I’m sitting in the airport at Dallas/Fort Worth. I just had a nice introductory meal of enchilladas and Negro Modelo, owned by Grupo Modelo, partially owned by Anheuser-Busch, which has just been bought out by Inbev (ABI:Brussels).

For research purposes, of course.

But one of the first things on my list is a visit to a famous winery in the Santiago region. I’ve already booked a half-day tour, and expect to fall in love with the already internationally known Chilean red wines.

I have a red-eye flight from Dallas to Santiago, and I’ll be arriving at about 9:45 am local time. That’s when you’ll next hear from my. It’s supposed to be sunny and in the low eighties. I know, I know… try not to hate me too much.

Be on the lookout for a short video or two in the next couple days, and some stunning picture of sunny Santiago, financial heart of the Andes.

Until then, enjoy the night.

Members of APEC, Asian-Pacifice Economic Cooperation, ended their annual summits today in Lima, Peru. One of the main topics, besides the economic crisis, was free trade.

(By the way, APEC consists of member economies like China, Vietnam, the U.S., Canada, Russia, Peru, and Chile, among others.)

Free trade is a hot topic right now, with the dreaded “P” word floating about: protectionism. Protectionism is when governments restrict or restrain international trade. Most times the intent is to protect local markets from competition.

Like if the U.S. government says a tomato farmer in Mexico can no longer export his product to the States because its so much cheaper compared to an American farmer’s product.

The 21 leaders meeting in Lima have agreed to “avoid protectionist measures and keep trade free despite the economic climate,” reports the BBC. The members signed a final declaration backing free trade on Monday.

Free trade is only part of the equation, though, and governments have also agreed to support economic stimulus plans that will boost spending.

In fact, the APEC member governments are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on ways to stop the economic crisis, says the International Herald Tribune. Not all the cards are on the table, though, and there hasn’t been a clear-cut plan held up for the public’s eye. Not yet, anyway.

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Right now, copper spot prices are an anemic $1.65 per pound. That’s an amazing drop from above $4 back in June.

And yet, one Chilean copper mine is actually expanding.

The mine is called Dona Ines de Collahuasi. It’s Chile’s third largest copper mine and is located in an historical copper mining area. Back in 1880, a large, high-grade copper and silver vein was found. It’s one of the world’s largest copper resources.

Right now, the mine produces roughly 440,000 tons of copper a year.

But the mine has just approved a $64 million project that will increase annual output by 30,000 tons. And that’s just the first expansion.

At the end of the first quarter of 2009, a $750 million expansion plan will boost production to 650,000 tons a year. After that expansion is complete, the mine intends to increase production to a full one million tons of copper a year by 2014.

That’s an astounding move.

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Late October, Brazil and Argentina announced that their governments would buy up private assets in financial markets.

Brazil’s plan would allow its state-controlled banks (Banco do Brasil and Caixa Economica Federal) to buy stakes in private financial institutions. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced that the government would take over the $30 billion private pension fund.

These announcements pushed Latin American markets well into the red, but they also knocked Spain’s Ibex index off 184 points, or 2%.

That should come as no surprise. Spain and Latin America have many economic ties, and some Spanish companies do so much business across the pond that 29% of net profits come from that region.

So when news of nationalization hit last week, naturally Spanish markets shuddered… With good reason.

Just look at Bolivia and Venezuela, both controlled by heavily nationalistic leaders.

Venezuela has had three major blackouts this year. Some areas spent more than two weeks without power at a time. Bolivia continues to buy up local and international stakes in its natural gas pipeline infrastructure, but it’s been shipping less than 50% of its contracted amount of natural gas to Argentina since September.

Problems like this led to a severe power crisis last summer, and forced Argentina to buy energy from Brazil.

So the question is… Will government intervention result in protection from global markets, or will pensioner and investors alike be holding worthless papers and wondering where all their money went?

And how will markets in both Latin America and Spain respond?

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