
Defence officials from Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Argentina will be participating in a high level meeting to coordinate efforts for the elimination of anti-personnel mines which still remain in border fields of the four countries involved.

Former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner received Monday the unanimous support from country members of the Union of South American Nations, UNASUR, to become the organization’s secretary general, overcoming differences of previous meetings.

With less than a month for the Colombian presidential election the campaign has reaffirmed the surprising advance of what is known as the “green tide” of hopeful Antanas Mockus, who according to the latest public opinion polls figures ahead of incumbent candidate and former Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos.

There are 40 names on this year’s list of Predators of Press Freedom—40 politicians, government officials, religious leaders, militias and criminal organizations—that cannot stand the press, treat it as an enemy and directly attack journalists. They are powerful, dangerous, violent and above the law.

Uruguay is hosting two Antarctic Treaty meetings which will officially be opened Monday May 3 in Punta del Este by Foreign Affairs minister Luís Almagro. Uruguayan authorities expect an attendance of over 350 foreign officials at the Thirty three Antarctic Treaty Consultative and the Thirteenth Committee on Environmental Protection meetings.

Argentine former President Néstor Kirchner harshly criticized a sector of the press and the government's “opposition” in Congress that wants “to set the country on fire”, but in spite of all he was optimistic about a long term plan for Argentina.

Cubans were called “to work harder and sacrifice” in support of the Cuban revolution and the island’s Socialist model during Saturday May first International Workers’ Day.

The Argentine political establishment is agitated after the heavy remarks made before a federal judge by former Argentine ambassador to Venezuela Eduardo Sadous, who said local businessmen had to pay kickbacks to former president Néstor Kirchner administration officials to be able to export their goods to Venezuela.

Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega announced Sunday he managed to convince Cuban authorities to lift the month-long ban on street protests by “Ladies in White”—the wives and mothers of political prisoners.

Five former Royal Malaysia Air Force (RMAF) officers, including a brigadier-general, are suing the Armed Forces Council for wrongful dismissal. They are claiming that they had been wrongfully dismissed after an inquiry held over the two missing RMAF F5E fighter jet engines that were later located in a Uruguayan warehouse, apparently the property of an Argentine company.