Colombia Sees Risk Rains That Cut Coffee Output to Return

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JGorS-ThxbY/ToZApR-GtQI/AAAAAAAACT0/9AQVFHEjlvY/s1600/Arabica+coffee+beans+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JGorS-ThxbY/ToZApR-GtQI/AAAAAAAACT0/9AQVFHEjlvY/s200/Arabica+coffee+beans+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia, the world’s second largest producer of Arabica coffee beans, forecast the possible return of a weather pattern that cut coffee and coal output.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Water temperatures in the Pacific Ocean suggest the weather pattern La Niña may reemerge at yearend or early next year, though it would trigger less rainfall than last year, Ricardo Lozano, head of the nation’s weather agency, said today in an interview with Bogotá based Caracol Radio.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombian roadways and bridges remain damaged and coal and coffee production have yet to recover fully from above-average rainfall last year that triggered flooding and landslides. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even after the prior La Niña disappeared, rainfall “hasn’t stopped” in some areas and the nation remains vulnerable to landslides and flooding, according to Lozano.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Coffee has rallied about 25 percent in the past year as Colombia fell short of production forecasts. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rainstorms that knocked flowers from coffee plants last year contributed to the nation’s lowest monthly coffee exports in August since 1.988.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">High humidity also has triggered the “worst-ever” bout of leaf-rust disease ever faced by coffee farmers, Agriculture Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo said in a Sept. 23 interview. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The disease reduces the quality and quantity of the crop.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Exports in august fell to 374,000 bags from 599,000 bags a year earlier, while output slid to a two-year low of 466,000 bags, the National Federation of Coffee Growers said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In northern Colombia, production at the Cerrejon coal mine will rise to about 32.5 million metric tons this year as the company begins a $1.3 billion expansion, Chief Executive Officer Leon Teicher said Aug. 24. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Production at the mine slid to 31.4 million tons in 2010 amid late-year rainstorms.  </div>

Colombia Sees Risk Rains That Cut Coffee Output to Return

Colombia, the world’s second largest producer of Arabica coffee beans, forecast the possible return of a weather pattern that cut coffee and...

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Cocoa industry must adapt to climate change - study

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mScBvTWgjC4/ToY-naFpiuI/AAAAAAAACTs/QmOrpL2M8ZI/s1600/cocoa+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mScBvTWgjC4/ToY-naFpiuI/AAAAAAAACTs/QmOrpL2M8ZI/s200/cocoa+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Enjoying a bar of chocolate could become an expensive pleasure in years to come, say researchers who have been studying the impact of climate change on West Africa’s cocoa-growing regions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Half of the world’s cocoa comes from the West African nations of Ivory Coast and Ghana. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">An expected temperature rise of more than two degrees Celsius by 2.050 will render many of the region’s cocoa-producing areas too hot for the plants that bear the fruit from which chocolate is made, says a new study from the Colombia based International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“What we are saying is that if we don’t take any action, there won’t be sufficient chocolate around in the future,” said Peter Läderach, the report’s lead author.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The warmer conditions predicted by the researchers, based on 19 climate models, mean cocoa trees will struggle to get enough water during the growing season, curtailing the development of cocoa pods containing the prized cocoa bean the key ingredient in chocolate production.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The dry seasons will become more intense; it will get hotter and the plants will be affected,” Läderach told AlertNet on the phone from Nicaragua.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">By 2.050, a rise in temperature of 2.3 degrees Celsius will drastically affect production in lowland regions, including the major cocoa-producing areas of Moyen-Comoe, Sud-Comoe and Agneby in Ivory Coast, and Western and Brong Ahafo in Ghana, the report predicts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ideal cocoa-growing areas will shift to higher altitudes to compensate for the rise in temperatures. The search for new cocoa-producing sites could fuel the clearing of forests, protected areas and important habitats for flora and fauna, the report warns.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>New varieties, techniques needed</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cocoa farmers and exporters, the cocoa industry and consumers of products derived from cocoa will all feel the impact of these changes if action to adapt is not taken now, Läderach said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Farmers are particularly vulnerable since cocoa production is often their primary source of income. They sell the pods to raise cash for basic services like school fees or medical expenses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Läderach said plant scientists must breed new crop varieties adapted to the warmer conditions associated with climate change, and farmers should develop new crop management techniques to survive the coming climate shifts.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">They could grow their cocoa plants under the shade of bigger forest trees, which would help keep them cool, for example.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“They would also need to have irrigation systems if places get too dry, and should consider alternative cash crops that could match the climatic conditions,” Läderach added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The researchers hope the study, commissioned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will help decision makers, governments, farmers, exporters and cocoa businesses take steps to tackle the situation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Cocoa prices have been on the rise in the past year,” said Läderach. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If there is less cocoa available, they are going to continue to rise - which means the industry will have to make decisions that could cause chocolate prices to increase.” </div>

Cocoa industry must adapt to climate change - study

Enjoying a bar of chocolate could become an expensive pleasure in years to come, say researchers who have been studying the impact of climat...

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Colombia May Keep 4.5% Rate to Gauge Effect of Europe Crisis

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dX1P2GNqCPk/ToY9xgB28uI/AAAAAAAACTo/nCIZrX5AfHU/s1600/jose+dario+uribe+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dX1P2GNqCPk/ToY9xgB28uI/AAAAAAAACTo/nCIZrX5AfHU/s200/jose+dario+uribe+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia’s policy makers will probably leave borrowing costs unchanged for a second straight month and end a dollar-purchase program as slowing inflation gives them leeway to gauge the impact of the European debt crisis on global growth.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The seven member board, led by bank chief Jose Dario Uribe, will keep the overnight rate at 4.50 percent today. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The meeting is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. New York time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Policy makers voted unanimously last month to leave the key lending rate unchanged for the first time in seven months, noting uncertainty about the “size and duration” of a worldwide slowdown, according to minutes of the meeting published Sept. 2. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brazil last month followed Turkey in lowering interest rates as policy makers seek to shield their economy from the European debt crisis.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The central bank “will take a wait and see approach.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In addition to voting to pause again, Banco de la Republica probably won’t extend plans to buy a minimum of $20 million daily after a rout in global markets wiped out the peso’s gains this year, according to Camilo Perez, head analyst at Banco de Bogota SA, Colombia’s second biggest bank.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Currency “intervention isn’t needed at these levels,” said Perez. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“What is the general driver in markets now is risk aversion and that means a weaker peso.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rate Horizon, Growth</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who asked the central bank to refrain from raising rates further after consumer prices unexpectedly fell in August, met with business representatives this week to discuss measures to guard the $288 billion economy from a possible global recession.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Still, a majority of Colombian analysts forecast policy makers will raise their key rate by 50 basis points to 5 percent by year end, according to a central bank survey published Sept. 13. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">None of the 38 economists surveyed expect a rate cut this year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Latin America’s fifth-largest economy is expanding at a “good” pace amid strong domestic demand and increased lending, the central bankers noted in a statement accompanying last month’s decision. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In July, they raised their forecast for Colombia’s growth this year to as high as 6.5 percent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">‘Demand Remains Strong’</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Gross domestic product rose 5.2 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, according to a Sept. 22 government report, the second fastest pace in three years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Retail sales surged 11.8 percent in July, for a 15th straight month of double-digit growth. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">That’s its longest run in a decade.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Annual inflation quickened to 3.42 percent in July, the fastest since June 2009, before slowing to 3.27 percent in August. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The central bank targets inflation of 2 percent to 4 percent this year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Leading indicators including bank lending and retail sales show demand remains strong,” said Francisco Chaves, an analyst at Bogota based brokerage Corredores Asociados SA, who forecasts the key rate will be raised to 5 percent by year-end. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you continue with an expansive rate under these conditions, you risk fueling inflation.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Reassurance, Equilibrium</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">While the peso’s 9 percent decline against the dollar since mid-July may prompt the bank to halt its dollar-purchase program, Juan Camilo Santana, an analyst at Cia. de Profesionales de Bolsa SA, predicts the central bank will extend the purchases through January.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Investment flows will eventually return when the external environment calms down and that will again pressure gains in the peso,” said Santana. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The purchases give exporters reassurance.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The peso fell 0.8 percent to 1,932.20 per U.S. dollar at 9:21 a.m. New York time, from 1,917.65 yesterday. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the year to date, it has weakened 1.3 percent, the ninth-best performance against the dollar among 25 emerging market.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry has indicated a peso about 1,900 is near its equilibrium level.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The central bank, which first announced its plan for the daily dollar purchases in March 2.010, had said they would run until at least today as it sought to ease gains in the local currency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a Sept. 24 interview, Uribe declined to say whether the program would be extended when policy makers meet today.</div>

Colombia May Keep 4.5% Rate to Gauge Effect of Europe Crisis

Colombia’s policy makers will probably leave borrowing costs unchanged for a second straight month and end a dollar-purchase program as slow...

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Minnesota agriculture could benefit from increased exports

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5_h2GIfH5H4/ToHwZymTaiI/AAAAAAAACPw/mDOImD0c4ZE/s1600/South+Korea%252C+Colombia+and+Panama+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5_h2GIfH5H4/ToHwZymTaiI/AAAAAAAACPw/mDOImD0c4ZE/s200/South+Korea%252C+Colombia+and+Panama+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Agriculture exports are critical to farmers and are essential to the prosperity of the overall U.S. economy. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama have been stalled for several years, causing major trading opportunities to diminish.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Economic analysis, performed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, estimates that annual direct U.S. agricultural exports to South Korea, Colombia and Panamá will increase by nearly $2.5 billion upon full implementation, which will create approximately 22,000 U.S. jobs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Job creation potential</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In total, the agreements are expected to increase direct exports from Minnesota by $99.1 million per year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The agreements particularly will increase trade for pork, beef, soybeans, corn, dairy, wheat and processed food and fish, resulting in nearly 900 additional jobs in Minnesota.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a farmer, I realize the importance of gaining long-term access to a growing market. Soybeans are Minnesota’s second largest source of farm cash receipts, which totaled $2.6 billion in 2.009. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Minnesota’s direct exports of soybeans and products to South Korea are estimated to increase $8.3 million per year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement will provide access to South Korea’s 300,000-metric ton market for food-quality soybeans. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">South Korea has agreed to immediately eliminate its 5 percent applied tariff on food-use soybeans.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Additionally, there are benefits from the increased export of meat products because of the indirect increasing export of corn and soybeans. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Indirect exports of corn as a result of the agreement are estimated to be $17.6 million per year. Indirect exports of soybeans and products are estimated to by $6.6 million per year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Each day that goes by without passing the agreements provides more opportunity for other countries to negotiate their own deals and less opportunity for job expansion in the U.S. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">As long as the administration and Congress fail to act on the pending trade deals, our role as a major trading partner diminishes, as well as opportunity for U.S. job creation. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Farm Bureau urges the administration and Congress to expedite passage of these trade deals.</div>

Minnesota agriculture could benefit from increased exports

Agriculture exports are critical to farmers and are essential to the prosperity of the overall U.S. economy.  Free trade agreements with So...

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Colombia Ditches Overseas Bond Sale on ‘Wild’ Market Conditions

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pS_SfNGyOLM/ToHsArrng9I/AAAAAAAACPs/9jRZJ_QdMf0/s1600/juan+carlos+echeverry+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pS_SfNGyOLM/ToHsArrng9I/AAAAAAAACPs/9jRZJ_QdMf0/s200/juan+carlos+echeverry+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia has scrapped plans to sell $240 million in international bonds this year as “wild” market conditions raise the risk of borrowing abroad, Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia planned to raise the additional amount after selling $2 billion of 10 year dollar bonds in july and has said that it could issue Samurai bonds in Asia in the second half of the year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Under its 2.011 financing plan, Colombia planned to raise $2.24 billion in debt sales abroad.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We don’t like wild waters,” Echeverry said in a Sept. 24 interview in Washington, where he was attending the meetings of the International Monetary Fund. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We were lucky and very successful when we placed $2 billion in a 10 year bond and we don’t need more financing, so why tackle the markets now?”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The worsening European debt crisis and threat of a U.S. recession led Russia and companies including state oil producer Petroleos Mexicanos to scrap plans for debt sales this month. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Average borrowing costs for companies in emerging markets have risen 70 basis points in September, poised for their biggest monthly advance since October 2008, a month after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ignited the global credit crisis. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Average yields on government debt in developing nations have climbed 109 basis points, also the most in any month since October 2.008, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. data.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Spreads Rising</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia’s sale of the dollar bonds July 5 was the nation’s first international debt issue since winning an investment-grade rating in March. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The country sold the 4.375 percent bonds due 2021 to yield 130 basis points, or 1.3 percentage points, more than similar-maturity U.S. Treasuries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since the sale, the spread has risen 120 basis points, or 1.2 percentage points, to 252 basis points over U.S. Treasuries, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI Global Index for Colombia. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since Aug. 31, the yield on the dollar bonds has risen 43 basis points to 4.127 percent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Echeverry also echoed comments in Washington by Colombian central bank Governor Jose Dario Uribe in welcoming the depreciation of the peso against the U.S. dollar since the end of July. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Echeverry said the recent fall in the currency had taken it to around its equilibrium level and said he hopes it won’t keep falling.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The peso weakened 4 percent to 1903.94 per dollar this week as investors dumped emerging market assets on signs the world recovery was faltering. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even after the recent decline, the peso remains the only major currency in Latin America except Peru’s sol to have gained ground on the greenback this year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Let’s hope it doesn’t go any further,” Echeverry said. “Right now, the current level, I am happy with that. Something around 1900 is ok.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">With assistance from Andrea Jaramillo, Blake Schmidt and Heather Walsh in Bogotá.</div>

Colombia Ditches Overseas Bond Sale on ‘Wild’ Market Conditions

Colombia has scrapped plans to sell $240 million in international bonds this year as “wild” market conditions raise the risk of borrowing ab...

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Colombia has made huge strides in reviving a tourism industry that a decade ago was moribund.

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1aOTmulcmOA/ToHpnsI0IjI/AAAAAAAACPg/XtaspOJu-Lg/s1600/cartagena+colombian+tourism+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1aOTmulcmOA/ToHpnsI0IjI/AAAAAAAACPg/XtaspOJu-Lg/s200/cartagena+colombian+tourism+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Improved security, a national “branding” campaign, favorable coverage by foreign travel media and generous tax benefits to lure hotel developers have sparked renewed interest in a country that a few years ago was luring only “backpackers and thrill-seekers,” to use one former U.S. ambassador’s memorable phrase.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Foreign airline passenger arrivals doubled over the last decade to more than 2 million last year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cruiseship passenger traffic through Cartagena, the country’s leading magnet for both domestic and foreign travelers, has quintupled since 2.004 to 400,000 a year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">And the nation is witnessing a hotel construction boom by international chains such as Melia, Holiday Inn, Marriott, Ibis and Westin, which a few years ago were turned off by Colombia’s image of rebel terrorism and drug violence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">No city has benefited more from the tourism upsurge than Cartagena, a Caribbean and Spanish Colonial gem of 1.4 million that is the nation’s top attraction. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 30% of the city’s workforce is in tourism related jobs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">But Colombian tourism hit a speed bump in 2.011. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">After years of double-digit increases, cruise ship calls in Cartagena are expected to decline 17% in the upcoming october-june season, according to the city tourism office.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Airport arrivals of foreigners have flattened out and visitor spending growth nationwide, after a  burst from 2003 to 2007, has settled in the range of economic growth overall, between 4 and 5 percent annually, according to Camilo Perez, chief economist for Banco de Bogotá.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though some factors are beyond Colombia’s control, such as higher fuel costs and cruise lines’ better margins in the Mediterranean, others are of the country’s own making.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Customer satisfaction surveys by some tour operators in Cartagena show disturbingly high levels of disappointment among visitors, a trend that could be stunting the rate of repeat visits, as well as visitors drawn by word of mouth. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just as sobering was the World Economic Forum’s global tourism study issued this year that ranked Colombia a lackluster 77th among world destinations and a dismal 13th among Caribbean and Latin American tourist destination countries in terms of competitiveness.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Visitors complain of poor signage, a shortage of historical literature, traffic jams and few if any public restrooms at major monuments, one tour packager said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Suddenly, tourism officials are opening their eyes to a challenge equally as daunting as the one they undertook several years ago to buff the nation’s image and open foreign minds to Colombia’s assets. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a nutshell, the task is to turn the attention to the consumer and do a better job of making his or her experience a positive one. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">How well Colombia meets that challenge will determine not only whether it can grow, but even maintain the share of the global tourism market it has, said German Arturo Sierra, rector of the University of Cartagena, who earned his doctorate in tourism management at the University of Sevilla, Spain.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Colombia has to stop improvising and design a comprehensive plan for tourism,” Sierra said in an interview at his office in Cartagena’s historic old city. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The plan has to involve all elements of society the public and private sectors and the communities. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">And it has to assure that tourists aren’t just satisfied but that their experience rises above expectations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">If it can’t devise and execute such a plan, the industry will never go to the next level."</div>

Colombia has made huge strides in reviving a tourism industry that a decade ago was moribund.

Improved security, a national “branding” campaign, favorable coverage by foreign travel media and generous tax benefits to lure hotel develo...

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Shakira Is Latin Grammy Person of the Year

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z41qjjH3nOI/ToHjnfQ79vI/AAAAAAAACPQ/5qhZhUOTq1U/s1600/shakira+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z41qjjH3nOI/ToHjnfQ79vI/AAAAAAAACPQ/5qhZhUOTq1U/s200/shakira+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="153" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombian singer/songwriter Shakira will be honored as the 2.011 Latin Recording Academy person of the year, the Latin Grammy organization has announced. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The tribute gala for the songstress will be held Nov. 9, one day before the 12th annual awards show  at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shakira, also nominated for three Grammy awards, including album of the year, was selected as the person of the year for her artistic achievements and philanthropic contributions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It is truly an honor to be in the company of some of the greatest artists and legends of Latin Music," Shakira said in a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Latin Grammy Nominations: Calle 13 Lead With a Record 10</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shakira is scheduled to attend a dinner at Mandalay Bay where her music will be performed by fellow artists and friends as they celebrate the honoree.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a child in Colombia, Shakira was already showing her vocal chops by meshing rock, Latin and Mediterranean influences in her music. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">By the early '90s she was already a recording artist, but in 1.996 her "Pies Descalzos" album made the music industry take note as she produced hits such as "Estoy Aqui" and "Se Quiere … Se Mata."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Later she released the critically-acclaimed "Donde Estan Los Ladrones," and in 2.000 "Shakira: MTV Unplugged" earned the artist her first Grammy award for best Latin pop album. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the first Latin Grammy awards in 2.000, she also received two Latin Grammy awards.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Expanding her musical resume, Shakira released her first English-language album, "Laundry Service," in 2.001. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The set was a huge success and introduced her to a global audience.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2.005, her album "Fijacíon Oral Vol. 1," featured the popular single "La Tortura" (featuring Spanish singer/songwriter Alejandro Sanz). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The album and the single earned her four Latin Grammy awards.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"La Tortura" has the record for the most weeks at No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart, with a staggering 25 frames atop the 25-year old tally. It is one of nine No. 1s on the chart for Shakira.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The singer has also had five No. 1s on the Top Latin Albums chart, including her most recent "Sale El Sol," which spent 12 weeks at No. 1. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shakira's album sales to date are at 9.9 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">At 18 years old Shakira founded the Pies Descalzos Foundation, a charity created to provide underprivileged children support with their academic needs. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Additionally, the singer is also a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">As an honorary chairperson for the Global Campaign for education, she has been an advocate for universal education.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Through benefit concerts, Shakira has also had impact in the name of supporting victims of natural disasters as she did with the 2.007 Clinton Global Initiative. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">She received a commitment of $40 million from the Spanish government to provide support for those in need.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Shakira is the youngest artist to receive the person of the year honor and joins a roster of other singers including Placido Domingo, Carlos Santana, Gloria Estefan, Gilberto Gil, Julio Iglesias and Ricky Martin.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We are honored to pay homage to this dynamic, socially conscious woman whose illustrious career has touched so many people around the world, both musically and personally," says Gabriel Abaroa Jr., President/CEO of The Latin Recording Academy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Latin Grammys will air live from the Mandalay Bay Events Center on Nov. 10.</div>

Shakira Is Latin Grammy Person of the Year

Colombian singer/songwriter Shakira will be honored as the 2.011 Latin Recording Academy person of the year, the Latin Grammy organization h...

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Andean Market Struggles to Lift Stock Trading Dwarfed by Brazil’s Volume

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cya8ffm42mM/Tn9fqcdEzVI/AAAAAAAACOE/jzK08x0oeao/s1600/Juan+Pablo+Cordoba%252C+president+of+Bolsa+de+Valores+de+Colombia+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Cya8ffm42mM/Tn9fqcdEzVI/AAAAAAAACOE/jzK08x0oeao/s200/Juan+Pablo+Cordoba%252C+president+of+Bolsa+de+Valores+de+Colombia+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Trading in a market created to combine stocks from Colombia, Chile and Perú is languishing as transactions in the first four months totaled $2.9 million, or the equivalent of about 20 seconds of average volume in Brazil.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Juan Pablo Cordoba, president of Bolsa de Valores de Colombia, said he aims to fix that.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The biggest challenge moving forward is how to get volumes to pick up,” Cordoba, who passed up a post in President Juan Manuel Santos’s cabinet to help spearhead the project, said in a Sept. 14 interview in Bogotá. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The baby was born but needs to be nurtured.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cordoba said 23 cross-border accords between brokerages in the Andean nations are a sign that trading in Mila, as Latin America’s first combined trading platform is known, will gain momentum. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In May he said the new exchange would act as an “alternative” to investing in Brazil, home to Latin America’s largest equity market where daily trading averages $4 billion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Mila platform has generated 183 transactions totaling $2.9 million since its May 30 start through Sept. 16, according to data compiled by the Santiago exchange.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chilean, Colombian and Peruvian stocks have a combined value of $578 billion, surpassing Mexico’s $387 billion. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brazil’s BM&F Bovespa has a market value of $1.2 trillion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Average daily traded volume in the past three months was $193 million in Chile, $83 million in Colombia and $25 million in Peru, Bloomberg data show. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">That compares with $723 million in Mexico.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Growth Slows</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mila executives aim to tap into some of the fastest growth rates in the region to spur demand for equities. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The economies of Chile, Peru and Colombia will expand 6.5 percent, 6.2 percent and 4.9 percent, respectively, this year, driven by commodity exports and surging domestic consumption. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Growth is poised to slow to 4.7 percent, 5.6 percent and 4.5 percent next year, respectively, the IMF said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Exchange officials aim to convert Mila into a single trading platform in the coming years from its current form as an order-routing system that enables investors in one country to trade stocks in the others through their local brokers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia’s benchmark index, the IGBC, is beating its Mila peers this year, having fallen 12 percent through yesterday after a 34 percent surge in 2010. Peru’s IGBVL has declined 15 percent this year while Chile’s IPSA has slumped 18 percent as the global economic slowdown crimps demand for emerging-market assets. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brazil’s Bovespa is down 19 percent and Mexico’s main index 12 percent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Share Offerings</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Companies probably will begin tailoring share offerings to the Andean region this year, Cordoba said. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pension funds and brokerages in each of the countries have begun designing products tailored for cross-border investing and Standard & Poor’s began its Mila 40 Index last month.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">S&P will lead negotiations with providers of exchange traded funds to create an ETF for Mila stocks, Maria Jose Ramirez, vice president of the Bolsa de Valores de Colombia (BVC), said at the Bloomberg Mila conference in New York today. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Other countries, such as Panama or Mexico, are likely to enter the Mila before a market for fixed-income securities is developed on the three-country exchange, Ramirez said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Global Turmoil</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Trading on the Mila platform may have been damped by global market turmoil and as the election of Ollanta Humala as Peru’s president triggered concern the one time ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez would boost state control of the economy, said Rupert Stebbings, Colombia country manager for Celfin Capital SA. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Peru’s benchmark stock index plunged 12 percent the day after Humala won in a June 5 runoff vote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bolsa de Valores de Colombia, the operator of the Bogota exchange known as BVC, fell 1.6 percent on June 9 after then economic adviser Kurt Burneo said Humala might renegotiate parts of the Mila arrangement if benefits weren’t fairly shared.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“When there’s a lack of confidence, people tend to invest in what’s close to home,” Stebbings said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">BVC shareholders postponed June 16 a vote on a proposed corporate merger with the Lima bourse and the two exchanges shelved the plan last month, saying they would focus instead on strengthening Mila.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It was a joint decision, to be politically correct,” Cordoba said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Capital Markets</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mila trading may pick up should Humala prove over time to favor capital market growth, Stebbings said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Resolving regulatory issues, such as restrictions on Chilean pension funds’ foreign holdings and differences in tax treatment, can help deepen integration, Manuel Bulnes, the head of Larrain Vial SA’s brokerage unit, said at the Bloomberg Chile Economic Summit in Santiago last month.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">It takes time for investors to warm to new products, as was the case with Novo Mercado, a listing segment of BM&F Bovespa for companies that issue only voting shares, said Guillermo Larrain, former Chile chief securities regulator. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Novo Mercado, which now has 122 listings and accounted for 10 of the 11 initial public offerings in Brazil this year, garnered little interest in its first two years of operation, Larrain said at the same summit.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cross-Border Deals</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Beyond Mila, Andean region integration is reflected in cross-border expansions of financial-services firms including Larrain Vial and Celfin Capital and companies such as Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana SA (GRUPOSUR), Lan Airlines SA (LAN), Colombia’s Interconexion Electrica SA (ISA) and Peru’s Grana y Montero SA. (GRAMONC1)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">ING Groep NV (INGA) created a mutual fund that invests in the three countries and Global X Funds started a regional exchange- traded fund. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The increase in regional investments by companies has triggered cross-border capital raising. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">A unit of Chilean retailer SACI Falabella (FALAB) sold bonds in Colombia this month while Banco de Credito del Peru tapped Chile’s debt market in 2.009.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">ING agreed in July to sell most of its Latin American insurance operations to Suramericana, the parent company of Colombia’s largest bank, for about 2.7 billion euros ($3.9 billion). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Suramericana, which plans to offer shares worth as much as $2.1 billion in October, may lead the way in tailoring share sales to investors across the Andean region, Cordoba said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“You can’t increase volumes out of thin air between the three countries,” Stebbings said. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Where Mila has been a winner is at a more corporate level. Companies realize there are huge funds in Latin America and they don’t have to go to London or New York.”</div>

Andean Market Struggles to Lift Stock Trading Dwarfed by Brazil’s Volume

Trading in a market created to combine stocks from Colombia, Chile and Perú is languishing as transactions in the first four months totaled ...

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Colombia seeks truce in oil workers strike

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4J1V4jPHhuo/Tn9eh5-ATLI/AAAAAAAACOA/9oSWmNF55K8/s1600/pacific+rubiales+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4J1V4jPHhuo/Tn9eh5-ATLI/AAAAAAAACOA/9oSWmNF55K8/s200/pacific+rubiales+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The government works to mediate the dispute after violence leads employer Pacific Rubiales Energy to shut down the country's two most important oil fields.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Colombian government is trying to broker peace between striking oil workers and their Canadian employer after violent clashes between protesters and police forced the closure of the country's two most important oil fields.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Toronto based Pacific Rubiales Energy shut down its Rubiales and Quifa oil fields in eastern Meta state Tuesday night after clashes left several workers injured and company equipment damaged. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The two fields produce an average of 225,000 barrels of crude a day, or about one quarter of the 953,000 barrels in daily output the country averaged in August.</div>

Colombia seeks truce in oil workers strike

The government works to mediate the dispute after violence leads employer Pacific Rubiales Energy to shut down the country's two most im...

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Colombian journalist receives human rights prize

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y81pIeOU3MY/Tn9Y7PLV72I/AAAAAAAACN8/VMspeOJzNRM/s1600/Hollman+Morris+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="118" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y81pIeOU3MY/Tn9Y7PLV72I/AAAAAAAACN8/VMspeOJzNRM/s200/Hollman+Morris+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Journalist Hollman Morris received the International Nuremberg Human Rights Award on Sunday in Germany for his coverage of political violence in his native Colombia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">'You are the Colombian voice of freedom. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">You are a role model for a humane and just world,' said Horst Seehofer, the premier of the German state of Bavaria in honouring Morris with the prize, worth 15,000 euros (20,260 dollars).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 43 year old Morris gave a face to the victims of violence and brutality, said Flor Alba Romer, human rights officer at the University of Bogota.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mass murders, contract killings, disappearances and forced evictions were just some of the topics which Morris had brought to public attention, she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The award has been presented annually in the southern German city since 1.995.</div>

Colombian journalist receives human rights prize

Journalist Hollman Morris received the International Nuremberg Human Rights Award on Sunday in Germany for his coverage of political violenc...

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Sofia Vergara's family thinks Emmys are beauty pageant

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J3ZpVhP6Qz4/Tn9YXKBSrBI/AAAAAAAACN4/kus_ySlbPms/s1600/Sofia+Vergara+emmy%2527s+2.011+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J3ZpVhP6Qz4/Tn9YXKBSrBI/AAAAAAAACN4/kus_ySlbPms/s200/Sofia+Vergara+emmy%2527s+2.011+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sofia Vergara may have lost at the Emmys on Sunday night, but to her family back in Colombia she was the clear winner but then again, they're not entirely clear what the awards are for.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Thursday's "Late Show," David Letterman asked Vergara about "Modern Family's" awards sweep. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Or, as he put it, "The family show did great with your Emmy awards." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"You had your family and friends all there?" he wondered.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Yeah, of course, everybody from Colombia wants to come and join," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"How many family members do you have?" he asked.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Slightly confused, Vergara responded with a question of her own. "How many I have? I think like more than 400." </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not to worry, though; she had only 13 of them with her on Sunday. "They did the red carpet with me, they met everybody from my show, it was fantastic."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Though Vergara was happy to see castmate Julie Bowen take home the award for supporting actress in a comedy, her family was not quite as gracious in defeat. "They don't understand. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">They start calling me from Colombia. They like, 'Why you didn't win?' </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">They really think it's a beauty pageant," she said. "So they're like, your dress was the best, and the hair, by far."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, wait : This mean awards shows aren't just beauty contests? Who knew?</div>

Sofia Vergara's family thinks Emmys are beauty pageant

Sofia Vergara may have lost at the Emmys on Sunday night, but to her family back in Colombia she was the clear winner but then again, they&#...

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Canadá opens women's olympic basketball qualifier with victory

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x4-R6fpSOws/Tn9XeoQ9QaI/AAAAAAAACN0/zHAnMxytUIA/s1600/FIBA+Americas+Championship+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x4-R6fpSOws/Tn9XeoQ9QaI/AAAAAAAACN0/zHAnMxytUIA/s200/FIBA+Americas+Championship+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Canada's women's basketball team rode a strong defensive performance to an opening win at the FIBA Americas Championship.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kalisha Keane of Ajax, Ont., scored 15 points and added five rebounds Saturday as Canada swarmed Mexico early as part of 72-45 victory.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Canada led 19-4 after the first and 35-9 at the break as the team took a step towards qualifying for next summer's London Olympics.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We've talked a lot about how tough we want to be defensively," Canada head coach Allison McNeill said. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There may be teams that score better than us, are quicker than us, but one thing we can be is a great defensive team and that was something we wanted to establish at the start of the game and we definitely did that."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Saskatoon's Krista Phillips added 11 points, while Ottawa's Courtney Pilypaitis chipped in with 10.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We have a lot of people that score and it's not going to be easy to just shut down one or two and hopefully that will carry us through the tournament," McNeill said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The winner of the 10-team tournament gets an automatic spot at the Games.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">McNeill said the big lead allowed her to empty the bench and get most of her players an early feel for the tournament.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It was one of those games where you get a big lead and play a lot of people and get a lot of young players minutes and get them in the flow," she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Erika Gomez led the way for Mexico with 18 points and eight rebounds for Mexico.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The 12th-ranked Canadians will play sixth-ranked Brazil -- who should be their toughest opponent on Sunday, before facing unranked Paraguay on Monday. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Canada wraps up the preliminary round Wednesday versus 49th-ranked Jamaica.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"(Brazil is) definitely the team to beat here," McNeill said. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"They have good depth. They're very athletic. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">They really run, so we'll have to try to control the tempo a little bit and they're very good on the offensive glass.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The top two teams in each of the five-country groups move on to the quarter-finals.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Canada is gunning for its first Olympic appearance since the 2.000 Sydney Games.</div>

Canadá opens women's olympic basketball qualifier with victory

Canada's women's basketball team rode a strong defensive performance to an opening win at the FIBA Americas Championship. Kalisha K...

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Colombian Peso’s Decline Is ‘Healthy’ Shock Absorber, Uribe Says

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y8chA4HktLI/Tn9Wq4Pn-EI/AAAAAAAACNw/MNv9x-jhhN0/s1600/jose+dario+uribe+good+morning+colombia+news.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="128" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y8chA4HktLI/Tn9Wq4Pn-EI/AAAAAAAACNw/MNv9x-jhhN0/s200/jose+dario+uribe+good+morning+colombia+news.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia’s central bank Governor Jose Dario Uribe said the recent fall in the peso is “healthy” and won’t boost inflation in South America’s fourth largest economy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The effect of a weaker currency on consumer prices is “very, very low,” and will be more than offset by lower commodities prices, Uribe said in an interview in Washington DC, where he’s attending the semi-annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The behavior of the peso recently shows the advantages of having a flexible exchange rate,” Uribe said. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It has had a movement that’s healthy, that shows how the exchange rate can serve as a shock absorber.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The peso has fallen 7 percent against the U.S. dollar since the end of July, as investors dumped emerging market assets on signs the world recovery was faltering. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even after the decline the peso is one of only two Latin American currencies that have risen against the dollar this year, alongside Peru’s sol. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Brazilian real and the Mexican and Chilean pesos have all weakened more than 9 percent since the start of January.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The peso weakened 4 percent to 1903.94 per dollar this week.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Uribe said domestic demand remains “dynamic,” and the economy is “not very far” from the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment, or NAIRU, a term used by economists to mean the lowest level joblessness can reach before inflation starts to accelerate. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The labor market is particularly tight for skilled workers, he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Policy makers surprised analysts by keeping its benchmark interest rate unchanged for the first time in seven months in August, after world stock markets slumped. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The central bank kept the benchmark rate at 4.5 percent while it waits for more information about the likely effect of global financial turbulence on Colombia, Uribe said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Uribe raised the borrowing costs from from 3 percent in January as the economy grew 5.2 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, led by mining and oil. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chile, Mexico and Perú also held rates last month, while Brazil’s central bank surprised investors with a half point rate cut.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Annual inflation slowed to 3.27 percent in August, from 3.42 percent the previous month, as prices unexpectedly fell 0.03 percent from a month earlier. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The central bank targets inflation of 2 percent to 4 percent.</div>

Colombian Peso’s Decline Is ‘Healthy’ Shock Absorber, Uribe Says

Colombia’s central bank Governor Jose Dario Uribe said the recent fall in the peso is “healthy” and won’t boost inflation in South America’s...

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Suspended Bogotá mayor jailed on corruption charges

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fBJbktNhSt8/Tn9V7rk_u1I/AAAAAAAACNs/lS5zCU37TRU/s1600/samuel+moreno+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fBJbktNhSt8/Tn9V7rk_u1I/AAAAAAAACNs/lS5zCU37TRU/s200/samuel+moreno+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Suspended Bogotá Mayor Samuel Moreno, who is facing corruption charges, was jailed Friday, the latest high-profile Colombian official or former official to be imprisoned for alleged crimes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">On trial for allegedly accepting bribes from contractors in return for public works contracts, Moreno, 51, was deemed by the presiding judge to be a flight risk and remanded to the city’s high security La Picota prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Moreno, the grandson of Colombian army general and strongman Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, was three years into his term when he was suspended in May by the inspector general to face the charges. President Juan Manuel Santos named Clara Lopez to serve out Moreno’s term ending Dec. 31.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The charges revolve around a multimillion-dollar contract to Grupo Nule for a new road from central Bogota to El Dorado International Airport, one of the most important public works projects in the country. the project has suffered extensive delays and cost overruns.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In court Monday, Moreno refused to plead guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence, saying he had no involvement in the alleged scheme. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">His brother Ivan, a Colombian senator, also facing charges in the case, was previously jailed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a separate case, Jorge Noguera, the former director of Colombia’s top investigative and spy agency DAS under President Alvaro Uribe, this month was sentenced to 25 years in jail for collaborating with paramilitary death squads. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Information he fed to militias allegedly resulted in several deaths.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In July, former Uribe agriculture minister Andres Felipe Arias was ordered to jail. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">He faces charges he funneled illegal farm subsidies in exchange for promises from recipients to support his presidential campaign.</div>

Suspended Bogotá mayor jailed on corruption charges

Suspended Bogotá Mayor Samuel Moreno, who is facing corruption charges, was jailed Friday, the latest high-profile Colombian official or for...

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Colombia Won’t Sell More Bonds Overseas in 2.011, Echeverry Says

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XW8kZ_sPR5s/Tn9TWlu8bbI/AAAAAAAACNo/sBxkdIQ-bOY/s1600/juan+carlos+echeverry+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XW8kZ_sPR5s/Tn9TWlu8bbI/AAAAAAAACNo/sBxkdIQ-bOY/s200/juan+carlos+echeverry+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia will abandon plans to sell $240 million in international bonds this year as global financial turmoil raises the risk of borrowing abroad, Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia planned to raise the additional amount after selling $2 billion of 10-year dollar bonds overseas in July and has said that it could issue Samurai bonds in Asia in the second half of the year. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Under its 2.011 financing plan, Colombia planned to raise $2.24 billion in debt sales abroad.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We don’t like wild waters,” Echeverry said in an interview in Washington, where he’s attending the meetings of the International Monetary Fund. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We were lucky and very successful when we placed $2 billion in a 10-year bond and we don’t need more financing, so why tackle the markets now?”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The worsening European debt crisis and threat of a U.S. recession have erased about $12 trillion from global equities since the beginning of May. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Central banks around the world have slashed interest rates to record lows and embarked on bond purchase programs, trying to kick-start the economy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia’s sale of the dollar bonds in July was the nation’s first international debt sale since winning an investment-grade rating in March. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The country sold the 4.375 percent bonds due 2021 to yield 130 basis points, or 1.3 percentage points, more than similar-maturity U.S. Treasuries. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since Aug. 31, the yield on the bonds has risen 43 basis points to 4.127 percent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">‘Happy’ With Peso</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Echeverry, echoing the comments in Washington of central bank Governor Jose Dario Uribe, said he’s “happy” with the current exchange rate after the peso declined against the U.S. dollar since the end of July.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Right now, the current level, I am happy with that,” Echeverry said. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Something around 1900 is ok.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The peso weakened 4 percent to 1903.94 per dollar this week as investors dumped emerging market assets on signs the world recovery was faltering. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even after the recent decline the peso remains the only major currency in Latin America except Peru’s sol to have gained ground on the greenback this year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Echeverry said the past strengthening of the peso was a result of loose U.S. monetary policy that is “unsustainable.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Finance Minister said he is sticking by his forecast for Colombia to grow 5 percent next year, and will focus on maintaining confidence in South America’s fourth-biggest economy so that credit can continue to flow.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Colombian fundamentals are very solid,” he said. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The critical issue is to try to tackle especially bankers’ expectations, because their provision of credit will determine what happens next year.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">While the fallout from the European debt crisis could affect growth in emerging markets, Echeverry has borrowed for his presentations to investors an image from the 2.000 movie “The Gladiator,” starring Russell Crowe, to emphasize his nation’s preparedness for the worst.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We don’t know what could come out of the Greek and Euro gate dragons or lions or whatever,” Echeverry said. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We will survive if we are together.”</div>

Colombia Won’t Sell More Bonds Overseas in 2.011, Echeverry Says

Colombia will abandon plans to sell $240 million in international bonds this year as global financial turmoil raises the risk of borrowing a...

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Collaboration between Colombia and Holland boosts Fairtrade bananas

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M2KFUHhcMMQ/TnesxxPg6YI/AAAAAAAACNc/mwepoleNnTk/s1600/fairtrade+bananas+good+morning+colombia+news.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="105" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M2KFUHhcMMQ/TnesxxPg6YI/AAAAAAAACNc/mwepoleNnTk/s200/fairtrade+bananas+good+morning+colombia+news.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Max Havelaar Foundation, Fyffes, Uniban, Augura and the ministry of foreign affairs have started a public private collaboration to increase the offer of Fairtrade bananas in Holland and therefore realise a preservation of the banana production in Colombia. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Due to the successful cross over from the Dutch supermarket chains Plus, Spar and Attent to 100% Fairtrade bananas, the Dutch and Colombian representatives from the chain have decided to invest in a public private collaboration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week the Max Havelaar Foundation, Fyffes, Uniban, Augura and the ministry of foreign affairs signed the contract during an expert meeting about sustainable trade relationships between Holland and Colombia. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The goal of the collaboration is the improvement of the living conditions of small Colombian producers. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"By investing in the banana sector, for instance in the area of sustainably water usage, raises Colobian farmers production, and with it their income", according to Peter d'Angremond, director of the Max Havelaar Foundation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the beginning of 2010 supermarket chain Plus switched to 100% percent Fairtrade bananas. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Spar and Attent followed this year which means hundreds of farmers and their families receive a fair price for their bananas. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The choice of the Dutch supermarkets for Fairtrade bananas also helps the stability and peace in Colombia. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Especially the banana regions Uraba and Magdalena suffered from the violent conflict that has been terrorizing Colombia for decades. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a result of the violence over 2000 homeless and hundreds of guerilla fighters sought refuge in this area. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The way in which the Colombian producers organisation Augura involved the refugees and the former fighters in the banana sector, was rewarded in 2.009 with the peace pride for trade. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2010 the initiative received the National Export Prize for the successful business model. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Due to the collaboration between Colombian and Dutch representatives in the chain and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs more farmers will be reached, which means they can invest in a better future. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The farmers are organised in Fairtrade certified co-operations and receive a fair price. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the same time they have to fulfil strict environment rules. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Besides this $1, is paid in development premium to the co-operations and plantations for every box of bananas. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is used for, for instance a better infrastructure and production techniques, education and health care. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thanks to the commitment of the Dutch companies such as Plus and banana importer Fyffes, banana farmers have access to the Dutch market.</div>

Collaboration between Colombia and Holland boosts Fairtrade bananas

The Max Havelaar Foundation, Fyffes, Uniban, Augura and the ministry of foreign affairs have started a public private collaboration to incre...

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Emmy Awards : Sofia Vergara Dazzles in Jaw-Dropping Vera Wang Gown

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hb_nVhSBKQI/Tneq3gkQIDI/AAAAAAAACNU/y1bsiOHVSXU/s1600/sofia+vergara+emmy+awards+2.011+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hb_nVhSBKQI/Tneq3gkQIDI/AAAAAAAACNU/y1bsiOHVSXU/s200/sofia+vergara+emmy+awards+2.011+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="148" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sofía Vergara knows how to get a crowd talking about her good looks and Sunday night was no exception as she took the Emmy Awards by storm in a Vera Wang fire red gown certainly aimed to drop jaws.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The “Modern Family” actress praised her native Colombia for the whopping earrings and accessories she sported along with her figure flattering ensemble.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Everything that comes from Colombia is huge," Entertainment outlet Zap 2 It quoted the star saying on the red carpet prior to the telecast.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although Vergara lost to fellow “Modern Family” cast mate Julie Bowen  who plays Claire Dunphy, in the “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series” category, the bombshell’s show “Modern Family” did take home an Emmy for “Outstanding Comedy Series” and a slew of other awards.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Vergara wasn’t afraid to poke fun at herself and spark up some laughs while presenting with actor Rob Lowe the award for “Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy” to Melissa McCarthy from Mike & Molly.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Aww ‘I love Lucy’” I never understood what she was saying her accent was very thick,” Vergara said with her Colombian accent in reference to Lowe’s  comment about Lucille Ball as the audience chuckled.</div>

Emmy Awards : Sofia Vergara Dazzles in Jaw-Dropping Vera Wang Gown

Sofía Vergara knows how to get a crowd talking about her good looks and Sunday night was no exception as she took the Emmy Awards by storm i...

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Colombia's Sura Reiterates Intention To Keep ING Mexico Assets

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RzuxjGpeGQ0/TneosUEdKeI/AAAAAAAACNM/94XPkAJvlFA/s1600/grupo+sura+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="66" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RzuxjGpeGQ0/TneosUEdKeI/AAAAAAAACNM/94XPkAJvlFA/s200/grupo+sura+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia's Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana SA (GIVSY, GRUPOSURA.BO), or Sura, said Monday it has no intention of flipping ING Groep NV's (ING, INGA.AE) Mexican assets, which the Colombian group is in the process of acquiring as part of a broader deal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Our business strategy is focused on regional strength," Sura Chief Executive David Bojanini said in a statement. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"As such, we are certain that ING Mexico is fundamental to our conversion into a Latin American leader in pensions."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sura agreed in July to purchase ING's Latin American pension portfolio for $3.7 billion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ING operations in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay generated EUR192 million in net income last year on approximately EUR670 million in revenue, according to ING.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">As of July, the businesses together served 10 million clients with assets under management of EUR49 billion.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In specific, Sura denied reports that it might sell the Mexican business to Mexican pension operator Profuturo GNP, saying that Sura intends to hold on to all the pension assets lumped into the ING deal as they each "fit perfectly" into Sura's business strategy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sura said its deal with ING still requires regulatory approval in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.</div>

Colombia's Sura Reiterates Intention To Keep ING Mexico Assets

Colombia's Grupo de Inversiones Suramericana SA (GIVSY, GRUPOSURA.BO), or Sura, said Monday it has no intention of flipping ING Groep NV...

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Samuel Moreno charged with corruption

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U9wVKLJu5vo/Tnen6rH-V6I/AAAAAAAACNI/vyWUNA2h72s/s1600/samuel+moreno+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U9wVKLJu5vo/Tnen6rH-V6I/AAAAAAAACNI/vyWUNA2h72s/s200/samuel+moreno+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ex Bogotá mayor charged with corruption in awarding of construction contracts</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bogota’s suspended mayor has been charged with seeking payoffs in exchange for awarding major construction contracts in the Colombian capital.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Samuel Moreno was charged monday with crimes including embezzlement and extortion in the awarding of public contracts. If convicted, the 51 year old could be sentenced to at least six years in prison.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prosecutors say several contractors won major projects after backing Moreno’s 2.007 mayoral bid and the congressional campaign of Moreno’s brother Iván.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Three jailed businessmen say they made payoffs to Iván Moreno in exchange for projects including a still unfinished highway (calle 26) linking Bogota’s airport with its downtown.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Samuel and Iván Moreno say they are innocent.</div>

Samuel Moreno charged with corruption

Ex Bogotá mayor charged with corruption in awarding of construction contracts Bogota’s suspended mayor has been charged with seeking payoff...

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Colombian Stock Movers : Inversiones Argos, Empresa de Energia

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hEDtFrgIZLI/TnYvCzX0B-I/AAAAAAAACNA/_y_agdJT80c/s1600/inversiones+argos+s.a.+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hEDtFrgIZLI/TnYvCzX0B-I/AAAAAAAACNA/_y_agdJT80c/s200/inversiones+argos+s.a.+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The following companies had unusual price changes in Bogota trading. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of 4 p.m. New York time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The IGBC Index rose 1.5 percent to 13,884.17, while the Colcap Index gained 1.5 percent to 1,684.37.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inversiones Argos SA (INVARGOS) , the owner of Colombia’s biggest cement company, rose 1.8 percent to 18,400 pesos, the highest since Aug. 3. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The company was rated “buy” with a 2.012 year-end target price of 26,000 pesos as Interbolsa SA reinitiated coverage of the stock.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Inversiones Argos’s increased participation in companies including Cia. Colombiana de Inversiones SA (COLINV CB), a Colombian electricity holding company, has made Argos “very appealing” for investors seeking exposure to Colombia, according to an e-mailed report by Interbolsa analysts including Jorge Zuniga.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cementos Argos SA (CEMARGOS) , Colombia’s biggest cement maker, rose 1.1 percent to 11,320 pesos. Colombia granted building permits for 1.8 million square meters of construction in July, a 23.5 percent increase from a year ago, according to the website of the country’s national statistics agency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Empresa de Energia de Bogota SA (EEB) , Colombia’s second-biggest electricity distributor, rose 2.9 percent to 1,420 pesos, a one-month high. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia’s ministry of environment, housing and development lifted preventive measures which had suspended development of the Quimbo hydroelectric project by a subsidiary of EEB, according to a regulatory filing yesterday.</div>

Colombian Stock Movers : Inversiones Argos, Empresa de Energia

The following companies had unusual price changes in Bogota trading.  Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of 4 p.m. New York...

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Giant Ancient Crocodile Uncovered in Colombia

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yFTYh8Nap4M/TnYuHTLs9vI/AAAAAAAACM8/I_twG3shcKY/s1600/Giant+Ancient+Crocodile+Uncovered+in+Colombia+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="93" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yFTYh8Nap4M/TnYuHTLs9vI/AAAAAAAACM8/I_twG3shcKY/s200/Giant+Ancient+Crocodile+Uncovered+in+Colombia+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A new fossil crocodile species has turned up in the same Colombian coal mine as the world’s largest known snake. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sixty million years ago, the 20-foot freshwater crocodile shared the rivers of South America’s forests with the Titanoboa, a snake that could grow over 40 feet long, also extinct.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The crocodile described in Palaeontology Sept. 15, has a long, narrow snout full of sharp teeth. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Paleontologists believe it hunted lungfish and bonefish relatives, making Acherontisuchus guajiraensis the first tropical New World land animal specialized to eat fish, both a competitor to the giant boa and possibly its prey.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Alex Hastings displaying a Acherontisuchus guajiraensis pelvic bone. Image: Kristen Grace/Florida Museum of Natural History.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The younger individuals were definitely not safe from Titanoboa, but the biggest of these species would have been a bit much for the 42-foot snake to handle,” author Alex Hastings, from the Florida Museum of Natural History, said in a press release Sept. 15.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The fossils uncovered in the Cerrejón coal mine reveal a time when Paleocene reptiles dominated the South American environment. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The giant snakes, turtles and crocodiles lived in a warmer climate than today. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">A. guajiraensis is from a crocodile group, the dyrosaurids, that survived some ecological catastrophes, and went extinct in others.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The same thing that snuffed out the dinosaurs killed off most of the crocodiles alive at the time,” Hastings said in a press release. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The dyrosaurids are one of the few groups to survive the extinction and later become more successful.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Studying how these reptiles, whose genus name stems from the Greek mythological “river of woe,” responded to geological and climactic changes may help predict how modern reptiles will fare on a warming planet.</div>

Giant Ancient Crocodile Uncovered in Colombia

A new fossil crocodile species has turned up in the same Colombian coal mine as the world’s largest known snake.  Sixty million years ago, ...

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Colombian leader pulls at Koreans' heartstrings

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h-ojoAXilSI/TnYtLnOgOOI/AAAAAAAACM4/ldSmtNM_46c/s1600/juan+manuel+santos+in+korea+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h-ojoAXilSI/TnYtLnOgOOI/AAAAAAAACM4/ldSmtNM_46c/s200/juan+manuel+santos+in+korea+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The leader of Colombia left Seoul Friday, after wrapping up a three-day state visit to South Korea.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the heartfelt speech delivered by President Juan Manuel Santos Calderon at a dinner Thursday with President Lee Myung-bak and dozens of high-ranking officials of the two countries at Cheong Wa Dae continues to resonate with Koreans even after his departure. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santos said Colombia’ s decision to send troops to fight for democracy and freedom in South Korea when the nation was in a bloody civil war six decades ago was the right thing to do.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Colombia is the only Latin American country that responded positively to the United Nations’ call to join the coalition forces to defend freedom and democracy in South Korea,” said Santos in the speech.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“If we Colombians are called upon to fulfill the same mission again in the future for the sake of peace and democracy, we will be here without any hesitation. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">We will be here without a second thought. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">We are willing to be here thousands of times, if that is what it takes to save democracy and freedom in this country.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Colombian leader’s speech touched the audience. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lee started clapping, soon followed by the rest of those at the dinner. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the Korean War (1950-53), approximately 5,000 Colombian soldiers put their lives on the line fighting against the communist enemy. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of them, 214 lost their lives and 450 were severely wounded. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thirty Colombian soldiers were made as prisoners of war.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The bloody conflict left nearly 2.5 million people dead. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Santos said he felt that their sacrifice has paid off as South Korea has become a modern, free and developed country six decades after the war. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the first day of his Seoul trip, Santos visited the heavily fortified inter-Korean border and the War Memorial in Seoul. These trips appeared to inspire him to give such a touching speech. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Over the past six decades, there has been a dramatic twist in the global standing of Korea, which was one of the world’s poorest nations in the wake of the Korean War.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Its per capita gross domestic product has topped $20,000. Democracy is full-blown. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Korean singers, actors and actresses are popular in Asia and Europe, making the Korean wave or “hallyu” felt around the world.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">South Korea joined the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee in 2009, becoming a donor country. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Before South Korea, no Third World country had ever pulled off such stunning economic, political and cultural accomplishments in such a short span of time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Behind this accomplishment were friends, including Colombia, who gave a helping hand at the expense of their people when the nation was in peril. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Earlier, South Korea’s aid agency vowed to prioritize three nations that dispatched troops to the country during the Korean War but are now facing challenges, and provide development assistance. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">They are Colombia, the Philippines, and Ethiopia</div>

Colombian leader pulls at Koreans' heartstrings

The leader of Colombia left Seoul Friday, after wrapping up a three-day state visit to South Korea. But the heartfelt speech delivered by P...

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Venezuelan oilmen behind Colombia's oil boom

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gT0knIye5J4/TnYsiLyzREI/AAAAAAAACM0/xyDbhGKjQFk/s1600/Venezuelan+oilmen+behind+Colombia%2527s+oil+boom+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gT0knIye5J4/TnYsiLyzREI/AAAAAAAACM0/xyDbhGKjQFk/s200/Venezuelan+oilmen+behind+Colombia%2527s+oil+boom+good+morning+colombia+news.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Puerto Gaitán, Colombia</b> -- "I don't have any problems firing everyone I need to fire," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez thundered in 2.002 as he began purging state oil company executives who had mounted protests against him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Months later, nearly 20,000 oil workers, from petroleum engineers to geologists and managers, had been fired. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">But with the company under the president's tight control, production has swiftly fallen and Venezuela has slipped from the world's fifth-largest oil exporter to the 11th.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The oilmen who were banished have taken their experience drilling for Venezuela's tarlike oil to countries as varied as Iraq, Nigeria and Canada. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the presence of Venezuelan petro-scientists has been most vital in Colombia, where they have helped oil companies sharply increase the production of crude, much of which is exported to the United States.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Chavez has been a huge help for the petroleum industry in Colombia," said Humberto Calderon, a former Venezuelan mining minister who now runs Vetra Energy in southern Colombia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia is now on the verge of achieving what just a few years ago was unthinkable -- pumping 1 million barrels of oil a day, up from 540,000 barrels daily in 2.005. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This is practically doubling production during the last four or five years," said Javier Gutierrez, president of Colombia's state oil company, Ecopetrol. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's a spectacular development."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The new El Dorado is here in Colombia's stark eastern plains, a wild land known for its horsemen and harp-based folkloric ballads.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Across 700 square miles, Pacific Rubiales Energy, which is listed on the Toronto stock exchange, jacked up production from 14,000 barrels a day as recently as 2007 to 224,000 last week. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although 12,000 Colombians work here, the company's top directors and those overseeing exploration and production cut their teeth at the Venezuelan state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, known worldwide as Pdvsa.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The top management of Pdvsa is now the top management of Pacific Rubiales," said Ronald Pantin, chief executive and founder of the company and a former high executive at Pdvsa.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"All the people we brought from Venezuela have more than 25 years of experience, so people with a huge knowledge of all this geology."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">That experienced oilmen are now considering Colombia as a destination is a testament to a new reality on the ground in this once-chaotic country and what oil analysts call Venezuela's mismanagement of its oil sector.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Once terrorized by leftist rebel groups that often bombed oil pipelines, much of rural Colombia has been pacified after a long army offensive supported by U.S. aid. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Colombia's previous government, led by President Alvaro Uribe, also introduced financial incentives that lured scores of oil companies, said Ramon Espinasa, senior oil and gas specialist at the Inter American Development Bank.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ecopetrol's Gutierrez said 65 percent of the basins that may hold oil have now been awarded to oil companies; eight years ago 13 percent of the potential oil fields were being developed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Venezuela, meanwhile, Chavez has entrusted Pdvsa with not only producing oil but also overseeing the importation of food and the construction of housing. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The workforce ballooned from 40,000 before the mass firings in 2003 to an estimated 100,000, and those workers have been publicly pressured by Pdvsa's president, Rafael Ramirez, to embrace Chavez's socialist ideology or lose their jobs.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Production declined from 3.4 million barrels daily in 1998, the year Chavez was elected, to less than 2.4 million a day in 2.010, according to the U.S. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Energy Information Administration and independent oil analysts. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Exports have fallen from 2.2 million in 1998 to less than 1.3 million in 2009, most of which is shipped to the United States. Countries including Mexico, Canada, Kuwait, Iraq and Kazakhstan have overtaken Venezuela and become more important exporters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In cables written out of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas and released by WikiLeaks, diplomats reported how Venezuelan oil officials manipulated the price of their country's petroleum products, failed to invest in oil production and owed billions of dollars to foreign oil service companies. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among the sources for cables in 2.009 and 2.010 was an unnamed Pdvsa executive with access to detailed financial information.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It is hard to envision a scenario where Venezuela maintains or increases crude oil production in 2.010," said a memo written early that year.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Among those who had sharply criticized Chavez and are now in Colombia is Calderon, who had led Pdvsa and been president of OPEC. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2.002, when oil workers rose up to try to oust Chavez, Calderon gave a speech in Caracas in which he said that "this can only end with the president resigning."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"This is about him or us," Calderon said at the time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In an interview in his Bogota office, Calderon recalled how after Chavez put down the protests, a small group of former Pdvsa workers met regularly at a Caracas hotel and came up with the idea of starting a company, Vetra Energy. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We thought, 'Where could we go?' There had to be oil, had to be a country that needed our services, a country where Chavez couldn't affect us," Calderon said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">With their links to the oil industry and investors, Calderon and his associates were able to raise enough capital to begin operations in Colombia. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Colombia has thousands of square kilometers of basins that have not been explored," he said. "So we said, 'There's great potential. We have to go there.' "</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The most successful player, though, has been Pacific Rubiales. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The company took a region that had failed to live up to its potential after an Exxon affiliate discovered oil in 1.981.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pantin said he and his associates knew the underground formations were similar to those in Venezuela. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"When we came from Venezuela, we were looking for the continuation of the Orinoco oil belt," said Pantin, referring to the rich oil swath in the center of Venezuela.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Venezuelans introduced technology used in their country but uncommon here in Colombia's Meta state, such as the use of horizontal wells, which scoop up more oil. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pacific Rubiales is hoping to introduce a system to heat the heavy oil that is underground, improving recovery from 15 percent of the reserves to 50 percent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It will be 2.1 billion barrels in only one field," said Pantin, who like other executives at the company received Colombian citizenship from the Uribe administration, which frequently clashed with Chavez. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"That is more than the rest of the reserves in Colombia, so it is huge."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a visit to Rubiales, a vast field the company operates here with Ecopetrol, roughnecks manned 12 drilling platforms and oversaw 340 production wells. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Construction crews were busy building storage tanks that could each hold as much as 100,000 barrels. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Facilities included an airport, housing for workers and a church.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">German Hernandez, a Colombian who oversees operations, is among those who have been working here for a decade.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We were fewer than 20 people, practically living in tents with mosquito netting," he said, recalling operations a few years ago. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Today we are the number one project in the petroleum industry in Colombia."</div>

Venezuelan oilmen behind Colombia's oil boom

Puerto Gaitán, Colombia -- "I don't have any problems firing everyone I need to fire," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez thund...

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