Politics

• Tuesday, December 20th 2011 - 07:25 UTC

  Malvinas jurisdictional acts are ‘invalid’ for Uruguay, but UK flagged vessels welcomed in Montevideo

  

  “Any jurisdictional acts coming from Malvinas is invalid for us” and therefore Malvinas flagged vessels are barred from Uruguayan ports, a decision which is extensive to all Unasur members, said Uruguayan Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro.

• Tuesday, December 20th 2011 - 07:21 UTC

  Argentina/Brazil propose higher external tariffs for Mercosur

  

  Argentina supported by Brazil has proposed increasing Mercosur Foreign External Tariff to better defend the group when country members are being flooded with cheap imports.

• Tuesday, December 20th 2011 - 07:12 UTC

  Chavez expected in Montevideo to announce Venezuela’s Mercosur full membership

  

  Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said he will travel on Tuesday to the Mercosur summit in Uruguay in his first official foreign trip since undergoing cancer surgery in June and a further sign he is feeling stronger.

• Tuesday, December 20th 2011 - 07:01 UTC

  Mujica looses his temper with the media over the ‘Villa Nores’ incident

  

  The Uruguayan president Jose Mujica lost his temper in an incident with a journalist when he was asked what measures the government was planning to avoid a repeat of the situation with a Spanish flagged vessel chased by an Argentine Coast Guard unit and had to take refuge in Uruguayan waters.

• Tuesday, December 20th 2011 - 02:58 UTC

  Paraguayan Congress warns Lugo on Venezuela’s incorporation to Mercosur

  

  The president of the Paraguayan congress Senator Jorge Oviedo Matto said that Paraguay should withdraw from Mercosur if the block during its Tuesday summit in Montevideo agrees the incorporation of Venezuela “eluding the approval of the Legislative as indicates the Constitution and the Mercosur charter”.

• Tuesday, December 20th 2011 - 02:07 UTC

  Mercosur drafting resolution barring Falklands’ flagged vessels from all regional ports

  

  Mercosur member countries meeting in Montevideo for their regular six-month summit are drafting a resolution that would bar Falklands’ flagged vessels from all Mercosur members’ ports, following on the traditional Argentine policy and now openly supported by the Uruguayan government.

• Tuesday, December 20th 2011 - 02:02 UTC

  Timerman thanks Mujica on Falklands: “Uruguay has honoured its word”

  

  Argentine Foreign Affairs minister Hector Timerman publicly thanked and praised on Monday the Uruguayan decision, announced last week, to bar Falklands’ flagged vessels form the port of Montevideo and any other sea or fluvial terminal in the country.

• Tuesday, December 20th 2011 - 00:56 UTC

  Falklands’ fishing companies regret Uruguay’s ban, and losses for the port of Montevideo

  

  Falkland Islands fishing companies association, FIFCA expressed their “extreme disappointment” with Uruguay’s decision not to allow Falklands’ flagged vessels enter the port of Montevideo, which “will only serve to punish its own people”.

• Tuesday, December 20th 2011 - 00:08 UTC

  Rajoy announces to Spain deep spending cuts and tax breaks for companies

  

  Spain's incoming Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy took aim at his country's economic woes Monday, promising deep spending cuts at all levels of government while offering tax breaks for companies.

• Tuesday, December 20th 2011 - 00:01 UTC

  Obama joins the Mercosur controversy over the incorporation of Venezuela

  

  President Barack Obama has accused the government of Venezuela of threatening “basic democratic values” ahead of elections next year. He added that close relations with Iran and Cuba did not serve the interests of the Venezuelan people.