Latin America

• Wednesday, June 2nd 2010 - 02:47 UTC

  Magallanes only region in Chile where unemployment was up in Feb/April

  

  Magallanes Region in the extreme south of Chile has seen unemployment in the February-April mobile increase 0.8 percentage points to 5.4%. Although still one of the lowest rates in Chile, this time Magallanes was the exception since in the rest of the country unemployment was down.

• Wednesday, June 2nd 2010 - 02:44 UTC

  OAS observers praise Colombian Sunday election “non-violence”

  

  The OAS mission of electoral observers confirmed that none of its members found evidence of vote peddling in Colombia’s Sunday presidential election and underlined the quiet and non violent atmosphere during the whole process.

• Tuesday, June 1st 2010 - 23:48 UTC

  Invasive algae found in Chilean Patagonia threatens ecosystem and tourism

  

  In February, Chris Spelius, owner of the adventure travel company Expediciones Chile, was standing out by the Futaleufu River in Southern Chile waiting for a client, when he looked into the normally clear water and noticed something unusual.

• Tuesday, June 1st 2010 - 05:00 UTC

  Colombia’s Santos calls for a national unity government

  

  Colombia’s winning presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos called on Conservatives and Radicals to join in a national unity government to address the problems of poverty and terrorism.

• Tuesday, June 1st 2010 - 04:57 UTC

  Peru and Chile agree to resume confidence building in military affairs

  

  Peruvian defence minister Rafael Rey recently paid his Chilean counterpart Jaime Ravinet and Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera a visit, a meeting which showed that although the two countries continue to squabble over maritime border issues, bilateral relations are still intact.

• Tuesday, June 1st 2010 - 02:44 UTC

  IDB plans to lend 10 billion USD in 2010

  

  The Inter American Development Bank, IDB, is ready to disburse 10 billion US dollars in loans to Latinamerica during fiscal 2010, said the bank’s president Luis Moreno.

• Tuesday, June 1st 2010 - 01:39 UTC

  Latinamerica exposed to European slowdown, but not Brazil, forecast experts

  

  The United Nations Economic Committee for Latinamerica and the Caribbean, Cepal, anticipates that growth in the region will be less than in previous years because of the economic downturn in developed countries but the tendency should not influence Brazil, the region’s largest economy.

• Monday, May 31st 2010 - 03:57 UTC

  Colombian incumbent presidential candidate wins but can’t avoid run-off

  

  Colombia’s former Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos won more than double the votes of his closest rival in Sunday’s presidential election though failed to secure a majority of ballots needed to avoid a runoff in three weeks.

• Saturday, May 29th 2010 - 07:17 UTC

  Chile: The new president appears to be doing pretty well

  

  By David Gallagher
  (Ed. Note: Gallagher, a columnist for the conservative daily El Mercurio, is a man of many parts. He's British and Chilean, former Oxford professor of Spanish and Russian, author of the classic Modern Latin American Literature (1973), economist, investment banker, international business consultant, and father to children living on three continents.
  (In this column he remarks that the “previous government”—that is Michelle Bachelet’s — “privileged imagery over reality.” One example: to celebrate a significant date, Bachelet cut the ribbon on a new hospital empty of equipment but filled with patients who were actually actors and who pretended to be ill for the press.)

• Saturday, May 29th 2010 - 05:19 UTC

  Montevideo, Buenos Aires, most liveable cities of South America

  

  According to the 2010 World Ranking of Mercer's Quality of Life, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Santiago are the best major cities in South America to live although they compare poorly with the top ten mostly from Europe, Canada, NZ and Australia.