Latin America

• Wednesday, March 9th 2011 - 04:59 UTC

  Magallanes region discusses gas prices with Chilean central government

  

  Mining and Energy Minister Laurence Golborne met with the Citizens’ Assembly of Magallanes Region (ACM) (extreme south of Chile) after the first of a series of meetings intended to resolve the Magallanes’ gas subsidy controversy.

• Wednesday, March 9th 2011 - 01:08 UTC

  Piñera presented with “Star of Palestine” honour; avoids pre-1967 borders controversy

  

  Chile’s President Sebastian Piñera visited both sides of the hotly contested Israeli- Palestine border this weekend. He reasserted his support for an independent Palestinian state, but fell short of formally recognizing the pre-1967 borders.

• Tuesday, March 8th 2011 - 04:52 UTC

  Chile’s Concha y Toro acquires California’s Fetzer Vineyard

  

  Chile’s Concha y Toro, Latin America’s largest wine producer, sealed a deal this week with Brown-Forman’s Fetzer Vineyards in a transaction worth 238 million US dollars to purchase its portfolio of American wine brands. The sale is expected to close in April 2011.

• Tuesday, March 8th 2011 - 00:04 UTC

  Food prices have soared most in Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina

  

  Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina are the three Latinamerican countries where food prices have climbed the most during the twelve months of 2010, according to official regional statistics.

• Monday, March 7th 2011 - 23:57 UTC

  US ambassadors consider Mercosur as “anti-American” according to Wikileaks

  

  United States considers Mercosur as an “anti American” organization and fears the incorporation of Venezuela to the group made up of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay according to one of the latest Wikileaks to see light in the River Plate press.

• Monday, March 7th 2011 - 23:52 UTC

  Punta Arenas equally competitive to Ushuaia for the 2012/13 cruise season

  

  Chilean authorities anticipate that for the season 2012/13, Punta Arenas will be in favourable conditions to compete with neighbouring Ushuaia in Argentina. This follows on Chilean initiatives to cut operation costs for cruise vessels dramatically and the lifting of the ban on floating casinos.

• Monday, March 7th 2011 - 07:35 UTC

  Toledo leads in Peruvian presidential election opinion polls

  

  With just over a month for the presidential elections April 10, former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo continues to lead comfortably vote intention according to the latest public opinion polls. Lawmaker Keiko Fujimori and former Lima mayor Luis Castañeda are runner ups but ten points below.

• Monday, March 7th 2011 - 07:28 UTC

  Peru and EU to sign free trade agreement in mid March

  

  Peru and the European Union will be signing the final documents for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) in mid March, said Peruvian Trade and Tourism Minister Eduardo Ferreyros in Lima.

• Monday, March 7th 2011 - 00:30 UTC

  Sustaining Latin America’s Transformation

  

  By Nicolás Eyzaguirre (*) Building on recent successes, Latin America now has a chance to raise its profile in the global marketplace. “There is nothing so joyous as a Mexican fiesta, but there is also nothing so sorrowful,” wrote Nobel-Prize-winning poet Octavio Paz, in The Labyrinth of Solitude. “Our fiestas are explosions. Life and death, joy and sorrow, music and mere noise are united.

• Saturday, March 5th 2011 - 07:21 UTC

  Energy prices for Chilean business the highest in three years

  

  The cost of producing energy keeps going up in Chile, as the drought in the north drags on and the international price of petroleum increases.