September 1, 2006        www.LatinEPR.com          LatinEPR News Wire

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LATIN AMERICA NEWS BRIEFS

 

TRAVEL

 

Mexico Ranks 7th in International Tourist Arrivals

 

With 21.9 million international visitors in 2005, the country moves up a notch in World Tourism Organization figures.  Mexico’s ranking among the world’s countries in international tourism arrivals increased from eight to seven last month according to World Tourism Organization figures, Tourism Secretary Rodolfo Elizondo recently announced. Tourism providers are rushing to meet the increasing demand for service. For example, there are currently 23 new flights to Mexico from the United States, and Canadians can count on an additional three flights to Mexico.  “More and more leisure and business travelers are discovering the many benefits of a Mexican vacation. Our country not only offers visitors beautiful beaches, an almost endless array of cultural destinations and many exciting adventure tourism options, but Mexico does it all while providing tourists with great value and gracious service,” said Elizondo.  Sectur reports that Mexico’s tourism industry was responsible for generating 1.9 million direct jobs in 2005, up 3 percent over 2004 numbers. With the tourism sector so favorably impacting the country and its people, Mexico invests considerable time and effort in developing it.  The Mexican government has a comprehensive, long-term tourism plan in place to guide its efforts through 2025. The plan’s goal is to consistently increase both the number of international visitors and the amount of tourism revenue.

 

Venezuela Agrees to Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Pact

 

(Prensa Latina) – Tourism Minister Wilmar Castro Soteldo (Venezuela) and Harold Novell (Antigua and Barbuda) signed in Merida, Venezuela, a cooperation agreement on tourism. The local news agency ABN says the goal is to strengthen economic exchange, boost an educational project stressing language diversity and tighten relations between airlines. Castro Soteldo said tourism yields 63 percent of Antigua's GDP, hence its interest in boosting the multi-destination with European tourists linking Caracas, Antigua, north Brazil, Bogota and Buenos Aires. Venezuela strives to recover its "tourist industry", neglected by previous governments. This year in September, Caracas will again host the International Tourist Fair with more than 100 guest countries.

 

Air Jamaica Becomes Official Air Carrier of Cricket World Cup 2007

 

Air Jamaica recently won a joint bid to become an official air carrier of next year’s Cricket World Cup: West Indies 2007.  Together with BWIA West Indies Airways, it will take over long-haul transportation of the event’s TOMS (Teams, Officials, Media and Sponsors), while Caribbean Star and LIAT will handle shorter haul inter-island flights.  The contract is an excellent promotional opportunity for Air Jamaica, which offers as many as 270 weekly international non-stop flights to the Caribbean nation, more than any other carrier.   

 

Cuban Tourism Unchanged by Castro’s Health

 

Members of the Assosciation for the Study of the Cuban Economy in Miami predict little change in the Caribbean nation’s economic policy following Fidel Castro’s recuperation from surgery and his temporary transfer of power to his brother Raul, reports the Sun Sentinel.  Panelists participating in the association’s annual three-day conference this past August said that Cuba was certain to remain communist regardless of Castro’s successor, and that an open economy would only ever be possible under the “China model”.  Furthermore, Cuba’s future economic progress would be seriously hampered by a lack of substantial outlays, the like of which East Germany received from western Germany after the reunification, not to mention a general reluctance by the Cuban military and other state companies to invite outside interests.  The Cuban military controls most of what concerns the country’s tourism. Despite this and the Association’s assertions, there are still many who view the recent events in Cuba as a positive development, contending that regime change of any kind in Cuba will strengthen chances of a shift in US policy, especially what regards the restrictive travel bans.

 

ECONOMY AND POLITICS

 

Chile to Return Focus on Andean Trade Bloc

 

(AP) — Chile will return to the Andean Community trade bloc after its four member countries extended a formal invitation to President Michelle Bachelet, said Enrique Krauss, Chile's ambassador to Ecuador in August.  Chile's reincorporation into the Andean Community would end a 20-year absence from the group, which was formed in 1969. The Andean Community is now composed of Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Bolivia.  President Hugo Chavez said in April that Venezuela was pulling out of the trade bloc because Colombia and Peru signed free-trade deals with the United States.  Chilean officials had said for weeks that the nation was interested in rejoining the bloc, but was waiting for a formal invitation.  The strengthened ties with the Andean community marks an important shift in focus for Chile, who has recently been involved in an energy dispute with Mercosur member Argentina.

 

Peru: Garcia Slashes Salaries

 

Three days after taking office in late July, re-elected Peruvian president Alan Garcia published a decree in the official newspaper El Peruano that he was reducing his monthly paycheck by 60%, to just over $5,000.  The decree also announced that lawmakers would see their salaries reduced nearly 40% to about the same amount.  In fact, Garcia targeted officials across the board, including regional presidents, mayors, municipal councilors, and deputies, who are not only facing lower wages but also sanctions on budget overspending.  Garcia said the paycuts would be implemented immediately rather than in January in order to save the country an additional $16.2 million.  However, Garcia is not the only president to call for an end to inflated salaries.  In January, Evo Morales cut his own salary in half to $1875, and declared that no Cabinet minister’s wage could surpass that amount. The savings were used to hire more public school teachers.  Of course, experts warn that such drastic pay cuts can sometimes have an adverse effect, agitating corruption and causing upstanding, qualified candidates to opt out of public office and enter more lucrative endeavours instead.  The long lasting effects notwithstanding, Garcia’s decree has garnered wide-spread public support and is helping to erase memories of his less successful first term.

 

Brazil Improving Business Environment

 

A new World Bank report says Brazil is initiating reforms to establish a more favorable business environment for entrepreneurs.  According to Doing Business in Brazil, while the country’s best performing cities like Brasilia may still be behind places like Bangkok or Shanghai, Brazilian state and city officials are "taking measures to simplify procedures, share information among agencies, and introduce online processes."   In its analysis of the Brazilian business environment, the report covers five areas of business regulation in 13 Brazilian cities -- starting a business, registering property, obtaining credit, paying taxes and enforcing a contract.  Among its findings were that complying with business regulations was easiest in Brasilia and Manaus, and that São Paulo ranked first in Brazil for the ease of enforcing a contract, requiring about 18 months.  The same could take up to four years in the city of Campo Grande.  In addition, the report studies how Brazilian cities’ business environment compares globally.  For example, Belo Horizonte ranks 30th in the world in terms of the speed of starting a business, the fastest in Brazil.  When compared to Mexico, Brazilian cities also perform better in terms of the cost of registering property.  Doing Business in Brazil suggests further measures for improvement and was produced by the World Bank, with financial support from the U.S. Agency for International Development, along with support from a Brasília, Brazil-based group called Movimento Brasil Competitivo. 

 

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL

 

Highest skyscraper in Panama City

 

A Spanish company has begun construction in Panama on the highest skyscraper in Latinamerica.  When it is completed in 2009, it will also stand as the world’s tallest residential structure.  The building looks out onto the bay of Panama in the Pacific and will be 350 metres high with 97 floors.  It will feature a hotel, 333 residential apartments, offices, shops, revolving restaurant, and a helipad among other facilities. The enterprise is being led by Spanish company Olloqui, which is investing 200 million US dollars, and is expected to generate 800 direct and 12,750 indirect jobs. The highest building in Latinamerica currently is the Torre Mayor in Mexico City with 225 metres and 55 stories.

 

Brazil Military Rescues Stranded Penguins

 

Brazil’s air force and navy have made arrangements to transport four dozen penguins back to their natural habitat in Antarctica, after the flightless birds were stranded on a beach in Rio de Janeiro last month.  Every year Antarctic peguins wash up on Brazilian shores after drifting into the warmer Atlantic on ice floes.  Many of the animals are then transported to local zoos, but since 2000, Brazil has carried out several penguin airlifts, returning as many as 100 wayward birds a year.  In this case, the penguins will receive a personal escort back home on a Hercules transport plane and navy ship, courtesy of the Brazilian armed forces.

 

Archaeologists in Guatemala Beat Looters to Royal Mayan Tombs

 

Buried deep underneath Guatamala’s Mayan pyramids, archaeologists have discovered two long-lost royal tombs of extreme cultural significance, reported Zee News in August.  The first tomb is suspected to belong to the first ruler of the ancient Mayan citadel, El Peru Waka, founded around 150 AD.  This ruler would also have been the dynastic founder of a line of over two dozen kings at El Peru Waka.  The second royal tomb, believed to have been built 400 years later, was found up the hill from the first pyramid, but has yet to be fully excavated.  Archaeologists are taking particular satisfaction in having outsmarted the scores of looters who had not only tunneled underneath the pyramids for decades but also attempted one last foray into the camp the night before the discovery. 

 

The Truth about Christopher Columbus: Body and Mind

 

Following extensive DNA testing, Spanish experts have definitively concluded that the tomb of Christopher Columbus in Seville, Spain, contains the remains of the famous explorer.  Debate over whether Columbus’s remains rested in Seville or in Santo Domingo has been ongoing since 1877, when a lead trunk with Columbus’s name was discovered in the Dominican Republic.  To put an end to the dispute, scientists finally exhumed the Seville remains for analysis in 2003. Completed testing has now provided positive identification, but the nature of the remains, being only 15% intact, may yet incentivate scientists in Santo Domingo to perform DNA testing of their own.  As 2006 marks the 500th anniversary of his death, it may not only be this issue but the entire legacy of Christopher Columbus that is called into question.  Recently, Spanish archivist Isabel Aguirre has helped to shed more light on that legacy, publishing her transcriptions of the Archive of Simanacas.  The archive contains detailed eye witness accounts of Columbus’s cruelty and tyranny that brought about the end of his eight-year term as Santo Domingo’s viceroy and his consequent arrest by Spanish authorities.

 

Valparaiso Considers Suit against National Geographic

 

Mercopress recently reported that Valparaiso Mayor Aldo Cornejo is considering legal action against the National Geographic Society in response to a documentary titled Ultimate Disaster Earthquake.  The documentary, which depicts the potentially catastrophic effects should a major earthquake strike the Chilean city, was shown throughout the country and re-broadcast on news programs, enciting a wave of hysteria among its citizens.  Cornejo fears that the documentary has permanently damaged the image of Valparaiso, especially as a tourist destination.  Seismological specialists at the University of Chile have also taken issue with the documentary, saying that some of the information and the way in which it was presented was inaccurate and irresponsible.  The National Geographic Society has responded, claiming the documentary was educational and precautionary.