Latin America

• Friday, May 28th 2010 - 04:44 UTC

  Venezuelan economy contracts 5.8% in first quarter over a year ago

  

  Venezuela’s economy fell deeper into recession in the first three months of the year as electricity rationing conditioned manufacturing and investment dried up because of government takeovers.

• Thursday, May 27th 2010 - 09:27 UTC

  Latinamerica must detach ‘utopia from true history and reality’

  

  Renowned Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa during a conference in Israel strongly criticized Latinamerican leaders such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Brazil’s Lula da Silva.

• Thursday, May 27th 2010 - 09:03 UTC

  Chile’s Mapuche community stops airport construction in Temuco

  

  Santiago de Chile Appeals Court last week ruled in favour of Mapuche indigenous leaders to stop development of a new international airport near Temuco in the south of the country. The airport is located on ancestral lands belonging to the Mapuche.

• Thursday, May 27th 2010 - 08:49 UTC

  Santiago’s streets congested with 42% of the total vehicles in Chile

  

  More than one million vehicles circulate through Santiago’s streets, or 42% of the total vehicles in Chile. The expected increase of traffic in Chile’s capital, Santiago, is six percent for 2010, which will further increase traffic congestion and pollution particulary in winter months, experts say.

• Thursday, May 27th 2010 - 08:37 UTC

  Colombian president warns about proposals to raise taxes

  

  Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday sharply criticized campaign proposals to raise taxes, warning that this could “severely damage” what has been achieved, reports El Espectador.

• Thursday, May 27th 2010 - 08:22 UTC

  Lula da Silva asks Unasur and Mexico support for his Iran uranium agreement

  

  Through a letter, Brazilian President Lula da Silvia asked the South American Nations Union (Unasur) and Mexico to support the uranium enrichment tripartite agreement reached between his country, Iran, and Turkey.

• Wednesday, May 26th 2010 - 06:13 UTC

  Chilean investments abroad rise sharply in first quarter of the year

  

  In the first quarter of 2010 Chilean businesses invested 1.7 billion US dollars abroad, seven times more than in the same period in 2009, according to the Santiago Chamber of Commerce (CCS).

• Wednesday, May 26th 2010 - 04:00 UTC

  EU expands civil aviation cooperation with Latinamerica

  

  The European Union agreed Tuesday on cooperation understandings in civil aviation with the Latinamerican Civil Aviation Commission, CLAC, and with Brazil to promote closer coordination in technical and safety issues.

• Tuesday, May 25th 2010 - 06:01 UTC

  On inaugurating second term Insulza calls for a “genuinely multilateral OAS”

  

  The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, said upon taking office for his second term at a special session of the Permanent Council that “those who seek to show an inactive OAS must face the reality of an always present OAS, and those who accuse the OAS of complicity or partiality end up giving examples of the OAS at a different time, for lack of evidence of any instance of partiality during this period”.

• Tuesday, May 25th 2010 - 00:25 UTC

  Cruise vessels avoiding Chile: another 35% downturn anticipated for 2010/2011

  

  Cruises through the waters of Patagonia and around the most southern point of South America are a popular tourist attraction for US and European tourists. In more recent years however, cruise lines have started avoiding Chilean ports.