April 1, 2007        www.LatinEPR.com          LatinEPR News Wire

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LATIN AMERICA - NEWS BRIEFS

 

MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY

 

Brazil Tops Internet Use in South America

 

(AP) -- Brazil has 32.1 million Internet users, the most in South America, the government census bureau said.  The average user is 28, has at least 10 years of schooling and a monthly income of 1,000 reals (U.S. $487, euro364), or about three times the minimum wage in this country of 185 million people, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, or IBGE, said.  The study, based on a 2005 survey, showed that half of Brazilian users access the Web from home and the rest from work.  The largest group of users are teenagers -- nearly 40 percent of Internet users are between 15 and 17 years old.  A global study by www.budde.com.au/publications showed that Brazil is the 10th largest market in the world in terms of Internet user numbers and the undisputed leader in Latin America.

 

Mexico’s Telecommunications Sector Revenue Reaches $24 Billion in 2006

 

Earned revenues within the Mexican telecommunications sector reached US$24.4 billion in 2006, and is expected to grow to US$30.6 billion by 2011, reveals new data published by global growth consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.  According to research service analyst Victor Hugo Casiano, more affordable pricing policies of the country’s operators are helping penetration in lower classes users, as well as small and medium enterprise segments, and thus causing the telecommunications sector to show a faster growth rate than the overall economy.  Says Casiano, “the growing awareness of the Internet among the population plus the proliferation of e-commerce are likely to boost the number of subscribers to substantial revenues.”

 

Vostu.com Fosters Latin American Internet Community

 

Thanks to three students at Harvard, Latin American internet users now have a new social-networking website custom-designed to their cultural needs, reported a recent article in the Boston Globe.  The Harvard students, recognizing a niche within the growing trend among young internet users, developed the new Vostu.com as an entirely Spanish-language alternative to the well-established web communities Facebook and Myspace, where ‘pokes’ are replaced by ‘besos’ and users can chat online as well as leave anonymous comments through a ‘gossip’ feature. The creators of Vostu are intent on mapping out the cultural subtleties of each Latin American country, and they hope the site’s region-specific idioms and expressions will help users take ownership of the service.  Thus far, Vostu has already begun to make an impact on the Buenos Aires music scene, and the name itself, which refers to the Spanish formal and informal addresses of vos and tu, instills the idea of familiarization and community.  Since its launch in the last week of February, Vostu has attracted some 800 users from across the Americas, with most hailing from Argentina, Mexico, and Peru. 

 

TRAVEL

 

  LAN Sets Pace with 64.4 Percent Increase in Net Profits for 2006

 

LAN airlines has announced annual net profits of US$241 million for 2006, an impressive 64.4% increase over the US$147 million in 2005.  Total revenues for 2006 grew 21.1% to US$3.03 billion.  LAN said the increase was due to growth in its international business, the opening of new routes, in increase in passenger-per-mile ratio, and the consolidation of the airline in the Argentine market.  And LAN’s presence is likely only to strengthen this year.  The airline has already ordered 15 new planes from European aircraft maker Airbus.  Passenger traffic for February 2007 grew more than 27% over the same month last year.  A new daily route between Buenos Aires and the historic city of Salta has just been introduced, and affiliates LAN Argentina and LAN Ecuador are official members of the oneworld alliance as of this month.

 

Caribbean Tourism Dedicated to Curbing Climate Change

 

The Caribbean Tourism Organization, along with the Caribbean Hotel Association and the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism recently met in London with key players from the UK tourism industry to exchange views on climate change.  The main topic of discussion was how the Caribbean tourism industry could best develop a carbon-neutral approach to benefit the region’s economy as well as its environment.   As a developing region, the Caribbean cannot employ the same methods, such as taxation, effective for other major economic powers without passing on the cost to tourists and discouraging long-haul travel.  However, it also cannot afford to destroy its natural assets which draw tourists in the first place. Among the suggestions for managing carbon emissions were the creation of carbon trading programs, the establishment of a carbon emission verification system, development of a carbon trading hub, and carbon offsetting programs through which businesses and individuals could become carbon-neutral by paying to offset the carbon they emit during travel and reintroducing that money to other environmental schemes in the region.

 

Aeromexico Introduces Superplan

 

(HispanicBusiness.com) – Aeromexico, Mexico’s largest airline, has announced its new “Super Plan,” which allows passengers traveling roundtrip to Mexico from the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America to expand their trip to additional destinations in Mexico for as little as $100 roundtrip. The “Super Plan” promotion, valid until Jan. 15, 2008, is designed to provide Aeromexico’s international passengers the opportunity to explore destinations throughout Mexico via inexpensive side trips.

 

Argentine Summer Season Attracts 23 Million Tourists

 

Argentina has experienced a record setting summer season thus far with 20.2 million tourist arrivals from December 15, 2006 to the end of February 2007, according to the Tourism Secretary Enrique Meyer in Buenos Aires.  This number reflects a 6.2% increase over the same period the previous year, when Argentina welcomed a little over 19 million.  The Tourism Ministry is still awaiting figures for the entire summer season, which ended March 15th, but estimates that as many as 23 million will have visited the country, generating around US$4.4 billion in revenue.  The main targets this season have been Argentina’s beach resorts along the Atlantic coast and the province of Cordoba, whose 4.1 million tourists is 8% above last season.

 

Peru Honored at ITB 2007 for 3rd Consecutive Year

 

(La Republica) – Peru's tourism-promotional organization, PromPeru, won first place in the Latin American and Caribbean category at the 2007 ITB trade show held in Berlin, Germany.  This is the third consecutive year that Peru has won the distinguishing acknowledgment, beating out regional competitors such as Argentina and Central America, who came in at second and third place respectively.  PromPeru enlisted the help of 37 Peruvian companies to assist them in offering Peru's best touristic and cultural attributes to more than 160,000 trade show visitors.  PromPeru's stand included promotional literature, as well as tasty dishes from Peru's delicious cuisine, shots of Peruvian Pisco (grape brandy), and samples of other products associated with Peruvian culture.  This year's ITB trade show had numerous delegations representing a reported 180 countries from around the world. The contest was held from March 7-11.

 

ECONOMY AND POLITICS

 

Argentina’s Unemployment Rate Lowest in over 14 Years

 

The National Statistics Institute in Buenos Aires recently reported a near 2% drop in Argentina’s unemployment rate, from 10.2% to 8.7%.  The new rate is the lowest Argentina has experienced since October 1992, when it stood at 7%.  Alberto Musalem, chief economist at the Center for Financial Stability in the Argentine capital, attributes this positive development to the general strengthening of the economy, and specifically to currency devaluation and higher exports, both of which have encouraged companies to hire more personnel.  The unemployment rate signals a significant recovery from the record rate of 20% in 2002 following the government debt default. 

 

Mexico, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo among World’s Richest Cities

 

Mexico, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro placed among the thirty richest cities in the world in the latest UK Economic Outlook report published by Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP.   This new research is considered the first of its kind to provide a truly comprehensive ranking of the largest 100 urban agglomerations in the world according to their estimated GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP), taking into account both population and average per capita income.  Past rankings, states Pricewaterhouse Coopers, have tended to overstate the relative economic significance of emerging market cities, which have comparatively low average per capita incomes.  This makes the inclusion of the Latin American cities, all emerging market cities and four of only five in the Top 30, very important.  In addition, projections for 2020 in the report estimate that all but Rio de Janeiro will move up in the ranking, Mexico City likely to make the Top 10.

 

Nobel Peace Prize Winner to Run for Guatemala President

 

Rigoberta Menchu, recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 for her efforts in fighting for social justice and indigenous peoples’ rights, has announced that she will run for president of Guatemala in the country’s September elections.  Her candidacy has already received support from Bolivian President Evo Morales, and has fueled talks of an Indian resurgence in Latin American politics.  Menchu, a Guatemalan Quiche Indian, has spent a lifetime rallying for her country’s predominant and largely impoverished indigenous population, many of whom counted among the 200,000 victims of the civil war fought in the Central American nation from 1960 until 1996.  With her recent announcement came her pledge not to form any alliance with members of the civil war guerrillas, some of whom still preside in Congress.  Instead she has come to an agreement with the smaller Encounter For Guatemala Party.  If elected, Menchu would become the first woman and first Indian to serve as President of Guatemala.  She would also be the second Nobel laureate elected as president in Central America. Oscar Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Price in 1997, took office as Costa Rica's president in May.

 

Ecuador President Helps Tribes Sue Chevron

 

(Agencies) – The Ecuador government will help Amazon jungle dwellers fight a $6bn lawsuit against the Chevron Corporation by gathering evidence to support their contention that a subsidiary of the US oil firm polluted their communities, President Rafael Correa announced in a recent statement.  Currently, Chevron stands accused by some 30,000 area residents, including the Cofan Indian tribe, of dumping 18 billion gallons of oil-laden water into their Amazonian region between 1972 and 1992.  However, Chevron, which no longer operates in Ecuador, South America's fifth-largest oil producer, has denied any wrongdoing. Correa, who plans to visit the affected areas later this month, is a US-educated economist and has already worried foreign oil companies with pledges to rework contracts in an effort to boost the government's share of oil revenues.

 

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL

 

UN Hails 40th Anniversary of Latam Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone

 

(Mercopress) – The historic pact of Latin America and the Caribbean States to maintain a nuclear-weapon-free zone, the first-ever of its kind, has withstood the test of time and should spur greater efforts to rid the world of these arms, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this past month in honoring the 40th anniversary of the landmark agreement. Mr. Ban hailed the success of The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, also known as the Treaty of Tlatelolco, an area in Mexico City, as it has become the archetype for other regional denuclearized zones. At present, there are virtually no such weapons in the entire southern hemisphere, offering further proof of the Treaty’s accomplishments.  This year also marks the 25th anniversary of Mexico’s Alfonso García Robles acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize for his ground-breaking work in spearheading and implementing the Tlatelolco agreement, adopted 40 years ago.  “I hope this commemoration can help energize efforts to halt, and reverse, the spread of nuclear weapons,” Mr. Ban said, echoing previous statements he has made in urging States to not expand nuclear arsenals and also to reduce existing stockpiles. “Together, we should work towards the day when all regions of the world are finally free of nuclear weapons.”

 

Brazil Considering Official Ban on Homophobia

 

Debate continues in Brazil over government proposals to criminalise homophobia.  Under the proposals, Roman Catholic priests and other clergy might face two to five years in prison for preaching against homosexuality.  A rector of a seminary who refuses admission to a homosexual student could face three to five years.  The Brazilian Senate was supposed to vote on the legislation last Thursday, but it declined to do so. Instead, it formed a working group which will organise public audiences to hear specialist representations on the subject.  Some specialists are concerned that the legislation could imply a legal framework for religious persecution.  Homosexuality has been legal in Brazil since the 1830's, except in the armed forces. Large areas of Brazil are now covered by state civil union laws and federal legislation may soon follow.  Last year, the Brazilian government sponsored a debate on GLBT rights at a Mercosur conference of ten South American nations.  The group, which represents the majority of the population and land area of South America, agreed to enshrine same-sex and transgender rights in all member states' human rights legislation.

 

Venezuela Fuel Aids London Poor

 

This past month the BBC reported that London’s Mayor Ken Livingstone signed an oil deal with Venezuela to provide cheap fuel for London`s buses and give cut price travel for those on benefits.  The agreement will help provide half-price bus and tram travel to some 250.000 Londoners on income support. In return, a team of officials from the Greater London Authority will work in Venezuela advising on recycling, waste management, traffic and on reducing carbon emissions.  Although the agreement has its critics among London politicians, similar deals have been signed in Massachusetts, Boston, and New York, where Venezuela is providing cheap heating oil to poor households.