United States Senator Richard Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee is urging the US to extend trade benefits to Uruguay, bypassing Mercosur, a move he says would also increase pressure on Brazil to deepen commercial ties.
Uruguay confirmed the first death of the A/H1N1 virus influenza and two more hospitalized cases, which have been described as in “critical situation”. The victim is a 60 year old woman who died in a government managed hospital on Monday
Mercosur Foreign Affairs and Economy ministers will be meeting Tuesday in Asuncion, Paraguay in the framework of the Common Market Group to discuss trade barriers and try to unwind several issues.
Jose Mujica from the ruling coalition, Luis Alberto Lacalle and Pedro Bordaberry from the opposition are the three candidates that will be disputing Uruguay’s presidency next October following their comfortable victories on Sunday’s political parties’ primaries. The “picture” resulting from June 28th results also helped to visualize what could happen in October and if a November run-off will be needed.
Leaders from the grouping which supports Uruguayan presidential hopeful Danilo Astori cautioned in Buenos Aires that if Senator Jose Mujica is nominated candidate next Sunday, the ruling coalition’s re-election chances could be impaired.
Three pollsters have virtually confirmed the winners of next Sunday’s primary presidential elections in Uruguay. The ruling coalition’s presidential hopeful Jose Mujica and Pedro Bordaberry from the small Partido Colorado have ample margins over their runner ups and can be anticipated to win by a landslide.
Safe deposit boxes in Uruguay are overflowing with US dollars from fearful Argentines concerned about the situation in their country and the results of Sunday’s mid term elections, according to banking sources in Montevideo.
The Uruguayan ruling coalition held Tuesday night a last joint rally before Sunday’s presidential nomination primary evoking the past and calling for unity behind the winning ticket. However one of the three hopefuls said that an agreement on program “contents” will have to be reached first.
Former Uruguayan president Jorge Batlle forecasted that Nestor Kirchner is going to be the main looser in next Sunday’s Argentine mid term elections, although he described the former Argentine president as “one of the best neighbours ever, for Uruguay’s interests”.
Uruguayan residents’ savings in overseas banks totalled 7.1 billion US dollars in the last quarter of 2008, which represents a slight drop from September 2008 but 14% over December 2006 (6.25 billion USD) according to the latest report from the Bank of International Settlements, BIS.