Japan considers Peru its strategic partner in Asia-Pacific region

Japan considers Peru its strategic partner in the Asia-Pacific region and describes it as a bridge between the two markets, said Japan’s Ambassador to Peru Shuichiro Megata, who also added that Japan’s investment in Peru will increase next year.

“Peru is seen as a gateway between Asia and the Pacific and Japan is an open door for Latin American countries. That is why it is seen as a strategic partner relationship,” Megata told Andina news agency.

Megata further added that Peru will increase its exports in different sectors such as mining and fishing with the help of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

“Peru is a rich country in minerals and mining sector attracts most of the investment, but we know more Japanese companies will open offices in Lima to explore investment opportunities, including the financial sector. We expect more Japanese investment in Peru”, the diplomat said.

Peruvian President Alan Garcia announced on 2006 that he will improve diplomatic relations with Japan. This was enhanced with reciprocal official visits between authorities from both countries and successful negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement.

The negotiation for a FTA between Peru and Japan started on May 2009.

Peru has signed three Free Trade Agreements with Asian countries (Singapore, Thailand and China) as well as other countries such as the United States, Canada and Chile. (Andina)

Rousseff Is No Lula as Brazil Stocks Slump Before Inauguration

Brazil’s President-elect Dilma Rousseff, faced with the highest inflation in 23 months and a growing budget deficit, is failing to convince investors that she can match her mentor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s record for spurring economic growth.

The Bovespa index of most-traded stocks has fallen 2.4 percent since Rousseff was elected Brazil’s first female president Oct. 31, as traders stepped up bets the central bank will raise interest rates next year to keep consumer prices in check. The index gained 0.5 percent this year, heading toward its worst-ever annual performance when measured against the MSCI Emerging Markets index, which has risen 15 percent.

To meet her goal of lowering real interest rates that are the second-highest in the world after Croatia, Rousseff will have to contain federal spending that has risen 25 percent this year and helped the economy grow an estimated 7.3 percent, the most in two decades. She’ll inherit from Lula the most overvalued currency in the world according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and a record current account gap of $49 billion.

“The easy job is over; the hard work is ahead,” said Eric Conrads, who helps manage $12 billion in emerging-market stocks, including Brazil, at ING Investment Management in New York. “She has to strike a good balance between the strong currency, the fiscal situation and the current account deficit without killing the economy.”

Yields on interest-rate futures due in January 2014 have risen 54 basis points to 12.21 percent since her election, as traders increase bets incoming central bank President Alexandre Tombini will have to raise borrowing costs from 10.75 percent in the absence of spending restraint. Inflation has been running above the government’s 4.5 percent target all year.

Rousseff takes office Jan. 1 in Brasilia.

Containing Spending

The 63-year-old Rousseff, who served as Lula’s cabinet chief, coasted to a runoff victory over Jose Serra by promising to maintain the policies of her former boss. Lula is leaving office with a record 87 percent approval rating.

Rousseff reappointed Finance Minister Guido Mantega, who under Lula oversaw record lending by the state development bank and a doubling of the fiscal deficit since 2008 to 2.74 percent of gross domestic product. Mantega pledged in a Nov. 30 interview to block new spending in a bid to open room for lower rates.

Brazilian stocks may continue to trail other emerging markets in early 2011, even as they remain attractively valued, until Rousseff takes “concrete actions” to reduce government spending, Goldman Sachs said in a Dec. 19 report.

“After the economic expansion we’ve seen, the government needs to be very decisive in controlling spending,” said Eduardo Favrin, who oversees about $2.5 billion as head of equities for HSBC Global Asset Management’s Brazil unit in Sao Paulo.

Rousseff’s transition team did not return several phone calls and e-mails by Bloomberg seeking comment.

Lula’s Turnaround

In the runup to Lula’s first electoral victory in 2002, the currency plummeted 61 percent, stocks fell 26 percent and Brazil’s borrowing costs doubled on investor concerns the former union leader would default on the country’s debt.

Once in office, he paid $15.5 billion in loans to the International Monetary Fund ahead of schedule and accumulated a record $287 billion in international reserves. The Bovespa averaged annual returns of 29 percent during Lula’s first seven years in office.

Lula also gave the central bank, which lacks formal independence, a free hand to fight inflation. That’s something Rousseff will have to repeat with the 47-year-old Tombini because policy makers in Brazil aren’t appointed to set terms like their counterparts at the Federal Reserve, Bank of England or European Central Bank.

‘Challenge of Abundance’

With Latin America’s biggest economy stabilized, Rousseff will need to tackle longstanding obstacles to faster economic growth like excessive red tape, poor infrastructure and high taxes, said Christopher Garman, director for Latin America at the Washington-based Eurasia Group.

She also needs to improve education and healthcare to meet the demands of 36 million Brazilians that have joined the middle class under Lula, he said.

“Rousseff’s success will depend on her capacity to deliver beyond keeping inflation under control,” said Garman. “Brazil is facing the challenge of abundance -- it’s not an easy agenda.”

Urgent concerns include a currency that has strengthened 34 percent against the U.S. dollar since the start of 2009, the third-biggest gain among major currencies after the Australian dollar and South Africa’s rand. The strong currency is fueling imports that will narrow Brazil’s trade surplus next year to a nine-year low of $11 billion, the central bank estimates.

Cautious on Brazil

John Ditieri, who helps oversee about $13.5 billion in emerging-market equities at Arlington, Virginia-based Emerging Markets Management, says he’s cautious on Brazil until its clear how Rousseff will respond to the competing “political pressures” of exporters, investors and lawmakers.

“We just hope they attack things in a balanced and responsible way,” says Ditieri. “They probably are going to have to use all the tools they have.”

Rousseff, a former Marxist guerrilla who never ran for office before being elected president, will be helped by bigger support in Congress than Lula had. Her Workers’ Party and coalition partners boosted to 49 from 43 Senators its majority in the 81-seat chamber. Its control of the lower house taking office Feb. 1 is likely to increase too.

Infrastructure spending to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, and the $108 billion state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA plans to invest through 2014 developing mainly offshore oil finds, should guarantee 5 percent economic growth no matter what policies Rousseff chooses, said Ricardo Hausmann, an economics professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“That might feel like a great rate of growth given Brazil’s history, but it’s so far below what is achievable,” said Hausmann, a former planning minister of Venezuela. “The tragedy of Brazil is that it wouldn’t take that much for the country to aspire to 7 percent growth.”

Alexander Ragir and Andre Soliani - Bloomberg

To contact the reporters on this story: Alexander Ragir in Rio de Janeiro at aragir@bloomberg.net; Andre Soliani in Brasilia at asoliani@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net

Chavez Says He’s Ready for U.S. to Expel Ambassador, Break Ties

President Hugo Chavez said he’s ready for the U.S. to expel Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.S. and break off diplomatic ties as part of a five-month feud over the Obama administration’s choice to be its top envoy to Caracas.

“If the U.S. government is going to expel our ambassador there, then do it. If the U.S. government is going to break off diplomatic relations - do it,” Chavez said in comments carried on state television. “It’s not my fault. It’s theirs for naming an ambassador who immediately goes to the press to rant against the country where he is going as ambassador.”

State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said Dec. 20 “there will be consequences” to Venezuela’s decision to protest President Barack Obama’s nomination of diplomat Larry Palmer as the next American ambassador to Caracas.

Chavez rejected Palmer’s nomination after the career diplomat and former U.S. Ambassador to Honduras told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July that the Venezuelan army has low morale and that members of the government have “clear ties” with terrorist organizations in neighboring Colombia.

Palmer’s nomination is pending confirmation by the U.S. Senate, and the White House doesn’t intend to withdraw his name, Crowley said.

While warning that Venezuela’s refusal to welcome Palmer would hurt already-strained relations, the State Department did not say what steps the administration may take.

Chavez said on Dec. 18 that Palmer would be turned back at the airport if he were to board a plane for Venezuela.

Chavez had expelled the previous U.S. ambassador, Patrick Duddy, in 2008, in solidarity with Bolivia, which sent home the American ambassador there and accused the U.S. of backing opposition movements in both countries.

Charlie Devereux - Bloomberg

To contact the reporter on this story: Charlie Devereux in Caracas at cdevereux3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net

China Tel to develop WiMAX-based fiber-optic network in Peru

China Tel has announced that it will invest $62 million to sell internet protocol telephony services in Peru through its subsidiary, Perusat.

The new fiber-optic network will be a WiMAX service. The company plans to reduce the cost of broadband services by developing a wireless network.

The project’s first phase will commence around August 2011. The network will span across the regions of Chimbote, Chiclayo and Trujillo. In the country’s southern region, the network will be deployed in Cusco, Arequipa and Ica.

China Tel’s VP of Strategic Planning, Ryan Alvarez stated that the company has utilized a mixture of wireless technologies and various types of networks in order to reduce the expenses. He added that although the company was concentrating on wireless broadband services, it has been receptive to joint ventures by utilizing other technologies.

In Peru, China Tel has procured 95% of Perusat, which currently has a group of 2.5 GHz licenses in the region. China Tel is also looking at acquisitions in the Caribbean, Eastern Europe and Argentina. (Andina)

US Senate extends Andean trade benefits

The US Senate approved Wednesday a six-week extension of trade measures that provide job training for displaced workers and give duty-free access to exports from Andean countries.

The temporary extension provides duty-free access to imports from Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, but it doesn't include trade preferences for about 130 other developing countries, which are set to expire at the end of the year.

The House passed a broader trade bill last week that would have pushed back the expiration of all three programs from the end of this year to the middle of 2012. It also would have eliminated duties on some products used by U.S. manufacturers in the production process, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

However, that bill has been blocked in the Senate by Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), who has been trying to strip out duty-free access to sleeping bags made in Bangladesh, which compete with a manufacturer in his state.

Thus, a handful of senators worked out a deal to extend the other two measures until Feb. 12, but not the Generalized System of Preferences program that includes the sleeping bags.

Congress could still extend that program retroactively in the next session, though even a brief interruption could disrupt trade in some of the products involved.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D, Mont.) said he would continue to push for longer extensions, including the Generalized System of Preferences.

The House will have to take up the bill passed by the Senate before it can be sent to the president's desk. (Andina)

Brazil Coffee Crop to Drop 23%, Pushing Up Price

Coffee production in Brazil, the world’s biggest grower, may drop to the lowest in four years in 2011, pushing up prices as trees enter the lower-yielding half of a two-year cycle, Agriculture Minister Wagner Rossi said.

Growers will harvest 37 million bags, down 23 percent from 48.1 million bags estimated for this year, Rossi said in an interview in Brasilia today. Coffee prices will likely rise next year as global demand outpaces supplies amid declining stockpiles, he said.

“Prices will likely remain on a steady rise,” Rossi, 67, said at his office. “World demand is firm and global stockpiles are low.”

Coffee, which has surged 72 percent this year, extended a rally to a 13-year high earlier today on concern adverse weather in Brazil and India will pare global supplies. Arabica coffee for March delivery reached $2.4225, the highest since June 1997. It fell 1.6 percent to $2.3005 per pound at 12:51 p.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York.

Output in Brazil, which ships about a third of world exports, usually drops every other year because trees can’t sustain high yields for two straight harvests. Fungus that was found in coffee crops in southeastern Brazil because of excess rains won’t hurt production, Rossi said.

“The coffee blight is a problem but not a threat to output,” Rossi said. “The improvement in farmers’ income will help them fight the fungus by investing more in their crops.”

Commercial farm lending may rise in the crop year that began in July as growers invest more in machinery and increase planted area to benefit from rising commodities prices, Rossi said. Lending grew 29 percent in the past harvesting season to about $49.8 billion, the ministry said.

Katia Cortes - Bloomberg

To contact the reporter on this story: Katia Cortes in Brasilia at kcortes@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jessica Brice at jbrice1@bloomberg.net

Peru's Expoalimentaria becomes most important food fair in South America

Expoalimentaria trade fair has become the most important food fair in South America positioning itself as one of the biggest food fairs in the world, said Peruvian Exporters Association (Adex).

Adex’s General Manager Alberto Infante stated Expoalimentaria can be compared to SIAL (French initials for Salon International de l’alimentation) or Germany’s International trade fair for food and drink technology, also known as Anuga.

Infante detailed that Peru, thanks to its geographic position, is seen nowadays as a strategic food provider for the world and now its fairs are overcoming some from North America.

Expoalimentaria trade fair 2010 had 21 000 visitors and made businesses for at least 70 million dollars. It is expected that it will increase 25 percent this year.

Meanwhile, Expoalimentaria trade fair 2011 is planning to have more than 500 exhibition stands which will use an area of 4000 square meters. This place will also have restaurants and conference rooms. (Andina)

Last kilometer of Inter-Oceanic Highway to be completed tomorrow

Peruvian President Alan Garcia announced on Tuesday that the construction of the last kilometer of the 2,400-km Southern Interoceanic Highway will be completed tomorrow.

He highlighted that this corridor will connect Peru with Brazil as well as increase production and employment in southern Peru.

For this reason, President Garcia will visit tomorrow Marcapata, in Cusco region, to “see with his own eyes how the last kilometer is asphlated”.

“I am very happy for a reason: we will finish the last kilometer of the 2,400 km Interoceanic Corridor,” he said.

The head of State praised the economic impact that this highway will have in the country’s southern regions since the corridor will not only allow to export Brazilian products to the Pacific Ocean but sell Peruvian goods to Brazil.

“It is a highway that will connect Peru with Brazil as well as increase production and employment in southern Peru,” he said.

The Peruvian leader made this announcement after attending a ceremony for the provision of financial assistance to impoverished elderly people over 75 years of age.

The event was attended by Women and Social Development Minister Virginia Borra and the president of the Banco de la Nación, Humberto Meneses. (Andina)

Rio Cristal announces excellent results at Condor gold project

Rio Cristal Resources Corporation reported that first results from drilling at its Condor gold project, located in southern Peru, are excellent and demonstrate the continuity of gold mineralization in the area.

Tom Findley, President and CEO said, the company will complete its original 1,000 meter drilling program by the end of this year and define a mineralized zone where to begin a second, expanded drill campaign early in 2011.

"These first drill results at Condor are excellent and demonstrate the continuity of gold mineralization within a sandstone package which is up to 40 meters thick and exposed at surface," he stated.

Gold mineralization in Zone 2 appears to extend over an area which is approximately 300 meters by 100 meters and open to the north, south and east, he added.

Drilling to-date has focused on Zone 2 of the property and at least three other anomalous target zones remain untested.

The objective of further drilling will include testing of continuity of gold mineralization between the target areas defined thus far.

Mineralization at the Condor project is hosted within highly fractured and quartz-veined sandstones interbedded with shales and intruded by argilically altered andesite dikes.

The intercepts are perpendicular to bedding and therefore are believed to approximate true thickness.

The company maintains a strict quality control program in preparing and shipping all samples from the Condor project. Standards, blanks and duplicates are inserted in the field.

Rio Cristal Resources is a Canadian corporation focused on the discovery and further development of gold, copper and zinc deposits in Peru. Its most advanced exploration project is the 18,000 hectare Bongará zinc claim block located in northern Peru.

Outstanding initial drilling results confirm that the project is within an important emerging Mississippi Valley-type zinc district. The company expects to begin a second drill campaign in early 2011 when permits are received.

Rio Cristal recently acquired a highly prospective copper oxide project, La Cumbre, near Chala in southern Peru and is currently in the process of obtaining drilling permits.

It believes there is evidence of potential zones of bulk-mineable copper oxide mineralization grading in excess of 2% copper at La Cumbre. Additionally there is potential for copper sulfide mineralization in a belt hosting iron oxide copper-gold deposits.

Extensive recent underground workings indicate a possible resource which could be rapidly quantified with potential for mineralization extensions. (Andina)

Peru, only country in South America to grow as fast as Asia

Peru will be the only country in South America that will grow as fast as Asia in the next three years driven by high private and public investments, reported the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF).

“Our country will be the only one in South America that will grow as fast as China, India and other Asian countries in the next three years and we have a great change to continue growing and investing,” Benavides stated.

He said Peru has one of the most attractive macroeconomic outlooks in the region and according to the International Monetary Fund (FMI) will also be the only South American country posting a six percent growth rate in 2011-2013 period.

Peru posted a 72.4 percent growth in the last eight years, which is considered the best economic performance in South America, and this year is expected to grow 8.5 percent or more.

Benavides stated Peru's inflation is under control ranging from 2.2 to 2.3 percent this year and that Peru's currency remains stable despite some exchange rate volatility. (Andina)

Chavez Seizures Crimp Housing Campaign as Output Sags

President Hugo Chavez’s campaign of nationalizations is scuttling a top policy goal as sagging output at state-owned steel and cement makers thwarts a pledge to build 100,000 homes a year for poor Venezuelans.

Lack of supplies from seized companies such as Siderurgica del Orinoco SA, Venezuela’s largest steel mill, has slowed building activity to less than 50 percent of last year’s pace, according to the Caracas-based Venezuelan Construction Chamber. The chamber, which estimates 83 percent of homes are built by private companies, says 25,510 were finished in the first half of the year.

“I sometimes have to go to a lot of places to try and find iron rods and cement,” said Humberto Altuve, a Caracas-based engineer who is currently working on a university construction project in Vargas state. “I’ve had to pay three times the regulated price to make sure my projects aren’t delayed.”

Venezuela’s housing deficit of 2 million units widened further this month when floods and landslides forced more than 25,000 families to seek refuge in government shelters. Chavez, who has put up families at the presidential palace and an expropriated shopping mall, said Dec. 3 that housing is his top priority.

Close the Deficit

The government aims to close the deficit by building 2 million homes by 2020, the president said yesterday. China’s CITIC Construction and Turkish companies he didn’t name are pledging to help in the efforts, he said.

Chavez’s homebuilding pledge is aimed at bolstering support for an expected re-election bid in 2012, said Milton Guzman, an economist at Caracas-based consultancy Fortuny, Guzman & Asociados.

“Chavez sees solving the housing issue as his ticket to winning the elections,” Guzman said in a telephone interview. “If he can be seen to be providing people with houses it would give his flagging image a significant boost.”

In September, Chavez suffered his biggest electoral setback since taking power in 1999 as opposition candidates for parliament took advantage of voter discontent with 27 percent inflation and the second year of recession to strip him of his two-third majority.

Former Paratrooper

Since the election, the 56-year-old former paratrooper has toured the country promising “dignified homes” to millions of Venezuelans who live in self-built dwellings on hillsides. Many lack amenities like drainage and are vulnerable to collapse.

“I’m putting myself at the forefront of this operation to give every family that needs it a proper house on secure land, whatever it costs,” the self-declared socialist revolutionary said Nov. 7 in comments broadcast by state television.

The same day, Chavez said he would add $1.5 billion to next year’s $480 million housing budget. On Dec. 7, after the rains, he boosted his pledge by another $931 million. To finance the construction drive, Chavez has said he’ll raise sales taxes.

Chavez is looking to reverse a drop in building that, according to the construction chamber, fell to an annual average of 44,285 homes since he came to power compared with an average 69,528 from 1990 to 1998. Housing Minister Ricardo Molina said on Oct. 28 the government aims to increase the annual average to 100,000 over the next 10 years.

Phone calls and e-mails to the Housing Ministry seeking comment weren’t returned.

Cement Industry

Chavez nationalized most of his country’s cement industry in 2008, taking over companies owned by Monterrey, Mexico-based Cemex SAB, Paris-based Lafarge SA and Jona, Switzerland-based Holcim Ltd.

In 2009, he acquired for $1.97 billion steelmaker Siderurgica del Orinoco, or Sidor based in Ciudad Guyana, from Luxembourg-based Ternium SA. On Oct. 31, Chavez ordered the forced acquisition of Caracas-based Siderurgica del Turbio SA, which produces 40 percent of the country’s steel rods, after accusing the company of overcharging for its products. The company denied the charges and said it adhered to strict price controls.

Sidor will produce 2.2 million metric tons of steel this year because of an electricity shortage that forced the government to ration energy, the company said on Dec. 13. That’s less than half the output in 2007, when production reached 4.3 million tons.

Alfredo Cohen, whose family’s Constructora Sambil CA has developed residential and commercial properties in Venezuela for over 50 years, said shortages of steel rods are “very severe.” A Sambil-built mall in Caracas that was expropriated by Chavez in 2008 is being used to house families left homeless by the rains.

“Now you have to pay in advance whereas before you got credit for 30 to 90 days,” Cohen, general manager of Sambil, said in a phone interview from company headquarters in Caracas. “They send you the materials when they have them.”

Help from Belarus

Nationwide production of steel rods declined 20 percent in September compared with a year ago, according to the central bank’s production index. Cement output fell 40 percent in the second half of 2009, according to the bank, which hasn’t published production figures for this year.

Chavez has vowed to keep nationalizing key sectors of the economy in a bid to drive down prices and increase production. He has signed bilateral deals with allies in Belarus and Iran to help solve the housing crisis.

Venezuela, which has the highest inflation rate of 78 economies tracked by Bloomberg, saw prices rise 27 percent in November from the same period a year ago. The International Monetary Fund expects Venezuela’s economy to shrink 1.3 percent this year, compared with a forecast for 5.7 percent growth in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Housing Seizures

On Oct. 31, Chavez expropriated six housing projects, saying builders were tricking customers into covering inflation costs after work was delayed. An emergency housing law being discussed in the National Assembly would grant the government powers to seize idle or underused land to build houses.

Chavez said Nov. 24 that the government will provide financing to cement companies to modernize plants and boost production. Output of steel rods and cement will have to double to meet government targets, said Gilbert Dao, the vice president of the construction chamber.

“Those companies need to reach at least a level of production we had before they began the nationalizations,” Dao said in a telephone interview.

Charlie Devereux - Bloomberg

To contact the reporter on this story: Charlie Devereux in Caracas at cdevereux3@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Joshua Goodman at jgoodman19@bloomberg.net

President Garcia presents Arts and Letters Award to Nobel laureate Vargas Llosa

Peruvian President Alan Garcia on Wednesday honored the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa, with the “Order of the Arts and Letters” Award.

The award is bestowed on the Peruvian writer for his outstanding contribution to world literature and his native country's cultural development.

The event took place in the Golden Hall of the Government Palace with the attendance of high level government officials.

According to a document released by the Ministry of Culture, Mario Vargas Llosa deserves the award for being Peru’s first Nobel Prize-winning author.

On December 10, the Swedish Academy awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature to Vargas Llosa "for his cartography of structures of power and histrenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt, and defeat".

The "Order of the Arts and Letters" was approved by the Government, through a resolution of the Ministry of Culture, dated December 13, 2010.

The accolade is the highest honor awarded by the Ministry of Culture to Peruvian or foreign creators, artists, individuals and organizations contributing to cultural development. (Andina)

U.S. Navy security team partners with Peruvian Navy for info exchange

U.S. sailors assigned to a security training team engaged in a week-long subject matter expert exchange with Peruvian naval police in support of Southern Partnership Station (SPS) 2011 in Callao, Peru, last week.

The training involved a series of law enforcement tactics including vehicle inspections, search and seizure, apprehension and non-lethal defense techniques.

"It's a great honor to be able to work with the Peruvian sailors and exchange knowledge gained from working in different settings," said Senior Chief Master-at-Arms Jack Adams, lead instructor. "We're both just adding new tools to our tool box of knowledge, and expanding our information base."

The information sharing venture will be used by the Peruvian navy to educate its sailors about alternative tactics and procedures to enhance its ability to operate effectively, defpro.com reported.

"This is a very special opportunity for us to work side by side with our counterparts, and we intend to pass the information we receive on to other naval police officers," said Peruvian 2nd Lt. Francisco Gutierrez Fernandez-Davila, officer in charge of the naval police security unit in Callao.

"We would love to be able to have the opportunity to do these exchanges more frequently and be able to strengthen our ties with the U.S."

The two-man Navy security training team will be participating in a variety of subject matter expert exchanges and information sharing ventures with partner nations during their five-month deployment to six countries in support of SPS 11.

SPS is an annual deployment of U.S. ships to the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility in the Caribbean and Latin America involving information sharing with navies, coast guards and civilian services throughout the region.

Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command (COMUSNAVSO) is the naval component command for U.S. Southern Command and is responsible for all naval personnel and assets in the area of responsibility.

COMUSNAVSO conducts a variety of missions in support of the U.S. maritime strategy, including theater security cooperation, relationship building, humanitarian assistance and disaster response, community relations, and counter-illicit trafficking operations. (Andina)

Vargas Llosa thinks he's living a dreaming

Nobel Literature Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa said he's confused without knowing whether he's awake or he's still dreaming, at his speech at the traditional banquet hosted by Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, after the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in Stockholm.

The Peruvian writer said he was a story teller and as such he was going to tell all the guests a story, comparing his life with that of a five-year child, who changed his life when he learned how to read and write.

“He’s still there, confused, not knowing whether he’s dreaming or he’s awake, if what he’s living is truth or a lie, if what happens to him is life or literature, because the boundaries between both of them seem to have completely eclipsed", Vargas Llosa said referring to himself.

“Thanks to the adventure books he used to read, he discovered a way to escape from the poor house, the poor country and poor reality he lived, and to travel to wonderful places, with wonderful human beings and amazing things where every day, every night, means a more intense, adventurous and new to enjoy life”. (Andina)

Vargas Llosa, an epic poet of not only Latin American stature

  

Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa is an epic poet of not only Latin American stature, and is hard to classify as he's a citizen of the world, said Thursday Per Wästberg, Swedish writer, member of the Swedish Academy and Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Literature.

"He's an epic poet and historian, a satirist, an eroticist, an essayist and columnist addressing most issues, including football and fear of flying. As a reporter from the world’s flashpoints, he recalls Graham Greene," he said during his presentation speech at the Nobel Prize award ceremony,

"From the provincial city of Arequipa in Peru emerged: a citizen of the world, a Marxist transformed by Castro’s misdeeds into a liberal, a losing presidential candidate later to appear on his country’s postage stamps," he said.

Wastberg stated Vargas Llosa has led through unfamiliar milieux with an authority that lends the authenticity of a 19th-century explorer.

The Peruvian-born writer uses fiction to penetrate the shrouds of power and explore the obsessions of its exploiters.

"The halls of boarding schools and the corridors of administrations stand against indomitable open-air inhabitants, though the latter seldom triumph in defying regulation and imposition. History crushes Vargas Llosa’s figures but not their consciences," he said.

Vargas Llosa has an eye for the foolishness of innocence and the lethargy of evil. He is unusual in his ability to depict men’s friendship as well as sadistic penalism and hierarchical vanity. He prefers the compromises of common sense to radical utopias.

The Swedish writer said Vargas Llosa writes of love and its absence, of seduction of violence and the rare triumph of justice. In his erotic entertainments he is a playful ruffian unafraid of self-mockery.

The Nobel Laureate believes in the force of literature. Without literature there would be no rendition of mankind’s possibilities and hidden places.

"It is a bulwark against prejudice, racism and intolerant nationalism, since in all great literature, men and women of the entire world are equally alive. It is harder to suppress a people that reads a lot".

Finally, Wästberg said the Swedish Academy congratulated Vargas Llosa as his history resumes 20th century history.

"My dear Mario Vargas Llosa, you have encapsulated 20th-century history in a bubble of imagination. It has floated on air for 50 years and shines still. The Swedish Academy congratulates you. Please step forward to receive this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature from the hand of His Majesty the King," he concluded. (Andina)

Large Peruvian companies get ready for new investments in Chile

Large Peruvian companies are getting ready for making new investments and increase their activities in Chile during 2011, Peruvian Ambassador to Santiago Carlos Pareja stated Wednesday.

“Graña y Montero Group, as well as Brescia Group, which recently invested over US$ 500 million on a cement plant, plan to raise their investments and are evaluating this move with their Chilean partners,” he told Andina.

The ambassador said that Peruvian investments in the neighboring country have grown considerably and would total US$ 15 million this year.

“Graña y Montero Group bought a plant to support mining in the region of Antofagasta. Also, Sapolio opened a new plant that required a 4-million-dollar investment.”

Pareja indicated that investments in Chile total US$ 2.50 billion, featuring the ones made in the mining sector by the company Milpo and Hochschild group.

There are also very important investments in restaurants that are distributed across Chile.

“According to a cadastre carried out in Santiago, there are approximately 120 Peruvian restaurants. The liking for Peru’s gastronomy is completely transversal, regardless the social and economic condition,” said the diplomat. (Andina)

More US students are studying in Peru and Latin America

US students are increasingly studying in Peru and Latin America, as it has been registered an expansion of over 30 percent between 2007 and 2009, the New York-based International Institute of Education (IIE) reported.

In its report on student mobility, the IIE indicates that the number of American students in Peru grew 32 percent, from 1,638 to 2,163 students between 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 academic years.

During the same period, the amount in Chile rose 28 percent (from 2,739 to 3,503 students); whereas in Argentina rose 15 percent (from 4,109 to 4,705 students).

The most demanded majors among US students who travel to Latin America are Scocial Sciences, Business and Management, Humanities, Arts, Physical and Biological Sciences as well as Foreign Languages.

“Many students want to go to Peru, Brazil, Costa Rica or Chile to see what’s done in that region and know about ecotourism, which is increasingly growing,” said IIE’s executive vice president Peggy Blumenthal. (Andina)