Latin America

• Saturday, July 14th 2012 - 07:12 UTC

  Tourist arrivals in Chile up 15% in first half of 2012: Argentina, Brazil lead

  

  Chilean Tourism Under Secretariat head Jacqueline Plass made a positive balance of tourism activity during the first half of the year with over 1.85 million foreign arrivals, a 15% increase over the same period a year ago.

• Saturday, July 14th 2012 - 07:01 UTC

  Bolivia willing to compensate for silver mine but positions are distant

  

  Bolivian government is willing to compensate South American Silver Corp for revoking its concession on the Malku Khota project, but it will be far less than the 16 million dollars the company says it has invested, the country's vice president said on Thursday.

• Saturday, July 14th 2012 - 06:48 UTC

  Chile’s copper industry wants to develop shale gas to help lower energy prices

  

  Shale gas may be the solution to one of the most serious problems the Chilean mining industry is facing because of the very high energy prices due to limited supply.

• Saturday, July 14th 2012 - 00:46 UTC

  Chavez becomes an issue of the US presidential campaign

  

  President Hugo Chavez denied on Friday that Venezuela was a threat to anyone, after US presidential hopeful Mitt Romney criticized Barack Obama for playing down the risk posed by the socialist leader.

• Saturday, July 14th 2012 - 00:30 UTC

  Top Brazilian entrepreneurs tie-up to develop mining opportunities in Latam and Africa

  

  Brazil's top investment bank Banco BTG Pactual announced a tie-up with Roger Agnelli, former head of mining giant Vale, to invest up to 520 million dollars in Latin America and Africa.

• Thursday, July 12th 2012 - 07:05 UTC

  Washington says Paraguay should not be suspended from OAS and calls for regional unity

  

  Paraguay should not be suspended from the Organization of American States, OAS, despite the removal of President Fernando Lugo, said on Wednesday Roberta Jacobson, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

• Thursday, July 12th 2012 - 07:00 UTC

  Canada protests Bolivian decision to revoke licence to mine silver deposits

  

  Canadian company is protesting Bolivia's decision to revoke its licence to mine a rich silver deposit in the country and nationalize the project.

• Thursday, July 12th 2012 - 02:27 UTC

  Chavez after an extra 9bn dollar to fund “Love for the Elderly”

  

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will seek Congress' approval to hike the 2012 government borrowing cap by about a third to 27 billion dollars to help fund a new pension program ahead of his October 7 re-election bid.

• Thursday, July 12th 2012 - 02:03 UTC

  Paraguayan Supreme Court receives unconstitutional appeal on Lugo’s removal

  

  The Paraguayan Supreme Court accepted on Wednesday an unconstitutional appeal against the removal of President Fernando Lugo which requests the annulment of the political impeachment undertaken and voted by Congress.

• Thursday, July 12th 2012 - 01:59 UTC

  Chile’s top copper producer placed 2bn dollars in 10 and 30-year bonds

  

  The world’s number one copper producer Codelco announced it had placed 2 billion dollars in bonds, its largest debt issue to date, aimed at refinancing debt and funding a good part of the miner's 2013 investments.