The angst has included protests in Spain, images of rioters in London or the police using pepper spray to disperse demonstrators in California.

And, of course, there is the steady drip of reports focusing on default fears in Greece.

For many months now, Latin Americans have been monitoring the constant drumbeat of crises in developed countries with bewilderment, irony and, yes, even a bit of schadenfreude. To them, Europe and the United States are displaying problems once associated with their region, which, not long ago, was a perennial champion in financial crises and bailouts.

Click here to read the full article from the NYT.com

Del canal Argentino – Infinito

Article 1: Russia Lends Venezuela $4 Billion in Return for Oil Projects - By Daniel Cancel of Bloomberg News

Russia agreed to lend Venezuela $4 billion through 2013 for defense spending in return for gaining access to heavy crude and offshore gas fields in the South American country.

Russia’s OAO Rosneft and OAO Gazprom signed a cooperation accord with Venezuelan state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA late yesterday at a ceremony in Caracas led by President Hugo Chavez and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin.

“We’re working on large-dimension projects from oil, gas and petrochemicals to finance, banking and trade,” Chavez said on state television.

Click here to read the full article direct from the Bloomberg

Article 2 = China’s JAC Motors to build plant in Brazil - By Vivian Pereira and Brad Haynes of Reuters News

To Note:
* 80 pct of capital will come from local SHC Group
* Government driving up the cost of imported carsBy Vivian

Pereira and Brad HaynesSAO PAULO, Oct 7 (Reuters) – The Brazilian operator of China’s JAC Motors brand announced a 900-million-real ($510 million) investment to build a factory producing affordable cars in the world’s No. 4 auto market.

JAC Motors will provide 20 percent of the capital, with the rest coming from the local SHC Group run by businessman Sergio Habib, SHC said in a statement on Friday.

The plant in Bahia state, expected to produce 100,000 vehicles annually beginning in 2014, will be the second producing Chinese-branded cars in Latin America’s largest economy, where authorities are pushing up the cost of imported cars.

Click here to read the full article direct from the Reuters News

Article 3: Friction between China & Bolivia

Bolivian energy minister alleges deception by Jindal Steel in big iron ore mining deal, courtesy of the Associated Press via the Washington Post

LA PAZ, Bolivia — A senior Bolivian official is threatening to end the government’s contract with India’s Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. over its alleged failure to meet investment commitments in a huge iron ore mine.

Energy Minister Jose Luis Gutierrez says Jindal deceived Bolivia in failing to honor its end of the biggest mining investment of President Evo Morales’ nearly six-year tenure.

Click here to read the full article direct from the Associated Press via the Washington Post

Article 4 = Ecuador firm wants to sell rice in the name of Gandhi - By Maneesh Chhibber of the IndianExpress.com

An Ecuador-based company has attempted to use the name and photograph of Mahatma Gandhi for marketing its rice. But an Indian lawyer has challenged the move before the Trademark Office of Ecuador. The case is scheduled to come up for hearing tomorrow.

According to Lalit Bhasin, who is also president of the Society of Indian Law Firms, the owner of the Ecuadorian company, Valverde Munoz, applied for grant of trademark for the name and label of “Arroz Gandhi” (Arroz means rice).

Click here to read the full article direct from IndianExpress.com

Article 5: Mitt Romney on Mexico, China and defense – By Dr. James M. Lindsay and courtesy of CNN News

Dr. James M. Lindsay you would think knows about the topic, as CNN makes a special point to note — Dr. James M. Lindsay is a Senior Vice President at the Council on Foreign Relations and co-author of America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy, and whom writes his own blog, which you can access by clicking here.

By James M. Lindsay, CFR.org

Mitt Romney has taken exception to Rick Perry’s comment over the weekend that he would consider sending American troops into Mexico to help end the drug war raging there. Romney told the New Hampshire Union Leader that Perry’s suggestion is “a bad idea:”

Let’s build a fence first, and let’s have sufficient border patrol agents to protect it. And if the Mexican government wants us to help it with logistics, intelligence, satellite images, I’m sure we can provide the sort of support we provided in Colombia.

You can expect to hear more about Mexico at next Tuesday’s GOP debate. If Romney makes the Colombia comparison again, he probably should explain what the United States did there. Most people don’t know.

Click here to read the full article direct from CNN

Every day Luis Castilla, Peru’s finance minister, says he lights a candle and “prays that China won’t crash”.

His prayers are echoed by many in a region that remains one of the world economy’s few bright spots. South America’s commodity-rich economies grew 5 per cent in the first half of this year. Last year, these new motors of the world economy added half a percentage point to global output.

But slowing Asian demand and plunging commodity prices have raised the spectre that South America, having largely escaped the 2008-09 Great Recession, may not be so lucky this time around.

Main point = Potential new financial crisis in the “Developed World” + slow down in China = Scared Latinos

Click here to read the full article direct from the Financial Times

The Western media continually criticizes China’s role in Latin America as being “neocolonial” and claims it has an “insatiable demand for commodities”, so I was keen to observe the people’s attitude toward China during my trip to the region recently.

Judging from the enthusiasm for China displayed by government officials, businessmen, academics and ordinary people in Chile, the picture presented by the Western media has been seriously distorted.

At the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, chiefs and experts attributed the fast trade and investment growth from China as a key factor for Latin America not only surviving, but thriving during the global financial crisis.

The same message was heard from top Chilean officials at the 5th annual meeting of the Chile China Business Council, which drew some 500 government officials and business people.

It is true that commodities are an important part of the trade between China and Latin America. However, that trade benefits not only China, but also Latin America and the rest of the world.

By being the world’s manufacturing workshop, China has paid a high environmental cost. Just half a century ago, that job was done in most of today’s developed countries when they were the global manufacturing center.

Many developed countries have an insatiable demand for China’s rare earth and, of course, the country’s cheap labor. But this never seems to bother the Western media.

In fact, China and Latin America are quickly diversifying and elevating their trade and investment as witnessed by the host of agreements signed by China and Cuba, Uruguay and Chile in the past few days.

China has already become Chile’s largest trade partner. Chinese businesses are increasing their presence in the South America country. The billboards on Santiago streets by automaker BYD and appliance firm Haier, and the Chinese businessmen who do trade, operate malls and run convenience stores are proof of China’s presence.

Both countries share a priority in development. Chile aspires to become a developed country and China wants to become a xiaokang (well-off ) society.

Chilean President Sabastian Pinera made constant reminders that the two countries are very close despite the geographical distance between them.

The mood among the ordinary people I met in Chile was also favorable to China. I have never heard the word “Welcome” as often as I did in Chile. Ordinary Chileans I met in cafes, museums, parks in Santiago and Pablo Neruda’s colorful and hilly neighborhood in historic Valparaiso greeted me with “Welcome to Chile”.

What Pinera said was true. China and Chile are very close. In South America, Chile was the first country to recognize China’s market economy status, the first to sign a free trade agreement with China, the first to establish diplomatic ties with China and the first to support China’s WTO accession.

Of course, China and Latin American countries, all belong to the developing world and are going to compete with each other. But we all know that competition is a good thing and there is no need to distort the picture simply because of competition.

Latin American nations are independent countries and they are no one’s backyard. For China and Chile, they are really neighbor countries separated only by the Pacific. You can literally fly from Beijing to Santiago without passing over any other country.

Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Hu Jintao in China last month can celebrate rising two-way trade. (Photo: Roberto Stuckert Filho/PR)

China’s trade with Latin America is growing twice as fast as U.S. trade with the region.

BY RUTH MORRIS of the The Latin American Business Chronicle

SHANGHAI — China’s dragon breathed fire into Latin America in 2010, as trade between the two sides shot up by a spectacular 51.2 percent, to $178.6 billion, and memories of the economic recession melted away.

China’s trade with Latin America is growing at nearly twice the level of US trade with the region. It also is significantly higher than the 31 percent increase in trade between the European Union and Latin America last year.

Click here to read more direct from the Latin American Business Chronicle

Populists like Ollanta Humala (pictured below) threaten to overcome divided moderates in one of Latin America’s fastest-growing economies

LIVING in Peru’s capital is like watching a film on fast-forward. Every few months you can spot a taller skyscraper, a swankier hotel, glossier shops and restaurants, new roads—and more traffic. House prices in the leafier neighbourhoods have almost doubled in the past two years. Rapid change is not confined to Lima. The only provincial cities of any size that do not already boast one or more new shopping malls and multiplex cinemas are about to get them. These are the tangible results of a decade in which Peru’s GDP grew by over 5% a year, the highest rate among Latin America’s bigger economies.

Since 2006 the growth has accelerated, averaging 7% despite the world recession. Some good effects have been widespread. The share of Peruvians living in poverty fell from 49% in 2004 to 35% in 2009. Much of the Pacific coast, where farmers export asparagus, grapes and a plateful of other products, enjoys full employment. Though many parts of the Andean highlands remain poor, the arrival of paved roads is cutting journey times, and some farmers there have joined the export boom with artichokes and herbs. Social indicators have improved. Between 2005 and 2010 Peru climbed 24 places in the United Nations Human Development Report, which ranks countries by income, life expectancy and educational measures. It now scores better then Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela… click link above to continue reading the full article direct from the Economist

2. Kin selection — When family replaces party

KEIKO FUJIMORI’S unique selling point in Peru’s presidential election (see article) is her surname. In 1990, when she was 15, her father, Alberto Fujimori, won the presidency and stayed for ten years. Despite his many faults, Mr Fujimori, who is now in jail for corruption and human-rights abuses, retains the support of some Peruvians, who credit him with defeating the Maoist terrorists of the Shining Path. The family political brand helped Ms Fujimori get more votes than any other candidate for Peru’s Congress in 2006. Now she hopes it will take her to the presidency.

She is part of a growing Latin American trend for politics to become a family affair. In Argentina Cristina Fernández succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner, as president in 2007. Until his sudden death last October he had been expected to try to take back the presidential sash at an election this year. If Ms Fernández opts to run again, her son will be among her political advisers. Her opponents will probably include Ricardo Alfonsín, whose father was president in the 1980s… click link above to continue reading the full article direct from the Economist

“Part of our role should be to help the countries in the region de-dollarize and to have more of their stock of debt in local currency,” Moreno said in an interview during the bank’s annual meeting in Calgary.

Surging foreign investment and faster economic growth are leading to stronger currencies in countries such as Chile, Brazil and Mexico. The region accounted for twice as much of global capital inflows in 2009 as it did in 2006, Moreno said.

“That is having a huge impact on our exchange rates, on the tradable sector,” Moreno, 56, said. “All countries are worrying about the impact of overheating.”

To offset the currency gains and to develop capital markets across the region, the Washington-based lender plans to increase borrowing in local currencies, while allowing more borrowers in the region to convert their IDB loans from U.S. dollars.

Click here to read the full article from Bloomberg

Obama it’s time as we say in Peru to “ponte las pilas” and look South to your long ignored neighbors.

” For Obama, a New World to Discover — “The Americas will remain a new world of opportunity for U.S. workers and farmers if Washington is prepared to lead. There’s no time like the present for American business to get a piece of the action — or for President Obama to help open the door.” ~~ Latin America Business Chronicle