<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?><InstanceReport xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"><Version>2.2.0.25</Version><hasSegments>false</hasSegments><hasScenarios>false</hasScenarios><ReportLongName>0204 - Disclosure - Short-term and long-term investments</ReportLongName><DisplayLabelColumn>true</DisplayLabelColumn><ShowElementNames>false</ShowElementNames><RoundingOption /><HasEmbeddedReports>false</HasEmbeddedReports><Columns><Column><Id>1</Id><IsAbstractGroupTitle>false</IsAbstractGroupTitle><LabelColumn>false</LabelColumn><CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode><FootnoteIndexer /><hasSegments>false</hasSegments><hasScenarios>false</hasScenarios><MCU><KeyName>1/1/2010 - 12/31/2010
USD ($)

USD ($) / shares
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   &lt;!-- Begin Block Tagged Note 4 - us-gaap:InvestmentsInDebtAndMarketableEquitySecuritiesAndCertainTradingAssetsDisclosureTextBlock--&gt;
   &lt;div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; margin-left: 0in; "&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-top: 10pt"&gt;
   &lt;table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-size: 10pt; text-align: left"&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="top" style="font-size: 10pt; color: #000000; background: transparent"&gt;
       &lt;td width="3%" nowrap="nowrap" align="left"&gt;&lt;b&gt;4.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td width="1%"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="text-align: justify"&gt;&lt;b&gt;Short-term and long-term investments&lt;/b&gt;
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;/table&gt;
   &lt;/div&gt;
   &lt;div align="justify" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-top: 10pt; margin-left: 4%"&gt;The composition of short-term and long-term investments is as follows:
   &lt;/div&gt;
   &lt;div align="center"&gt;
   &lt;table style="font-size: 10pt; text-align: left" cellspacing="0" border="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"&gt;
   &lt;!-- Begin Table Head --&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="bottom"&gt;
       &lt;td width="72%"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td width="3%"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td width="1%"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td width="9%"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td width="1%"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td width="3%"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td width="1%"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td width="9%"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td width="1%"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr style="font-size: 10pt" valign="bottom"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td nowrap="nowrap" align="center" colspan="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;December 31,&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td nowrap="nowrap" align="center" colspan="2"&gt;&lt;b&gt;December 31,&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr style="font-size: 10pt" valign="bottom"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td nowrap="nowrap" align="center" colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000"&gt;&lt;b&gt;2010&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td nowrap="nowrap" align="center" colspan="2" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000"&gt;&lt;b&gt;2009&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;!-- End Table Head --&gt;
   &lt;!-- Begin Table Body --&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="bottom" style="background: #cceeff"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;&lt;b&gt;Short-term investments&lt;/b&gt;
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="bottom"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;Time Deposits
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="left"&gt;$&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;4,944,761&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="left"&gt;$&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;6,332,738&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="bottom" style="background: #cceeff"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;Corporate Debt Securities
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;398,005&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;8,247,447&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr style="font-size: 1px"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;&amp;#160;
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td nowrap="nowrap" colspan="2" align="right" style="border-top: 1px solid #000000"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td nowrap="nowrap" colspan="2" align="right" style="border-top: 1px solid #000000"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="bottom"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;&lt;b&gt;Total&lt;/b&gt;
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="left"&gt;$&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;5,342,766&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="left"&gt;$&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;14,580,185&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr style="font-size: 1px"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;&amp;#160;
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td nowrap="nowrap" colspan="2" align="right" style="border-top: 3px double #000000"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td nowrap="nowrap" colspan="2" align="right" style="border-top: 3px double #000000"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="bottom" style="background: #cceeff"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;&lt;b&gt;Long-term investments&lt;/b&gt;
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="bottom"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;Arias Trust (1)
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="left"&gt;$&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="left"&gt;$&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;7,169,425&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="bottom" style="background: #cceeff"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;Time Deposits
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;40,396,183&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;19,191,406&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="bottom"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;Sovereign Debt Securities
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;13,147,239&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="bottom" style="background: #cceeff"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;Corporate Debt Securities
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;10,983,756&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;266,526&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="bottom"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;Asset Backed Securities
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;14,319,103&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;&amp;#8212;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr style="font-size: 1px"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;&amp;#160;
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td nowrap="nowrap" colspan="2" align="right" style="border-top: 1px solid #000000"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td nowrap="nowrap" colspan="2" align="right" style="border-top: 1px solid #000000"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="bottom" style="background: #cceeff"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;&lt;b&gt;Total&lt;/b&gt;
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="left"&gt;$&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;78,846,281&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="left"&gt;$&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td align="right"&gt;26,627,357&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr style="font-size: 1px"&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="margin-left:15px; text-indent:-15px"&gt;&amp;#160;
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td nowrap="nowrap" colspan="2" align="right" style="border-top: 3px double #000000"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td nowrap="nowrap" colspan="2" align="right" style="border-top: 3px double #000000"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;!-- End Table Body --&gt;
   &lt;/table&gt;
   &lt;/div&gt;
   &lt;table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="font-size: 10pt; text-align: left"&gt;
   &lt;tr style="font-size: 6pt"&gt;
       &lt;td width="3%"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td width="1%"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td width="96%"&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;tr valign="top"&gt;
       &lt;td nowrap="nowrap" align="left"&gt;(1)&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;
       &lt;td&gt;
   &lt;div style="text-align: justify"&gt;As of December&amp;#160;31, 2009, this investment represented an undivided interest for more than
   20% of the total amount of the real estate trust, for that reason, it was accounted for under
   the equity method and it was classified as Long-Term Investments in the balance sheet (See
   Note 15 &amp;#8212; Other Commitments and Note 2 &amp;#8220;Property and equipment, net&amp;#8221;).
   &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
   &lt;/tr&gt;
   &lt;/table&gt;
   &lt;div align="justify" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-top: 10pt; margin-left: 4%"&gt;Unrealized gains of available-for-sale securities, net of tax, were $45,527, $27,630, and
   $3,642 for the years ended December&amp;#160;31, 2010, 2009 and 2008, respectively.
   &lt;/div&gt;
   &lt;div align="justify" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-top: 10pt; margin-left: 4%"&gt;As of December&amp;#160;31, 2010, the Company has no security considered held-to-maturity securities. As
   of December&amp;#160;31, 2009, corporate debt securities amounting to $468,925 were considered
   held-to-maturity securities.
   &lt;/div&gt;
   &lt;div align="justify" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-top: 10pt; margin-left: 4%"&gt;The book value of held-to-maturity securities approximates their respective fair value and
   consequently there are no significant unrecognized gains or losses.
   &lt;/div&gt;
   &lt;div align="justify" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-top: 10pt; margin-left: 4%"&gt;Interest income on time deposits and held to maturity securities were $1,749,562, $1,296,762
   and $1,116,853 for the years ended December&amp;#160;31, 2010, 2009 and 2008.
   &lt;/div&gt;
   &lt;!-- Folio --&gt;
   &lt;!-- /Folio --&gt;
   &lt;/div&gt;
   &lt;!-- PAGEBREAK --&gt;
   &lt;div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; margin-left: 0in; "&gt;
   &lt;div align="left" style="font-size: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt"&gt;
   &lt;b&gt;
   &lt;/b&gt;
   &lt;/div&gt;
   &lt;/div&gt;
</NonNumbericText><NonNumericTextHeader>&lt;!--DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd" --&gt;
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 -Publisher FASB
 -Name Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS)
 -Number 115
 -Paragraph 3, 19, 20, 21, 22, 137

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