to Argentina, where he was born, next December ‘to be close to his fellow compatriots’, according to ecclesiastic sources in Buenos Aires. The visit in the first half of December could extend to neighbouring Uruguay and Chile.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 22:44 UTC

  March-bonus for 7 million low income Chileans, handout in presidential election year

  

  Chilean president Sebastian Piñera signed this week a bill which grants a special ‘March-bonus’ to low-income families and is extensive to seven million people. Each beneficiary will receive the equivalent of 85 dollars which will represent for the Treasury an outlay of 208 million dollars.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 21:33 UTC

  Setback in New York court for Argentina’s strategy in its battle with bond holdouts

  

  A US court in New York on Tuesday rejected Argentina's request for a full-court rehearing of an appeal it lodged as it struggles to shake off holders of 1.3 billion dollars in defaulted bonds.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 20:25 UTC

  Malvinas: first time Latam groups at UN work together in support of Argentina’s claim

  

  Regional groups from South America for the first time are working together on the Malvinas question at the United Nations in support of Argentina’s claims, said the Peruvian delegate on Tuesday, something which he described as “very positive”.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 05:02 UTC

  Brazilian supermarkets will not sell meat from cattle raised in Amazon rainforest

  

  The main group representing supermarkets in Brazil says it will no longer sell meat from cattle raised in the rainforest. The Brazilian Association of Supermarkets, which has 2,800 members, hopes the deal will cut down on the illegal use of rainforest for pasture.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 03:17 UTC

  Malvinas question to be addressed with Ban Ki Moon at UN by Timerman and Latam peers

  

  On Tuesday Argentina’s Foreign minister Hector Timerman together with representatives from different Latinamerican and Caribbean organizations are scheduled to meet with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to address the “Malvinas Islands question”, according to a release from the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

• Tuesday, March 26th 2013 - 02:00 UTC

  Falklands: Argentina wants to silence referendum results and applies a ‘diplomacy of desperation’

  

  The Falkland Islands said that Argentina’s ‘frantic efforts’ to have the international community ignore the voice of the people of the Falkland Islands is ‘a diplomacy of desperation’ and insisted that the recent referendum results again confirmed that the people of the Falklands have no desire to be governed by Buenos Aires.

• Monday, March 25th 2013 - 04:45 UTC

  Falklands ‘a NATO base’ and the referendum ‘unacceptable and ridiculous’, says Uruguay

  

  Two of Uruguay’s President Jose Mujica closest ministers, Defence and Foreign Affairs said that the ‘British occupation’ of the Falkland Islands is ‘unacceptable’, represents a NATO base in the South Atlantic and described the recent referendum in the Islands as ‘absurd and ridiculous’.