Citizens protested on the streets of 27 Chilean cities on Saturday. The demonstrations were strategically planned to coincide with President Sebastián Piñera’s annual May 21 speech. In many areas, peaceful demonstrations morphed into violent riots.
Chilean prosecutors have opened an investigation into an alleged bribe paid to a former Argentine minister by Chile’s flag carrier Lan sometime in 2006/2007 to help with the opening of operations in Argentina. At the time Chilean president Sebastián Piñera was the main share holder of the airline.
Investigators in Chile exhumed Salvador Allende’s remains on Monday as part of an inquiry into the former president’s death in a military coup 37 years ago. Allende died during a September 1973 military attack against the presidential palace that led to 17 years of dictatorial rule.
Latin American stocks fell to an eight-month low on Monday triggered by concerns that the Euro zone debt problem was deepening and signs of slower growth in China. The region’s largest market Brazil’s Bovespa ended at its lowest since July 2010
Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol said it made a new discovery at a well in the south-eastern Caño Sur block, of which the company is the sole owner and operator.
The Mito-1 exploratory well yielded an average of 200 barrels per day of heavy oil in initial testing, Ecopetrol, which plans to drill another 10 wells at that block in the near future, said.
Mexico central bank Governor Agustin Carstens will be presented as a candidate for managing director of the IMF, the Finance Ministry said in an e-mailed statement Sunday.
Colombia and Venezuela brokered an agreement between Honduras's incumbent president and its deposed former leader to try to help the Central American nation be readmitted to the Organization of American States.
Peruvian outgoing president Alan García said on Sunday that the days of rivalry and fights with his peer Hugo Chavez are over and admitted he’s quite fond of the Venezuelan president whom he considers a man “respectful of institutions and power”.
UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) Secretary General Maria Emma Mejia and several defence ministers from the region will be meeting in Buenos Aires this week for the official inauguration of the Defence Strategic Studies Centre, CEED, which is to become the first permanent body of Unasur Defence Council.
The number of Cubans working in the private sector continues to rise and now includes over 300,000 as a result of President Raul Castro government’s economic reforms that have been implemented since last October.