Venezuelan Health and Social Protection Minister Luis Reyes confirmed 15 cases of Chagas disease in the capital Caracas, following an outbreak in the popular quarters of the city. However Minister Reyes flatly discarded the word “epidemics”.
Aban Offshore (BOM:523204), India’s largest offshore drilling and oil field services provider, suffered a major setback on Thursday, when its gas platform Pearl sunk off the coast of Venezuela. This was one of Aban’s biggest money spinning rig earning 358,000 US dollars a day.
A former Venezuelan defence minister who has become a staunch critic of President Hugo Chávez was sentenced to almost eight years in prison for alleged misappropriation of funds in connection with the purchase of military equipment.
Paraguayan opposition and media strongly criticized Brazilian president Lula da Silva’s for not keeping his Itaipú dam-controversy promises and allegedly for conditioning further assistance to the approval by the Paraguayan congress of Venezuela’s incorporation to Mercosur.
Colombian president Alvaro Uribe questioned Latin American countries that are moving along the path of nationalization of corporations and warned that erasing private sector investments only anticipates “major social defeats”.
President Hugo Chávez expects Venezuela will be fully incorporated to Mercosur before Brazilian president Lula da Silva steps down from office next January first. The two leaders met Wednesday in Brasilia and also agreed to strengthen Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).
Colombia’s Green party presidential candidate Antanas Mockus arrives for Wednesday’s night television debate as favourite following on his spectacular rise in public opinion polls.
Venezuela is an extremely important factor for the social and economic development of the region and Brazil will insist upon Paraguay on the need for the approval of Venezuela’s incorporation as full member of Mercosur, stressed Senator Romero Juca from the Brazilian ruling coalition.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps has stepped up its presence in Latin America, especially in Venezuela, according to a Pentagon report to the United States Congress partially de-classified this week.
Colombia’s leading presidential candidate Juan Manuel Santos claimed that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is intent in interfering in his country’s electoral process that next May 30 will decide on the successor of President Alvaro Uribe.