Alejandro Toledo rose from a poor childhood as a shoeshine boy to become Peru's first freely elected president of native Indian descent on Sunday, defeating controversial ex-president Alan Garcia.
Aerolíneas Argentinas, the Argentine air flag carrier for decades that was purchased ten years ago by Iberia seems inches away from its final closure.
Although the Argentine economy has began to show some tepid signals of recovery, it's still too early to consider it a consolidated tendency, according to local analysts. However analysts underline that the restructuring of 15 billion US dollars of foreign debt maturing in the next twelve months, has had a strong impact in consumer and local investment attitudes.
Former president Alan García is running just a couple of points behind Alejandro Toledo in the final round this Sunday to elect Perú's next president. Latest polls indicate Mr. Toledo remains flat in 41%, while Mr. García has steadily and unexpectedly grown from 27% to 38% in the last three weeks.
Mercosur is over, it has proved a complete failure, since Brazil constitutionally is too dependent on its governors and can't ensure a common currency or agree macroeconomic policies for the block.
Two of the most powerful Brazilian Senators have opted to resign from Congress after it was proved both had forced staff to reveal information of a secret vote on the previous ousting of another Senator in 2000, responsible for a billion US dollars embezzlement.
In spite of Republicans having lost the majority in the Senate, the George W. Bush administration is confident it will have sufficient political support to negotiate the Americas Free Trade Association, AFTA, although Democrats are expected to include labor rights and environment protection clauses.
Chilean president Ricardo Lagos addressed this week Congress promising the creation of 150.000 new jobs and 3,5 billion US dollars in public investments in anticipation of a medium upturn of the economy.
Legal controversies about the implementation of energy rationing has convinced the Brazilian government to seriously consider a proposal by distributors to declare Mondays national holiday, thereby increasing electricity savings.