Elected president Fernando Lugo, who takes office on August 15, pledged to maintain Paraguay's membership in the Mercosur trade block, which includes Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, and strengthen integration mechanisms. He also announced he would seek relations with Beijing, currently non existent.
Paraguayan president Nicanor Duarte said on Monday he's considering resigning before August 15, when his mandate expires, which means vice president Francisco Oviedo would then be in charge of passing the sash to elected president Fernando Lugo.
Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe and, to a lesser extent, Ecuador's Rafael Correa were the Latinamerican leaders with the greatest approval rating in March according to the latest public opinion poll from the renowned consultants Mitofsky with results published in the Mexican press on Monday.
The head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) called for urgent action to tackle the silent tsunami of rising food prices which threatens to push more than 100 million people worldwide into hunger.
A Uruguayan farm handy man, Sergio Amable Salvador Vera, 62, became the first person to be indicted this week for starting the grassland fires that produced the recent blanketing with smoke of Argentina's capital Buenos Aires city.
Peru will request before the Ottawa Convention an extension, until 2012, for the clearance of antipersonnel mines from its territory given the impossibility to comply with the current deadline of 2009, announced Peruvian Deputy Foreign Affairs minister Gonzalo Gutierrez.
In a massive Sunday rally the Argentine farmers ratified their willingness to continue the round of talks with government, --in spite of some attitudes and unilateral decisions--, but also warned that time is running out and the agreed deadline is May 2.
Peruvian president Alan Garcia's approval rating fell to 26% (28% in March) despite the strong performance of Peru's economy, the fastest growing in South America, according to an Ipsos Apoyo survey published in Lima's main newspaper El Comercio.
THE Falkland Islands Government Air Service General Manager Sean Minto says that air frame replacement has not been included in the current internal review - We can't get aircraft that operate better or cheaper.
Sao Paulo governor Jose Serra and one of Brazilian leaders tipped to dispute the presidency in 2010 warned about the possibility of an economic downturn when President Lula da Silva concludes his second mandate.