Mercosur

• Monday, April 29th 2002 - 21:00 UTC

  Lagos expects quick ratification

  Chilean President Ricardo Lagos said he expects Congressional opposition will understand the importance of the recent association agreement between Chile and the European Union and help with its legislative approval.

• Monday, April 29th 2002 - 21:00 UTC

  Changes in slow motion

  Venezuelan president Hugo Chaves named this Sunday veteran political leader and former Defence Minister José Vicente Rangel as his new vicepresident, a vital post in the government structure.

• Sunday, April 28th 2002 - 21:00 UTC

  Markets trust test for Mr. Lavagna

  Incoming Argentine Minister of Economy Roberto Lavagna confirmed a floating currency, no price controls and a clear willingness to follow and comply with the reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund, IMF, according to interviews in Buenos Aires Sunday newspapers.

• Saturday, April 27th 2002 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentina Names Economic Minister

  Argentina's president enlisted a trade specialist and former diplomat to be his economy minister on Friday, the sixth person recruited over the last year for the job of rescuing a ravaged economy and a financial system bordering on collapse.

• Friday, April 26th 2002 - 21:00 UTC

  Chile reaches free trade agreement with Brussels

  The European Commission and Chile on Friday agreed a broad political and commercial accord that was expected to lead to a liberalised trade agreement once the details were ratified by the 15 European Union governments.

• Thursday, April 25th 2002 - 21:00 UTC

  More time for Duhalde

  More exhausted than convinced Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde announced that the long overnight talks with the provincial governors had resulted in a fourteen points program to be implemented in the next three months.

• Wednesday, April 24th 2002 - 21:00 UTC

  Dramatic hours

  With Congress divided on the crucial issue of converting frozen bank deposits into Government bonds, and with the IMF still refusing to grant an aid package, Argentina's Minister of Economy Jorge Remes Lenicov resigned plunging the country into a political crisis of unpredictable consequences.

• Wednesday, April 24th 2002 - 21:00 UTC

  British banks Argentine watch

  British newspapers are carrying increasingly concerned reports of Argentina's worsening economic crisis.

• Tuesday, April 23rd 2002 - 21:00 UTC

  Armed Forces support democracy

  Argentine Army Commander in Chief General Ricardo Brinzoni said that a military intervention to reestablish order in the face of a social outburst can't be discarded, but it will be done in the “framework of the Constitution and the rule of the law”.

• Tuesday, April 23rd 2002 - 21:00 UTC

  Duhalde ready to resign

  With barely a hundred days in office and a meager 14% public opinion support, while 49% of Argentines presumably want new elections, according to private polls, Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde said he was willing to move aside if Congress requested him.