Politics

• Friday, July 24th 2009 - 13:51 UTC

  Uruguay takes Mercosur chair for the next six months

  

  Uruguay officially takes the pro-tempore chair of Mercosur from Paraguay on Friday during the main ceremony of the group’s presidential summit in the capital of Paraguay, Asuncion. Originally the meeting was to receive eight presidents but al last moment Ecuador and Venezuela turned back.

• Thursday, July 23rd 2009 - 15:00 UTC

  Mediators say Zelaya must return to Honduras Friday

  

  Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya should return home on Friday, mediators in the crisis have said. But the country's interim authorities, who removed him, have said they will not bow to international demands for his reinstatement.

• Thursday, July 23rd 2009 - 14:55 UTC

  Controversy as Israeli Foreign Minister begins South American tour

  

  Israel's foreign minister ran into controversy on the first day of a Latinamerican trip when an official of Brazil's ruling party reportedly called him a “fascist”. Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported that Valter Pomar, secretary of international relations for the Workers Party, described Avigdor Lieberman as “a racist and a fascist” during an interview

• Wednesday, July 22nd 2009 - 21:57 UTC

  Trade in local currencies instead of US dollar, Mercosur proposal

  

  Mercosur presidents will consider this week during the summit in Paraguay, the possibility of using local currencies to finance inter-region trade, revealed the host country’s president Fernando Lugo.

• Wednesday, July 22nd 2009 - 21:53 UTC

  Nestor Kirchner, “a complicated character” who is “out of control”

  

  Former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner is “out of control”, he has a “complicated personality”, said Chubut province governor Mario Das Neves, once an ally but now clearly distanced from the husband of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

• Wednesday, July 22nd 2009 - 13:51 UTC

  Expelled Venezuelan diplomats challenge Honduras de facto government

  

  Venezuelan diplomats rejected comminatory orders to abandon Honduras in 72 hours saying their expulsion was decided by an illegitimate government which is not recognized by the administration of President Hugo Chavez.

• Wednesday, July 22nd 2009 - 13:45 UTC

  Argentina implements changes in the Statistics agency

  

  Argentina's Economy ministry will have increased control over the national statistics and census agency, Indec, announced on Tuesday the government in a bid to restore credibility to the country's consumer price data.

• Wednesday, July 22nd 2009 - 13:38 UTC

  Pensions for Argentine members of failed attempt to capture the Falklands in 1966

  

  The Peronist government of the Argentine province of Buenos Aires will grant a special pension to the nationalist group of 18 civilians who in 1966 took command of a commercial flight to Rio Gallegos and had it re-routed to the Falkland Islands with the purpose of taking over the Malvinas for Argentina.

• Wednesday, July 22nd 2009 - 08:28 UTC

  Brazil tells Hillary of dissatisfaction with Arias mediation in Honduras crisis

  

  Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Celso Amorim phoned last weekend US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was in New Delhi, India, to “express concern” about the slow pace and handling of the negotiations for the reinstatement of the democratic order in Honduras, reports Folha do Sao Paulo.

• Wednesday, July 22nd 2009 - 08:25 UTC

  Nicaraguan opposition condemns President Ortega’s re-election appeal

  

  Nicaraguan opposition members in Congress condemned this week a public appeal for constitutional changes by President Daniel Ortega as an attempt to extend term limits and eventually allow the populist leader's re-election.