Latin America

• Monday, January 7th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  New gas field could increase Bolivia's total production 5%

  A new gas field has been found in east Bolivia, which will have a production capacity of 2.4 million-cubic-meter a day by October, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced. The new field, called Tacobo and operated by Argentine Pluspetrol, is located in San Isidro, the Bolivian eastern province of Santa Cruz rich in oil and natural gas reserves.

• Monday, January 7th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Stone blames Bush for failed release of Colombian hostages

  

  Hollywood director Oliver Stone who was to film the liberation of hostages held by the Colombian cocaine funded guerrilla FARC at the end of December, accused the United States for the failure of the mission and defends the role played by Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez in the frustrated operation.

• Monday, January 7th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Santiago airport to handle 2.2 million pax this summer

  From December 2007 to February 2008 an expected 2.2 million passengers will be passing through Santiago de Chile's Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport, reports The Santiago Times. This is a 10% increase over last summer, and 20% of this figure corresponds to first-time travelers, according to airport operations chief Alberto Becerra.

• Monday, January 7th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentina under Plan Condor had tracking stations in Brazil

  

  The 1976-1983 Argentine dictatorship held information bases in San Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which were meant to “detect people connected to the subversion”, according to a legal prosecution started in Argentina, reported the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper on Sunday.

• Sunday, January 6th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Colombia demands “unconditional” release of hostages

  

  Colombia on Saturday called on cocaine funded leftist guerrillas to unconditionally free hostages after saying the rebels lied in an “incoherent” way about the whereabouts of a young child they promised to free last month.

• Sunday, January 6th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Rescued Chilean factory vessel arrives in Punta Areas

  

  Pulled by a high seas tug the Chilean flagged fishing vessel, stranded close to Antarctic waters for several days, finally arrived late Saturday to the city of Punta Arenas, from where she regularly operates.

• Sunday, January 6th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Chile suffers highest inflation in twelve years, 7.8%

  Consumer prices in Chile rose 0.5% in December and the annual rate reached 7.8% the highest level since June 1996 according to the latest report from the government-run National Statistics Institute, INE.

• Friday, January 4th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Venezuela's Chavez reshuffles cabinet after defeat

  

  President Hugo Chavez shuffled his Cabinet on Thursday, naming a retired military officer as vice president and other changes aimed at tackling corruption and inefficiencies in his socialist government

• Friday, January 4th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Chile Fisheries Council sets catch quotas for 2008

  

  The National Fisheries Council established global catch quotas for 2008 at a meeting held at the offices of the Subsecretariat of Fisheries (SUBPESCA) in Valparaiso in mid-December.

• Friday, January 4th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  DNA test solves riddle over Colombian boy 'hostage'

  Results of a DNA test on Friday revealed why leftist rebels failed to deliver this week on their promise to free a 3-year-old boy born in captivity: Little Emmanuel has spent the last two years not in a jungle rebel camp, but in a Bogota foster home.