Mercosur

• Tuesday, December 2nd 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Brazil marks AIDS Day

  Brazil, considered a leader in the fight against HIV, marked World AIDS Day Monday with marches by youths that joined their voices to a campaign to prevent discrimination against people suffering from the dreaded disease or infected with the virus that causes it.

• Tuesday, December 2nd 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Anti-chávez petition ends

  Opponents of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's president, appeared on Monday to have gathered more than enough signatures to trigger a recall referendum on his rule, although the government rejected the petition as a “mega-fraud”.

• Tuesday, December 2nd 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentina to face more pressure over write-off

  A group of US bondholders will make an aggressive counter-proposal in New York on Wednesday to the Argentine government's debt-restructuring offer, which creditors unanimously rejected when it was announced in September.

• Monday, December 1st 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Strong Brazilian export drive.

  Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced last week a package of initiatives and credits to promote the country's foreign trade, and to ensure “Brazil will no longer cease to grow”.

• Monday, December 1st 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Breaking News from Chile.

  Headlines:
  Lan Chile after Lafsa; Second strip for Santiago airport; Santiago, second city for making business.

• Monday, December 1st 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Chile-Venezuela diplomatic quarrel persists.

  Venezuela authorities are convinced that “reciprocal signals”, expressed “through democratic channels, avoiding the microphone” will help overcome the souring of diplomatic relations with Chile.

• Monday, December 1st 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Three million EU tourists in 2004.

  More than three million tourists, mostly from the European Union will be travelling to the River Plate countries in 2004, said Juan Carlos López, president of Buquebus, the ferry company that traditionally has linked Buenos Aires with Montevideo and which now has also expanded to the Mediterranean and the Florida coast in United States.

• Friday, November 28th 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Thousands Protest Mexican President Fox

  Shouting “the fatherland is not for sale,” some 80,000 peasants, union members and political activists demonstrated in the Mexican capital Thursday in, at times, a torrential rain against the electricity and tax reforms sought by President Vicente Fox.

• Friday, November 28th 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Chávez opponents in move to trigger referendum.

  Opponents of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's president, are due to begin a four-day drive today Friday to collect at least 2.4m signatures to trigger a recall referendum on Mr Chávez's rule.

• Thursday, November 27th 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Terrorist attack alert in Buenos Aires.

  Argentina bolstered security measures after domestic and foreign intelligence services warned of the possibility of terrorist attacks against American, British and Spanish interests in the country.