Mercosur

• Monday, January 14th 2013 - 06:58 UTC

  Chavez health ‘improving’; top Venezuelan officials meet in Havana with Raul Castro

  

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's lung infection has been controlled and his medical state is improving, the government announced on Sunday while four of the most powerful figures gathered in Havana allegedly to report to the cancer-stricken leader and meet with Cuban allies.

• Saturday, January 12th 2013 - 18:57 UTC

  P&O cruise line suspends stops in Argentina, confirms calls in the Falklands

  

  British cruise line operator P&O has scrapped stops in Argentina because of continuing tensions with the country over the Falkland Islands. Two of its vessels will no longer dock at three Argentine port destinations on around-the-world cruises. The decision was taken because there was no guarantee they will be able to dock.

• Saturday, January 12th 2013 - 18:18 UTC

  Chilean fish exports total 3.8bn in ten months; salmon the main item with 1.2bn

  

  Chilean exports of fishery products and aquaculture in the first 10 months of 2012 reached 3.8 billion dollars,1% over the same period in 2011. But the volume of exports increased 11.3%, according to the latest stats from Chile’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Under-Secretariat (Subpesca).

• Saturday, January 12th 2013 - 18:05 UTC

  Maduro administration bans four clips on postponement of Chavez inauguration

  

  Venezuela’s National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) launched proceedings on 9 January against the terrestrial television station Globovisión over its broadcast of four clips about the postponement of the inauguration of President Hugo Chavez for a new six-year term, originally scheduled for the following day.

• Saturday, January 12th 2013 - 17:53 UTC

  Methanex Canada to idle plant in Punta Arenas because of insufficient gas provision

  

  Chilean Energy minister Jorge Bunster regretted on Friday Methanex Canada announcement on its decision to idle operations in Chile in March due to lack of adequate natural gas supply. The company stated that it does not have sufficient feedstock to keep the plant in operation given the natural gas supply challenges.

• Saturday, January 12th 2013 - 17:45 UTC

  Cristina Fernandez meets Chavez family and has lunch with the Castro brothers

  

  Argentine president Cristina Fernandez is flying Saturday to Emirates the first leg of a trade tour that includes the Far East after spending 24 hours in Cuba where she met the Castro brothers, visited the relatives of cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez and late Friday held a mini summit with Venezuelan Vice president Nicolas Maduro and Peruvian head of state Ollanta Humala.

• Friday, January 11th 2013 - 08:52 UTC

  President Mujica calls for unity and peace for ‘the day when Chavez is not with us’

  

  The shortest and most sober of a day of emotional speeches and promises was that from Uruguayan president Jose Mujica who asked the massive rally in support of President Hugo Chavez that if the Venezuelan leader “tomorrow is not with us”, then unity, peace and work must prevail.

• Thursday, January 10th 2013 - 18:56 UTC

  FAO food price index finished the turbulent 2012 down 7% compared to 2011

  

  The United Nations reported on Thursday that food prices fell for the third month in a row in December last year, balancing out sharp increases registered earlier in 2012, which had previously sparked fears of a food crisis.

• Thursday, January 10th 2013 - 12:57 UTC

  Venezuelan opposition leader accepts high court ruling but tells government ‘back to work’

  

  Opposition leader Enrique Capriles accepted Venezuela’s high court sentence endorsing the postponement of President Hugo Chavez inauguration on Thursday and the ruling that the cancer-stricken leader and his administration remained in office, since “as president re-elect there is no interruption of performance of duties”.

• Thursday, January 10th 2013 - 11:56 UTC

  In a highly political speech CFK appealed to the motherland and blasted hedge funds

  

  President Cristina Fernandez (CFK) as expected made the welcoming ceremony for the Argentine frigate ARA Libertad (retained in Ghana for 78 days) into a ‘sovereignty and dignity’ political rally including the support of 20.000 militants, mostly bused in by political organizations, in which she blasted hedge funds, ‘global social predators’ and warned that through extortion and force nobody is going to obtain anything from Argentina.