
The presidents of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico, Hugo Chávez, Juan Manuel Santos, Ollanta Humala, Rafael Correa and Felipe Calderón have cancelled their trips to Buenos Aires and won’t attend President Cristina Fernández inauguration ceremony on Saturday.

Breaking away from tradition Argentine President Cristina Fernández will swear in her second term Cabinet at the Bicentennial Museum in Buenos Aires, a ceremony that by custom has been held in the White Room at Government House, Casa Rosada.

Uruguayan President José Mujica, 76, announced he would not be attending President Cristina Fernández inauguration ceremony on Saturday after his doctor recommended he should rest for the next few days. His wife, First Lady and Senator Lucía Topolansky will be attending instead.

Uruguay’s Vice-president Danilo Astori blasted Argentina’s protectionist and foreign exchange policies because they damage Mercosur, which is currently living its “worst possible moment”.

Uruguay will have to learn to live with Argentina’s ‘unpredictable policies” and its growing tendency to protectionism, both from President Cristina Fernandez as from Brazil in a context where both economies growth is slowing down.

Chile and Uruguay are the least corrupt countries in Latinamerica, while Paraguay and Venezuela are at the other extreme, according to the latest ‘Corruption Perceptions’ Index’ from Transparency International released this week.

Combating the drugs and arms trade and traffic of people as well as a greater coordination of regional intelligence services are among the pillars in security affairs that Argentina, as chair of Mercosur in the first half of 2012 will be applying.

A report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, in seventeen Latinamerican and Caribbean countries discovered an intense concentration and foreign-held land process.

The Bolivian government strongly rejected a statement from a FAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organization) official saying that 26% of the population (2.5 million people) is on the hunger fringe since they can not satisfy their basic food needs.

By Lucius Lomax<br />
The idea of a rogue nation using peaceful nuclear technology for armaments has been explored extensively by both Hollywood and the United Nations. But the idea of acquiring nuclear power—under the pretext of military use—with the real intention of commercial development appears to be an original idea of the Brazil government.