Latin America

• Tuesday, December 20th 2011 - 07:12 UTC

  Chavez expected in Montevideo to announce Venezuela’s Mercosur full membership

  

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said he will travel on Tuesday to the Mercosur summit in Uruguay in his first official foreign trip since undergoing cancer surgery in June and a further sign he is feeling stronger.

• Tuesday, December 20th 2011 - 07:05 UTC

  Latam’s exports in 2011 forecasted to grow 26%, close to 1.1 trillion dollars

  

  Latin America’s projected 2011 export growth of 26% to approximately 1.1 trillion dollars continues the strong growth posted in 2010, according to new estimates by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

• Monday, December 19th 2011 - 07:26 UTC

  President Obama wants to re-float a free trade agreement with South America

  

  United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced that the administration of President Barack Obama is intent in reaching a free trade agreement with South America and called for a greater opening of the Brazilian economy.

• Monday, December 19th 2011 - 07:22 UTC

  UK ambassador underlines close historic links between Falklands and Punta Arenas

  

  British ambassador in Chile Jon Benjamin met this week in Punta Arenas with a group of local students from municipal managed schools who were recently part of an exchange program with the Falkland Islands and underlined the close links between the two communities.

• Saturday, December 17th 2011 - 04:00 UTC

  Venezuelan Supreme Court endorses land grabbing alleging the right to food

  

  In a controversial ruling Venezuela’s Supreme Court endorsed the non enforcement of Criminal Code sanctions against those occupying private landholdings and plots of land.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:26 UTC

  Disclosed documents reveal Brazilian strong support for the Pinochet regime in Chile

  

  Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo published a report on this week revealing a series of 266 telegrams from the Brazilian embassy in Santiago that unveiled strong economic and diplomatic ties between the nations’ military regimes in the early 1970s.

• Friday, December 16th 2011 - 06:09 UTC

  Maersk orders from Chile two offshore supply vessels for Canada

  

  Maersk Supply Service has contracted Chilean shipyard Asenav, the country’s largest private yard, to build two new offshore vessels, with an option for up to four more.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 20:59 UTC

  Astori anticipates investment grade and the white list for Uruguay in 2012

  

  Vice president Danilo Astori anticipated that in 2012 Uruguay will recover investment grade and said that including Uruguay in the OECD “grey list” was a “tremendous injustice” which did not take into account all the advances achieved in combating money laundering and narcotics trade.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 15:37 UTC

  Brazil decides full support for the (development) Bank of the South

  

  The administration of President Dilma Rousseff will be sending the bill creating the Bank of the South to congress next month, since this financial institution “will help the region address the global crisis”.

• Thursday, December 15th 2011 - 15:32 UTC

  Lan-Tam clears Brazil antitrust regulator, becomes world’ second largest carrier

  

  Chile Lan Airlines planned 3.2 billion dollars acquisition of Tam SA was approved by Brazil’s antitrust regulator, clearing the final regulatory hurdle for the formation of the world’s second-largest carrier.