Mercosur

• Tuesday, April 4th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Regional navies meet in Argentina

  A four-day summit opened yesterday in the coastal city of Mar del Plata with the participation of naval forces from 19 countries of the Americas. These conferences have taken place periodically since 1959, and Argentina has the opportunity to host the event.

• Tuesday, April 4th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Colombia has the highest number of landmines victims

  More people have been killed or injured by land mines in Colombia last year than in any other country as rebels planted explosive devices to protect crops used to make cocaine, the Colombian government revealed Tuesday.

• Tuesday, April 4th 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Humala's political advisor meets Chilean officials

  The political advisor to Peru's leading presidential candidate, Ollanta Humala, met secretly last Wednesday with Chile's future ambassador for Peru, Cristián Barros. The meeting was an attempt to consolidate bilateral links and prove Humala has no anti-Chile agenda.

• Monday, April 3rd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Brazilian Army “proud” of March 1964 coup

  The Brazilian commander of the Army praised the military coup of 1964 and said the service was proud of its past.

• Monday, April 3rd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Sharing economic expansion with all the population

  The difference between Chile and the rest of Latinamerican countries is that Chile used economic growth to improve social development indexes, said former Socialist president Ricardo Lagos in an international bankers meeting in Zurich.

• Monday, April 3rd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  US citizens value Hispanics “hard work and family values”

  A survey from the Pew organization shows United States citizens split about the presence of foreigners working in the country and their contribution to the economy.

• Monday, April 3rd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Only Total and ENI out of new Venezuelan oil contracts

  French oil company Total and Italy's ENI have refused to accept the new Venezuelan rules for extracting crude, which forces them to become minority partners of Venezuelan government owned oil company PDVSA.

• Monday, April 3rd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Energy hungry Chile faces the challenge of new sources

  Canadian miner Falconbridge is evaluating a project to build a 600 million US dollars hydroelectric power plant in southern Chile. The project, known as Energia Austral, would involve the construction of a 740 MW hydroelectric power generating plant on the Cuervo river in Chile's Aysén region.

• Monday, April 3rd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentine beef farmers warn of further protests

  Thousands of Argentine farmers and people linked to the industry protested Monday against the government decision to freeze beef exports for six months until prices in the domestic market begin to fall to a “reasonable level”.

• Monday, April 3rd 2006 - 21:00 UTC

  Call for writing off Latam poor countries debts

  The Interamerican Development Bank, IDB, should write off Latinamerica poor countries debt because this will contribute to regional development and help reduce illegal migration to United States argued US Hispanic members of Congress.