Latin America

• Saturday, September 26th 2009 - 06:42 UTC

  Itaipú agreement remains stalled; Lula da Silva blames Congress

  

  The coming electoral year makes it difficult for the Brazilian congress to approve in the short term the agreement reached with Paraguay referred to the surplus energy from the world’s largest operational hydroelectric dam Itaipú, signed last July by presidents Lula da Silva and Fernando Lugo.

• Friday, September 25th 2009 - 23:42 UTC

  Argentina, Chile and Uruguay lead broadband use in South America

  

  A recent survey by the Cisco Latin America Broadband Barometer showed that Chile has the highest percentage of broadband Internet connections in South America. The study found that 9.7% of Chile’s population has access to broadband.

• Friday, September 25th 2009 - 10:53 UTC

  Ecuador ready to purchase combat aircrafts from South Africa

  

  Ecuador is considering the purchase of 12 Atlas Cheetah C fighter bombers from South Africa, according to Defence minister Javier Ponce in an interview with Quito’s newspaper El Universal.

• Friday, September 25th 2009 - 10:49 UTC

  Zelaya’s activities in embassy triggers controversy in Brazil

  

  The activity displayed by ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa has triggered controversy in Brazil’s political establishment and uncertainty about diplomatic jargon such as the extent of the “refuge” condition.

• Friday, September 25th 2009 - 00:58 UTC

  MIT poverty investigation centre opens in Chile

  

  The Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) will open its new Latinamerican headquarters in Chile next Monday, Sept. 28. J-PAL is an organization that investigates poverty and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Department of Economics.

• Friday, September 25th 2009 - 00:19 UTC

  Social Democracy Is Working In Brazil, Chile and Uruguay

  

  Amongst the different leftist governments in Latin America, there are new and rather strident populist regimes (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador), which seem to grab all the attention.

• Thursday, September 24th 2009 - 11:45 UTC

  Chile’s fresh fruit exports hit by weak international markets

  

  Weak international markets led to a 6% drop in the value of Chile’s fresh fruit exports this past 2008/2009 season, reported Fedefruta President Rodrigo Echeverría this week in Santiago.

• Thursday, September 24th 2009 - 11:22 UTC

  Building Falklands/South America relationship playing rugby

  

  A proposed visit by a team of rugby players to the Falkland Islands, scheduled to arrive for a week long visit on December 12, has caused controversy in the Islands, reports the Penguin News.

• Thursday, September 24th 2009 - 11:17 UTC

  OAS and EU agree on massive diplomatic effort to solve Honduras crisis

  

  The Organization of American States, OAS, and the European Union agreed Wednesday to send their ambassadors in Honduras back to Tegucigalpa, the city which they left following the June coup that deposed constitutional president Manuel Zelaya.

• Thursday, September 24th 2009 - 10:59 UTC

  Peru blasts military expenditure and arms purchases in Latinamerica

  

  Peruvian president Alan García demanded Wednesday that the Organization of American States, OAS, help contain the arms purchasing spree in Latinamerica, an issue that has created irritation and disputes among several countries of the region.