The Building Europe Link to Latin America (BELLA) initiative, financed by the European Union and Latin American research networks, had a first component with the activation of the EllaLink submarine cable, between Brazil and Portugal, last year, and at the end of January it fulfilled a first milestone in terms of land connectivity: the 6,070 km segment of infrastructure between Porto Alegre (Brazil), Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile. For Buenos Aires-Santiago link, Silica Networks backbone will be used; and for Buenos Aires-Porto Alegre, that of Lumen.