Politics

• Saturday, August 13th 2016 - 08:24 UTC

  Argentina's July inflation falls to 2%, confirming sliding tendency

  

  Argentina's inflation rate eased to 2% in July, less than half of what it was two months before when the government began reporting consumer price data after revamping the country's troubled statistics office. The July figure was released on Friday by the new Indec data agency. A month earlier it reported 3.1% inflation for June and 4.2% for May when it issued its first consumer price report since President Mauricio Macri took office in December.

• Saturday, August 13th 2016 - 08:12 UTC

  Catholic Church criticizes Macri's policies and says 1.4 million more have fallen into poverty

  

  A new report released by the Argentine Catholic University (UCA) points to a somewhat bleak outlook on Argentina’s current socioeconomic situation, with the revelation that 1.4 million people fell into poverty between December 2015 and April 2016. The report also provides a qualitative commentary criticizing President Mauricio Macri’s social policies.

• Thursday, August 11th 2016 - 16:40 UTC

  “Moment of truth” for Venezuela's standing in Mercosur

  

  Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay are waiting to see what happens on Friday, 12 August, when Venezuela has to prove that it has complied with all the pending requirements to confirm its Mercosur full membership condition dating back to 2012.

• Thursday, August 11th 2016 - 16:35 UTC

  Venezuela's attitude not helping to resolve the Mercosur situation, claims Uruguay

  

  “Venezuela is not helping much to resolve” the unprecedented situation of Mercosur, said Uruguay's foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa in reference to Venezuela's self proclaimed presidency of the group and which is rejected point blank by Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay who consider the post vacant.

• Thursday, August 11th 2016 - 06:52 UTC

  US to provide Argentina with 24 state of the art T6-C Texan II training aircraft

  

  Argentina is in the process of purchasing 24 T6-C Texan II training aircraft from the United States, which will also be employed in border control and combating drugs. Apparently the operation has been approved by the US Defense Department and was one of several good news Secretary of State brought last week when he visited Buenos Aires.

• Thursday, August 11th 2016 - 06:39 UTC

  After nine years “Almirante Irizar” is ready for sea tests but faces a “muddy” problem

  

  Argentina's Antarctic exploration flagship icebreaker “Almirante Irizar” is ready for the sea tests after nine years under repairs in the government's defense shipyard and hundreds of millions of dollars, but an unexpected last minute “muddy” impediment has surfaced.

• Thursday, August 11th 2016 - 06:28 UTC

  Bachelet forced to introduce reforms to Chile's private pension system

  

  Under pressure from the public, Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet proposed changes to the most radical of all the economic reforms of former dictator Augusto Pinochet — the private pension system that inspired a wave of similar projects worldwide.

• Thursday, August 11th 2016 - 06:14 UTC

  Pacific Alliance members invite Uruguay to sign free trade agreements

  

  Uruguay, a founding member of Mercosur has been invited by Pacific Alliance members Colombia and Peru to update and expand commercial agreements with the two countries and turn them into a free trade treaty, foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa revealed during a hearing in Congress to analyze the current situation in Mercosur.

• Thursday, August 11th 2016 - 04:52 UTC

  Falklands air links and oil talks between UK and Argentina confirmed by Malcorra

  

  Foreign minister Susana Malcorra confirmed on Wednesday that Argentina and the United Kingdom are holding talks, “moving to a more productive phase” which includes making progress towards new “air links between the Falkland Islands and third countries” plus the removal of “restrictive hydrocarbons measures”.

• Wednesday, August 10th 2016 - 15:49 UTC

  Brazilian Senate votes to impeach Rousseff, and Temer could cease to be “interim” president

  

  Brazilian Senate has voted to begin the impeachment trial of embattled President Dilma Rousseff, a move that could officially hand over power to her former vice president – current interim president – Michel Temer. The impeachment trial is expected to open around August 25 - four days after the Olympics finish - and go on for five days, ending with a vote in judgment.