Latin America

• Tuesday, October 18th 2011 - 18:57 UTC

  Beware of self-complacency Iglesias tells Latin American leaders

  

  The Ibero-American summit scheduled for October 28/29 in Paraguay will be ‘much dominated’ by current global events said Secretary General Enrique Iglesias who also warned on the risks of self-complacency in Latin America.

• Tuesday, October 18th 2011 - 18:42 UTC

  As volcanic ash cloud recedes air traffic returning to normal in Argentina and Uruguay

  

  Regular operations have gradually resumed at the main airports of Buenos Aires and in Montevideo’s Carrasco air terminal, where most flights had been cancelled since Sunday due to ash cloud generated from Chile's volcano eruption, authorities said.

• Tuesday, October 18th 2011 - 17:04 UTC

  Rioting in Santiago on the first of a two-day national strike in support of students’ demands

  

  Chilean students have erected fiery blockades in major streets of the capital and clashed with police on Tuesday, first day of a two-day national strike to demand that the government reform the education system.

• Tuesday, October 18th 2011 - 15:33 UTC

  Bolivians reject Morales judicial reforms: 60% spoiled or left ballots blank

  

  Bolivian President Evo Morales suffered a major setback on Sunday when many Bolivians spoiled or left their ballots blank in the first elections for the country’s top judges, La Razon reported.

• Tuesday, October 18th 2011 - 08:49 UTC

  Supreme Court knocks out main challenger to President Chavez re-election

  

  Venezuela's Supreme Court blocked high-profile opposition challenger Leopoldo López on Monday from running against President Hugo Chávez in a 2012 vote despite an international ruling in his favour.

• Tuesday, October 18th 2011 - 07:06 UTC

  Chilean mountains hold the world’ largest space research infrastructure

  

  The Chilean Foreign Ministry officially signed over a total of 213 square miles of land to the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) last Thursday to begin construction of the world’s largest optical telescope, the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT).

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 21:53 UTC

  Military draft for 57.000 18-year olds in Chile, alleging students’ disruption

  

  Chile is giving nearly 57.000 18-year-olds one month to report for potential military duty, saying the government needs to fill gaps in its armed forces because a nationwide student protest movement has reduced the number of volunteers it usually gets.

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 21:36 UTC

  Chile not immune but has “the tools to mitigate possible impacts”

  

  Chile’s central bank and government have monetary and fiscal instruments to respond if growth moderates faster than forecast amid concern over the European debt crisis, bank board member Rodrigo Vergara said.

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 21:31 UTC

  Former personal surgeon says Chavez has a very aggressive ‘pelvic tumor’

  

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is undergoing “rigorous” medical exams in Havana where he traveled Sunday night and hopefully will be back in Caracas mid week with “good news”.

• Monday, October 17th 2011 - 19:08 UTC

  Close links between Social Assistance and presidential vote in Latin America

  

  A paper from the University of Vanderbilt Latin America Public Opinion Project confirms that conditional cash transfers (CCT) by governments from the region condition to a great extent the vote in favour of the incumbent candidate.