PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Brazilian government has issued a “partial” installation license allowing the Belo Monte Dam to break ground on the Amazon’s Xingu River despite egregious disregard for human rights and environmental legislation, the unwavering protests of civil society and condemnations by its Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF). The license was approved by Brazil’s environmental agency IBAMA despite overwhelming evidence that the dam-building consortium Norte Energia (NESA) has failed to comply with social and environmental conditions required for an installation license. Read Article
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A mother has been waiting a year to find out if a burned body found in Panama is that of her missing son. Backpacker, Alex Humphrey, 29, from Stockport, disappeared in Chiriqui in August 2009. In February last year a corpse was found not far from where Alex was staying. Read Article
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The fiery coca growers’ union leader who rode discontent over his predecessor’s pro-business policies to Bolivia’s presidency is suddenly grappling with a sharp drop in popularity. Ironically, Evo Morales’ troubles are related to his handling of the economy. Read Article
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Chilean judicial officials vowed Thursday to investigate the death of President Salvador Allende for the first time, 37 years after the socialist leader was found shot through the head with a machine gun during a withering attack on the presidential palace. Allende died during the Sept. 11, 1973, coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who […]
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Deputy Minister of Environment, Carlos Castaño, told RCN Radio that the Government expects to close by 2013, some 3 000 illegal mines currently in the country. “We identified these mines are illegal in 18 regions where this illegal activity, financed by illegal armed groups are also responsible for its operation and performance,” said Castano Uribe. […]
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The national congress of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), scheduled for February 12, is expected to ratify Daniel Ortega as its presidential candidate for the November elections. That is the expectation prevailing among political observers in the capital, and may also be inferred from the text of the official congress call announced Monday by […]
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The Popular National Resistance Front (FNEP) in Honduras prepares protest demonstrations for this Thursday on the first anniversary of the government of Porfirio Lobo. Lobo took power on January 27 of 2010 after elections in November that were qualified as illegal by popular sectors because they were called under a coup government. Read Article
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At his inauguration in August, President Juan Manuel Santos declared that he would end the long-running Colombian civil war once and for all by continuing the “Democratic Security” policies of his predecessor, Álvaro Uribe. This strategy, while producing gains against guerilla groups throughout the country over the past decade, has come at the price of […]
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“We are a peaceful people. We don’t like war. We don’t want police and military on our land,” said Erity Teave, an indigenous activist from the Chilean-administered Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean. With tears welling up in her eyes, but still trying to manage a graceful smile, she asked: “Do you think the U.N. […]
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All 17 ministers of Bolivian President Evo Morales’s Cabinet have stepped down in an expected move that comes as the president completes the first year of his second term. Morales has seen his popularity numbers fall from 70 percent a year ago to 36 percent this week – in part due to his now-abandoned attempt […]
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Opponents and supporters of Venezuela’s current government have planned marches on Sunday — the anniversary of a popular revolt that overthrew dictator Marcos Perez in 1958. In Venezuela, marches were scheduled to commemorate “National Democracy Day,” the state-run AVN news agency reported. Read Article
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US drug czar Gil Kerlikowske on Tuesday in Colombia stressed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s recent announcement that Caracas will intercept any drug traffic aircraft overflying Venezuelan territory. “Venezuela has expressed clearly its support for curbing drug trafficking by air,” said Kerlikowske upon the beginning of his three-day visit to Colombia, DPA reported. Read Article
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Foreign Affairs Minister Surujrattan Rambachan and Venezuelan Ambassador to this country Eugenia Marcano Casado have intervened in the matter of three missing fishermen from Moruga. In a telephone interview yesterday, Rambachan said he is working with the Trinidad and Tobago Embassy in Venezuela to determine whether the men are in fact being held at a […]
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The Cuban government welcomed the latest U.S. measures to ease restrictions on travel and remittances to this country, but said they had a “limited reach.” Meanwhile, academics who spoke to IPS said the easing of the rules by an executive order issued last Friday by U.S. President Barack Obama would boost this country’s nascent private […]
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Colombia’s improved ties with Venezuela and neighbors to its south are just a few signs of the understated foreign policy shifts implemented by recently elected President Juan Manuel Santos – changes that may have positive implications for regional security and cooperation across Latin America. Read Article
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A strike in southern Chile over a hike in natural gas prices ended Tuesday after the federal government and city leaders reached an agreement. International tourists had been stranded at the Punta Arenas, Chile, airport for hours or longer without food because all of the roads leading out of it were blocked by strikers. One […]
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With three new actions that occurred between Sunday night and yesterday morning, came to 38 the number of farms invaded or demarcated camps with the wing of the Landless Movement (MST), led by Jose Rainha Junior, in western Sao Paulo State . The group of seven invasions count Queen says in the Pontal, in the […]
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Threats from local authorities and security forces, which tried to take over its management, forced a local radio station in Honduras temporarily to stop broadcasting on 14 January. The station, Radio Faluma Bimetu – Radio Coco Dulce in Spanish – belongs to the Honduran community of African origin (Garifuna) of Triunfo de la Cruz. A […]
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Less than 10 months to go before the general elections in November, political groups opposed to Nicaraguan Sandinista Liberation Front (FSLN) government continue to be divided, and their chances are increasingly slimmer. So far, all attempts have failed to attain the unity reached in the 1989 general elections. At that time, it allowed opposition forces […]
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s government has urged a private TV station to pull the plug on a Colombian soap opera that features a dog named “Little Hugo” and which it says insults Venezuela’s national pride. Named for its main character, “Chepe Fortuna,” the program also stars a loud and gossipy secretary named “Venezuela.” Read Article
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Former president of Costa Rica, Abel Pacheco (2002-2006), told a U.S. diplomat in 2004 that his government spied on a Venezuela diplomat suspected of holding secret meeting with labour leaders, according to a cable released on Thursday by the Wikileaks website. Former president Abel Pacheco confirmed on Thursday the surveillance by Costa Rica secret police, […]
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On Thursday, Nicaragua after a brilliant proposal by its ambassador in The Hauge, Carlos Arguello, in the Isal Calero conflict, finally pulled out its secret weapon to refute Costa Rica’s claims of an invasion: a 1971 map The map is being questioned by Costa Rica. The hearings ended on Thursday and it is expected weeks […]
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Reporters Without Borders hails yesterday’s withdrawal of a proposed amendment to the criminal code that would make insulting the president or any other elected representative punishable by two to four years in prison. “After listening to the various journalists’ organizations, we decided to withdraw it,” said National Assembly president José Muñoz, the bill’s originator. Read […]
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Translated Excerpt Q&A in The Hague by Pablo Gamez of Radio Netherland and Renee Castro, Minister of Foreign Relations, Costa Rica January 12, 2011 Question: You are referring to steps that this country is learning to give the light of this difficult situation. In the last few hours we heard the announcement about the creation […]
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While U.S. officials took strong exception to outgoing Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva’s recent complaint that “nothing has changed” in Washington’s relations with Latin America two years into the Barack Obama administration, many independent U.S. analysts ruefully nodded their heads. Read Article
The opposition bloc of the Venezuelan Parliament Group to the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino), composed of five deputies, prepared a “draft agreement” that will be introduced in next-week session. The purpose is seeking the unanimous approval of a request that they would made to Paraguay to let Venezuela enter Mercosur. Read Article
Cuban social services, the flagships of the Revolution, cannot be sustained under the current economic model and can only remain if all the reforms recommended by President Raúl Castro are enforced, according to a survey released on Tuesday. Read Article
Roman Catholic leaders in Venezuela are calling for President Hugo Chavez to give up special lawmaking powers granted to him by his congressional allies. Read Article
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged his followers to ramp up the seizure of land in Caracas so it can be used for low-income housing. In a nationally broadcast address, Chavez said the nation’s poor were being forced to live on landslide-prone hillsides in west Caracas rather than on more appropriate real estate on the affluent […]
Hugo Chávez went on the offensive in Caracas following his party’s poor election showing this fall, pushing through a slate of measures that amounted to a sustained political power grab ahead of the swearing-in of the new Parliament last week. On the international scene, though, the famously combative president has been striking an unusually conciliatory […]
Mexico will maintain punitive tariffs on 99 U.S. products but will not add any more goods or change the list pending negotiations over a new program to allow Mexican cargo trucks on U.S. roads, the government announced Monday. Economy Secretary Bruno Ferrari said the move is a show of goodwill as the two countries begin […]
Costa Rica is attempting to create an armed conflict with neighboring Nicaragua, Nicaraguan Army spokesman Juan Morales said citing counterintelligence information. Relations between the two countries became tense in November when the Nicaraguan military began widening the waterway in the San Juan River Delta and began establishing a military camp on the disputed Calero Island, […]
Chile began negotiations with the United States to join the program “Visa Waiver” whereby Chilean tourists do not require visa to travel to the country’s north. The negotiations were launched this week by Chile’s ambassador to Washington Arturo Fermandois, who presented the Chilean government’s request to enter the Visa Waiver program sponsored by the Department […]
Nicaragua is working at full speed to complete the dredging of the San Juan river and the construction of a canal, a situation which Costa Rica says is a serious risk of irreversible environmental damage to the area. According to the Nicaraguan daily, La Prensa, the government of Daniel Ortega hopes to have ready by […]
Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa said a planned constitutional referendum this year would ask citizens whether to limit banks’ operations to financial services and strip them of companies outside that industry. Read Article
The new Ambassador of Ecuador in Colombia Raul Vallejo, told reporters that the government of President Rafael Correa will not allow the establishment of camps by armed groups outside the law, “be they paramilitary, be they drug traffickers, whether the guerrillas ( o) any sign or any name. ” The diplomat, who arrived yesterday in […]
Reporters Without Borders is outraged by deputy security minister Armando Calidonio’s insistence during a TV appearance on 3 January that none of the ten murders of journalists in Honduras during 2010 was connected to the victim’s work. “None of these murders is linked to the practice of journalism,” he said. “It is highly improbable and […]
Venezuela’s government will not increase its sales tax as had been expected thanks to high global oil prices, President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday. Read Article
Venezuela’s government will not increase its sales tax as had been expected thanks to high global oil prices, President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday. Read Article
Argentina reaffirmed its sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands Monday, 178 years after losing the disputed territory to Britain. “Argentina once again reaffirms the imprescriptible sovereignty over the Malvinas, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime area,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Read Article
Abu Dhabi: A few years ago, only two Latin American countries had diplomatic missions in the UAE but that number is steadily growing, Venezuelan Ambassador to the UAE told Gulf News. Only Argentina and Brazil had embassies in Abu Dhabi a few years ago, but at least six more Latin American countries opened their diplomatic […]
Mexico plans a shake-up of its corruption-ridden immigration institute, officials said, after a year that saw some of the worst atrocities against illegal migrants trekking through the country – including the mass slaughter of 72 Central and South Americans trying to reach the United States. The dismissals early this week will include several top directors […]
Members of the Deomcratic Front and Barrios de Mazatlán are calling for the investigtion of 36 municipal employees. They are threatening a march of 2000 people in the coming days from Barrios de Mazatlán to Oaxaca. The current situation is tense and violence could be present. Read Article
The Brooklyn Museum wants to return to Costa Rica several thousand pre-Columbian bowls, above, and other artifacts that have been kept in storage for decades. The national museum there wants the items, but lacks the money to cover packing and shipping. Read Article
Constitutional Court ruling allows US navy ships to enter Costa Rican waters in a joint antidrug operations with the Costa Rican Coast Guard, under the Joint Maritime Agreement in effect since 1999. The agreement permits the United States to enter Costa Rica’s waters and ports preapproved every six months by the Costa Rican legislature. Read […]
The United States and Venezuela are starting the year without ambassadors in Caracas and Washington due to an intensifying diplomatic dispute that is likely to persist and boost President Hugo Chavez’s long-standing antagonism. Read Article
Italy’s ambassador to Brazil has been recalled after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva opted not to extradite a leftist extremist facing murder charges in Italy on Friday, his last day in office. Read Article
A diplomatic officer from Hong Kong is being charged for possession and transporting endangered species from the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. The police report indicated that the diplomat’s luggage was checked at the airport on Baltra Island after being alerted by a search dog. His luggage contained 20 dried seahorses, 37 unknown marine species, and […]
Seven Cuban castaways landed on Ambergris Caye, on Wednesday, December 29, and despite agreements between Belize and Cuba, the men were released. The Belize-Cuba agreement, which Belize had adhered to in past, says Belize should repatriate back to Cuba any Cuban national who arrives in our country illegally. But in this case of the stranded […]
The US has revoked the visa for Venezuela’s ambassador to Washington in what it called a “reciprocal” action for Caracas turning down the US choice for its own representative in the Venezuelan capital. Read Article
“If the government (of the United States) is to expel our ambassador there, let them do so! If they are to cut diplomatic relations, let them do so!” said Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in reference to the White House’s insistence that Caracas accepts the new US ambassador-designate Larry Palmer. Read Article
Reporters Without Borders calls on President Hugo Chávez to publicly condemn the physical attack on Carlos Correa, the head of the NGO Espacio Público, that took place yesterday at the entrance to the National Assembly. The attack comes amid a government campaign to discredit those who defend human rights and civil liberties and as the […]
An opposition party governor removed from office in Bolivia has fled the country. Read Article
The Panama Canal’s administration has dismissed the apparent doubt outlined by the “WikiLeaks” quotes on the Canal expansion’s viability. Panamanian president Ricardo Martinelli and vice president Juan Carlos Varela seemed to be criticising the Spanish-based GUPC Consortium’s competence earlier this year, saying the expansion was a “disaster”. Read Article
From November/2010 – Translation from German Iran wants to place on Venezuelan soil, bases for medium-range missiles up and deepen the strategic cooperation with the regime of Hugo Chávez. World Online” learned from Western security sources, an agreement between the two countries during the last visit of the Venezuelan president in Tehran and signed on […]
A congress dominated by President Hugo Chavez’s allies passed a law barring foreign funding for nongovernment organizations and political parties, adding to a series of measures that critics say aim to stifle dissent. Read Article
Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, a prominent Mexican politician kidnapped in May, was released and back at his home Monday. “I am fine, thanks to God. I am strong and my life will continue to be the same,” he told the crush of reporters gathered outside of his home in Mexico City. Read Article
New laws governing radio, television and the internet in Venezuela “could be very dangerous,” anti-censorship campaigners warned Wednesday, two days after the controversial laws passed. “It could be a license to crack down on any kind of dissent in the media,” said Padraig Reidy of Index on Censorship, a leading British freedom-of-speech organization. Read Article
Venezuela’s opposition accused President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday of a “coup d’etat” after the outgoing parliament gave him the power to rule by decree for 18 months and pushed through a host of new laws. Read Article
Why Bolivia stood alone in opposing the Cancún climate agreementWe were accused of being obstructionist, obstinate and unrealistic. But we feel an enormous obligation to set aside diplomacy and tell the truth Diplomacy is traditionally a game of alliance and compromise. Yet in the early hours of Saturday 11 December, Bolivia found itself alone against […]
No matter that farmers in South Lake Maracaibo rejected the steps taken by the National Lands Institute (Inti). Venezuela’s Vice President Elías Jaua held a press conference in the city of El Vigía, Andean Mérida state, in which he announced: “we will evict paramilitaries and slaveholders from these lands.” Reference was made to the takeover […]
A referendum on reforms to the new constitution and criminal law is to be held in Ecuador in response to the mounting public security crisis, giving left-wing President Rafael Correa an opportunity to canvass public opinion on these thorny issues. The date of the referendum and the wording of its questions are still unknown, but […]
Conflicting assessments of Argentina’s military capacity, defence policies and future planning were given by the brand-new Defence minister, Arturo Puricelli and a former minister from the opposition. Read Article
judgment by the Inter-American Court on December 20, 2010, underscores Mexico’s obligation to stop using the military justice system for human rights abuses by the military, Human Rights Watch said today. It also shows that President Felipe Calderon’s proposed reform of the military justice system, which would only subject three types of abuses by military […]
The National Assembly of Venezuela [official website, in Spanish] on Monday passed the Social Responsibility Law [text, PDF, in Spanish], which bans Internet content that promotes unrest among citizens or challenges legally established authorities. The law expands 2004 restrictions [AFP report] on television, radio and print media to Internet and electronic subscription services content. The […]
Brazil’s popular outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who hands power to his political ally Dilma Rousseff in less than two weeks, said he could run for office again in 2014. “One can never say never,”the 65-year old leader said in an interview on Brazilian television. Read Article
Costa Rica’s presidenta, Laura Chinchilla, announced that cables will be placed on the Colorado river to avoid navigation after hours. Although the presidenta was short on the details like the hours of prohibition, she did make it clear that the move is a precautionary measure in the face of a threat by the Nicaraguan army […]
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez defended plans for a law that would impose broadcast-type regulations on the Internet, saying Sunday that his government should protect citizens against online crimes. Read Article
María Ester Gatti de Islas, a Uruguayan teacher who became a human rights activist while helping to find people lost to political repression in South America, died Sunday in Montevideo. She was 92. Read Article
A dozen Chilean military officers were given jail sentences ranging from 15 years to life by a Paris court, over the disappearance of four French nationals during the rule of late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Read Article
Nicaragua and Costa Rica have accepted Guatemala to work in the meditation process of helping to resolve the border dispute between the two countries. Mexico is to also participate as a meditator. Read Article
A declassified U.S. diplomatic cable reveals the plans of Lucio Gutierrez, former president of Ecuador, to return to the country after being run out of office as president in 2005. Gutierrez asked a U.S. diplomat present at a dinner hosted by a Colombian politician to ensure his safety upon returning to Ecuador. He mentioned his […]
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa made changes to his Cabinet on Friday as part of an overhaul begun in response to the violent police mutiny of Sept. 30. The president swore-in retired Adm. Homero Arellano as new minister of Internal and External Security, succeeding Miguel Carvajal, while Alfredo Vera takes over the Interior Ministry, replacing the […]
CARACAS, Venezuela — Long-standing tensions between the United States and Venezuela are on the rise as Washington refuses to drop a nominee for ambassador opposed by President Hugo Chavez. Chavez has vowed to reject President Barack Obama’s nominee, Larry Palmer, saying the diplomat’s critical remarks about his government have disqualified him. Read the Article
Venezuelan officials and troops began seizing 47 private ranches on Friday as President Hugo Chavez pushes ahead with a socialist-oriented effort to take over big swaths of agricultural land. Agriculture Ministry officials began taking control of the land accompanied by soldiers and pro-government farmers. Together the ranches in western Venezuela cover more than 93 square […]
A new science law in Venezuela says that research will now be done for the people and in part by the people, and no longer to benefit those “in white coats.” However, scientists fear the changes could hinder progress across many fields. The new rules, approved last week by the National Assembly to take effect […]
Hundreds of doctors and other health-care workers here in Mexico’s murder capital went on a 24-hour strike Monday to demand more security in light of the murders of three colleagues and the kidnappings of 11 others this year. Just two of the more than 20 main clinics and hospitals in Ciudad Juarez, just across the […]
U.S. diplomats in Peru are keeping a close eye on the steady resurgence of the fanatical Sendero Luminoso insurgency but find that corruption in Peru’s army stymies efforts to fight the Maoist group, U.S. diplomatic cables show. A U.S. cable written in November 2009 said Lima urgently needed a better strategy “for turning the tide […]
After almost a week of violent protests over preliminary elections results that left at least five dead, Haiti awoke to an eerie and tense calm Monday after a well-coordinated trial balloon was launched late Sunday night. Read Article
US diplomats discussed efforts to curb Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s clout in Latin America and tried to dissuade Russia from selling anti-aircraft missiles to the South American government, according to classified documents released by WikiLeaks. Read Article
The first Latin American country is Uruguay (21), while Chile and Costa Rica rank 28 and 29, respectively.
Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa will arrive on Tuesday in Caracas in a “solidarity visit” to his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chávez, who suspended a travel to Quito this week due to the crisis that has hit Venezuela as a result of heavy rains, the Venezuelan government reported. Read Article
s the 2011 election year is around the corner, Argentines are still uncertain whether President Cristina Fernandez would seek reelection. The president’s office has said a decision on this would be announced in April or May 2011, roughly six months before the presidential elections scheduled for Oct. 23. According to an opinion poll of the […]
Cuba and El Salvador this week reaffirmed their willingness to continue and deepen relations, which were restored on June 1, 2009 after nearly 50 years. That decision was expressed in a statement issued by the foreign ministers of the two nations, Bruno Rodriguez and Hugo Martinez, following an official visit by Rodriguez, which began Dec. […]
Paraguay could soon grant Taiwanese tourists visa-waiver privileges, a visiting Paraguayan official said in Taipei yesterday. Cesar Aquino, executive secretary of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat of Paraguay, said Paraguayan President Fernando Armindo Lugo Mendez had told him before the trip that he would soon agree to grant visa-free privileges to visitors holding Republic of China […]
One of the 250,000 U.S. State Department documents that were published on Wikileaks was a cable sent by the United States Embassy in Panama to the Secretary of State in Washington. The cable is dated December 13, 1989, only seven days before the American invasion, but it makes no mention of invasion plans. It does, […]
CARACAS — Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez called on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to resign after the leak of embarrassingly candid US diplomatic correspondence by WikiLeaks. “The empire stands naked… Mrs Clinton should resign,” Chavez said in a speech, using his favourite description of the United States. “It’s the least you can do: resign, […]