Mercosur

• Saturday, July 22nd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Mercosur is changing the “world's commercial geography”

  Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stressed Friday in Argentina the crucial importance of Mercosur for world trade and encouraged his counterparts to reinvent Mercosur and meet the expectations of the junior members.

• Saturday, July 22nd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Castro praises Latinamerican unity

  Cuban leader Fidel Castro who was the main attraction of the Friday Cordoba Mercosur summit said that the group has never been so united and “is far more united than other regions”.

• Saturday, July 22nd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentina and Uruguay in Orinoco belt oil venture

  Argentina and Uruguay government owned oil companies, Enarsa and Ancap, together with Venezuelan giant PdVSA agreed to explore and extract crude from the Orinoco Belt in southern Venezuela following the signature of an agreement Friday during the Mercosur summit.

• Saturday, July 22nd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Feuding behind Mercosur unity fest

  President Kirchner left the Cordoba Mercosur summit early last night in what was rumoured as an intentional snub to his presidential colleagues, who included Cuba's Fidel Castro and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.

• Saturday, July 22nd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Mercosur's juniors seek deals elsewhere

  Paraguay and Uruguay, the smaller nations of the five-country trade bloc Mercosur, raised renewed interest yesterday in bilateral trade deals with non-member nations.

• Friday, July 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  South American leaders gather in Cordoba

  Brazil and Argentina are already the number one and two economies in South America, followed by oil-rich Venezuela. Foreign ministers of Mercosur spent the day yesterday hashing out details of today's presidential summit.

• Friday, July 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Can Chavez & Castro push Mercosur leftward?

  Can Chavez & Castro push Mercosur leftward? President Hugo Chavez makes Venezuela's debut as a member of the Mercosur trade bloc at a two-day summit in Cordoba which drew a rare appearance abroad by Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

• Friday, July 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazil's Varig Sold in Auction to Former Cargo Unit

  Varig, Latin America's oldest airline, averted liquidation as its former cargo unit agreed to invest more than $600 million to take over its operating assets and preserve many of the company's 9,500 jobs.

• Friday, July 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Minister of Defense welcomes new submarine to Chile

  Minister of Defense Vivianne Blanlot welcomed a new addition this week to Chile's submarine fleet at the port city of Cartagena in southern Spain.

• Friday, July 21st 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Petrobras- Venezuelan joint venture

  Brazil's state-run oil company has signed a joint venture agreement that brings oil pumping operations under Venezuelan government control, officials said yesterday.