Heists in Buenos Aires restaurants may have their days numbered. In the face of increasing armed robberies over the last weeks, more than half a thousand police officers are now patrolling local eateries with a view to protect both owners and patrons.

The wave of holdups now sweeping restaurants in the Argentine capital is certainly pushing the panic button among businesspeople and their clientele, so loud that the Buenos Aires Police Department has decided to beef up security around those establishments.

The Panamanian government has just announced a project to enhance the Tocumen International Airport as part of the strategy to give local tourism a new lease on life, the Panamanian President’s Office informed.

Government and Justice Minister Arnulfo Escalona presented the $59-million investment package in a ceremony attended by Panama’s President Mireya Moscoso.

The total enhancement area –according to project planners- comprises 14,785 square meters.

The Cuban Cira García Central Clinic, which specializes in health tourism, has benefited from the installation of a modern Nuclear Magnetic Resonance set, which enhances the facility’s capacity to meet the growing demand from patients, and has complemented its diagnostic systems.

Considered by experts a major achievement for the clinic, the state-of-the-art piece of equipment will complement other services, including 3D ultrasound tests with dynamic Doppler studies, Computerized Axial Tomography, and Mammography.

Members of the Council of Ministers of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) agreed in Panama to release air transportation in the region and appointed Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Franklin Delano to preside over the institution.

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO)´s communications officer, Johnson JohnRose successfully conducted a two-day media-training workshop in St. Lucia on behalf of the St. Lucia Tourist Board (SLTB) and the St. Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association (SLHTA). The programme covered basics of reporting, reporting styles and the dos and don´ts of tourism and business reporting.

Nearly 700 mom-and-pop travel agencies in Ecuador were bound to shut down in the wake of new visa requirements levied by the European Commission on the country’s nationals. Erick Rugel, president of the Ecuadorian Travel Agencies Association, informed the new measure took its heaviest toll (350 small businesses in all) on the province of Pichincha that comprises the nation’s capital (Quito).