Latin America

• Wednesday, January 11th 2012 - 06:24 UTC

  Chilean Patagonia in the 2012 top ten travel destinations of the New York Times

  

  Chile has been included in the New York Times’ list of top travel destinations in 2012, with Chilean Patagonia in 8th place, and Chiloé in 37th place out of a total of 45.

• Wednesday, January 11th 2012 - 06:22 UTC

  Argentina says no change in Mercosur decision to bar Falklands’ flagged vessels

  

  Argentina in two brief statements said on Tuesday that there has been no change in Mercosur members’ position to bar Falklands’ flagged vessels from the region’s ports and that the United Kingdom admits that such policy has become effective.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 15:42 UTC

  UK tells Mercosur it will resist any attempts to coerce the Falklands

  

  The British government said it would resist any attempts to coerce the Falkland Islands through economic or other pressures, and revealed it is holding ‘productive discussions’ with Uruguay, Chile and Brazil to ensure trade and commercial links between the Islands and South America are not compromised by political declarations.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 06:02 UTC

  Rockhopper ends Faklands’ 2010/11 exploration round with three oil discoveries

  

  Rockhopper Exploration announced Monday that it has completed its successful round of drillings in Falkland Islands waters with the Ocean Guardian rig.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:59 UTC

  Chile preparing forest restoration plan for ravaged areas of Torres del Paine Park

  

  As emergency workers finish extinguishing the last traces of fire in Torres del Paine National Park, now the Chilean government is beginning to look at the next critical phase in handling the disaster in Chile’s world-famous adventure destination.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:57 UTC

  Chilean per capita meat consumption has doubled in the last two decades

  

  In the last two decades Chileans consumption of different meats has doubled according to data from the Agriculture Policy and Studies Office, ODEPA, released this week. From the 39.6 kilos of 1991, meats consumption soared in 2011 to 84.2 kilos on average, and not taking into account fish and sea food.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:56 UTC

  Ortega inaugurates consecutive mandate; opposition fear he could follow Chavez example

  

  Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega takes office for a third time on Tuesday with an ample majority in Congress and in the presence of close allies such as Iran’s Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:53 UTC

  Chavez and Ahmadinejad mock 'US imperialism' and joke about having an atomic bomb

  

  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuela's Hugo Chávez lavished each other with praise on Monday, mocked US disapproval and joked about having an atomic bomb at their disposal.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:51 UTC

  With October election in mind Chavez back on the air with “Alo Presidente” program

  

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez resumed on Sunday his weekly television and radio broadcast after a seven-month pause. Chavez's program, Alo Presidente, had been halted while he was receiving treatment for cancer.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2012 - 05:46 UTC

  “Clarin rebelled against reality” when Cristina Fernandez diagnosis was “false positive”

  

  Faced with media controversy following Argentine President Cristina Fernandez thyroid cancer surgery that resulted in a “false positive” case, that is minor benign non cancerous tumours in spite of the original diagnosis, the Argentine Executive Chief of Staff Oscar Parrilli revealed that the president had ordered him to “tell it all” regarding the 22 December operation.