Mercosur

• Sunday, January 20th 2002 - 20:00 UTC

  Manipulated numbers and long recovery

• Tuesday, January 15th 2002 - 20:00 UTC

  The Church to the rescue

  In a national address and sitting next to representatives from the Catholic Church and United Nations Development Agency, Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde made a dramatic appeal to all political and social sectors for a minimum consensus to overcome the current unprecedented and extreme crisis.

• Tuesday, January 15th 2002 - 20:00 UTC

  Hot News: Mercosur supports floating peso.

  Argentina's Mercosur partners and associate members gave their support to the “institutional solution to the Argentine crisis”, and expressed their confidence that both Argentine authorities and the people “will achieve the recovery of economic growth and social development”.

• Friday, January 11th 2002 - 20:00 UTC

  Argentine banks re-open after more demonstrations.

  After another night of street demonstrations against the government and its financial restrictions, Argentine banks re-opened on Friday and immediately attracted long queues.

• Wednesday, January 9th 2002 - 20:00 UTC

  A Lady for Defence in Chile

  Chilean president Raúl Lagos reshuffled his cabinet naming a woman for the first time ever as Defence Minister.

• Wednesday, January 9th 2002 - 20:00 UTC

  Mercosur Ministers meeting

  The Mercosur presidential summit scheduled for this Friday was postponed for later in January and only Foreign Affairs Ministers from the block's four countries and associate members Chile and Bolivia will be meeting in Buenos Aires.

• Wednesday, January 9th 2002 - 20:00 UTC

  Spain warns Argentina

  With the prodding of Spain, the European Union demanded from Argentina a “reliable, dialogued and coherent budget, capable of generating confidence among investors”.

• Sunday, January 6th 2002 - 20:00 UTC

  Talks with creditors in February

  Asking for “understanding and belief”, since “miracles do not exist”, Argentine Economy Minister Jorge Remes Lenicov confirmed on Sunday evening a 40% devaluation of the peso and simultaneously outlined the rules for the new economic system which includes negotiations with the country's creditors, “sometime in February”, after “we've put the house in order” .

• Saturday, January 5th 2002 - 20:00 UTC

  Mercosur summit

  Mercosur presidents will be meeting next Friday in Buenos Aires to express their full support to the new Argentine government and formally hand the rotating six month chair of the block to Argentina.

• Friday, January 4th 2002 - 20:00 UTC

  “Just a step away from blood and anarchy”

  In his first public appearance since taking office Argentine president Eduardo Duhalde confirmed the devaluation of the Argentine peso and called for a new strong alliance of the “productive community”, backed by a convergence of the political and productive powers of the country.