Latin America

• Wednesday, May 19th 2010 - 05:41 UTC

  Central America and EU reach a free trade agreement

  

  Central American countries and the European Union (EU) reached on Tuesday an agreement on the first ever free trade deal between the two regions, they announced in a joint statement.

• Wednesday, May 19th 2010 - 02:52 UTC

  EU/Latam summit results “not sufficient”; new “faster pace” needed

  

  Chilean president Sebastián Piñera said that the results of the VI European Union/Latam-Caribbean leaders’ summit in Madrid which closed Tuesday was “insufficient” since adequate solutions for present-day problems faced by the regions were lacking.

• Wednesday, May 19th 2010 - 01:02 UTC

  Terrorism turns some countries into ‘useful idiots’, claims Colombia’s Uribe

  

  Terrorism knows how to convert some countries into useful idiots said Colombian president during an interview with Spanish media in the framework of the EU-Latam-Caribbean leaders’ summit in Madrid.

• Tuesday, May 18th 2010 - 21:51 UTC

  Peruvian economy rebounds and expands 8.76% in first quarter

  

  The Peruvian economy expanded 8.76% in the first quarter of 2010 compared to the same period a year ago, the highest rate in the last 17 months, according to the head of the country’s Statistics Office, Renán Quispe.

• Tuesday, May 18th 2010 - 18:14 UTC

  Peruvian president criticizes spiralling military expenditure in South America

  

  Peruvian president Alan Garcia criticized spiralling military expenditure in South America, a fact he linked to the recently created Union of South American Nations, Unasur.

• Tuesday, May 18th 2010 - 18:00 UTC

  Chile and Peru leaders move to improve “rocky” bilateral relations

  

  Chilean President Sebastian Piñera and Peruvian President Alan Garcia Perez met Sunday in the lead up to the European Union, Latin American, and Caribbean Summit in Madrid. The meeting represented a big step forward in improving the current rocky relations between Chile and Peru.

• Tuesday, May 18th 2010 - 04:46 UTC

  Latam largest economies plan trade accord with most tariffs cut to zero

  

  Mexican Deputy Economy Minister Beatriz Leycegui said the government aims to reach a trade accord with Brazil to reduce tariffs to zero on the majority of goods sold between Latin America’s two biggest economies.

• Tuesday, May 18th 2010 - 04:40 UTC

  Chilean officials reluctant to review poverty definition fearing higher percentages

  

  An international conference held last week in Santiago de Chile by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) took a hard look at how poverty is defined in Latin America and gave Chileans attending the event an opportunity to sound off about how poverty is measured here.

• Tuesday, May 18th 2010 - 04:29 UTC

  Cuba scraps bureaucracy to help farmers boost food production

  

  Cuba's private farmers will in future purchase supplies directly instead of having them allocated by the state, the government said on Sunday, in the latest concession to demands for more autonomy.

• Tuesday, May 18th 2010 - 04:14 UTC

  Chile/EU agree to improve energy cooperation and increase trade

  

  Within the framework of the European Union/Latam leaders’ summit held in Madrid, the EU and Chile agreed to “improve and strengthen relations,” with a special focus on energy and trade, five years after the launch of the Association Agreement.