The Malaysian government failed to inform Washington that two “US-supplied” F-5 fighter jet engines had gone missing since May 22, 2008, despite having at least “three opportunities” to come clean, according to leaked United States diplomatic cables released recently.
The engines two years later were finally located two years later in Uruguay.
Uruguay resisted pressures from the administration of former US President George W. Bush to reduce ties with Iran. Uruguay’s Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro on a Middle East tour made the revelation during a meeting in Teheran with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, according to the official Iranian news agency.
President Jose Mujica promised there will be no ‘uncontrolled inflation in Uruguay’ and although admitting it’s not a simple problem, with no magic solution, there are “sufficient tools’ to address the issue including putting “government spending on a diet”.
Several Mercosur negotiations with other blocks have failed because “they ask too much and offer too little” said Samuel Pinheiro recently appointed Mercosur High Representative and who is holding a round of meetings with member countries’ leaders.
A closely divided Senate has passed legislation to overturn an amnesty for human rights crimes committed by the military and security forces during Uruguay's 1973-85 dictatorship, overruling voters who in two referendums upheld the law in 1989 and 2009. The decision triggered strong controversy in the Uruguayan political system.
Beginning June, Mercosur full members will share macro-economic indicators elaborated with the same criteria and which will be released simultaneously, according to reports in the Montevideo press. The initiative was partly financed by the European Union that also played an advisory role.
Uruguay’s growth estimate for this year remains at 5% but is forecasted at 4.2% for 2012 with warnings on the economy’s over-heating, significant inflow of capital and inflation, according to the IMF World Economic Outlook released this week. In 2010 the Uruguayan economy expanded 8.5%.
Uruguay continues to expand its alternative green energy capacity and the latest contract award will have 25 wind turbines which must be operational within a maximum period of three years. The wind power project of 50 MW will supply renewable energy to a population of 50,000 people.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica strongly supported the incorporation of Venezuela as full member of Mercosur from a Sunday column published in one of Brazil’s most influential newspapers, Folha de Sao Paulo.
Former Uruguayan president Tabaré Vázquez denied this week that he ever said that his Argentine counterparts Néstor and Cristina Kirchner are “fascists”, like Wikileaks cables stated.