Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner delivers a speech in front of a picture displaying the Malvinas Islands painted in the same colors as Argentina’s national flag, the government palace, Buenos Aires, February 7, 2012.

Argentina says it will file a formal complaint with the United Nations over Britain’s “militarization” of the disputed Malvinas (Falklands) Islands.

Amid growing tensions between Buenos Aires and London, Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner on Tuesday criticized Britain for militarizing their quarrel over the archipelago, saying she would take the case to the UN.

“We will present a complaint to the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly, as this militarization poses a grave danger to international security,” Kirchner said.

Argentina and Britain have intensified rhetoric over the issue as the 30th anniversary of their war over the Islands, which started on April 2, 1982, draws close.

The tension between the two countries was further fueled recently when British Prince William, a Royal Air Force helicopter pilot, was assigned on a military tour to the islands along with a warship.

Argentina has criticized the move, saying it is not seeking another war over the Malvinas, but the resolution of the sovereignty dispute through negotiations.

The Malvinas Islands, located about 300 miles off Argentina’s coast and home to about 3,000 inhabitants, have been “occupied” by Britain since 1833.

However, Buenos Aires claims sovereignty over the archipelago as it controlled the islands prior to their colonization by the British.

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A Britain Royal Navy submarine

The UK is sending a nuclear submarine to the Falkland Islands (also known as Malvinas Islands) amid growing tensions between Britain and Argentina over the disputed territories.

According to media reports on Saturday, British Prime Minister David Cameron has personally approved the deployment of the Trafalgar-class vessel, believed to be either HMS Tireless or HMS Turbulent, in the South Atlantic.

However, a British Ministry of Defense (MoD) spokeswoman said, “We do not comment on submarine deployments.”

The heavily-armed submarine is set to be in the Malvinas waters in April for the 30th anniversary of the 1982 war which the two countries fought over the islands also known as the Falklands.

The Royal Navy has already revealed it is sending HMS Dauntless, a Type 45 destroyer, to the Falklands.

Britain’s Prince William arrived in the Malvinas on Thursday for a six-week training mission as a search and rescue pilot with the Royal Air Force (RAF).

Buenos Aires has strongly condemned Britain’s “provocative” move to post Prince William, likening it to that of a “conqueror.”

“The Argentinean people regret that the royal heir is coming to the soil of the homeland with the uniform of the conqueror and not with the wisdom of a statesman who works in the service of peace and dialogue between nations,” read an Argentine Foreign Ministry statement.

Situated about 250 nautical miles from Argentina, Malvinas has been a British colony for over 180 years.

Argentina claims sovereignty and the two countries fought a destructive 74-day war over the islands in 1982.

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Brazilian police officers block an area during a demo.

Nineteen people have died on the third day of clashes between Brazilian government forces and striking police officers in the northeastern city of Salvador, Press TV reports.

Large shops and supermarkets were looted during the clashes and riots on Friday.

Meanwhile, the authorities have dispatched around 2,000 army soldiers and a group of elite federal police officers to contain the demonstrations in the country’s third largest city. In addition, protesters have been warned that they will receive a fine of up to $46,000 if caught demonstrating.

Another 13 people were killed during a demonstration on Thursday, while seven deaths were recorded on Wednesday.

The protesting police officers are holding demonstrations to demand salary increases and better working conditions.

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In a bid to secure its last outpost in South America, the British government is to deploy its most sophisticated warship to the occupied Falkland Islands to give a clear war message to Argentina.

The Ministry of Defense revealed that destroyer HMS Dauntless will sail to the South Atlantic in order to substitute frigate HMS Montrose in the coming weeks. It was claimed that the deployment was long planned but the decision is evidently put in practice when a war of words between Argentina and Britain over the disputed Falkland islands (known as Las Malvinas to Argentina) has intensified.

Tory MP Julian Brazier, who is also a defense select committee’s member, stressed that Britain’s move will send a “powerful and timely message” to the Argentina government that UK “means business when it comes to defending the Falklands.”

While repeating UK government’s colonial policy, Brazier said, “These islanders want to remain British and any oil or gas found in its waters will be British.”

The islands, located about 250 nautical miles from Argentina, have been a British colony for over 180 years. However, Argentina also claimed sovereignty as it controlled the islands before, and the two countries fought a destructive 74-day war over the islands in 1982.

As 30th anniversary of the Argentina-Britain war nears, the dispute over the territory is heating up once again. The British government is attempting to prevent any counter-move taken by Argentina to reclaim its occupied islands.

Jeremy Browne, Foreign Office minister in charge of Latin America, will travel to the islands in June to attend the anniversary of capturing the islands from Argentina. It was formerly announced that the Duke of Cambridge Prince William will also be posted to spend six weeks on the islands as an RAF search-and-rescue pilot next month. Buenos Aires described the move as being “provocative.”

The destroyer is a £1billion warship equipped with supersonic Sea Viper missiles, radar and an air defense system, being able of shooting a cricket ball moving at three times the speed of sound out of the sky.

A Navy source said that the warship could “shoot down Argentine fighters as soon as they take off from their bases,” insisting the deployment would give the Argentina government “serious pause” for thinking about their claims.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary William Hague underplayed the deployment of the warship, claiming they were routine moves, but warning “the Royal Navy packs a considerable punch.”

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A British senior military figure says Britain would not be able to confront Argentina over Las Malvinas, sending a clear signal to British officials to stop boasting of UK’s military capability.

Former head of the British army General Sir Michael Jackson said that it would be impossible for the British military to confront Argentina in case a military confrontation takes place over the sovereignty of the Malvinas islands.

“What if an Argentinean force was able to secure the Mount Pleasant airfield? Then our ability to recover the islands now would be just about impossible,” said Jackson in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph.

Jackson’s comments came after Britain’s Minister for International Security Strategy Gerald Howarth accused Argentina of “sabre-rattling” threatening Buenos Aires with a military response.

The comments were a response to Argentinean President Christina Fernandez who hit out at British Prime Minister David Cameron for accusing her country of colonialism.

“In this upside down world, in my absence I’ve heard they were calling us colonialists,” said Fernandez.

However, Fernandez underlined the importance of diplomacy and negotiations over the disputed islands as she promised the Argentinean people to rigorously work and have Britain sit at the table of negotiation.

“We will continue claiming our Islands with far more political, juridical, and diplomatic rigour and with the so many supports that we are receiving. But it’s good to remember that this is not an overnight achievement, it has taken years,” said Fernandez.

Proud of their victory in the 74-day war in 1982, British officials have been provocative as the country’s Ministry of Defence announced a contingency plan to increase their military presence on the island.

Moreover, Duke of Cambridge Prince William is supposed to spend six weeks on the islands as a search-and-rescue co-pilot.

Despite the provocative line taken up by Britain, its military capability has been seriously questioned as the Harrier fleet, Britain’s aircraft carriers that secured her victory in 1982, is sold to the US Marine Corps.

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Brazil's Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota (L) welcomes Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague at the Itamaraty palace in Brasilia, January 18.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota says all Latin American nations back Argentina against Britain over the disputed Malvinas islands, which Britain claims as its own, calling it Falklands.

Latin America and the Caribbean “back Argentine sovereignty over the Malvinas and back the UN resolutions calling on the Argentine and British governments to hold talks on the issue,” Patriota said in a meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in Brazil.

Patriota added that Britain knows “Brazil and Unasur (Union of South American Nations) support Argentinean sovereignty over the Malvinas.”

As the 30th anniversary of the war between Britain and Argentina over the Malvinas Islands nears, the dispute over the territory is heating up once again.

Britain on Tuesday reiterated its tough stance over the disputed islands, with the foreign secretary warning South American countries not to ‘collude’ with Argentina to reclaim its occupied territory.

Britain’s response came after the South American Mercosur including Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay agreed to ban boats sailing under the Falklands flag from docking at certain ports.

William Hague expressed Britain’s opposition to the port ban, describing Argentina’s efforts to reclaim its territory as “illegal.”

Hague also said that the British government would resist any measures that could lead to economic or other pressures for the islanders.

However, Argentina has charged that Britain is breaching international laws, insisting that UK’s oil-drilling operations there represent a clear instance of infringement on international laws.

Malvinas, located about 250 nautical miles from Argentina, has been a British colony for over 180 years. However, Argentina also claims sovereignty over the territory as it controlled the islands prior to its colonization by the British. Moreover, the two countries fought a destructive 74-day war over the islands in 1982.

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the Miraflores presidential palace, Caracas, January 9, 2012

Last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a week-long tour of Latin America. The Iranian leader visited Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador.

Ahmadinejad does not have many friends in the world. All of them, except for Syria, are in Latin America. Suffice it to say that it was his fifth visit to the region since 2007. Iran’s friendship with ALBA states (the bloc incudes the above-mentioned countries) is based on common anti-American views and the fund of $200 billion, which was established to struggle against the American imperialism.

According to The Miami Herald, Ahmadinejad embarked on the Latin American tour to raise his authority inside the country against the background of the loss of the support from the spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The author of the article also said that Iranian reformers had become more active in Iran recently. It is not clear, though, where exactly the journalist found reformers in the totalitarian state.

As a matter of fact, the Iranian president enjoys high popularity in his country. It will be impossible for the Americans to find the fifth column there. The nuclear program has become the national idea of the country. The Iranians have a special holiday about it on their calendar. People come to the streets to express their protest against the United States. They all remember the Iranian-Iraqi war, when the USA supported Iraq and sold chemical weapons to it.

What was the point of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Latin America?

First and foremost, it goes about the pragmatic question. The Iranian leader toured Latin America to coordinate Iran’s actions with the OPEC (Venezuela, Ecuador and Iran are OPEC members) and look for closer cooperation in the energy industry. Perhaps, it does not go about only oil. Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba may supposedly produce uranium for Iranian nuclear research. The countries may also ship the nuclear fuel to Iran via third countries. The information about it appeared in a secret report prepared by Israeli Foreign Ministry.

The political motivation of the tour is a very intriguing subject too. According to publications in the Western media, Iran was looking for support in Latin America to avoid international isolation and find approval to its nuclear program there.

First and foremost, there is no isolation. Libya has taught a lesson to Russia and China. However, US President Barack Obama introduced sanctions against those, who wanted to do trade with Iran. Secondly, Iran does not have to look for support in Latin America just because the country already has it.

“The Iranians have a vision of themselves of being a global power, and they feel that they have the momentum,” says Roger Noriega, a Republican foreign policy hawk who headed the U.S. State Department’s Latin American affairs office during the George W. Bush presidency.

“They feel that they blocked the U.S. presence in Iraq, they are angling to undermine the U.S. agreement with Afghanistan, and they want to challenge us in our neighborhood,” he adds.

Indeed, there is a challenge: “You go to the Middle East, and we go to your backyard.”

The scale of the competition is incomparable, of course. However, the Americans are still concerned. U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami labeled Ahmadinejad’s trip “the tour of tyrants.”

“The growing alliances between Iran and anti-American dictatorships in the Western Hemisphere pose a serious threat to democracy and stability in the region. The recent revelation that the Consul General at Venezuela’s Miami office was engaged in illicit activities with the Iranian regime shows that these ties are active and growing,” she said.

According to The Washington Post, Ahmadinejad tries to set up elite units of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards known as Al Quds. The newspaper refers to those troops as a “terrorist group” which would be capable of organizing another 9/11 in the USA in return to a possible attack against the nuclear objects of Iran. The publication claims that it was Iranian special services that organized the explosions at Jewish public organizations in Argentina in 1992.

The reasons for the anti-Iranian hysteria in the United States are easy to understand. Barack Obama signed a new defense strategy on December 31, 2011. The strategy names the Asian-Pacific region and the Middle East a priority strategy region of defense presence. Figuratively speaking, Ahmadinejad is like a dangerous wolf for the United States. He is not like Hugo Chavez, whom the US treats like a gnat.

As for Latin American publications, all of them pointed out one interesting detail about all this. The Iranian President did not visit Brazil. Indeed, not so long ago, Brazil was actively supporting Iran. The country even offered its own variant for solving the problems of the Iranian nuclear problem. However, all that was during the time when Lula da Silva was Brazil’s President.

His successor, Dilma Rousseff, takes a pragmatic position. Brazil’s Estadao newspaper wrote that the whole country took a breath of relief after it became known that Ahmadinejad was not going to visit the country during his trip. However, Brazil should not disregard Iran as a partner, who acts as an important exporter of Brazilian meat.

Brazil does not want to cooperate with Iran much. Brazil’s key trade partner is the USA, not Iran. In addition, Brazil would like not to annoy the US administration that has just lifted a duty for the import of Brazilian ethanol – an important constituent of Brazilian export. Other countries of Latin America prefer to mind their business for similar reasons.

As for the members of the ALBA bloc, they are not afraid of the USA. Foreign Minister of Ecuador, Ricardo Paltino, stated that Ecuador, being a sovereign state, would continue to support its ties with Iran depending on its own interests. Ecuador is not going to follow any instructions or recommendations from the US State Department.

ALBA leaders set out their certainty in the peaceful character of the Iranian nuclear program. They also pointed out the hypocrisy of the Western countries, who condemn Iran supporting the nuclear program of Israel.

The Cuban press said that Ahmadinejad’s visit was more of the economic, rather than of the political character. Most of the Iranian delegation consisted of businessmen and ministers for energy. Iran has been investing in various projects in Latin America during the recent years. In Venezuela, Iran participated in the construction of 14,000 buildings, 26 factories processing agricultural products, a car assembly work and a petrochemical plant.

Iran agreed to support Nicaragua in building small hydroelectric power plants. The country plans investments in the fishing industry, housing development, cement production, automotive production and in the agricultural sector. Cuba built the Middle East’s largest center for genetic engineering and biotechnologies in Teheran in 2001. The project was evaluated at $500, 000. Teheran opened a credit line for the country in the amount of $700 million.

“In my meeting, the Iranian president was highly calm, unstressed and completely indifferent to the Yankees’ threats. He was certain of his nation’s capability to confront any aggression and Iran’s arms capability, weapons that most of them are produced by Iranians to give an unforgivable response to the aggressors,” Fidel Castro said after meeting Ahmadinejad.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has ordered the closure of the country’s consulate in the US city of Miami amid tensions over the expulsion of Venezuelan Consul General Livia Acosta Noguera.

Chavez said on Friday that the country will close its consulate in Miami, Florida, over the “unjust” and “abusive” removal of Acosta.

“What we are going to do is administratively close the consulate, while we study the situation, because it is unjust, it is abusive, it is immoral, the expulsion of the madame consult,” Chavez said in a speech to the national assembly.

He added that Venezuela would not retaliate for the expulsion, nor would it expel a US consul in the country.

“Someone recommended that we needed to expel somebody. No, I said, we are not going to respond like they do. I have no reason to expel any US consul,” he said.

On January 8, the US government expelled Acosta Noguera on accusations that she had planned a cyber attack against the US government in 2008.

The expulsion of Acosta is connected to a documentary that alleges the Venezuelan diplomat talked to a Mexican computer expert about the attacks in 2008 when she worked at the Venezuelan Embassy in Mexico.

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US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland

The US has warned Latin American states against a further expansion of diplomatic and business ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“We are making absolutely clear to countries around the world that now is not the time to be deepening ties, not security ties, not economic ties, with Iran,” US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Friday.

The US State Department statement comes ahead of Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s planned visits to Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador next week.

Meanwhile, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen stated that the forthcoming Iranian president’s tour of Latin America is proof of Tehran’s expanding interest in the region.

“Ahmadinejad’s desire to strengthen ties with anti-American rulers and expand Iranian influence in the Western Hemisphere directly threatens US security interests,” she said in a statement.

“This is a threat which we cannot ignore,” Ros-Lehtinen noted.

She also pledged the Obama administration to hold hearings on the matter to discuss what Washington is doing to “counter Iranian outreach in the Western Hemisphere.”

This is while Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday criticized the United States for deliberately and recklessly raising tensions in the Persian Gulf.

“The Yankees are determined to provoke wars, provoke tensions,” Chavez said on television during a visit to the central state of Portuguesa.

President Ahmadinejad will kick off a four-nation trip to Latin America next week.

During his five-day trip, the Iranian president will discuss “bilateral ties and regional and international issues” with Latin American leaders.

President Ahmadinejad is also scheduled to attend the inauguration ceremony of the recently re-elected Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega. Stops in Cuba and Ecuador will round off the tour.

Leaders in all the four Latin American countries have in recent years built up diplomatic and trade ties with Iran, while their relations with the United States have become frosty as their people have been demanding an end to dependence on Washington.

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A destroyed car is seen in the main street of Teresopolis' Campo Grande neighborhood, some 100 km from Rio de Janiero, in the southwestern state of Rio on January 16, 2011 following a landslide of mud and rocks caused by heavy rains.

Storms in the southwestern Brazil state of Minas Gerais have claimed the lives of seven people and left some 13,000 others homeless.

At least five of the victims are believed to have either drowned or been killed by the mudslides, which were caused by the heavy rains on Wednesday. Another three people are reportedly missing.

Meanwhile, Brazilian authorities declared state of emergency in 50 towns across the state due to the severe damages caused by the storms.

Bridges, highways as well as energy and water networks have been damaged in a number of the towns.

Brazil generally experiences flooding during the rainy season months of December and January.

Last year, storms left more than 900 people dead and thousands others homeless in the southwestern state of Rio during the rainy season.

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Argentine President Cristina Fernandez

Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and will undergo surgery in January, her spokesman says.

Government spokesman Alfredo Scoccimarro broke the news on Tuesday, adding that the cancerous cells had not spread to other parts of her body.

Scoccimarro said the president will have an operation on January 4 to have the cancerous tumor removed and will then take 20 days of medical leave to recuperate.

Vice President Amado Boudou will run the country during the president’s absence.

Fernandez, 58, began her second term as president after a land-slide re-election victory in October.

She is not the only Latin American leader who has suffered from cancer.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez underwent chemotherapy earlier this year while Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo’s lymphatic cancer is in remission.

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McDonald’s leaves Bolivia healthier forever!

After 14 years of presence in the country, and despite all the existing campaigns and having a network, the chain was forced to close the eight restaurants that remained open in the three main cities: La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

It is a question of the first Latin-American country that will remain without any McDonald’s, and the first country in the world where the company has to close because it persists in having their numbers in the red for over a decade.

The impact for the creative and marketing managers has been so strong that a documentary was filmed under the title “Why McDonald’s went broke in Bolivia,” where they try to somehow explain the reasons that led Bolivians to still prefer pies to hamburgers.

Cultural rejection

The documentary includes interviews with cooks, sociologists, nutritionists, educators, historians and more, where there is a general agreement: the rejection is neither to the hamburgers nor to their taste. The rejection is in the minds and mentality of Bolivians. Everything indicates that “fast food” is literally the opposite of a Bolivian’s conception of how to prepare a meal.

In Bolivia, the food to be good requires, in addition to taste, care, and hygiene, a lot of preparation time. This is how a consumer values the quality of what goes into the stomach, also by the amount of time it took to make ​​the meal. Fast food is not for these people, the Americans concluded.

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (L) and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

Following the expansion of economic and political relations between Tehran and Caracas, US President Barack Obama has demanded the Venezuelan government sever all ties with Iran.

“I think the government’s ties with Iran and Cuba have not benefited the interests of Venezuela and its people,” Obama said in the email interview with El Universal newspaper, Reuters reported.

Obama, however, claimed that the “US has no intention of intervening in Venezuela’s foreign relations.”

Iran has expanded bilateral relations with Latin America in recent years, especially in the commerce and industrial sectors.

To ease a chronic housing shortfall in Venezuela, the country has reached out to Tehran for construction as well as financing of homes for its citizens.

So far, Iranian companies have built over 10,000 housing units in Venezuela and the construction of another 7,000 homes is in the final stages.

Iran’s Minister of Road and Urban Development Ali Nikzad had said earlier that Tehran will soon sign a four-billion-dollar deal with Venezuela to build 17,000 dwellings in the Latin American country.

Establishing a Tehran-Caracas airline and construction of highways and rural roads will constitute the expansion of joint projects in the near future, Nikzad added.

Over the past five years, Iran and Venezuela have signed a number of memoranda of understanding and contracts for joint participation and investments in oil and gas projects.

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Two people have died and thousands of people have lost their homes in Venezuela, after heavy rainfall hit different regions of the country causing massive landslides, Press TV reports.

Almost 2,000 people have been forced to leave their homes due to the landslides during the past days, which also killed two people in the Capital Caracas, a Press TV correspondent reported on Thursday.

Authorities are struggling to contain the emergency. Failures in superficial public transport and the underground network brought the capital city to a standstill.

At least four states have been declared on yellow alert requiring authorities to evacuate citizen from their homes and move them to shelters.

The northern Vargas State, located minutes away from Caracas, is the area where rainfalls caused the worst natural disaster in Venezuelan recorded history in December 1999.

Although the number of deaths remains a mystery, it is estimated that between 10,000 and 30,000 people perished. Since then, rain has become a source of panic for many Venezuelans.

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Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, asserted that the former president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, (2002-2010) planned to “make Colombia into the Israel of South America.”

According to Chávez, the Uribe administration distanced his country from other nations in the region, “He nearly caused a war with Ecuador and broke relations with Venezuela, and neighboring countries.”

The head of state said, through telephone contact with a state-owned broadcasting station, he has not verified information about a recording that was revealed on Thursday in a meeting where Uribe would have instructed a Venezuelan opposition group to reject the approach that Bogota and Caracas have been promoting lately.

Chavez also assured that the relationship between nations will not deteriorate despite the efforts made ​​by sectors of the Colombian and Venezuelan ultra-right to “sabotage” this approach.

“I am confident that relations between Colombia and Venezuela will continue recovering from the severe damage that was done during the previous government,” Chavez said, adding that “fortunately the current government took another direction.”

Since taking over as president of Colombia, in August 2010, Juan Manuel Santos has been promoting the deepening of relations between countries, having met with the Venezuelan president several times.

Chavez confirmed that that he will receive Santos on the occasion of next week’s Foundation Summit of Latin American and Caribbean States (Cúpula Fundacional dos Estados Latino-Americanos e Caribenhos–CELAC), which will take place on the 2nd and 3rd of December, for a bilateral meeting.

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