
Bank of Nova Scotia, the Canadian bank that is aggressively expanding its presence in Latin America, is now pushing into Uruguay with the acquisition of private bank Nuevo Banco Comercial and consumer-finance company Pronto, it said on Monday.

Uruguay’s exports jumped 23.3% during the first eleven months of 2010, anticipating a new value record for the year. Exports totalled 6.1 billion US dollars between January-November compared to 4.95 billion in the same period a year earlier and are higher than the twelve month previous record of 6.1 billion in 2008, according to Uruguay’s Exporters’ Union.

Unasur has been a fundamental factor of stability, democracy and peace for the region said Uruguay’s Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro, following on Uruguay’s Parliament’s ratification of the group’s founding charter and constitution. However Almagro admitted consensus on a name for Secretary General of Unasur is still pending.

Canadian Scotiabank (NYSE: BNS) is close to purchase the US private equity firm Advent’s stakes in Uruguay's third largest private sector bank Nuevo Banco Comercial (NBC) and consumer credit company Pronto!, was reported Thursday in Montevideo.

Uruguay’s Lower House approved on Thursday the Unasur (Union of South American Nations) constitution protocol sending a strong message of support to the group’s summit in Guyana.

Uruguay’s First Lady and speaker of the main Senate group in the ruling coalition Lucia Topolansky will be sworn as interim president on Friday, the first woman-president in the history of the Uruguayan democracy.

Néstor Kirchner Argentina’s late former president first became popular by pushing for the repeal of the amnesties and pardons that prior governments had granted to members of the country’s bloody 1976-83 dictatorship. Argentines cheered when the Supreme Court ruled the laws unconstitutional in 2005, and have supported the hundreds of prosecutions for human-rights abuses that have been launched since then.

Peru is the country with less citizen support for democracy in the Americas while in Uruguay, Costa Rica and Argentina the system enjoys massive approval.

Uruguay expects 200 cruise calls this 2010/2011 season totalling 300.000 visitors between passengers and crewmembers said the country’s Tourism and Sports minister Hector Lescano during the official launching of the cruise season.

Uruguayan authorities begun this week surprise and random safety inspections of fishing vessels docked in the port of Montevideo following a succession of fire incidents, mostly involving Korean flagged vessels which were described as “suspicious”.