The global recession has created a “wasteland of unemployment” that is likely to leave scars on society for years to come, unless action is taken to address the jobs crisis, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn warned.
A new law on returning illicit dictator funds that are deposited in Swiss banks has been approved by the Swiss parliament.
Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo undergoing treatment for a lymphatic cancer is limiting activities to “administrative affairs” while a growing number of opposition lawmakers are seriously considering requesting his resignation or a larger share of responsibilities with his Vice-President Federico Franco.
Mercosur is currently a “Foreign Affairs ministries club” which has failed in getting people involved in the integration idea and process, said Uruguayan Foreign Secretary Luis Almagro during a press conference Monday at Government House.
The Cuban government will cut more than 500,000 state jobs by March as part of a plan to reduce inefficiencies, the country’s largest union said in a statement. The reductions are part of President Raúl Castro’s goal of eliminating 1 million state jobs by 2015, according to the statement.
European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht is expected in Brazil to advance trade talks with Mercosur. Brazil currently holds the Mercosur rotating chair. The top EU official will visit Argentina later in the week.
As President Sebastián Piñera spoke of national unity and moving past quarrels from recent history on the anniversary of the 11 September 1973 military coup that ousted democratically elected President Salvador Allende, protests and demonstrations occurred throughout Chile.
Four Chilean deputies were forcefully removed last week from a jail where hunger striking indigenous Mapuche prisoners are being held. The deputies had announced they too would join the strike.
A member of the Falkland Islands Legislative Council rebutted historical claims made by Argentina over the Islands in a speech to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in Kenya this week, adding that the challenge Falkland Islanders face is Argentina’s “simple desire to steal what is ours.”
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced he would redouble the military's offensive against Marxist-inspired, drugs financed FARC guerrillas after several attacks killed 40 police and military officers.