Chilean President Sebastián Piñera signed an anti-discrimination bill yesterday after months of pressure from the public following the vicious killing of a young gay man.

Chile is one of the last Latin American countries to sign the hate-crime bill, which will impose harsher sentences and larger fines.

The law was approved in May after being stuck in Congress for seven years. Piñera urged lawmakers to speed its approval, after the slaying of Daniel Zamudio in March.

Zamudio was found beaten and mutilated in a Santiago park. His attackers, reportedly a group of alleged neo-Nazis, beat him for an hour, burned him with cigarettes and carved swastikas into his skin.

He died of his injuries bedridden in a public hospital 20 days later. Four suspects were taken into custody and prosecutors are seeking murder charges.

After his death The UN human rights office urged Chile to pass legislation against hate crimes and discrimination.

However, Chile remains deeply rooted in religion and continues to be heavily influenced by the Roman Catholic Church who opposed the bill because they consider homosexuality a sin.

Chile is one of the most socially conservative countries in Latin America, only just legalizing divorce in 2004.

The law met resistance from not only Roman Catholic but also Protestant churches who claim it could be a step towards gay marriage, which Chile forbids.

Gay and human rights activists on the other hand hail the measure as a step towards equality.

“Zamudio died at the hands of hate, ignorance, and prejudice,” said Piñera in a press conference yesterday, “Together we need to construct a society more tolerant, more inclusive, and with more respect between it’s people.”

Debate continues with another marathon day of meetings in the Chamber of Deputies over the nationalisation of YPF. The bill will provide for the recovery of state control of YPF and is slated to be signed into law tonight, settling the contentious issue.

The session, which began yesterday at 3.30 pm and closed at midnight, resumed this morning at 10 am.

Before coming to vote, members of the Chamber of Deputies will listen to speeches from 10 am to 6 pm. The bill has already been endorsed by the Senate where the measure secured 63 votes in favour, 3 against and 4 abstentions.

Out of the 257 members of the House, the bill is predicted to raise between 210 and 215 votes.

Consensus is not unanimous on the issue. Radical deputy Hipólito Faustinelli said this morning that the official project to expropriate the shares is “unconstitutional” and predicted he will retire from the room at the time of the vote.

According to preliminary assessments carried out by different parties, the negative votes are to be between 34 and 38, abstentions at 4 to 6, and absences from 4 to 10.

Should the bill be passed, it will allow for the expropriation of 51% of the shares of YPF by the state, granting the Argentine government a majority share of the company.

Despite the apparent finality of the vote, debate may continue with disputes over share price in the take-over of Repsol’s stake. Spanish Foreign Minister, Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo is urging Argentina to pay a ‘fair price’ for their actions.

The congress is currently debating two bills regarding decriminalising abortion totally or partially.

The first bill will grant women the right to abort during the first 12 weeks. If the pregnancy is a result of a rape or it puts the woman’s life at risk, there may be the possibility to abort at anytime before the baby is born.

The partial decriminalisation, however, defends that abortion should be legal only when it endangers the mother’s life or if it is a consequence of rape, although when concerning sexual abuse it is necessary to have judicial approval.

Some congressmen defend that none of the pro-abortion bills should be passed.

The debate will take into account today’s abortion practices in Argentina and its health risks, particularly to women with few financial resources.

A new ‘Law for Regulation and Control of Market Power’ was created to regulate markets and economic concentration in Ecuador. The law intends, amongst other things, to create a regulatory board and a superintendent to control prices and competition.

The new law will settle on reference prices for food products and new public policies will be created to preserve the sovereignty of small and medium sized food companies. The minister of coordination of the economic policy, Katiuska King, stated that “there is a high concentration of economic activity in a very few large enterprises”. Adding that according to the 2010 Census there is a need to accelerate the process of production of Ecuadorian industry.

The bill is controversial because it will create an insecure environment for investment and business. The law also forbids financial institutions and broadcasting companies’ shareholders, partners and directors to have investments outside their area of work.

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a bill Friday that will gives ownership over an area of the Amazon larger than France to private farmers.

President Silva vetoed parts of the bill that would have given companies land claim rights over areas of the rainforest previously owed by indigenous people, rubber trappers and traditional forest dwellers. The vetoed articles were added by the informal congressional block bancada ruralista,  which protects the interests of large land owners.  

The government will hand the 166 million acre swath over to people who can show that they’ve been occupying the land since 2004. They will be required to produce good faith affidavits to make their claims. Plots less than 990 acres will not require a government audit, a fact which environmentalists sat could lead to abuse and land grabs.

Much of the land is currently lived on by the poor peasants who were encouraged to settle it during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship. It is estimated that only about 15% land owners have legal titles, the rest have faked documents or none at all. The government says the new legislation will help curb deforestation by making it easier to manage land and decreasing illegal land deals.

The smallest plots, those under 100 acres, will be handed out for free, while medium sized ones will be sold for a symbolic price, and the largest, those up to nearly 4000 acres, will be sold at market value. These buyers will be given up to 20 years to complete payment. Environmentalists take issue with parts of the bill that allow companies to resell the land after three years, rather than ten, saying that this could cause increased land speculation.

The Amazon, which is the largest rainforest on the planet, currently loses to deforestation an area the size of Belgium every year. Farmers and loggers act in tandem, with loggers harvesting wood, and farmers largely replacing it with grass for cattle feed. As native grasses, which are unpalatable to cows, take over, farmers move on and begin the cycle anew.

On Friday, 19 June, the Brazilian government announced its “Green Arch” program, which will pay farmers up to $193 (USD$51) to replant deforested land.