
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff appointed on Friday new ministers for agriculture, civil aviation and labour, the presidential office said, in a Cabinet shuffle that left her economic team intact.

A new report, put out earlier this month by the World Economic Forum, has ranked which countries roll out the welcome mat to travellers and which give the cold shoulder. The Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013 ranked 140 countries according to attractiveness and competitiveness in the travel and tourism industries.

Uruguayan Vice president Danilo Astori and members of the opposition ratified the country’s increasing concern about Mercosur which is “full of obstacles and problems” and is described as “sleepy and in state of lethargy”.

Uruguayan president Jose Mujica compared the future of Chavism in Venezuela with that of the Argentine Justicialista Party, which had in Juan Domingo Peron and his wife Evita Peron their maximum leaders (and caudillos), and even today in the almost hegemonic political movement in Argentina.

By leaving Venezuela before Friday’s funeral ceremony for leader Hugo Chávez, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was once again trying to chart out a more moderate signal to investors and diplomats, plus probably avoiding Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whom contrary to her predecessor Lula da Silva, she has strongly criticized.

Uruguayan president Jose Mujica called for unity and responsibility in Venezuela, ‘to fight for freedom and peace’ and cautioned that big contradictions in a society are not squashed but conducted. He also called on Brazil to lead the region but warned: “not creating a new regional empire”.

Venezuelan Vice-President Nicolás Maduro announced during a nation-wide transmission that President Hugo Chávez “has died today at 4:25pm.”

Oscar Airas, chief of the OAS Electoral Observation and Political Accompaniment Mission in Paraguay completed his second visit to Asunción collecting information from different sources ahead of the coming general elections scheduled for April 21.

Mercosur more than a common market is a “poor customs union” said Uruguayan president Jose Mujica adding that new discussions on the future of the group’s future should be considered but which imply the possibility of establishing new free trade agreements with third parties.

The head of the Electoral Observation and Political Accompaniment Mission of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Paraguay, the former President of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Óscar Arias begins this weekend a visit to Asuncion to promote dialogue between the different Paraguayan political and social actors, and to prepare the deployment of the Mission that will monitor the general elections of April 21.