
Citizens from Mercosur full members and some associate countries will be allowed to travel to Venezuela with no need of a passport, simply with their national ID, as of next Thursday announced Venezuela’s Identification and Foreigners office.

Latinamerican and Caribbean nations are to set up a new regional bloc of all the countries in the Americas, with the exception of the United States and Canada. The decision was formalized Tuesday at a regional summit of the so called Rio Group in the Mexican resort of Cancun.

The United Kingdom said on Tuesday it was willing to re-open talks with Argentina but not on Falkland Islands sovereignty or the development by the Islanders of a hydrocarbons industry. The statement came on the eve of a meeting of Argentina’s Foreign minister Jorge Taiana with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

The new Latin American and Caribbean bloc planned without regional neighbours Canada and the United States are consistent with US goals for the region, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday

The United States has a “neutral” stance regarding the question of the Falklands/Malvinas sovereignty but recognizes the current British administration of the Islands, said US State Department spokesperson during the daily press conference.

Brazilian president Lula da Silva condemned on Tuesday the United Nations Organization (UN) and its Security Council for not recognizing Argentina's sovereignty over the Malvinas/Falkland Islands.

Latin American leaders will work to diffuse tensions between Colombia and Venezuela after presidents Alvaro Uribe and Hugo Chavez, got into a shouting match and exchange of insults at the Rio Group summit in Mexico.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be visiting five Latinamerican countries next week beginning in Uruguay, representing President Barack Obama at the inauguration ceremony of president elect Jose Mujica on March first, according to Washington diplomatic sources.

Trade among Mercosur members plummeted in 2009 under the effects of the international slowdown which severely limited access to financing and made credit in the region harder to obtain, according to a report from the Inter American Development bank, IDB.

United States currently has no interest in having US troops stationed and with access to military bases belonging to other Latinamerican countries, such is the case with Colombia said a top Pentagon official during a visit to Nicaragua.