Latin America

• Wednesday, January 10th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Latam trade surplus with US tops 100 billion US dollars

  Latinamerica and the Caribbean trade surplus with the United States in November dropped 11.5% in November to just over 7 billion US dollars according to the US Department of Commerce.

• Wednesday, January 10th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Chile's largest meat producer caught selling rotten goods

  Agrosuper, Chile's largest meat producer could face serious fines or a shutdown of its factories by health authorities after workers of its Huechuraba plant denounced the sale of decomposing meat.

• Wednesday, January 10th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Car sales in Chile soaring and clogging Santiago

  A record 711.000 cars were sold in Chile's Metropolitan Region in 2006, up 7.6% more vehicles than last year.

• Wednesday, January 10th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Reborn Ortega takes office praised by Chavez and Bush

  Former Marxist guerrilla and United States Cold War enemy Daniel Ortega was sworn in as Nicaraguan president on Wednesday 16 years after voters tired of a civil war with Contra rebels threw him out of office.

• Tuesday, January 9th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Chavez announces nationalization of oil and telecoms

  

  President Hugo Chavez announced plans on Monday to nationalize Venezuela's electrical and telecommunications companies, pledging to create a socialist state in the spirit of the Bolivarian revolution.

• Tuesday, January 9th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Insulza branded an “idiot”

  Chavez's nationalization announcement came in his first speech of the year, a fiery address in which he used a vulgar word roughly meaning “idiot” to refer to Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza.

• Tuesday, January 9th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Peru pushes to make Inca city one of world wonders

  

  PERU'S government, seeking to boost tourism in the Andean country, is urging residents and visitors to vote for the ancient Inca site of Machu Picchu as one of the world's new seven wonders.

• Monday, January 8th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Chilean fisheries 2006 exports could reach 3 billion dollars

  

  Chile's fisheries exports totaled 2.945 billion US dollars during the first ten months of 2006, up 19.6% over the same period a year ago, according to the Fisheries Under Secretariat, SUBPESCA. But figures also show that the total volume was 1.157 million tons compared to 1.36 million tons in 2005, which means 18% less.

• Sunday, January 7th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  OAS Insulza and Venezuela on collision course

  

  Venezuela called on the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, OAS, Jose Miguel Insulza to retract from “censorship” statements regarding the controversy over a television station license in Caracas.

• Saturday, January 6th 2007 - 20:00 UTC

  Chile's corruption case leaves Bachelet unscathed

  Recent corruption cases plaguing the ruling Concertación coalition have had little effect on the public popularity of Chile's President Michelle Bachelet, according to a poll carried out by the Centre for Public Studies (CEP).