Politics

• Monday, June 16th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Uruguayan president visiting Panama, Cuba and Mexico

  Uruguay and Panama signed on Monday several cooperation agreements during the official visit of Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez to the Central American country, the first leg of a tour that will also take him to Cuba and Mexico.

• Sunday, June 15th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentina farm strike flares again after crackdown

  A three-month standoff between Argentina's government and farmers over a tax hike turned violent on Saturday when military police in riot gear used batons to try to clear roadblocks on a main highway.

• Sunday, June 15th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Paraguay's future cabinet blends continuity &renewal

  

  Paraguay's president-elect Fernando Lugo whose historic election ended six decades of one-party rule in the country named a former leftist militant to head his Cabinet when he takes office on August 15.

• Sunday, June 15th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Over 90 bulk grain carriers queuing in the River Plate

  The Argentine farmers' conflict has the River Plate packed with grain bulk carriers waiting to load in Buenos Aires and Rosario (up the river Parana). An estimated 90 vessels are queuing with the tail reaching the access to the port of Montevideo, in neighboring Uruguay.

• Sunday, June 15th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Chavez names new Finance minister ahead of by-election

  Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez named on Sunday Ali Rodriguez, a trusted ally who has also served as head of state oil company PDVSA, as Minister of Finance. Rodriguez is currently ambassador in Cuba and was once secretary general of OPED and has also held the post of Foreign Affairs minister.

• Sunday, June 15th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Formal end to oil companies proxy Chaco War 1932/35

  Argentina will hand Paraguay and Bolivia the Limits Act which contains the final territorial and fluvial borders which emerged from the Chaco War, fought 73 years ago between the two landlocked and poorest countries of the continent.

• Sunday, June 15th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Irish-vote shocked Europe meets to decide what next

  European Union foreign affairs ministers are gathering in Luxembourg for talks on how to respond to the Irish rejection of the Lisbon reform treaty. Voters in the Irish Republic, the only state to hold a referendum on Lisbon, rejected the treaty by 53.4% to 46.6% last Thursday.

• Saturday, June 14th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Argentina short of fuel and food and long w/e at home

  Argentina's food and fuel shortages worsened on Friday as groups of truckers continue to block highways in spite of the government announcement that the stoppage was over following talks with one of several protesting groups.

• Friday, June 13th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Grain truckers' road blocks strangling Argentine economy

  The grain truckers strike in Argentina who are blocking major roads in the country and on Thursday evening confirmed the industrial action are causing major food and fuel shortages in cities forcing cuts on public transport and higher prices in stores.

• Friday, June 13th 2008 - 21:00 UTC

  Ecuador's Correa says assassination plot a scam

  Police in Ecuador have arrested three Colombians and an Ecuadorian accused of plotting to kill the country's leftist president Rafael Correa, officials say.