Latin America

• Friday, December 23rd 2011 - 04:39 UTC

  “We can never accept the Argentine government’s challenge to Falklands self-determination”

  

  “We will always maintain our commitment to you on any question of sovereignty because your right to self-determination is the cornerstone of our policy”, said British Prime Minister David Cameron in his Christmas message to the Falkland Islands.

• Friday, December 23rd 2011 - 04:36 UTC

  UK Defence denies London press rumours of a Falklands military build-up

  

  After statements published by the English newspaper “The Daily Mail,” in which the former head of the Navy, Lord Alan West, said that a nuclear submarine should be sent to the Malvinas Islands, the United Kingdom assured it does not plan to increase the military presence in the Islands.

• Thursday, December 22nd 2011 - 20:59 UTC

  Uruguay Navy says there is no legal impediment for Falklands’ flagged vessels to operate in Montevideo

  

  A report from the Uruguayan Coast Guard argues there is no legislation impeding Falklands/Malvinas flagged vessels from operating in the port of Montevideo. The report was handed to the Uruguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is drafting a protocol regarding what ships can and which can’t access Uruguayan ports.

• Wednesday, December 21st 2011 - 05:58 UTC

  “Malvinas is a global cause” because it involves the grabbing of natural resources

  

  “Malvinas is not an Argentine cause, it’s a global cause because they are taking our fisheries and oil resources” said Argentine president Cristina Fernandez on taking the Mercosur rotating chair for the next six months.

• Wednesday, December 21st 2011 - 05:53 UTC

  Mercosur supports Argentina: bans access to all Falklands/Malvinas flagged vessels

  

  Mercosur member countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) finally agreed Tuesday to close its ports to ships flying the flag of the disputed Falkland/Malvinas Islands, announced Uruguay's president at the closing of the group’s two-day summit in Montevideo.

• Wednesday, December 21st 2011 - 05:49 UTC

  Chavez claims five Paraguayan lawmakers are impeding Venezuelan access to Mercosur

  

  President Hugo Chavez claimed that a small group of Paraguayan lawmakers, manipulated by a “powerful black hand”, are impeding the long-delayed access of Venezuela as full member of Mercosur.

• Wednesday, December 21st 2011 - 05:39 UTC

  Lugo complains restrictions on market access and in energy integration

  

  Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo called for the free flow and free access of his country’s goods to Mercosur senior members’ markets and insisted on the energy integration of the block.

• Wednesday, December 21st 2011 - 05:29 UTC

  Ecuador wants closer ties between Mercosur and the Andean-Pacific countries

  

  Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa said he was satisfied with having presented an official request for his country to join Mercosur and also called for closer links between Mercosur and the Andean Nations Community, CAN.

• Wednesday, December 21st 2011 - 02:33 UTC

  Forty years ago the Catholic Liberation Theology was born in Latinamerica

  

  Four decades ago a book written by a Peruvian priest sent shockwaves inside the Latinamerican Catholic Church having set the foundations for what was known as the Liberation Theology.

• Wednesday, December 21st 2011 - 02:28 UTC

  Regional inter-trade expands 25% and is expected to reach record 160bn dollars

  

  Trade among ALADI, Latin American Integration Association, which includes all the hemisphere countries with the exception of a few from Central America and the Caribbean, is expected to reach a historic record in 2011 close to 160 billion dollars, ahead of the 2008 record with 146 billion dollars.