For girls living in the rural, indigenous communities of Guatemala, it is not unusual to leave school by the age of 12, be married by 15, and give birth for the first time while still a teenager. About 60 percent of school-aged children complete primary education in Guatemala, according to UNICEF, and the rates are far lower in indigenous communities. Read Article
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A massive submarine fiber optic cable rolled ashore Cuba on Tuesday from Venezuela to bring better Internet connections, though most Cubans will still have only limited access to the Web.The French ship “Ile de Batz” arrived at Siboney beach, Santiago de Cuba province, 870 km (540 miles) southeast of Havana, Deputy Minister of Information and […]
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The Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR) is on the list of the 500 most important universities in the world. International Webometrics Ranking Wen ranks the Costa Rican university at 492, while the Universidad Nacional (UNA) ranks 1.666 and the Instituto Tecnológico, 2.022. Read Article
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3.3 million children and adolescents who work in Peru, according to the Child Labour Survey prepared by the INEI and the International Labour Organization (ILO). This first and only specialized survey has served to make reports as “Child Labor in Peru” presented last year by the ILO and reveals that 70% of them (2.3 million) […]
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32% increase in the practice of kidnapping in Colombia during 2010, compared with the practice of crime nationwide during the preceding year. De 213 denuncias durante el 2009, se pasó a 282. Of 213 complaints in 2009, moved to 282. Common criminals were responsible for 57% of abductions in 2010, the FARC’s 23%, 12% ELN […]
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Mexican authorities say three teenage boys were shot to death in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, and at least two of them attended school in Texas. Read Article
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For almost four months, doctors and nurses at Advocate Christ Medical Center cared for the young Mexican laborer who had fallen from a roof and lost the ability to speak, breathe or move most parts of his body. Read Article
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Extraordinary film footage narrated by movie star Gillian Anderson has launched Survival International’s new campaign to protect some of the world’s last uncontacted tribes.
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Rio de Janeiro police, with the support of the armed forces and other security agencies, on Sunday occupied nine “favelas,” or shantytowns, which were dominated by drug gangs and did so “without a single shot,” officials said. Read Article
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In order to welcome hundreds of families with limited economic resources of the province, especially those who have been affected by migration, Canar Provincial Government implemented in May this year a production plant to market it horchata national level. Read Article
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César Rincones (Democratic Action, AD-Sucre state), a deputy to the National Assembly, urged the government of President Hugo Chávez to set up the National Council on Housing (Conavi) to meet increasing housing demand efficiently, as Venezuela faces a housing deficit of 2.2 million units. Read Article
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ACCORDING to the National Commission for Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases in their publication “Battling the Hidden Enemy”, it is estimated that 52 834 persons in Barbados have hypertension. Read Article
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Eldiario.ec reported yesterday there were two individuals involved in a serious motorcycle accident in Manta, Ecuador. In 2010, there were 500 vehicle accidents in which 65% involved motorcycles. The transit department stated that in most accidents involving a motorcycle, it was the driver of the motorcycle to blame. The department revealed the accidents usually involve […]
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Cuban cyber-journalist and dissident Guillermo “El Coco” Fariñas Hernández has been arrested for the second time in 24 hours and though it is thought likely he will be released shortly Reporters Without Borders calls attention to the fact that his sole offence has been to campaign for freedom to inform and liberty of movement, a […]
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Costa Rican University students announced Tuesday their decision to participate in a protest against corruption organized by social and political organizations next Thursday outside the headquarters of the Supreme Court. Read Article
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Although most drivers in Costa Rica still think the point system introduced last March in the new Ley de Tránsito is not in place, more than 2.000 drivers have found out the hard way, reaching the 50 point limit which means an automatic loss of a driver driver’s license for two years. Read Article
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Leonor, a Mexican citizen, took part in a 2006 clinical trial of a drug to treat kidney disease, designed by a transnational pharmaceutical company. “A friend of mine who is a nurse told me about the trial and I decided to take part,” Leonor, a 30-year-old saleswoman who has kidney problems, told IPS. “I was […]
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When the price of medicines for treating cancer soared by up to 64 percent in 2010, the Peruvian government set up a watchdog commission that will also monitor prices of drugs for diabetes and HIV/AIDS. The Directorate General of Medicines, Supplies and Drugs (DIGEMID) told IPS that the commission’s functions would be extended to other […]
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The disasters caused by torrential rains in South America have set off alarm bells in Central America, whose extreme vulnerability was made all too clear over the last few years when it was slammed by hurricanes Mitch and Stan and tropical storm Agatha. Read Article
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Amid strong opposition claims of what they considered meager results of the security strategy and the growth of organized crime and violence, the federal Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said that the number of executions Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, has declined from the last two months of 2010. Read Article
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Mexico’s ambassador in London has written a furious letter to BBC bosses to complain about “offensive and xenophobic” comments made by presenters of the popular TV motoring show “Top Gear”. Ambassador Eduardo Medina Mora was infuriated by “insults” made by presenters Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May during Sunday’s episode of the cult show, […]
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Brazil monitors many such tribes from the air, and they are known as “uncontacted” because they have only limited contact dealings with the outside world. Photographs of the same tribe were released to the world two years ago. Campaigners say the Panoan Indians are threatened by a rise in illegal logging on the Peruvian side […]
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If Wikileaks documents are any indication, Chinese investors might have a big surprise in store as they continue their push into Latin America. In their effort to extract raw resources, the Chinese have fared relatively well in such areas of the globe as Africa. However, recently disclosed U.S. cables hint that Latin America may not […]
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EI condemns the brutal murder of Colombian teacher trade unionist, Manuel Esteban Tejada, on 10 January. His assassination brings the death toll to 27 teacher unionists who have been killed in Colombia in the past year. Manuel Esteban Tejada was affiliated to the Colombian teachers’ union, FECODE branch of Córdoba, ADEMACOR. He was a teacher […]
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Although the number of stolen vehicles was down in 2010, it still continues to be a problem for vehicle owners in Costa Rica, who authorities say that in many cases the vehicle’s owner unwillingly contributes to theft. The Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) reports that half of the stolen vehicles in 2010, owner’s neglect was […]
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“I came to Costa Rica because I thought they would help me protect my daughter. I fear that they will take her from me and put her in the hands of a person with a history of drug abuse and violence”, said Trina Atwell following a decision by the Sala Constitucional that ordered her daughter […]
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After 12-day strike by medical students in the rotating internship, have yet to return to the wards and do not receive appropriate sanctions.The demands on the Health Ministry and the academic authorities of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) state that recipients need rest areas, a place to shower after leaving their shift and […]
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This past Friday, national police were called to the archaeology site of Huayacán Pariachi located in Distrito Ate., in the province of Lima. Thousands of Peruvians had taken possession the hillsides around the site. A police helicopter was called in and sprayed the residents with tear gas. Inhabitants claimed the may had offered the space […]
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The eight homicides were recorded in Limon center in the first 28 days this year than there were six cases in the first half of 2010. Read Article
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Huancavelica, remains one of the poorest areas of Peru. 42.9 percent of children suffer from malnutrition while 68.3 have anemia. Carlos Torres Ortiz, an orphan who lived with his brother, is one of the many victims who took the disease. He was only seven years and died yesterday have chronic malnutrition and anemia. Malnutrition in […]
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More than 1,300 gay couples married in Argentina during the first six months of a new law that allows marriage between same-sex couples, passed in July,2010. According to a report of the Argentina Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transvestites (FALGBT) published by the Buenos Aires newspaper “Clarín” , 70 percent of marriages between men […]
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Colombian refugees across the border find sex is the only way for them to make a living. The oil workers in nearby Ecuador are the customers. Read Article – Video filmed in 2009
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In Bolivia, it’s legal for children to stay with their mothers in prison until the age of 6. However, many of them stay on after that age for lack alternatives. Read Article This is an outstanding video with subtitles in English.
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The administration of Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez pushed for the legislation, which allows Muslim women to wear hijab in public places, the Press TV correspondent in Buenos Aires reported on Tuesday. According to the new law, Argentinean Muslim women can use photographs wearing headscarves for their national ID cards. Read Article
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Bolivia will demand the World Health Organization (WHO) to spread the results of the study on coca leaf in 1995, to give everyone a real insight into its properties. According to the research, coca leaf chewing is not harmful to human health and therefore the WHO recommended then further research to identify the properties of […]
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When George W. Bush left the White House, the rest of the world breathed a sigh of relief. The National Security Doctrine of unilateral attacks, the invasion of Iraq under the false pretext of weapons of mass destruction, and the abandonment of multilateral forums had opened up a new phase of U.S. aggression. Despite the […]
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I was recently in my bed in rural Colombia when an explosion rocked my house. I decided to get out of bed. Heavy combat immediately ensued on the hill immediately adjacent to the village I live in, including shots from rifles, AK-47s, M-60s and occasional grenades. The combat on the “Hill of the Cross” between […]
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Three of every ten Argentines fall below the poverty line, 30.9% of the population, Ecolatina consultants said and they warned that “if prices continue to increase, it will be difficult for poor people’s income to beat inflation.” Read Article
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Ecuadorean immigrants have been put in an even more vulnerable position by the lingering economic crisis in the industrialised world, especially in Spain and the United States, the main destinations for migrants from Latin America. Read Article
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The National Dean Dental College in Peru, warned that 95 percent of the population suffers from dental caries. 10% of the population has lost one or two teeth. According to Miguel Angel Saravia Rojas of the dental college he warned that Peru is facing an oral health crisis that impacts the quality of life for […]
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Farmers’ protests and the rise in corn tortilla prices in late December put temporary brakes on the Mexican Senate, which was preparing to lift the national ban on utilising maize to make fuel alcohol, or ethanol. Read Article
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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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When the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) formulates its annual Human Development Index (HDI), it uses several socioeconomic indicators – including life expectancy, gross national income and literacy – to rank member states and also measure quality of life in these countries. But a nation widely singled out for its positive achievements in education, health care […]
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It took María de los Ángeles Carrillo, a native craftswoman from Mexico, eight months to weave a decorative junco reed basket, for which she won an 8,000 dollar prize from the Mexican government. The 32-year-old Carrillo, a member of the Kumeyaay Native American people, belongs to the Grupo de Artesanos Nativos de Baja California (Group […]
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Each year in Mexico forensic services has an average three thousand unidentified bodies, of which about 30% are migrants, said today in an interview Morris Tidball-Binz, Forensic Area Coordinator of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Read Article
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Hundreds of police and security forces in Peru have clashed with a squatter community to force them out of a privately owned land lot near the capital of Lima. Police resorted to force on Wednesday to make squatters leave a private property, claiming their residence in the place had been illegal. Read Article
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According to a recent study by the non-governmental organization La Casa del Encuentro, 260 cases of crime against women were committed in Argentina in 2010, almost five per week, a Press TV correspondent reported on Wednesday. In 64 percent of the cases, the executor was either the victim’s husband or de-facto spouse, the NGO highlights […]
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Ecuadorian authorities have been holding computers and equipment belonging to the critical newsmagazine Vanguardia since a police raid on its offices a month ago. The Committee to Protect Journalists has concluded the seizure was reprisal for the magazine’s editorial positions and calls on authorities to return the property. On December 17, armed members of the […]
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Bolivia has embarked on an international mission to try to end the ban on chewing coca leaves. But the United States plans on getting in its way. Coca has been used in the Andes for thousands of years as a mild stimulant and herbal medicine, but it is also a raw ingredient in the drug […]
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Paraguay’s president wants police to “exterminate” the activities of a leftist guerrilla group that claimed responsibility for three bombs in the last week. Interior Minister Rafael Filizzola says President Fernando Lugo has given orders to redouble efforts to arrest and shut down the Paraguayan People’s Army. Read Article Interesting Link about the Paraguayan People’s Army
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Salvadoran trade unions announced they would begin an open-ended strike on Monday if the Supreme Court of Justice ignores their demands for wage hikes in the legal sector. Read Article
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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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The divorce rate shot up in the country during the last decade to last year, an average of 31 daily separations. En el 2001, en cambio, la cifra era de 19 por día. In 2001, however, the figure was 19 per day. While in 2010 there was one divorce for every two new marriages at […]
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Gringos Gone Wild – from Inside Costa Rica When you read this title the first thing that probably comes to mind are young girls engaging in nudity, indecent exposure and other sexual acts on camera like the film “Girls Gone Wild.” The kind of misconduct that that some Americans engage in here is quite different. […]
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Homicide Rates per 100,000 Esmeraldas – 62 Sucumbios – 44 Guayaquil – 25.6 Quito (urban) 10.6 Cuenca – 7.1 National – 18.5 Source – Observatorio Metropolitano de Seguridad Ciudadana
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In a series of dramatic seizures all over Bolivia, Animal Defenders International (ADI), a leading animal protection group headquartered in Los Angeles, worked with the Bolivian authorities including the DGB and Santa Cruz Governor’s Office, to remove the animals from eight different circuses spread across Bolivia. The moves were to enforce Bolivia’s Law 4040, which […]
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While many are sceptical that the Chilean government will deliver on its promise of a shift in indigenous policy, the deadline is looming for the administration of Sebastián Piñera to live up to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights recommendations with respect to imprisoned members of the Mapuche community. 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
In 2010, there were 326 foreigners arrested at the international airport in Lima, for attempting to transport illegal drugs. Of the arrests there were 44 countries represented. 94 of those detained in 2010, were from Spain, 25 Filipinos, 18 Mexicans, 13 Dutch, 13 Britons, and 13 Portuguese. Mules in Peru are referred to as ‘burriers’. […]
When the Jan. 12 earthquake sent a shockwave through his office, Mario Joseph thought it was a bomb attack. After all, Haiti’s most prominent human rights lawyer is used to coming under fire. “Someone was shot in my office,” he said. “I receive a lot of threats.” It was only when he ventured outside that […]
We “picked up” Evelyne outside a bar in downtown Port-au-Prince, where she was milling around with five or six other girls, propositioning passers-by. Peter, our Haitian cameraman, explained to her about our documentary, then walked her to the hotel around the corner for the interview. He didn’t want her to be seen driving off with […]
On Tuesday, exactly one year after an earthquake levelled Port-au-Prince and more than 200,000 people were buried alive, the iconic Iron Market will reopen. But this isn’t the work of the Haitian elite – it’s all down to Denis O’Brien, CEO of a mobile-phone company. Read Article
Ecuador’s legislature has passed a bill that makes organ donations for transplant automatic at death unless a prospective donor has specifically requested otherwise. This information would be included in your documents. The new law includes those age 18 and over. The measure was passed Thursday by a vote of 124-111. The new law is awaiting […]
During his nearly five years in office, Peruvian President Alan García has earmarked 620.5 million dollars to the “Glass of Milk” Programme (PVL), the backbone of the policies aimed at reducing malnutrition levels in the country. But the results of the nutritional supplement programme are poor. A Ministry of Economy and Finance report seen by […]
A total of 517 executions recorded in 2010 the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, an entity the U.S. border. Of the total, 30 were innocent victims, “said Jorge Domene, spokesman for the State Security Council. Read Article
Famed chef Gordon Ramsay was covered in petrol and threatened at gunpoint in Costa Rica while conducting an investigation on shark finning as part of Britain’s Channel 4’s Big Fish Fight series. Chef Gordon Ramsay was conducting the investigation for Channel 4’s Big Fish Fight series. (Photo: Gordon Ramsay/FIS) “It is a multibillion dollar industry, […]
Benedict XVI gave us words of great comfort and encouragement in the message he delivered on Christmas Eve. “God anticipates us again and again in unexpected ways,” the pope said. “He does not cease to search for us, to raise us up as often as we might need. He does not abandon the lost sheep […]
With life expectancy increasing in Latin America, age-related disease has become a pressing public health concern. Results of an epidemiological study conducted by researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University and the Corporacion Ecuatoriana de Biotecnologia showed that the metabolic syndrome, a condition that increases […]
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
Currently, the poorest households in the country’s highlands suffer moderate food insecurity due to the spread of the annual lean season, as well as the consequences of this year’s heavy rainy season. Poor households in the rest of the country suffer moderate insecurity, as some still depend on external help to fill their food requirements, […]
The first DNA laboratory opened in late May 2010, work on the third floor of Building 9 October the Attorney General’s Office in Quito. The mission of this department is to contribute with input and scientific value of genetic testing to clarify such cases of forensic and biological ties. It has also become one of […]
About 10 percent of Zacatecas population suffers from depression in different parts of their lives, said Victor Manuel Aguilar Soria, Director of Health Hospital Mental Health Services Zacatecas (SSZ). According to the records of the department, the percentage of population suffers from mental illness at some point in their lives, among the most common are […]
The first minutes of this year had nothing different for people on the streets and thousands of poor people in Mexico City. Unlike other homes no food to prepare, at the tables just a few dishes of beans, tortillas and salt, whereas street children received the year under a bridge, drains and parks, with their […]
A balance on personal security in Venezuela shows that 123,000 people were killed during the past 10 years. Out of these, about 16,000 died in 2010 alone, according to unofficial figures provided by the Commission on Public Safety, which comprises opposition deputies-elect. The lawmakers questioned the efforts made by the cabinet of President Hugo Chávez […]
The head of Government of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri, said today that the country lacks an “immigration policy” which determines not know “who comes” from the outside of the country. Read Article
With the rise of gruesome massacres and public shootouts that have put civilians in the line of fire, Mexico City has become an unlikely oasis for some hoping to escape the drug war. Read Article
The Permanent Household Survey Indec found that the median earnings of men stood in the third quarter at $ 2,000 per month, while the female was $ 1,500. In the first case(Men) required to work 44 hours per week and the second(Women) only 32 hours. Read Article
Lahora.com.ec reported that the Ecuadorian government passed a 10 percent minimum salary raise for employees beginning January 1, 2011. The current base salary is $240.00 a month. The increase is to be $24.00 settling the base monthly salary at $264.00. Workers to be included are both in the private and public sector. The raise also […]
The number of Bolivians living in extreme poverty dropped 10 percent in 2010, and officials envision a 21-percent cut next year. Bolivia reduced extreme poverty from 40 percent to 30 percent (this year), and we hope to reach the millennium goals,” Minister of Planning Viviana Caro told a news conference on Thursday. The millennium goals […]
On December 10, 2010, the first recorded civil marriage between two gay men took place.
University students and professors rallied at the Rectorship Square, Central University of Venezuela (UCV), to rebut the Law on Higher Education for considering that it violates university autonomy. A huge amount of military officers and police agents were deployed at the entrance of the UCV, in Plaza Venezuela, to prevent the march from leaving. Read […]
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 […]
Túmin, which means “money” in the Totonaca indigenous language, is a community currency now circulating among 80 vendors selling their products at an alternative market in the town of Espinal, in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz. Read Article
The weather phenomenon has cuased dramatic rains in Colombia and has caused fifteen villages to be abandoned. Read Story