Mercosur

• Saturday, April 16th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Sea freight rates almost double in twelve months

  Sea freight costs leaving Chile have increased 90,5% in the last twelve months according to the Index of Sea Export Freights, IFNE which is calculated by the Manufacturing and Services Export Association of Chile.

• Saturday, April 16th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Aero2000-Lan begins flying June “or even before”

  Lan Chile will begin operations in Argentina next June through Aero2000-Lan absorbing a thousand workers from two bankrupt Argentine airlines, was announced in Buenos Aires.

• Saturday, April 16th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Ecuador President Calls State of Emergency

  Facing growing street protests demanding his ouster, President Lucio Gutierrez declared a state of emergency Friday night in the capital and dissolved the Supreme Court in an effort to resolve an escalating political crisis.

• Friday, April 15th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Chile receives first F-16 fighter bomber

  Chilean Defence officials participated in Fort Worth, Texas, of the roll-out ceremony for the first of ten F-16 fighter bombers built by Lockheed-Martin and to be incorporated to the Chilean Air Force.

• Friday, April 15th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Kirchner complains about IMF incompetence

  Argentine president Nestor Kirchner called in Germany for a “restructuring” of multilateral credit organizations and argued that the Argentine debt swap was successful because it left out the IMF and acted opposite to Fund's recommendations.

• Friday, April 15th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Cuba on the verge of cutting ties with EU

  Cuba warned Thursday in Geneva that the budding rapprochement with the Europe Union “is on the verge of sinking” and asked the Europeans to join Havana in urging a United Nations forum to investigate the situation of detainees at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo.

• Friday, April 15th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  US warns about “cloned” US dollar bills in S. America

  Special agents from the United States Secret Service arrived this week in Santiago to instruct Chilean banking and police authorities on US dollar bills security seals and other safeguards following a warning from the Federal Reserve about fake 50 and 100 US dollar bills circulating in South America.

• Friday, April 15th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  More pressure on Argentina to include all bond holders

  The world's major financial references called on the Argentine government to reach an agreement with those bond holders who did not adhere to last February's restructuring and swap plan accepted by 76% of creditors.

• Friday, April 15th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Lan Chile closes deal with Argentine partners

  Lan Chile and its Argentine associates announced Thursday they closed the deal to purchase Aero 2000 after a whole month of negotiations.

• Friday, April 15th 2005 - 21:00 UTC

  Mercosur-EU “4+4” summit in the agenda

  Argentine president Nestor Kirchner and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder considered the possibility of calling a 4 + 4 summit (Germany, Spain, France and United Kingdom, plus Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Chile) to re-launch the stalled European Union-Mercosur trade negotiations.