
The US State Department said on Monday that if Cuba wants to participate in the coming Summit of the Americas to be hosted by Colombia, it must first fully integrate to the Organization of American States and guarantee the basic liberties of its citizens.

After a successful turnout and demonstration last week, the Chilean community in the Falkland Islands will be deciding this week on addressing letters to President Sebastian Piñera and President of the Senate, Guillermo Guiralde to tell them that in the Islands there is also a piece of Chile.

European and Latin American personalities underlined the peril of falling prey to short term results and forget the long term relation between the two regions which is expected to be re-launched following the French presidential election next April.

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles easily won a primary election on Sunday to become the unity candidate against President Hugo Chavez, vowing to end 13 years of socialist rule that he said has left the country in deep crisis.

Chilean Foreign Affairs minister Alfredo Moreno denied rumours that Argentina had requested Chile to join a blockade of the Falklands Islands and also reassured that the government of President Cristina Fernandez has not questioned the commercial air link between Santiago and the Islands.

The Cuban government has expressed its interest in attending the coming Summit of the Americas scheduled for next April in Cartagena, revealed Colombian Foreign Affairs minister Maria Angela Holguin following a visit to Havana.

The government of Antigua and Barbuda by way of a press statement issued Wednesday, disassociated the Caribbean nation from statements made in the wake of the recent Eleventh ALBA summit, which were carried in the local, regional and international press, about a ban on Falkland Islands-flagged ships.

One hundred members of the Chilean population living in the Falkland Islands were joined by 50 to 60 Islanders in a show of unity against the possibility that the weekly Lan Chile flight between Santiago and the Falklands might be discontinued at the request of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez.

Mercosur from a real point of view exits, but institutionally it’s a “chewing gum” claimed Uruguayan president Jose Mujica who anticipated he would demand from the block’s partners that Uruguay be allowed to sign bilateral trade agreements with third parties.

Santiago media reports increasing disappointment in the Chilean government and private sector with the latest batch of Argentine measures to restrict imports and want the issue ‘top of the agenda’ when President Cristina Fernandez visits Chile at the end of the month.