Foreign direct investment in Latinamerica reached 106 billion US dollars in 2007, overtaking the record 89 billion of 1999, according to the latest release from the United Nations Latin American Commission, CEPAL.
Bolivian President Evo Morales agreed to a nationwide recall referendum, gambling that Bolivians will re-elect him after just two years in office and confirm support for his plan of reforms which has been condemned by some of the country's richest provinces.
Almost 60% of Chilean women who had children during 2005 were single moms, the Chilean Institute of Statistics, INE reported this week. INE noted that most of the single mothers were between 20 and 24 years old.
Chilean authorities are considering the possibility that Chaitén volcano in continuous eruption for over a week might collapse and release a torrent of red-hot pyroclastic material (burning gas and rocks) that could devastate the surrounding area.
Enap, Chile's government owned oil corporation and Methanex the huge methanol complex in the extreme south of the country signed this week an agreement to speed exploration and production of natural gas in the region.
Chilean authorities declared on Tuesday a maximum alert and ordered the complete evacuation of two towns after the Chaiten volcano, erupting nearby, increased its activity, spewing out lava and ash.
IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned on Wednesday about soaring food prices and the need to cushion the impact on the poor and revealed that the fund is already advising governments and central banks in Latin America on how to limit the second-round effects of the price shocks on the poor.
More than 5 000 people had been evacuated in southern Chile, following the eruption of the Chaiten volcano. On Monday, authorities evacuated the town of Futaleufu, some 60 kilometers from the volcano while the remaining residents of the town of Chaiten had left over the weekend.
The Organization of American States Secretary General, OAS, Jose Miguel Insulza praised on Monday the Bolivian promoters of the Santa Cruz autonomy referendum for having expressed no secessionists or contrary to law intentions.
The huge nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington has reached Argentine waters ready to begin annual naval exercises with its Argentine counterpart in the South Atlantic