Latin America

• Saturday, March 5th 2011 - 06:58 UTC

  Punta Arenas lost 18.000 cruise visitors this season

  

  Punta Arenas in the extreme south of Chile is experiencing a significant drop in the number of cruise visitors this season according to the Austral Port Authority, EPA.

• Saturday, March 5th 2011 - 05:47 UTC

  Brazilian regulators approve LAN/TAM merger to become Latam’s largest airline

  

  Brazil's civil aviation authority passed on Thursday the planned combination between Brazilian airline TAM and Chilean rival LAN with no restrictions, giving a boost to their project to create Latin America's largest airline and the third largest in the world.

• Saturday, March 5th 2011 - 05:40 UTC

  Busy agenda for Chile’s Piñera in Europe and Israel and Palestine

  

  Chilean President Sebastián Piñera arrived in Italy this week for a three-day visit to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the Vatican. It comes at a difficult time for Berlusconi, who is in the middle of a scandal and allegations of tax fraud and consorting with under-age prostitutes.

• Saturday, March 5th 2011 - 05:07 UTC

  Nobel Prize Vargas Llosa calls for legalizing drugs to avoid the Mexican experience

  

  Nobel Prize winner in Literature Mario Vargas Llosa said that countries across Latin America will eventually suffer the same type of organized crime-related mayhem currently battering Mexico unless a decision is made to legalize drugs.

• Saturday, March 5th 2011 - 01:48 UTC

  Sales, Especially by Russia and China, Continue to Penetrate Latin America

  

  Russian military sales have become so frequent in recent years that they no longer make for major headlines. However, as Washington policymakers continue to voice concern about Iran’s growing influence in Latin America, some alarmists argue that Russia’s eagerness to supply the region with weapons is likely to trigger a “soft arms race” and present itself as a threat to the United State’s historic hegemony in the Western Hemisphere.

• Friday, March 4th 2011 - 01:31 UTC

  Democracy in Latam, a success story ‘except for Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua’

  

  Latin America is enjoying growth and stable democracy with the “notable exceptions” of the leftist governments of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday.

• Friday, March 4th 2011 - 01:31 UTC

  Bolivia signs gas exploration agreements with Petrobras and Repsol

  

  Bolivia's state-owned oil company YPF Bolivianos said this week that it has signed oil and gas exploration agreements with Brazil's Petrobras and Spain's Repsol.

• Thursday, March 3rd 2011 - 21:48 UTC

  Venezuela, Mercosur, Unasur top of the agenda for Paraguay’s Congress

  

  The Paraguayan government announced Thursday it will insist with the Congressional approval of Venezuela’s incorporation to Mercosur, which remains stalled at the country’s Legislative branch.

• Thursday, March 3rd 2011 - 06:25 UTC

  Latam must prepare for ‘major prices’ fluctuations warn food organizations

  

  Food price volatility has increased in recent months and will remain high for the time being, according to a joint bulletin launched today by ECLAC, FAO and IICA.

• Thursday, March 3rd 2011 - 05:23 UTC

  Argentine/Chinese corporation buys Exxon downstream assets in Mercosur

  

  Pan American Energy has agreed to buy an oil refinery and more than 700 service stations in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay from Exxon Mobil Corp for which it will be paying an estimated 850 million US dollars.