
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica left on Tuesday for a ten day visit to Europe that will take him to Sweden, Norway, Germany and Belgium, where he is expected to promote trade, investments and economic development.

Latin America is going through a “great moment” but can’t be complacent when the European Union and the US are facing major challenges, and the region must definitively address the large integration challenges, warned Enrique García, head of the Andean Promotion Corporation, CAF.

More than then thousand people marched in the Chilean capital Santiago in support of the indigenous Mapuche people. The protest marked the 519th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, the start of the Spanish conquest.

Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner decided on Tuesday to cancel her attendance to a political rally due to a case of low blood pressure, her spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro announced.

Uruguay celebrated Monday October 10 the bicentennial of its emancipation process with a great colourful, open party that attracted over 300.000 people to the streets and stages in the capital Montevideo.

Brazil is reinforcing its diplomacy’s legal and trade departments in anticipation of a major impact from a possible global situation and in this context “Mercosur is a priority, almost a sanctuary” announced Monday the Foreign Affaire ministry.

For Argentina, Brazil is a “decisive partner” in addressing the negative effects of the world economic crisis which has hit the United States and the European Union, said on Monday Argentina’s Deputy Economy minister Roberto Feletti.

In the framework of the so called Plan Maior, Brazil adopted measures to stimulate its industry with the purpose of increasing productivity and containing competition from Chinese produce in its domestic market.

The head of Business-Europe International Relations said Wednesday that a free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur “would not destroy European agriculture” in spite of fears from farmers.

Major European corporations called on political leaders for an “ambitious and balanced” European Union-Mercosur trade agreement and asked that ‘agriculture issues’ impacts do not derail the project.