Latin America

• Tuesday, October 18th 2011 - 15:33 UTC

  Bolivians reject Morales judicial reforms: 60% spoiled or left ballots blank

  

  Bolivian President Evo Morales suffered a major setback on Sunday when many Bolivians spoiled or left their ballots blank in the first elections for the country’s top judges, La Razon reported.

• Tuesday, October 18th 2011 - 08:49 UTC

  Supreme Court knocks out main challenger to President Chavez re-election

  

  Venezuela's Supreme Court blocked high-profile opposition challenger Leopoldo López on Monday from running against President Hugo Chávez in a 2012 vote despite an international ruling in his favour.

• Tuesday, October 18th 2011 - 07:06 UTC

  Chilean mountains hold the world’ largest space research infrastructure

  

  The Chilean Foreign Ministry officially signed over a total of 213 square miles of land to the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) last Thursday to begin construction of the world’s largest optical telescope, the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT).

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 21:53 UTC

  Military draft for 57.000 18-year olds in Chile, alleging students’ disruption

  

  Chile is giving nearly 57.000 18-year-olds one month to report for potential military duty, saying the government needs to fill gaps in its armed forces because a nationwide student protest movement has reduced the number of volunteers it usually gets.

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 21:36 UTC

  Chile not immune but has “the tools to mitigate possible impacts”

  

  Chile’s central bank and government have monetary and fiscal instruments to respond if growth moderates faster than forecast amid concern over the European debt crisis, bank board member Rodrigo Vergara said.

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 21:31 UTC

  Former personal surgeon says Chavez has a very aggressive ‘pelvic tumor’

  

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is undergoing “rigorous” medical exams in Havana where he traveled Sunday night and hopefully will be back in Caracas mid week with “good news”.

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 19:08 UTC

  Close links between Social Assistance and presidential vote in Latin America

  

  A paper from the University of Vanderbilt Latin America Public Opinion Project confirms that conditional cash transfers (CCT) by governments from the region condition to a great extent the vote in favour of the incumbent candidate.

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 17:39 UTC

  Chile purchasing an 11.300 tons amphibious assault ship from the French navy

  

  France and Chile are in the last stages of the transfer of the amphibious assault ship ‘Foudre’ to replace the decommissioned multipurpose ‘Valdivia’ that was extensively used for the transport of troops and military equipment, reported the Chilean navy.

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 17:24 UTC

  Pirelli to invest 500m in Argentina factory to recover Mercosur tyre market

  

  Facing losing market shares in the Mercosur region, Italy’s Pirelli is to build a new radial truck tyre factory in Argentina involving an investment of 500 million dollars. Construction will begin in 2012, with first-phase capacity on stream in 2014.

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 17:05 UTC

  Paraguay holds the chair of Unasur as of next October 29

  

  Paraguay will be receiving the pro-tempore chair of Unasur (Union of South American Nations) from Guyana next October 29 during the Ibero-American summit which will be taking place in Asuncion.