Jul 23 – Colombian Attorney General says that Colombia could potentially use evidence of Venezuelan support for rebels at the International Court of Justice. (Reuters)

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Travel to any country in Latin America and you will see the visible hand of China at work: a computer manufacturing plant in Mexico, a copper mine in Peru, a football stadium in Costa Rica. In the year 2007, the thought of China in Latin America would have appeared, at best, improbable. But in a three-year stretch, China signed free trade agreements with Chile, Peru and Costa Rica, inked billions of dollars worth of deals in oil and mining projects throughout the region, and supplanted the US as Brazil’s biggest trading partner. Once almost unseen in Latin America, China’s bilateral trade has risen from $12bn in 2000 to well over $150bn today.

Given the importance of its new Asian friend, Latin Americans are rolling out the red carpets to Chinese business delegations and jumping on planes not only to Beijing but also to Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Tianjin.

Rationale Behind Chinese Investments in Latin America [...]

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In line with China’s outbound investment strategies in Africa and Asia, China is now planning to create a $5 billion usd investment fund for Latin American investments.

The funds target investments will include, infrastructure (probably to help the Chinese get commodities out), agriculture, mining and energy.

Read more in Spanish from Argentinean DERF Agencia de Noticias.

Peru partners with other countries to seduce China at Expo Shanghai 2010

Peru organizes joint activities with Colombia, Brazil and United States at Shanghai World Exposition, in order to promote themselves better and attract capital and tourists.

Peru to be promoted as luxury tourist destination in Expo Shanghai

Peru’s Export and Tourism Promotion Board (Promperu) will participate in Asia Luxury Travel Market (ALTM), a Reed Travel Exhibitions show to be held in Shanghai, China, on June 14-18 within the framework of Expo Shanghai 2010 set to kick off on Saturday.

Peruvian pavilion at Shanghai Expo to attract some 40000 visitors on first day

Some 40000 visitors of different nationalities and ages are expected to visit the Peruvian pavilion at Shanghai World Expo, which officially opened today, May 1, Peru’s Foreign Ministry reported.

In addition to Colombia, the article also shares data complied by Economatica on the growth of the other major stock exchanges in the region, which is what CSA will be sharing with you today.  To read the full article from the Latin Business Chronicle click here.

Colombia – Best performer in Latam last year, IGBC (Colombia’s benchmark) stock index has grown in value by 927.9% during the past 10 years, and average decline in value of transactions in 2008 was 2.3%—lower than all other countries in the region

Brazil – Latin America’s largest stock market, Ibovespa (Brazil’s benchmark) stock index has grown 301.3% during the past 10 years, and the average decline of transitions in 2008 compared with 2009 was 13.6%.

Mexico – IPC (major benchmark index in Mexico) has grown 250.5% during the past 10 years, and the average decline in transactions last year was 13.9%

Venezuela – The Caracas stock index has grown by 916.5% during the past 10 years, and the average decline in transactions was 29.5% last year—the second worst in Latin America.

Argentina – The Merval inces has grown by 321.3% during the past ten years, and had the worst average decline in transactions last year, suffering a decline of 54.4%.

Peru – The Lima stock index (IGBVL) has been one of the regions best performing in the past few years.  Seeing growth of 671.1% during the past 10 years, and a decline in average transactions last year of 21%.

Chile – Last but not least, Chile’s IPSA index has grown by 218.8% over the past 10 years, and the average decline in transactions last year was a mere 3.6%-second best next to Colombia.

Img: MercoPress

MercoPress is an independent news agency based in Montevideo, Uruguay focused on delivering news related to South America, Mercosur-member countries and covering an area of influence which includes the South Atlantic and insular territories.

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In mid-September, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton critiqued Venezuela’s leader Hugo Chavez for his ongoing purchases of mostly Russian military equipment, arguing that this could trigger an arms race in South America. The statement has added fuel to the ongoing discussions about what form South America’s rearmament is taking and what this could come to mean for the security of the region.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the major arms purchases now going on in South America and the likelihood of inter-state war breaking out as the result. Ongoing reports about major purchases by Venezuela, Brazil and Chile tend to blur the actual geo-security situation in the region, as several countries, with Argentina as the most prominent example, have carried out only limited military acquisitions. The common perception is that an arms race raises the possibility of inter-state war; however, the reality in South America (and Central America as well) is that inter-state warfare has seldom occurred since World War II. Additionally, regarding the arms race in South America, it is misleading to assume that all South American countries are carrying out their arm purchases with the same gusto as Brazil, Chile and Venezuela.

It is generally assumed that South America is either already engaged in an arms race or is about to enter one. This is somewhat inconsistent because the start of an arms race is not easily defined. It could also be argued that what is occurring is not so much a general arms race as it is a product of certain militaries capitalizing on weak civilian governments (an updated version of former Uruguayan President Bordaberry in 1973) to increase their defense budgets. Furthermore, in spite of domestic security issues in several South American countries, most notably the insurgent movements in Colombia and Peru as well as occasional inter-state tensions, the reality is that inter-state wars in the region have been notably scarce in the past few decades, which raises the question: is interstate warfare necessarily the future of South America? The final section of this article will discuss whether an arms race could lead to general warfare.

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Click here to access the full analysis from MercoPress

Venezuela and Ecuador’s state energy firms said Wednesday that exploration is under way at a test well in Ecuador’s Gulf of Guayaquil, with expectations of finding up to 1.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The two firms, Petroecuador and Petroleos de Venezuela, or PdVSA, announced their plans a year ago to drill for gas in the gulf’s 300,000-hectare block 4.

[Colombia] – Petrolifera Executes Onshore Colombian License Contract with ANH

Petrolifera has executed the Magdalena exploration contract with the Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos (“ANH”) for the conversion of the Sierra Nevada II TEA into the Magdalena License, covering lands adjacent to the company’s Sierra Nevada License in the Lower Magdalena Valley, onshore Colombia. The Magdalena License comprises approximately 595,000 acres that is considered to be mainly prospective for natural gas and natural gas liquids. The minimum work commitment associated with the Magdalena License for the initial 15 month phase is primarily 150km2 of 3D seismic. As required by ANH, Petrolifera has established and funded a US $4.1MM trust, which in effect funds the assigned value of the initial work commitment of the License.

[Brazil] — Chevron: New Oil Law Reduces Opportunities in Brazil

Changes to Brazil’s oil laws don’t allow much space for international oil companies to take part in recent offshore oil finds, the vice president for global upstream and gas at U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. said Wednesday.

In September, Brazil’s government proposed changes to the country’s regulatory framework, giving the government a greater stake in the discoveries and state-run energy giant Petrobras the lead role in development.

Venezuela and Colombia — Politics versus trade

Sep 10th 2009 | SAN ANTONIO DEL TÁCHIRA
From The Economist print edition
Hugo Chávez stamps out regional economic integration

BUSINESS is slack at José Nelson Uribe’s tiny grocery store in San Antonio del Táchira, just a stone’s throw from Venezuela’s border with Colombia. “I’m not selling even a quarter of what I sold before,” says Mr Uribe. His woes are a result of the political conflict between his namesake, Colombia’s president, Álvaro Uribe, and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. “Before” means before July 28th, when Mr Chávez declared a “freeze” on diplomatic ties and said he would seek alternatives to Colombian goods.

This was officially a response to an agreement formalising American use of seven Colombian bases for anti-drug operations, but it also coincided with questions as to how anti-tank rocket-launchers sold by Sweden to the Venezuelan army ended up in a camp belonging to the FARC guerrillas in Colombia. It is not the first time that Mr Chávez has threatened trade sanctions, but this time he seems serious.

The impact on the border region was swift. For each country, the other is the second-biggest trading partner (after the United States in both cases). Bilateral trade totalled $7.2 billion last year, of which $6 billion consisted of Colombian exports, mainly of food, live animals, clothing and cars. Four-fifths of that trade passed along the twisting mountain road that links San Antonio with the state capital, San Cristóbal. “That represents 50,000 direct jobs and 250,000 indirect [ones],” says José Rozo, a local business leader. Many of these are in transport firms and customs agencies. “Before, the local lorry drivers were doing around 500 trips a day,” Mr Rozo says. “Now it’s down to about 80.” Industry in Táchira has been hit too, since many companies depended on imports from Colombia.

The border is not closed. But few of the 30,000 Colombians who used to cross each day to shop do so now, because Venezuela’s National Guard confiscates their goods when they recross the border, says Mr Uribe, the shopkeeper. Venezuela’s government has stopped issuing import permits, nor is it providing dollars at the official exchange rate for imports from Colombia (a dollar costs almost three times more on the parallel market)…

Click here to read the complete article from the Economist

Aug 13, 2009 — Sinochem Corp., China’s biggest chemicals trader, makes an offer to buy to buy Emerald Energy Plc for 532 million pounds ($881 million). Giving Sinochem Corp., access to oil fields in Syria and Colombia, reports Bloomberg

“The Chinese don’t have enough nickel, don’t have enough oil, and they don’t have enough copper. There’s a crisis coming. They are going around the world buying up what they can. They’re preparing for a rainy day.” Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings and the author of books including “Investment Biker” and “Adventure Capitalist”, said in a telephone interview yesterday.