Free Republic

Sacyr Vallehermoso, a Madrid based Spanish construction firm, has expressed interest to lead the construction of the Agua Negra tunnel, a project that aims to build a highway that crosses over the Chile-Argentina border, connecting the San Juan province in Argentina to Coquimbo in Chile. The project’s high profile comes from its ambitiousness. The tunnel in question is planned to go for nearly 8.6 miles and will be built in complicated conditions under the Andean mountains. It comes as part of a Mercosur integration process, and will be part of the highway that traverses the continent, from Coquimbo in Chile...

Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg has described the timing of a trade pact with the South American grouping Mercosur amid raging fires in the Amazon as “awful”. Norway, which is part of European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) grouping four non-EU members, on Tuesday regretted the “awful timing” of a trade pact with Mercosur, as fires rage in the Amazon. Faced with massive criticism for his handling of the blazes in the rainforests, Brazilian President Jose Bolsonaro on Friday announced the agreement between EFTA, formed by Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and the South American grouping Mercosur, made up of Brazil,...

The official said Brazil's comments and policies over the last few weeks showed that Bolsonaro did not intend to respect obligations on climate change and also did not want to commit on concrete proposals to maintain biodiversity French President Emmanuel Macron believes his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro lied to him on Brazil's stance on climate change, and France will now block a trade deal between the EU and South American nations. "Given the attitude of Brazil over the last weeks, the president can only conclude that President Bolsonaro lied to him at the Osaka [G20] summit [in June]," a French...

Paris (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron defended a huge trade deal agreed by the European Union and four South American countries and warned against "neo-protectionism", as farmers and environmentalists step up their resistance to the accord. The deal announced Friday by the EU and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay is the largest ever struck by the European Union. It covers markets that total approximately 780 million consumers representing a quarter of global GDP. Speaking in Brussels late Tuesday, Macron defended the agreement, despite a government spokeswoman earlier saying France was not yet rushing to ratify the trade deal. He...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that she would work toward securing a “fair” free-trade deal between the EU and Mercosur, the South American economic bloc. Her comments, posted in her weekly video message, came ahead of a visit by Uruguay’s President Tabaré Vázquez to Berlin on Wednesday. “We are fundamentally in favor of international trade agreements, which is why we are very happy with the effort in the Mercosur countries” to reach a deal with the European Union, Merkel said. “It’s a matter of reaching a fair deal, where Europe’s interests are taken into account just as are those...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel assured Brazil on Sunday that she will do her utmost to bring to a successful end the 15-year-old negotiation of a free trade deal between the European Union and South America’s Mercosur trade bloc. Merkel, stopping in the Brazilian capital on her way to see the German soccer team play in the World Cup on Monday, said Germany and Brazil, the two largest economies in Europe and Latin America, had much to gain from more trade and investment. […] Brazil, a regional powerhouse that is seeking more trade to boost its stagnant economy, feels it is...

President Obama erred during a speech at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, when attempting to call the disputed archipelago by its Spanish name. Instead of saying Malvinas, however, Mr Obama referred to the islands as the Maldives, a group of 26 atolls off that lie off the South coast of India. Cristina Kirchner, the Argentine president, has renewed her country's sovereignty claim to the Falklands in the build-up to the 30th anniversary of the Argentine invasion of the islands, which triggered the Falklands War, on April 2. She has accused David Cameron of maintaining a "colonial enclave"...

The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) decided at a meeting on Friday to set up a South American Parliament in Bolivia to promote the bloc's integration. Chilean President Michele Bachelet, also the UNASUR's temporary president, and Bolivian President Evo Morales opened the meeting in Bolivia's Cochabamba province which drew representatives from 12 countries in the region. "There are many tasks that the UNASUR is urged to accomplish, as part of the Latin American and Caribbean efforts," Bachelet said. Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia said that UNASUR members consider it necessary to promote the construction of the institutionalism and the...

Chávez lashes out at Mexico On the same day the Calderón administration took steps to ease rocky relations with Venezuela and Cuba, Venezuela´s Hugo Chávez on Thursday hurled personal insults at his Mexican counterpart Wire reports El Universal Viernes 02 de febrero de 2007 On the same day the Calderón administration took steps to ease rocky relations with Venezuela and Cuba, Venezuela´s Hugo Chávez on Thursday hurled personal insults at his Mexican counterpart. Chávez´s ire was raised as he attacked Calderón for comments the latter made in Davos, Switzerland, last week criticizing countries that "nationalize industries" and "interfere in the...

Mercosur Summit: Evo generates an impasse and discomfort with Colombia In an encounter dealing with subjects such as how to unite the region, the President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, replied strongly yesterday to unexpected criticisms made by his colleague from Bolivia Evo Morales and requested the Venezuelan Chief Executive, Hugo Chavez, who intervened in favor of the Bolivian, to understand the "legitimate right" of Bogota to clarify whatever doubt could arise in the region over the Colombian situation. The impasse was produced during the session of speeches of the second and last session of debates of the Chief Executives of...

President Hugo Chavez has pledged to nationalise key Venezuelan companies, as part of plans to transform the country into a full socialist state. Mr Chavez said he wanted to see major Venezuelan power and telecoms companies come under state control. The country's telecoms giant CANTV is an expected target He also called for an end to foreign ownership of lucrative crude oil refineries in the Orinoco region. Mr Chavez's comments came in an address to the nation following the swearing in of his new cabinet. "All of that which was privatized, let it be nationalised," he said during the...

As Bolivian President Evo Morales tries to implement a controversial "agrarian revolution", the BBC's Damian Kahya visits the east of the country to talk to both settlers and landowners. Settler building a house (Photo: Amy de Wit) The settlers say they will not give up and are still building houses Land is a cause of conflict now in Bolivia. A recent survey by the Catholic Church here found that just 50,000 families own almost 90% of Bolivia's productive land. Evo Morales, the country's first indigenous president, was elected earlier this year on a platform promising to redistribute land. Few...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, on a world tour during which he signed a $3 billion arms deal with Russia, has begun talking about combining several of South America's largest armies to counter U.S. influence. "We must form a defensive military pact between the armies of the region with a common doctrine and organization," Mr. Chavez said July 5 in Caracas during a military parade, which Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and Bolivian President Evo Morales attended. In another speech before he left for Moscow last week, Mr. Chavez said: "We must form the armed forces of Mercosur, merging warfare capabilities of...

In a recent article — Iran Reaches the Mediterranean I indicated that for Muslims, three cities of the Christian faith have particular significance: Jerusalem, Constantinople and Rome. The fall of Constantinople is described in detail in my earlier book, The Clash of Ideologies--The Making of the Christian and Islamic Worlds. Iran with its relations and support of Hamas and Hezbollah now has access to the Mediterranean and is the neighbor of Jerusalem. Italy was the first country from which Iran withdrew is funds.

Sweden's biggest defence manufacturer, the Saab Group, says it will no longer provide weapons to Venezuela. Saab says it cannot continue

WASHINGTON—While the world was focused on the tragic events taking place in Lebanon and northern Israel, something very disturbing happened in South America last week. The trading bloc known as Mercosur (the South American common market), at its summit meeting in the Argentine city of Cordoba, formally supported Venezuela's bid for one of the two Latin American seats on the United Nations Security Council. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had worked the summit to make sure he could defeat Guatemala, Washington's preferred candidate, and gain the coveted seat when Argentina's two-year term expires in October. Chavez wants to become a world...

Global environmental concerns from the UN and various special interest groups—from rational to extremist—often do speak in terms of the Amazon as a global environmental interest and resource. Intellectually or specifically, such rhetoric implies challenges to Brazil’s sovereignty over the region. Those flinging about such rhetoric include former senior US political leaders, namely Al Gore. ...the father of Brazil’s nuclear weapons program, Rex Nazare Alves, currently sits on the advisory committee for National Nuclear Energy Commission (CNEN) of the government of Lula da Silva. Previously a consultant in the Institutional Security Office (GSI) of the Presidency of the Republic, he...

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- Guatemala's government -- annoyed by the delay in CAFTA's implementation and the U.S. House of Representative's approval of a wall to keep out illegal immigrants -- announced Tuesday it would seek to strengthen its relations with the Mercosur trading bloc. "The decision to approach Mercosur has been made," Guatemalan Vice President Eduardo Stein told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, referring to bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Guatemalan officials will seek to establish contacts with Mercosur leaders at the upcoming inauguration of Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales, Stein said. Seeking ties with the South...

Venezuela is to become a permanent member of the South American trade bloc Mercosur. The country's addition would be formalised in December, said an official from Uruguay, the current president of the bloc. The Venezuelan government welcomed the announcement, saying its membership would strengthen Mercosur. Venezuela is the world's fifth largest oil producer, and soaring crude prices have helped boost its economy. The country - which also has the region's largest natural gas reserves - has sought to deepen energy ties with other South American nations. "This is something that is historic for us. We are going to work very...

When the Berlin Wall was torn down, the Soviet Union collapsed, and China pursued market-led development, it seemed safe to assume that the threat of aggressive communism toppling national dominoes and dominating an entire continent was gone forever. But while America has focused its attention elsewhere, communism is on the move in South America, and the shape of a serious plan to dominate our neighboring continent has become evident. Even worse, our natural ally to resist such domination is strangely uninterested in defending its turf. On a scale not seen since the 1960s, Cuba's Fidel Castro and his new ally,...