Due to a severe lack of gasoline in Argentina, the country has been forced to import fuel for the first time in three decades. Yesterday, YPF, the former state owned company now owned by Spanish company Repsol, announced that next week it will import the equivalent to 20% of their monthly production.

Yesterday the Superior Court of Chubut unanimously endorsed the request for a 15-year-old victim of rape from Comodoro Rivadavia to terminate her pregnancy. The ruling reversed the decision of Appellate Court that refused the request in February. Symbolically, yesterday was International Women’s Day.

Today Argentina celebrated winning an Oscar for best foreign language film with “El Secreto de Sus Ojos”. This is the first time that Argentina has won an Oscar in 25 years. The film beat entries from Peru, Israel, Germany and France and is based on a novel by Eduardo Sacheri.

President Cristina Kirchner has suffered the double blow of losing control of the Argentine Senate and also having her nomination for head of the central bank, Mercedes Marco del Pont, rejected. Kirchner lost control of the House of Deputies a few weeks ago, so the opposition now controls both houses of government.

Today the first gay marriage took place in Buenos Aires. Damian Bernath and Jorge Salazar were married at 10am in a civil registry along with close friends and family. There were several appeals against the marriage, but they failed to stop the ceremony.

Yesterday the Argentine Congress began its new session with an address to the Legislative Assembly by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Kirchner arrived just before 11am along with her husband, the former president Néstor Kirchner. She began her address by expressing her solidarity with the people of Chile following the devastating earthquake at the weekend and said that Argentina is sending aid. The president then announced that she was repealing the Bicentennial Fund.

Former Navy lieutenant Roberto Guillermo Bravo was arrested last Thursday in Miami for his involvement in the massacre of 16 political prisoners in Rawson prison, Trelew. Bravo, a citizen of the United States since 1977, is facing extradition to Argentina to face charges for the murders that took place on 22 August 1972 at the Almirance Zar Naval Base, Patagonia.

The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a human rights organisation dedicated to recovering the identities of individuals born to parents who were disappeared during the last military dictatorship, have reunited Francisco Madariaga Quintela with his father, Abel Pedro Madariaga, who had been looking for his son for the past 32 years.

On Monday the British company Desire Petroleum began drilling in its oil exploration project 100kms off the coast of the Falklands/Malvinas islands. The drilling has commenced amid high tensions between Argentina and Britain over the sovereignty of the islands and the surrounding territory, believed to potentially contain large oil and natural gas reserves. Last week Argentina issued new restrictions requiring that ships travelling between the mainland and the islands apply for prior authorization from the Argnetine government.

On Friday, for the second time in a week, Buenos Aires was subjected to torrential rains. An estimated 80 millimetres fell in less than three hours of the early evening, catching many citizens on their way home from work. The downfall crippled transit in the city and caused severe flash floods in many neighbourhoods, widespread power outages, traffic gridlocks, an interruption of service for all the underground lines, a 20 minute halt of flights at the international Airport, the disappearance of a child and two deaths.

The Argentine government has created new measures to impede ships travelling to and around the Falklands/Malvinas, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, which are all British-ruled. Yesterday President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner issued a decree stating that all ships must receive advance permission prior to travelling between the islands and Argentina, and those looking to cross Argentine territorial waters en route to the islands.

On Monday president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner fired back at critical media sources who she accused of defamation, misinforming the public and inventing news. The president was speaking in the Patagonia town of El Calafate, Santa Cruz province, at the inauguration of a major infrastructure project surrounding Glacier National Park. The president took the opportunity to respond to recent accusations of preferential treatment during the bidding process for the construction contract of a massive hydroelectric dam.

President Critstina Fernández de Kirchner and various influential agricultural groups have exchanged accusations of responsibility for the recent rise in the price of beef. The newspaper Pagina 12 reported that the price per kilogram of beef has risen 27.3% so far in February and 45% since the beginning of December. While the effects are being felt in concrete ways by consumers and vendors alike, explanations of the causes have been much more open to interpretation.

Former President Nestor Kirchner has been making a strong recovery since he underwent an emergency surgery for a cardiovascular condition on Sunday afternoon. Earlier today he was transferred from the intensive care unit to a general care room at the Sanatorio de los Arcos hospital in Buenos Aires. The latest medical report states that the former president’s move to general care is a positive development and that if his recovery continues to evolve in this way he could return home from hospital as early as tomorrow.

Meeting in Washington, the president of El Salvador, Mauricio Funes, and the US president, Barack Obama, have promised to create a “firm alliance” between the two countries. The leaders discussed increasing trade links and working together on security issues, such as combating drugs trafficking.

Talks led by President Leonel Fernández of the Dominican Republic, aimed at reducing aggression between Colombia and Venezuela, have not yet been successful. Fernández met with the Colombian president Álvaro Uribe last Friday to initiate talks aimed at easing relations between the two countries, which have been frozen since July 2007.

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton announced on Thursday that the United States would be restoring financial aid to Honduras, which was suspended after the former president Manuel Zalaya was toppled by a military coup on 28th June 2009. Under the program, Honduras is set to receive over $30m.

Just before midnight on Wednesday, the central zone of Chile suffered an aftershock registering 6.1 on the Richter scale, following Saturday’s devastating earthquake. This is the second time that the country has suffered tremors registering over 6 points on the Richter scale after the original quake on 27th February, which was recorded at 8.8.

Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez rejected a Spanish judge’s allegations that he collaborated with the Basque separatist organisation ETA and the Colombian guerrilla group FARC, saying that the accusations were “sad remnants” of Spanish colonialism.

After his inauguration on Monday as Uruguay’s 52nd president, José ‘Pepe’ Mujica has served his first full day as head of state. The 74-year-old ex-guerrilla leader took office yesterday in Montevideo, and the 13 members of his new cabinet were sworn in today. Mujica, the country’s second consecutive president from the left-wing party Frente Amplio, has promised to work towards integration and social progress.

An 8.8 magnitude earthquake has hit Chile killing at least 82 people. Buildings collapsed, two-level car parks were flattened and cars were smashed. The earthquake is the biggest to have hit Chile for 50 years. The epicentre of the earthquake was in Copquecura, 500 kilometres from Santiago de Chile.

Colombia’s Constitutional Court will vote today on whether to allow the current president, Álvaro Uribe, to run for a third term. In 2005 Uribe secured an amendment which allowed him to run for a second term in 2006. The judges are expected to make a decision at a press conference later today. The Colombian newspaper El Tiempo said today that they believe Uribe will publically respond to the outcome of the vote.

A Cuban political prisoner died yesterday after being on hunger strike for 85 days. In response, Amnesty International has urged Cuba to free all political prisoners. Orlando Zapata Tamayo was detained in 2003 in a crackdown against opposition groups in Cuba. He was originally sentenced to three years, but this was increased to 25 years after he was charged with disobedience in prison.

Latin American and Caribbean nations attending the Rio Summit in Cancun this week, have agreed to set up a new regional body without the United States and Canada. The new regional body will replace the Organisation of American States (OAS), that has been the main forum for issues concerning Latin American and the Caribbean for the past 50 years.

Today the president of Mexico, Felipe Calderón and his wife Margarita Zavala, welcomed Latin American heads of state and government to The Rio Group Summit, held in Cancun. Leaders started arriving in the Mexican city yesterday for the two day, biennial meeting, which this year has three major political issues on the agenda.

Yesterday President Felipe Calderón of Mexico visited Ciudad Juárez for the second time in less than a week. The president has staked his reputation on beating the drug cartels in Mexico and is facing increased public anger in Cuidad Juárez for failing to address the violence that pervades the city.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has arrived in Haiti, the first French president to visit the country. He was greeted at Port-au-Prince by the Haitian president, Rene Préval. Sarkozy said that France is cancelling the US$77 million debt owed by Haiti and pledged US$400 million to aid recovery from the earthquake that devastated the country over a month ago.

Rio de Janeiro’s youngest carnival queen broke down in tears yesterday 10 minutes into leading her samba group in a parade. Julia Lira has been a controversial figure at this year’s carnival, taking the role of carnival queen, which is normally reserved for models and actresses. Children’s rights activists claimed that it was inappropriate for a seven-year-old to hold such a sexualised position.