The week in Latin America: Unrest continues in Chile

Here are stories that made headlines this week in Latin America, and highlights from our coverage of the region by Times reporters and your blogger here at La Plaza:

1 dead in Chile national strike

A two-day national strike in Chile led to hundreds of injuries, more than a thousand arrests and the death of a teenage boy after violent clashes between workers and students and Chilean police. The strike was the latest large-scale demonstration challenging the conservative government of President Sebastian Pinera, Chile's first non-leftist leader since the return to democracy.

U.K. Economic Expansion Slowed to 0.2% in Second Quarter

Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. economic growth slowed in the second quarter as manufacturing shrank, adding pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to do more to boost the economy.

Gross domestic product rose 0.2 percent, the same as estimated a month ago, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 30 economists was for 0.2 percent growth. Output rose 0.7 percent from a year earlier.

LatAm, Asia leaders to boost cooperation

Leaders at a gathering of nations from Latin America and Asia, including Australia, has called for closer economic cooperation to help combat the global financial crisis.

Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman kicked off Thursday's gathering by underlining 'the need for concrete actions to strengthen biregional political and economic ties'.

Making the desert bloom

The Mexican economy has recovered somewhat from a scorching recession imported from America, but is still hobbled by domestic monopolies and cartels.

HOT and high in the Sierra Madre, the city of Saltillo is a long way from Wall Street. Stuffed goats keep an eye on customers in the high-street vaquera, or cowboy outfitter, where workers from the local car factories blow their pesos on snakeskin boots and $100 Stetsons. Pinstriped suits and silk ties are outnumbered by checked shirts and silver belt-buckles; pickups are prized over Porsches.

New Report Touts Latin American Commercial Property Markets

A new report published by CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) has identified Latin America as a fast-emerging market for commercial real estate (CRE) investors and corporate occupiers.

According to "The Outlook for Latin America's Commercial Real Estate Markets," Latin America's CRE market conditions are mostly strong - Mexico is the main exception. Healthy consumer spending and commodity-driven economic growth is fueling the region's retail centers and housing markets and driving demand for office and industrial space, the report says, while net absorption of commercial space in Latin America is expected to enjoy the support of multinational firms and domestic sources.

Making the desert bloom

The Mexican economy has recovered somewhat from a scorching recession imported from America, but is still hobbled by domestic monopolies and cartels

HOT and high in the Sierra Madre, the city of Saltillo is a long way from Wall Street. Stuffed goats keep an eye on customers in the high-street vaquera, or cowboy outfitter, where workers from the local car factories blow their pesos on snakeskin boots and $100 Stetsons. Pinstriped suits and silk ties are outnumbered by checked shirts and silver belt-buckles; pickups are prized over Porsches.

LatAm currencies mixed before Bernanke speech

Aug 25 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies traded mixed against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, with the Mexican peso gaining and Brazil's real weakening, on the day before a planned address by the head of the U.S. central bank.

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, is scheduled to give an address to the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Friday at an annual gathering of world economists and central bankers in the Rocky Mountains.