Latin America

• Saturday, December 18th 2010 - 21:08 UTC

  Chilean wine industry booming: sales up 10% and exports 11.7%

  

  Between Jan and Oct 2010, 83 of the top 100 Chilean wineries increased their sales of bottled wine. According to figures from Wines of Chile, 68 of these wineries increased sales by more than 10%. Exports have increased by 11.7% compared to figures during the same period in 2009.

• Saturday, December 18th 2010 - 13:24 UTC

  Mapuche friendly cardinal named Archbishop of Santiago de Chile

  

  The former archbishop of Concepción, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati Andrello, has been named as the new archbishop of Chile’s capital Santiago. He will replace cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa.

• Saturday, December 18th 2010 - 03:05 UTC

  Bolivia recognizes Palestine as an independent state with pre-1967 borders

  

  President Evo Morales announced on Friday that Bolivia would recognize Palestine as an independent sovereign state. The Bolivian leader made the statement during the Mercosur summit in Brazil.

• Saturday, December 18th 2010 - 00:22 UTC

  Chilean Senators warn about ‘social impact’ of cheap US dollar for farm areas

  

  Senators representing agricultural parts of Chile strongly criticized the Central Bank and President Sebastian Piñera this week for turning a deaf ear to the “social, cultural and economic problems” created by the falling value of the US dollar, now hovering at 470 pesos to the dollar.

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 22:28 UTC

  Uruguay, only “full democracy”• in South America; ranks 21 world-wide

  

  Uruguay is South America’s leading democracy and ranks 21 internationally according to The Economist Intelligence Unit, which makes an annual evaluation of democratic conditions.

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 18:41 UTC

  New guide documents marine life amazing diversity in Chilean Patagonia

  

  After more than 10 years of research, Chile’s San Ignacio de Huinay Foundation has published a guide chronicling the amazing diversity of marine life in Chile’s Patagonia, with photographs of 473 marine life species

• Friday, December 17th 2010 - 07:09 UTC

  Chile could be next country to recognize Palestine with borders prior to 1967

  

  The decisions by the governments of Brazil and Argentina last week to recognize an independent Palestinian state with borders prior to the 1967 Six Day War has prompted criticism from the United States and intense lobbying in Santiago de Chile.

• Thursday, December 16th 2010 - 18:28 UTC

  Argentina’s top businessman warns about inflation and Chinese investments

  

  Argentina’s most influential businessman warned about the “inflationary escalade” which, if not contained can lead to an unfavourable climate for investments. Paolo Rocca, Techint group CEO made the statements during an entrepreneurs’ forum where he called for “business responsibility”, “clear rules of the game”, “transparency” and questioned the landing of Chinese oil corporations in Argentina.

• Thursday, December 16th 2010 - 17:24 UTC

  Chilean farmers predict agriculture upturn for 2011

  

  The National Agriculture Society (SNA) this week predicted 2 to 4% growth in 2011 for Chile’s agriculture-based industries, compared to this current year’s dismal 1.9% growth.

• Wednesday, December 15th 2010 - 04:17 UTC

  Mercosur with the best growth performance in the region in 2010

  

  Mercosur full member countries with the exception of Brazil will have the best growth performance in the region this year, according to the annual report from the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Cepal which was announced this week in Santiago de Chile.