Un-convened and unconvinced Uruguayan farmers again took to the roads of the country for a peaceful protest vigil in an estimated 300 posts, and which counted with spontaneous support from small business people linked to the rural sector.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that Beijing is willing to negotiate step by step, a free trade agreements with Uruguay and other countries in South America, particularly members of Mercosur.
Enough is enough, an end to the bloated state and its fiscal voracity, so that Uruguayan farmers can recover competitiveness, was the clear message from tens of thousands who gathered in central Uruguay to express their disenchantment with president Tabare Vazquez administration attitude towards the rural sector.
Anywhere between 8.000 and 50.000 people are expected to convene on Tuesday to Durazno, central Uruguay, to protest and demand solutions to what is seen as an over bloated government, fiscal strangling, incompetent management of government companies and an overall dissatisfaction with the results of these policies and deaf political ears to the ongoing complaints.
Uruguayan farmers with their tractors, harvesters, trucks, vans and on horseback took to the roads to protest the cost of fuel, power, increased taxes and an over bloated national budget and bureaucracy which they blame for making several farm activities unprofitable, and have had an overall negative impact for the different camp activities.
Imagine having breakfast with an explorer and documentalist who turns out to be Jacques Cousteau's granddaughter. Or listen to a conference aboard the Nobel Prize in Physics Shuji Nakamura. Imagine waking up one day on an exotic island and the other in one of the great capitals of the world. Imagine owning a floating apartment worth between 1.2 and 7.5 million dollars.
Uruguayan animal health authorities are on the alert following the outbreak of a blue tongue focus among sheep in south Brazil. The outbreak has been located in Santa Maria, in central Rio Grande do Sul, and Uruguay's Agriculture and Livestock ministry has strengthened controls along the border which divides the rich farmland region.
A member of Argentina's elite of powerful union sharks has been arrested in Uruguay at his Great Chaparral ranch and is awaiting extradition to Buenos Aires to face charges of corruption, money laundering, extortion, stealing funds and links with the drugs business, among others.
The European Commission and Mercosur are planning to resume negotiations to reach a new Association Agreement during this month. The Commissioner of the European Trade Commission, Cecilia Malmström, stated that, after the last negotiating round, which took place in early December, and after the attempt to reach an agreement in the framework of the last round of the World Trade Organization (WTO), held from 11 to 14 December, the agreement was very close and would be reached in a matter of weeks.
Japan is planning to lift a ban on beef imports from Uruguay next year, ending a more than 17-year embargo following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the South American nation in 2000, according to government sources in Tokyo.