
The value of the square metre in Uruguay’s most fashionable resort Punta del Este remains steady and experienced a slight increase in the last year according to an April report from ReporteInmobiliario.com, one of Buenos Aires leading real estate analysts.

Finland’s Stora Enso, Europe’s leading paper producer and Arauco, one of the largest forest industry enterprises in Latinamerica based in Chile, announced Monday the definitive purchase agreement for the joint (50%/50%) acquisition of Spanish pulp producer Grupo ENCE assets in Uruguay.

Mario Benedetti, Uruguay’s leading poet and one of Latinamerica’s most read authors died Sunday in Montevideo at the age of 88. He became famous in the Spanish speaking world in 1960 with his landmark novel La Tregua (The truce) which years later served as the script for a much praised film.

This week Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez announced that his government will “allow gays to join the armed forces” by scrapping military rules that define homosexuality as a disorder”.

Uruguay’s rice 2009 crop is estimated in 1.3 million tons and although the area planted was 4.5% less that in 2008, yield is a record 8.012 kilos per hectare, according to the latest release from the Agriculture Statistics Department, DIEA.

Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez called for “deeds” from Argentina and insisted that the administration of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner must remove the pickets which for two years have cut the traffic between the neighbouring countries in protest over the construction of a pulp mill.

Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez is scheduled to visit Paraguay this week to participate in a new anniversary of the country’s independence and hold private talks with President Fernando Lugo.

Uruguay extended sanitary controls to borders with Argentina and Brazil following the confirmation of several cases of the influenza A/H1N1 in its neighbouring countries, the first to be reported in Mercosur.

Uruguay’s capital Montevideo remains the best city for quality of life for foreign executives in Latinamerica, while Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince is the worst, according to the latest survey from Mercer.

Uruguay and Brazil expect to have bilateral trade operations in their respective local currencies in place in a few months time, according to the Uruguayan Central Bank. The system is similar to that implemented between Brazil and Argentina and which is beginning to be operational.