SOUTHERN CONE WEATHER UPDATE: 100's Dead, Thousands Of Cattle Lost In Polar Cold Wave.

M.PRESS/    The death toll is growing from a  severe polar cold snap in the Southern Cone.
In southern Brasil and Paraguay thousands of cattle died and in Chile an agriculture emergency was declared. In Buenos Aires, dozens of regional flights were cancelled and the number of dead there from hypothermia is now 12 with another 33 dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. Bolivia has reported 18 deaths because of freezing temperatures and in southern Brasil at least 19 homeless people died of hypothermia. But Peru has the worst number of deaths, 104 so far.

BOLIVIA: Nutritious Quinoa Becomes Promising Trendy Export.

GLOBAL POST/    "...only in the past five years has its(quinoa) value to farmers jumped through the roof, with international markets suddenly taking an interest in this nutritious food. This demand has changed the lives of quinoa farmers in Bolivia, which is the world’s largest quinoa exporter.
Light, nutty-tasting quinoa is not a grain; it’s a chenopod, related to beets and spinach. With more protein and fat and fewer carbohydrates than equal amounts of corn or rice, it’s becoming a popular health food. But quinoa’s most surprising nutritional aspect is a balance of amino acids, including lysine, found in precious few other plants." And..." In the 1980s, 100 pounds of quinoa sold for $7 inside Bolivia. Now the same amount of high-quality organic quinoa can sell for more than $100 to vendors in the United States or Europe."

VENEZUELA: Hugo Chavez's Foreign Policy.

MIAMI HERALD/ Long Feature Recaps Chavez rule /   Even with lower oil profits, Hugo Chávez is still trying to win over the Americas, export socialism and challenge the U.S.

LATIN AMERICAN TRENDS: Indian Political Awareness And Resistence Grow.

AP/MIAMI HERALD/
Throughout Latin America, there's a new political awakening among native Indians, who have lived like second-class citizens for centuries. Indians are 10% of Latin America's half-billion residents and in the Andes and Guatemala, they are far more numerous. Improved education and communications, like the Internet and the cell phone now allow local native leaders to easily share strategies with other countries.

Bolivia's Famous Mountain Of Silver Still Rich In Deposits.

LAHT/
The Cerro Rico de Potosi which funded Spain’s presence in the Americas still contains large deposits of silver despite being mined uninterruptedly for 464 years.
Bolivian engineers estimate that the Cerro Rico contains almost 1.22 billion tons of minerals, most of it silver.

Priest Used Sand-filled Juice Cans To Highjack Mexican Plane.

AFP.
A Bolivian protestant priest who hijacked an Aeromexico plane from Cancun with 104 people aboard used three Jumex juice cans filled with sand to convince crew members he had a bomb. Jose Mar Flores Pereira, 44, a singer and former drug addict, surrendered to authorities at the Mexico City airport.

Chile With Negative Inflation And Lowest Rate In Latin America.

MERCOPRESS.
Chile has a NEGATIVE inflation rate of 1.2 % through July.
It joins Bolivia (-0.82) as the only two Latin American countries with negative inflation numbers. This is a huge change from 2008, when Chile had the fifth highest inflation in the region.

Bolivian Gas Revenues Fall 14.7%.

LAHT.

Bolivia's income from taxes and royalties on natural gas production fell 14.7 percent during the first five months of this year compared with the same period in 2008.

The decline is due to lower international prices for the fuel and to reduced demand from Bolivia's main customer Brasil.

Bolivia Needs $800 Million To Develop Lithium Field.

LAHT.

Bolivia estimates it needs $800 million to develop the lithium industry in the Uyuni Salt Flat, located in the Andean province of Potosi.

The Uyuni Salt Flat may contain the world's largest supply of the lithium, a material important for batteries.

Bolivia To Drill For Rich Lithium Deposits.

From the LAHT.

A state mining company will begin exploratory drilling in Southwest Bolivia to determine the amount of lithium in the Uyuni Salt Flats...said to be the largest deposit in the world.