Latin America

• Tuesday, April 21st 2009 - 10:38 UTC

  Colombia requests 10.4 billion from IMF flexible credit line

  

  Colombia became the third country to seek access to a new IMF credit line for strong performing countries, requesting 10.4 billion US dollars to bolster its economy in the face of the global recession.

• Tuesday, April 21st 2009 - 10:30 UTC

  Obama eager to finalize trade agreements with Panama and Colombia

  

  United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk said private meetings with Panama and Colombia presidents during the recent Summit of the Americas in Trinidad Tobago had been “very productive” and reiterated that the Obama administration is eager in finalizing free trade agreements with both countries.

• Tuesday, April 21st 2009 - 08:38 UTC

  Venezuela’s main opposition leader seeking asylum, ignores court order

  

  Venezuela's main opposition leader is seeking asylum with a “friendly country” and will not appear in court to face corruption charges brought by President Hugo Chavez's government, opposition officials said on Monday.

• Monday, April 20th 2009 - 09:38 UTC

  Obama magic leaves all leaders of the Americas, even Cuba, satisfied

  

  The three-day summit of leaders from the Americas in Trinidad Tobago ended without a final declaration but with evident progress on the United States' relationship with Venezuela and Cuba.

• Sunday, April 19th 2009 - 05:39 UTC

  Huge LNG plant ready to open in Chile and cut Argentine dependency

  

  Chile is just months away from beginning operations at a huge Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) re-gasification plant that was first planned during the Ricardo Lagos administration. The 1.1 billion US dollars plant is located near the Region V coastal city of Quintero.

• Sunday, April 19th 2009 - 05:23 UTC

  Chavez considering name of the next ambassador in Washington

  

  Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said that with President Barack Obama leading the US, strained bilateral relations will improve and revealed he was considering the name of his next ambassador in Washington.

• Sunday, April 19th 2009 - 04:54 UTC

  Obama more popular than Chavez in Venezuela, says US top aide

  

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rushed a photograph of him and President Obama shaking hands onto his government's website because Mr. Obama is more popular than Mr. Chavez in Venezuela, said Jeffrey Davidow, senior advisor to the US president on Latinamerican affairs.

• Sunday, April 19th 2009 - 04:43 UTC

  Obama tells Unasur members US and Cuba are “on a path of change”

  

  South American leaders pressed President Barack Obama on Saturday to end the US economic embargo on Cuba and abstain from interventionist policies as he attempts to reshape US hemispheric relations. Obama was quoted saying that the US and Cuba are “on a path of change”

• Sunday, April 19th 2009 - 04:24 UTC

  The U shaped “new beginning” table in Port Spain

  

  Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet, pro tempore president of the Union of South American Nations, Unasur, chaired this morning’s closed doors meeting or South American leaders with Barrack Obama.

• Saturday, April 18th 2009 - 09:39 UTC

  Summit “first step for a new regional order” says Cristina

  

  Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said Friday that the Trinidad and Tobago summit “should be the first step for a new regional order” and recalled the previous summit in Argentina had signalled “an inflection point for the continent”.