Uruguay’s largest pulp mill UPM announced that it will be making final checks of the plant’s equipment in the rest of the week, following on annual maintenance work, but production is not scheduled to resume until the Finnish company receives a reply from President Jose Mujica regarding the output expansion request.
On 17 July, Nicaragua announced that US-based Noble Energy would invest 30 million dollars in drilling two offshore wells in the Caribbean—launching Nicaragua's first-ever oil exploration.
Landlocked Bolivia sued neighboring Chile on Wednesday in the Hague before the International Court of Justice as it pressed a longstanding claim to recover land lost in a 19th century war and thus regain access to the sea.<br />
Chile quickly responded that the issue was not negotiable.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said he has agreed with his Nicaraguan counterpart, Daniel Ortega, to establish lines of communication to resolve through diplomatic channels the maritime dispute between the two countries.