Politics

• Thursday, June 6th 2013 - 06:30 UTC

  Two continents’ police bust ring that shipped cocaine hidden in frozen fish to Spain

  

  Brazilian authorities said they had smashed a ring of narco-traffickers said to have shipped drugs hidden in frozen fish to Europe. Eleven members of the drug and money laundering network, based in Brazil and with connections in Colombia, Portugal and Spain were arrested between last Friday and Tuesday and 5 million dollars worth of goods seized, prosecutors said.

• Thursday, June 6th 2013 - 02:13 UTC

  U.S. and Venezuela agree to start dialogue to restore respective ambassadors

  

  The United States is to start a dialogue with Venezuela aimed at restoring their respective ambassadors, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said. He was speaking after Venezuela freed and deported a US filmmaker who had been held on conspiracy charges. Mr Kerry welcomed Timothy Tracy's release as a “positive development”.

• Wednesday, June 5th 2013 - 22:11 UTC

  Argentina seizes Brazilian cargo railway concession arguing non compliance with contract conditions

  

  Argentina expropriated a cargo railway concession from Brazil’s All America Latina Logistica, ALL, and a tourist train concession, citing non-compliance with contractual agreements. ALL operated the railways between Mendoza province and the Rosario port as well as the railway between Misiones province and the Buenos Aires port since 1999.

• Wednesday, June 5th 2013 - 19:21 UTC

  Uruguay former president calls on Latam to advance in agreements with the US

  

  “The time for rhetoric exercises has run out”, said Uruguayan former president Tabare Vazquez during a presentation before the Latin American Studies Association, LASA, in Washington where he emphasized the need for Latinamerican countries to advance in agreements with the United States.

• Wednesday, June 5th 2013 - 17:49 UTC

  Uruguay ‘can’t ignore (Mercosur) reality’ and is applying for full Pacific Alliance membership

  

  Vice-president and acting president Danilo Astori strongly defended the Uruguayan government’s intention of joining the Pacific Alliance, next to Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico, claiming that Mercosur has fallen into a state of ‘inactivity’ but also rejected point blank statements from Brazilian diplomacy contrary to such a move.

• Wednesday, June 5th 2013 - 08:37 UTC

  Obama and Piñera in the White House renew push for a trans-Pacific trade agreement

  

  US President Barack Obama and Chilean President Sebastian Piñera renewed their push for a trans-Pacific trade agreement at a meeting in the White House Oval Office on Tuesday that also touched on education and renewable energy.

• Wednesday, June 5th 2013 - 08:29 UTC

  Prosecutor Nisman ready to quit if accused Iranian officials surrender to face trial

  

  Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman responsible for the investigation into the 1994 bombing of a Jewish institution in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people and which points as culprits to several Iranian officials said he will step down if those Iranians named in the report “surrender to face trial”.

• Wednesday, June 5th 2013 - 08:19 UTC

  Argentina first of 66 countries to sign UN Arms Trade Treaty; US on hold

  

  Representatives of sixty six countries lined up at U.N. headquarters in New York to sign the first international treaty to regulate the 85 billion dollars global conventional arms trade, a landmark event. However doubts exist about whether the treaty will work.

• Wednesday, June 5th 2013 - 08:16 UTC

  Fearing lesser global liquidity, Brazil eliminates tax on foreign capital inflows

  

  Brazil will scrap a tax on foreign investments in local debt, a surprise move that could help stop a sharp depreciation of the country's currency which lost 7.6% in the past three months and that threatens to stoke already high inflation in Latin America's largest economy.

• Wednesday, June 5th 2013 - 08:05 UTC

  Inflation in Uruguay falls for the fourth month running but still above target

  

  Consumer prices in Uruguay during May increased 0.32% and 8.06% in the last twelve months which is still above the annual top target range of 6%, but on the positive side for the fourth month running inflation has been decreasing, according to the latest release from the stats office INE.