Free Republic

A groundbreaking discovery in South America has positioned a major copper project among the world’s top resources. Lundin Mining and BHP’s joint venture uncovers rich deposits of copper, gold, and silver. Bingham copper mine, captured during the day. Credit; Shutterstock ************************************************************************ A major discovery in South America has thrust the Filo del Sol project into the spotlight. The Vicuña joint venture, formed by Lundin Mining and BHP, recently announced what is believed to be the largest greenfield copper find in the past three decades. This new find significantly boosts the project’s position, placing it among the world’s top ten copper...

Venezuelan security forces surrounded the Argentine embassy in the capital Caracas on Friday after two opposition members took refuge inside, according to posts by the opposition duo on social media. The pair joined four other Venezuelan opposition figures who have taken refuge in the embassy this year. One of the men, Pedro Urruchurtu, the international coordinator for opposition leader María Corina Machado, wrote on X that there were patrols of hooded and armed officials surrounding the diplomatic building. The other, former deputy Omar González, also posted on X, writing: “They cut off the electricity service to the Argentine embassy in...

Porfirio Lobo, Honduras president elect, said on Sunday he is committed to enable ousted president Manuel Zelaya to leave the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he remains under refuge following a frustrated attempt last week. Honduras now made it clear what it will accept: "It was decided at the highest level of government: it will be a territorial asylum and he may not go to any nation which borders Honduras, ie that is in Central America," said the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Milton Mateo. According to the Honduran government, Zelaya will not be allowed to travel to Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua...

Chile has issued a tsunami warning and said people should evacuate coastal areas in the south of country after a large earthquake. The warning was issued for the remote Magallanes region on the country's southern tip and parts of the Chilean Antarctic Territory. It comes after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck 219km (136 miles) off the coast of the city of Ushuaia, in neighbouring Argentina, on Friday, according to the United States Geological Survey. The earthquake was also felt in Ushuaia, local media reports, and aftershocks have been reported in the region. In a post on X, Chilean President Gabriel...

The spread of Chinese overseas police service stations around the world raises concerns among human rights campaigners. The Chinese government is opening illegal police posts all over the world. China claims that these posts are capable of cracking down on global and multinational crimes. These checkpoints have been opened in many countries around the world including developed countries like Canada and Ireland. According to local media reports, Fuzhou has established informal police service stations affiliated with the Public Security Bureau (PSB) across Canada. At least three of these stations are located in the Greater Toronto Area only. Chinese Police Station...

While the focus of the Trump administration has been on seizing control of the Panama Canal from China, another port on the Pacific Ocean side of South America, CopiaPort-E in Chile, billed as the “Rotterdam of the Pacific,” demands President Trump’s attention. The World Bank, UNESCO, and the Chinese Communist Party had long planned for CopiaPort-E’s 8-kilometer-long natural breakwater peninsula to be the landing pad for China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI) in South America. If the Trump administration acts fast, President Trump can block the final step in China’s BRI expansion plans in South America before China finalizes the...

Argentine President Javier Milei said during a Conservative event in Florida that his country was negotiating with Donald Trump's administration a zero-tariff deal on approximately 50 export products, aiming for a potential Free Trade Agreement (FTA) shortly. Milei's remarks came after the Republican leader slapped a 10% tariff on all Argentine goods as part of a broader protectionist policy. Speaking at the American Patriots Gala hosted by conservative groups Make America Clean Again and We Fund the Blue at Mar-a-Lago, where he received the “Lion of Liberty Award” for his commitment to freedom and free-market values, Milei outlined plans to...

President Javier Milei on Thursday announced that Argentina will readjust its internal regulations to meet the requirements of President Donald Trump’s tariff proposals. Milei, a career economist and the world’s first and only libertarian president at press time, made the announcement during a brief speech at the “American Patriots Gala,” an event organized by the “We Fund the Blue” charity organization at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “In this framework, and as a result of the meetings that Foreign Minister [Gerardo] Werthein had with the U.S. Department of State and the Secretary of Commerce, Argentina will move forward to...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine could be placed under a “temporary administration” as part of a peace process that could include help from North Korea and other Moscow allies, according to Russian state media. Speaking to a group of servicemen in Russia’s northern port of Murmansk, Putin laid out several provisions for a peace process to end the three-year war launched by Moscow in February 2022, according to Russia’s state news agency, TASS. Among Putin’s many suggestions was a call for new elections in Ukraine and the “signing of key accords” once the country is under international administration,...

The historical fact of the migration of Nazi criminals to the American continent can no longer be denied as more and more official records are released to the population. Unlike Canada’s former PM Justin Trudeau, who refused to release documents registering the names of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators in his country, Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei haw vowed to declassify records regarding the very significant German Nazi migration post-WW2. El Clarin reported (translated from the Spanish): “The government is in the process of declassifying official files on Nazi criminals who sought refuge in Argentina. This was revealed by the Chief of...

During a meeting at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, Argentinian President Javier Milei assured visiting officials from the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) that he would grant them access to classified documents detailing how 5,000 Nazi war criminals settled in Argentina after the Holocaust. Ten thousand Nazi war criminals are estimated to have fled Europe – and justice – following World War II via escape routes known as the so-called “ratlines.” The records of the escapes and who financed them have remained classified preventing historians and Nazi hunters, including the SWC, from gaining access. “While some previous leaders...

A major lithium deposit discovered near the Portuguese border in Castilla Leon could power Spain’s energy future. Found within the Conchas Project by Berkeley Energy, the 31 square kilometre site has been hailed financially as a highly significant resource that, if mined efficiently, could meet Spain’s lithium needs, reducing the country’s reliance on imports. Currently, most of the lithium Spanish battery manufacturers use comes from South America. The project, which is still in feasibility studies, promises significant economic growth for the region but faces hurdles. Environmental groups warn that extraction could harm water resources and biodiversity, and they are calling...

A former US ambassador to Bolivia charged with spying for Cuba for four decades told a judge on Thursday sensationally admitted to the charges and said he'd been gathering information for the rogue state since 1981. Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in December for what US officials called 'one of the highest-reaching and longest-lasting infiltrations of the United States government by a foreign agent.' Rocha pleaded not guilty two weeks ago to charges of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government but he told Judge Beth Bloom at a pre-trial conference on Thursday that he wanted...

In November of 2023, Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina. His campaign promised a free-market policy to revive the economy. During the campaign 108 economists signed a letter predicting this approach of "laissez-faire economics and significant reductions in government spending, are fraught with risks." Since he took office on December 10, 2023 he reduced government spending by 5%, public work programs were put on hold, welfare was slashed, subsidies were eliminated, government-owned companies were privatized, regulations were cut, taxes were simplified and reduced, the number of government agencies was reduced from 18 to 9, a job freeze was implemented...

In the city where I live, there should not be a street named after terrorism, kidnapping and the murder of innocent Argentine citizens. Let us all ask that @jorgemacri change it and instead honor the Bibas family. It is a tribute that they deserve as Argentines. @ezequielmauro @GabrielAlfie15.

The political rise of economist Javier Milei to the presidency was largely driven by Argentinians' hope that he could revive the debt-laden country's economic fortunes. But now the libertarian's key credentials as an economic expert have suffered a massive blow as lawyers have filed a fraud lawsuit against him in an Argentine court. What's come to be known as the "cryptogate" scandal is gripping Argentina, with the rapid rise and collapse of the $LIBRA cryptocurrency at the center of controversy. Investors — most of them reportedly from Argentina and the United States — had poured the equivalent of $100 million...

HANOI, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Vietnam's National Assembly on Tuesday approved a bold bureaucratic reform plan that will slash up to a fifth of government bodies, as the country tries to cut costs and improve administrative efficiency. The number of government ministries will be reduced to 14 from the current of 18, to be up and running from March 1, the assembly said in a statement... More than 97% of the lawmakers present approved the plan. The assembly earlier on Tuesday passed an amendment to a law on organising government, paving the way for approval of the planned cull of...

In November 2023, the warning came, as clear as an omen. A political upstart was seeking office and, if elected, his policies were likely to cause “devastation” in his own country and “severely reduce policy space in the long run.” The threat was a chainsaw-wielding disciple of Austrian economics from Argentina who embraced laissez-faire economics. The predictions of doom came not from Old Testament prophets, but 108 economists who signed a public letter saying his anachronistic ideas had long ago been discredited. “As economists from around the world who are supportive of broad-based economic development in Argentina, we are especially...

Argentine President Javier Milei could face an impeachment trial in Congress, opposition lawmakers said on Saturday, after the libertarian leader touted a cryptocurrency which crashed soon after.

Martín López is an Argentine landlord, but in recent years he felt more like a nervous fugitive. Now based in Madrid, he spent much of 2022 and 2023 mired in anxiety and paperwork—not because he did anything immoral, but because Argentina's rental laws made being a landlord a liability. "Martín López" is an alias. Until late 2023, he rented out his two-bedroom apartment in Buenos Aires' upscale Belgrano neighborhood through a tangle of short-term contracts, never fully sure whether his actions were legal. Argentina's 2020 rent control law, repealed by President Javier Milei in December 2023, had loaded aboveground landlords...