Peru-China to Sign FTA Agreement on April 15th

China and Peru will be officially sign their Free Trade Agreement on April 15th, according to this El Comericio article, a Lima based newspaper.

Li Chang Chun Alan Garcia

Jose Garcia Balaunde, Peruvian Minister of Exterior Relations announced the agreement would be signed in the "capital of the Asian giant," his words not mine...

Negociations had been under way for quite some time, concluding on November 19, 2008 during the APEC summit which Peru hosted.

Australia Chile free trade agreement becomes effective

The Australia-Chile Free Trade Agreement came into force on Saturday 6 March, the first trade agreement between Oceania and a Latin American country. Besides trade the agreement covers services, investments, government purchases and intellectual property plus a special chapter on academic and scientific cooperation.

(MecroPress Article)

Venezuela Launches Joint Venture to Develop Offshore Gas Fields

CARACAS – Venezuelan state energy company PDVSA announced the signing of a multi-billion-dollar joint venture with Portuguese, Argentine, U.S. and Japanese firms to develop massive offshore natural gas fields.

The venture, in which PDVSA will have a majority stake, will design, build and operate two liquefaction plants at the Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho gas industrial complex in the northeastern state of Sucre, as well as pipelines to transport the fuel to those facilities.

Click here to access this full article from the Latin American Herald

Trouble brewing in Bolivia... Family of Morales critic 'attacked' -- Reuters Video

Mar. 8 - A former Bolivian vice president and known opponent of President Evo Morales said a government lynch-mob tried to burn down his house while his family were still inside.

Helen Long of Reuters reports.

If you'd like to read more about this story, check out this article from the Latin American Herald

LA PAZ – The former vice president of Bolivia and opposition leader Victor Hugo Cardenas complained on Saturday that a “government-party mob” attacked his house in a community on the Bolivian altiplano and fears for the life of his wife and three children who were staying there.

Cardenas, an intellectual Aymara who was vice president during the first government of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (1993-1997), told the media that peasant followers of President Evo Morales occupied at noon his house near Lake Titicaca.

Uranium set to rise?

Uranium

http://www.uxc.com

Applications to build at least 31 nuclear reactors are before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with more filings expected soon. Many of the projects are in the Southeast, with the first expected to go on line as early as 2015. Nuclear advocates hope eventually to build additional reactors in California.

"I'm aware of 33 or 34 projects in the hopper. I think the prospects are reasonably good. There's demand," said Bill Halsey, a leading expert on nuclear energy at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where scientists have worked on solutions for permanent disposal of high-level radioactive waste.

Click here to access this full article from the San Francisco Chronicle