Mercosur

• Wednesday, November 19th 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Duhalde's fence mending task.

  Former Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde, who was recently named Mercosur's representative, began this week a round of informal contacts with political leaders, high officials, businessmen and members of the international financial community hoping to co-ordinate a political and economic route map for the integration of the South American block.

• Tuesday, November 18th 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Lack of broad agreement pointing toward “FTAA lite”

  The absence of broad agreement on several sticky issues is pointing toward the probability that what will be achieved this week in hemispheric trade talks underway here is a bare-bones accord, something of an outline of an “FTAA lite.”

• Tuesday, November 18th 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Brazil Sends Terror Suspect to Paraguay

  A man suspected of financing the Islamic militant group Hezbollah from a border region where Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil converge has been extradited to Paraguay to face tax evasion charges, Brazilian officials said Tuesday.

• Monday, November 17th 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Breaking News from Chile.

  Headlines:
  Record low country risk for Chile; Spain's Aznar visits Chile for second time in five years; Red tide intensifes in Punta Arenas.

• Monday, November 17th 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Good news for Brazil, bad news for Bolivia.

  Brazil has discovered giant gas reserves with an unimaginable impact in the future, since they are just a hundred miles away from the country's main industrial concentration, Sao Paulo which is equivalent to 40% of the country's GDP.

• Monday, November 17th 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Most South American capitals belong to the opposition.

  The capital city governments of most South American countries are in the hands of a party contrary to the government at national level.

• Monday, November 17th 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  New thrust for FTAA?but with flexibility.

  Four of Latin America's main leaders agreed to grant the US sponsored Free Trade Association of the Americas, FTAA, a greater thrust. However they also pointed out that this must be done “with flexibility so as to benefit the weakest and poorest nations”.

• Monday, November 17th 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Praise for Argentina's recovery.

  The CEO of the Inter-American Development Bank, Enrique Iglesias praised Argentina for its efforts to overcome the economic crisis and the fact that “it's achieving it with its own means”.

• Monday, November 17th 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Big challenge for Miami's ambition

  Miami security forces have engineered a tight security system to protect the city's reputation as the “bridge of the Americas” and prevent street protests from disrupting the Free Trade Association of the Americas, FTAA, negotiations scheduled for November 20/21 that are expected to concentrate hundreds of delegates from 34 countries and thousands of protestors.

• Sunday, November 16th 2003 - 20:00 UTC

  Uruguay-Mexico free trade accord.

  Uruguayan and Mexican presidents Jorge Batlle and Vicente Fox signed this Saturday in Bolivia a free trade agreement, the first bilateral accord Mexico reaches with a Mercosur member country.