Politics

• Monday, March 7th 2011 - 07:35 UTC

  Toledo leads in Peruvian presidential election opinion polls

  

  With just over a month for the presidential elections April 10, former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo continues to lead comfortably vote intention according to the latest public opinion polls. Lawmaker Keiko Fujimori and former Lima mayor Luis Castañeda are runner ups but ten points below.

• Monday, March 7th 2011 - 07:28 UTC

  Peru and EU to sign free trade agreement in mid March

  

  Peru and the European Union will be signing the final documents for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) in mid March, said Peruvian Trade and Tourism Minister Eduardo Ferreyros in Lima.

• Monday, March 7th 2011 - 06:46 UTC

  Unemployment increased in Chile during Oct-Dec, stands at 7.3%

  

  Unemployment across Chile grew 0.2% in the last quarter (Oct-Dec) to stand at 7.3% nationally. That equates to 22,000 extra people who are without an income from the end of last year.

• Monday, March 7th 2011 - 01:35 UTC

  Falkland Islands: other points of view

  

  Since mid January when Dr Graham Pascoe and Peter Pepper first published an article under the heading of “Falklands’ Facts”, Argentina’s former Ambassador and Deputy Foreign Affairs minister during the Menem administration Andrés Cisneros has systematically replied with his own point of view, establishing an illuminating debate on an issue that is controversial but also passionate.
  Now Anglo-argentine Henry Whitney who has the benefit of understanding both cultures and idiosyncrasies has joined the debate.

• Monday, March 7th 2011 - 00:30 UTC

  Sustaining Latin America’s Transformation

  

  By Nicolás Eyzaguirre (*) Building on recent successes, Latin America now has a chance to raise its profile in the global marketplace. “There is nothing so joyous as a Mexican fiesta, but there is also nothing so sorrowful,” wrote Nobel-Prize-winning poet Octavio Paz, in The Labyrinth of Solitude. “Our fiestas are explosions. Life and death, joy and sorrow, music and mere noise are united.

• Saturday, March 5th 2011 - 07:12 UTC

  Argentina soy export terminals resume full activities

  

  Argentine dock workers reached a wage deal on Friday and called off a three-day-old protest that paralyzed two major soy export terminals and stopped 20 grains ships from loading, a union leader said.

• Saturday, March 5th 2011 - 06:55 UTC

  Chinese congress targets social stability; admits inflation and corruption

  

  China must ensure social stability by reducing inflation and corruption, Premier Wen Jiabao has told the parliament's annual session. Mr Wen has been addressing about 3,000 delegates to open the National People's Congress in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

• Saturday, March 5th 2011 - 05:40 UTC

  Busy agenda for Chile’s Piñera in Europe and Israel and Palestine

  

  Chilean President Sebastián Piñera arrived in Italy this week for a three-day visit to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the Vatican. It comes at a difficult time for Berlusconi, who is in the middle of a scandal and allegations of tax fraud and consorting with under-age prostitutes.

• Saturday, March 5th 2011 - 05:20 UTC

  Unexpected slowdown of Brazilian inflation during February: 0.8%

  

  Retail prices in Brazil, as measured by the benchmark IPCA index, rose 0.8% in February, down from 0.83% January, the national statistics agency said in a report distributed in Rio de Janeiro Friday.

• Saturday, March 5th 2011 - 01:48 UTC

  Sales, Especially by Russia and China, Continue to Penetrate Latin America

  

  Russian military sales have become so frequent in recent years that they no longer make for major headlines. However, as Washington policymakers continue to voice concern about Iran’s growing influence in Latin America, some alarmists argue that Russia’s eagerness to supply the region with weapons is likely to trigger a “soft arms race” and present itself as a threat to the United State’s historic hegemony in the Western Hemisphere.