Latin America

• Wednesday, January 21st 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Cubans admit other priorities, willing to wait for changes

  

  The official newspaper from the ruling Communist party in Cuba, Gramma said on Tuesday that the moment has come to “make effective” the promises and hopes of change announced by President Barack Obama, although the world crisis and other factors could limit him.

• Tuesday, January 20th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Venezuela: “surplus” development funds or magic accounting?

  

  Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has announced the transfer of over 12 billion US dollars from “surplus” Central Bank international reserves to help finance government projects and keep the economy growing.

• Tuesday, January 20th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Lan system passenger traffic for December was up 10.7%

  

  Chile's Lan airlines and associates announced that its system passenger traffic for December 2008 grew 10.7%, and capacity rose 12.6%. This means that load factor declined 1.3 points over last year to 74.7%. The company noted that international passenger traffic accounted for about 68% of total passenger traffic.

• Tuesday, January 20th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Scientists to prove Patagonia Antarctic points' landmass link

  

  A multidisciplinary team of Chilean scientists left for Antarctic as part of an ambitious project to prove at some point in the history of the World, probably 200 million years ago, South America's Patagonia and the Antarctic Peninsula were landmass linked.

• Tuesday, January 20th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Best performer Peru changes financial helmsman

  

  In an unexpected move and only after six months in the job, Peru's Finance Minister Luis Valdivieso resigned Monday and later in the day was replaced by his predecessor Luis Carranza who is closely linked to the Andean country's praised economic performance.

• Monday, January 19th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Venezuela supports OPEC production cuts of 2 to 4m bpd

  

  Venezuela is ready to sponsor a new cut in crude production to protect the oil market, two to four million barrels per day, confirmed Rafael Ramirez, Energy Minister and President of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the country's government owned oil corporation.

• Monday, January 19th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Ecuador closer to Iran which promised 200 million USD loan

  

  Iran will loan more than 200 million US dollars to Ecuador and will study several investment projects in the country, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa announced during his Saturday radio and television program.

• Monday, January 19th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Ex Chilean Air Force chief arrested on embezzlement charges

  

  A former Chilean Air Force chief was arrested Monday on charges of embezzling nearly 2.9 million US dollars in a 1994 government deal to buy second hand Mirage Elkan fighter jets from Belgium and refurbish them, according to a Santiago court.

• Friday, January 16th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Third year running LAN, best airline in C. and South America

  

  For the third year in a row the prestigious magazine Global Traveller awarded LAN Chile as the 'Best Airline in Central and South America.' The magazine surveyed more than 31,000 readers of the publication to select the best in class for luxury and business travel throughout 2008. This distinction is the direct result of the feedback received in the survey.

• Friday, January 16th 2009 - 20:00 UTC

  Bush makes effective Peru-US free trade agreement

  

  United States and Peru began on Friday the implementation of a free trade agreement just days before US president George W Bush leaves office and despite concerns about labour and environmental aspects of the accord.