Latin America News Dispatch » Staff

Obama and Brewer face off as President Critiques GOP stance on Immigration

Staff — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:00:06 +0000

Today in Latin America

Top Story — U.S. President Barack Obama and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer entered into a heated exchange as the president arrived in Phoenix on Thursday as part of a five-state tour. As Obama greeted Arizona officials on the tarmac shortly after landing, Brewer, whose controversial immigration law has been adopted in other states but blocked by a federal judge, could be seen pointing in Obama’s face before the president turned his back and left while Brewer was still speaking, apparently because the president took issue with the way Brewer characterized a 2010 visit with the president in her book. In an interview with Spanish-language network Univision on Thursday, Obama sought to differentiate his stance on immigration from that of Republican presidential candidates. Though he has outpaced previous administrations in deporting 1.2 million undocumented immigrants during his term, Obama said this was due to additional money allocated for enforcement by Congress. A recent Univision/ABC poll shows that Latino voters still favor Obama, but at lower levels than in 2008.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

Eight men were executed in downtown Monterrey, Mexico on Thursday, and a woman was found murdered in a potentially related attack.
U.S. security contractors are looking to Mexico for new work as the U.S. withdraws its presence from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Caribbean

The Brazilian government has granted a tourist visa to Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sánchez to attend a documentary film screening in the state of Bahia.
Puerto Rican employees of pharmaceutical company Pfizer are suing the company for allegedly mismanaging its workers’ retirement plans.
The Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America reported Thursday that Haiti should prepare for a new cycle of massive earthquakes in the region.
Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, who defected to the Dominican Republic and established residency there, has been declared a free agent by Major League Baseball.

Central America

Former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt appeared in court on Thursday to answer questions about his involvement in massacres committed during the country’s civil war.
The U.S. State Department announced that it would continue to scrutinize aid loans made to Nicaragua due to suspected irregularities in the country’s presidential elections.
A member of the Salvadoran National Civil Police said in an interview that he suspects members of the Maras gang are planning attacks on security forces from within Salvadoran prisons.

Andes

A U.S. appeals court rejected an injunction filed by Chevron Corp. to block an $18 billion settlement for Ecuadorean plaintiffs living in the Amazon.
Venezuela will observe three days of mourning following the death of Attorney General Carlos Escarra, who died Wednesday of a heart attack.
Colombian Mining Minister Mauricio Cardena said the country would receive $10 billion in international mining and energy investments this year.

Southern Cone

A Brazilian prosecutor is planning to file criminal charges against Chevron Corp. in a Brazilian federal court after a spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro in November.
British Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said that the initial results of oil exploration around the Falkland Islands have been disappointing.
Argentine senators officially condemned a statement by British Prime Minister David Cameron in which he called Argentina “colonialist” for its claim to the Falkland Islands.

Image: East Asia and Pacific Media Hub @ Flickr.

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FARC Leader Proposes to Swap Six Hostages for Prisoners

Staff — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:00:30 +0000

Today in Latin America

Top Story — A rebel leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) pledged to release six captive Colombian military and police officers and asked for a constitutional change to swap the hostages for jailed guerillas. In a video released on Wednesday, FARC secretariat member Iván Márquez said that “prisoner of war swaps should become a constitutional norm”, and characterized his proposal as “an act of peace”. The FARC has held the six prisoners for over a decade, and Márquez said that they would be released in the coming weeks. Some of the guerrillas Márquez asked to be released by the Colombian government have been extradited to the U.S. to serve their sentences. The government under Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has rejected negotiations with the FARC under such terms.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

A heart that was dropped on the ground before being transplanted into a 28-year old Mexican patient was successfully transplanted.
Former Green beret Jonathan “Jack” Idema, convicted of torturing terrorism suspects in Afghanistan, died of AIDS in Mexico.
U.S. presidential candidate Newt Gingrich pulled a Spanish-language ad he ran against opponent Mitt Romney in which he accused Romney of being “anti-immigrant”.

Caribbean

Cuban athletes Yisel Rodriguez and Yezenia Gallardo, who went missing during their team’s final Olympic qualifying game in Canada, are seeking asylum in the U.S.
Dominican radio journalist Jhonny Alberto Salazar was convicted of libel, fined and sentenced to six months in jail.
Vatican officials said Pope Benedict XVI would donate a golden rose to Cuba’s patron saint, Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, to mark his upcoming March visit.
The International Monetary Fund concluded a visit to Jamaica on Wednesday after a series of 5-day talks.

Central America

Guatemala barred four suspected drug traffickers from leaving the country after the U.S Treasury Department accused them of involvement in a drug trafficking ring.
Satellite imaging captured a new vent opening in on one of Costa Rica’s active volcanoes.
Nicaragua’s National Assembly wants to strengthen the prevention of crime in children and adolescents, rather than increase prison sentences.

Andes

Venezuela announced Wednesday that it has begun its formal withdrawal from the World Bank’s international arbitration body.
Venezuelan Attorney General Carlos Escarra died Wednesday of a heart attack.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s 14 year-old daughter angered Venezuelans by posting a photo of herself fanning out a wad of U.S. dollars.

Southern Cone

Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner confirmed Wednesday that she has returned to work following her thyroid surgery.
Air travel in Brazil has nearly rose 194 percent in the last 10 years, with demand for flights rising 16 percent in the last year alone.
Paraguayan Interior Minister and Secretary of State Carlos Filizzola denied that he accused the Sin Tierras Movement of using firearms.

Image: Globovisión @ Flickr.

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Uruguay will pay $513,000 to Child of Disappeared

Staff — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:00:30 +0000

Today in Latin America

Top Story — Uruguayan President José Mujica approved a $513,000 settlement to be paid to Macarena Gelman, who was kidnapped along with her disappeared parents during the 1973-1985 Uruguayan dictatorship. The settlement is one component of a decision handed down by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights last year, which stipulated that Uruguay must pursue investigations into the forced disappearance of Gelman’s mother, who at 19 was taken from a notorious torture center in Argentina to Uruguay in order to give birth to her daughter in 1976 and was never seen again. The same IACHR decision called on Uruguay to end its 1986 amnesty law and pursue prosecutions against the perpetrators of dictatorship-era human rights abuses. Macarena Gelman was adopted shortly after her birth and located decades later by her paternal grandfather, the Argentine poet Juan Gelman. While her father’s remains were located, the fate of Gelman’s mother is still unknown.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

Gunmen opened fire on five police officers during a traffic stop in Valle de Bravo, Mexico on Monday, killing them all.
Mexican presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto’s ratings in a public opinion poll has fallen for a third consecutive time, though he still leads other candidates.
A Canadian woman brutally beaten while on vacation in Mazatlán was brought out of a medically-induced coma on Tuesday and is expected to recover.

Caribbean

The U.N. said that it had fired several police officers for alleged sexual abuse of minors in Haiti.
Cleveland Indians manager Manny Acta said he was hoping to include Fausto Carmona in the team’s rotation, though the player was arrested for falsely stating his true name and age in the Dominican Republic.

Central America

Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes’ own political party has criticized the president’s appointment of General Francisco Salinas as head of police, saying he is violating the 1992 peace accord.
HSBC will sell its businesses in El Salvador, Costa Rica and Honduras to Colombian banking group Davivienda S.A. for $801 million.

Andes

Leopoldo López, an expected opponent of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in the Venezuelan presidential elections, has left the race to support 39 year-old candidate Henrique Capriles.
Venezuela deported three suspected drug smugglers to the U.S., Canada and Colombia on Tuesday.
A libel hearing scheduled for Ecuadorean newspaper El Universo on Tuesday was suspended after an international outcry over free speech.
Peruvian Prime Minister Oscar Valdés said Tuesday that a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corp. is reviewing the controversial Minas Conga copper-gold mine project to ensure that water supplies are protected.
A Colombian supplier of manhole covers, a coveted black market commodity, used a GPS device to track thefts of his merchandise.

Southern Cone

People exposed to high levels of arsenic in Chilean drinking water in the 1950s and 60s are experiencing higher-than-average levels of bladder cancer.
The Brazilian government has reported that job creation in 2011 was 24 percent less than in 2010.
Argentine soccer player Carlos Tevez was fined for “gross misconduct” by Manchester City after flying home to Argentina without permission.

Image: Presidencia de la República de Ecuador @ Flickr.

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Cuban Prisoners Freed after Amnesty International Labels Them Prisoners of Conscience

Staff — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:00:13 +0000

Today in Latin America

Top Story — Cuba released three prisoners who were arrested at a protest and held for 52 days without charges, Amnesty International said Monday. According to the human rights organization, Ivonne Malleza Galano, Ignacio Martínez Montejo and Isabel Haydee Alvarez were arrested on November 30 and set free on January 20, just hours after Amnesty International listed them as prisoners of conscience. During a protest, Malleza and Martínez had reportedly been holding a banner that read “Stop hunger, misery and poverty in Cuba”, and Alvarez reportedly objected when the other two protesters were detained. On Monday, Cuban state media reacted to international criticism of the country’s human rights record in an editorial, denying that Wilman Villar, a 31 year-old inmate who died of an apparent hunger strike on January 19, was a true political prisoner. According to the Cuban government, Villar had been imprisoned for beating his wife and had received adequate medical care.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

A Democratic lawmaker in Arizona said he is introducing legislation to repeal the state’s controversial immigration law.
Mexican soldiers fatally shot a top aide to Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
Prosecutors in Mexico allege that drug traffickers are behind an illegal adoption ring involving couples from Ireland.

Caribbean

The United Nations is investigating reports of two new cases of abuse and sexual exploitation of children in Haiti.
The northern part of the Dominican Republic was hit Monday by a Magnitude 5.1 earthquake, but there were not immediate reports of deaths or damage.
Two female soccer players from Cuba failed to appear for a final Olympic qualifying game against Haiti in Canada, sparking suspicion that they defected.

Central America

Thousands of Guatemalans climbed a dormant volcano over the weekend to protest domestic violence in the country.
Nicaragua’s Flor de Caña distillery is pushing to bring its rum to the rest of the world after struggling under the Sandinista governments of the past.

Andes

The Colombian army has launched a new operation, “Sword of Honor” to combat the FARC in a joint effort of the National Police, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Agriculture, public prosecutors and the Armed Forces.
A Spanish newspaper claimed Monday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s cancer has spread, but the Venezuelan government denied the rumors.
Joran van der Sloot will appeal a 28-year sentence for the murder of Peruvian national Stephany Flores in May 2010.

Southern Cone

An advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff “destroyed years of good relations” between the two countries. She did not invite the Iranian president to Brazil during his Latin America tour.
Drought in Argentina has raised concerns about the world’s food supplies due to a substantial loss of corn and soy crops.
The Chilean government announced that former Education Minister Felipe Bulnes will become Chile’s new ambassador to the U.S.

Image: STML @ Flickr.

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Former Guatemalan Dictator Ordered to make Court Appearance

Staff — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:00:06 +0000

Today in Latin America

Top Story — Former Guatemalan military dictator Efraín Ríos Montt was ordered Saturday to appear in court this Thursday for an investigation of genocide committed during his 1982-83 rule. Ríos Montt, elected to Congress in 2000, was exempt from prosecution while in office, but his term and legal immunity from prosecution expired this month. For years, human rights groups and survivors of state terror have attempted to bring Ríos Montt before a judge to answer for a scorched-earth campaign directed largely against indigenous villagers in the Mayan highlands during Guatemala’s civil war, in which an estimated 200,000 Guatemalans were killed or disappeared between 1960 and 1996. Ríos Montt has denied that he ordered massacres, and his lawyer, Gonzalo Rodríguez Gálvez, said in a newspaper interview that Rios Montt should not be found responsible because “he was never on the battlefield”. Judge Carol Flores will decide after Thursday’s court appearance whether to pursue genocide charges against the former dictator.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

Gunmen killed thirteen people, including eight people attending a funeral for a shooting victim, in Mexico’s southern Guerrero state over the weekend.
The family of a 20 year-old Honduran man who was not granted asylum in the U.S. and killed by gangs a year later is petitioning for posthumous asylum.
Venezuelans in Miami protested the closing of their consulate on Friday after the U.S. expelled Venezuelan consul general Livia Acosta.
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hit off the coast of southern Mexico on Saturday but no injuries were reported.

Caribbean

Haitian authorities will decide this month if former dictator Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier will go to trial for crimes including human rights abuses and corruption.
Cuban opposition group the “Ladies in White” on Sunday accused the government of murdering 31 year-old dissident Wilman Villar Mendoza, who died last week after going on a hunger strike.
A couple was charged in Jamaica on Sunday of murdering and concealing the body of their two year-old son in a suitcase.

Central America

Assailants who opened fire on a nightclub in Guatemala on Saturday killed at least 8 people and injured at least 20 more.
Family and friends paid their respects on Friday to Costa Rican activist Abelardo Araya, a champion of LGBT rights who was found dead of a heart attack on Thursday.
Workers on strike at the Panama Canal expansion project agreed to resume work Monday after the minimum wage on the project was raised by 13 percent.

Andes

Human Rights Watch reported Sunday that the U.S. is not enforcing human rights conditions required for U.S. aid to Colombia.
Peruvian President Ollanta Humala signed a new law banning trips abroad for convicted terrorists on parole after American citizen Lori Berenson took a 17-day holiday trip to New York.
Bolivia and Brazil on Friday signed an accord with the U.S. to coordinate control of coca plant cultivation, including implementing a coca tracking system.
Ecuador is continuing its international campaign to preserve Yasuni National Park.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said Sunday that the U.S. was at fault for the closing of the Venezuelan consulate in Miami.

Southern Cone

Approximately 2,000 Brazilian riot police raided the Pinheirinho settlement in São José dos Campos, São Paulo state to expel some 6,000 landless settlers who had been there 8 years.
The refusal of a Chilean maid to get on a bus rather than walk six blocks through her employer’s upscale neighborhood has highlighted class discrimination in Chile.
Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman rejected comments by British Foreign Secretary William Hague regarding the disputed Falkland Islands but said Argentina was not looking to impose a blockade there.

Image: guillermogg @ Flickr.

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U.S. Immigration Officials Recommend Closing 14 Percent of Cases

Staff — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:00:31 +0000

Today in Latin America

Top Story — U.S. immigration officials are recommending that an estimated 14% of nearly 12,000 immigration cases be closed to focus on high-priority deportation cases. Under a new policy by the Obama administration, immigration officials will put an emphasis on deporting undocumented immigrants that have criminal backgrounds or have violated immigration law multiple times, and use prosecutorial discretion to allow immigrants meeting special criteria to stay. Two pilot programs in Denver and Baltimore released their preliminary results after a more than month-long review to determine which deportation cases could be administratively closed. Opponents of the new policy, which is expected to be extended to 300,000 pending immigration cases across the U.S., say that it will clear the way for amnesty, but the Obama administration called it “smart and effective immigration enforcement” that will clear a backlog in the immigration system. Immigrants whose cases are closed would not receive a new legal status under the policy.

Read more from CNN and the New York Times.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

The Mexican government enacted new rules Thursday banning fraudulent “miracle cure” ads targeting the sick.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has released a series of ads calling fellow candidate Mitt Romney “the most anti-immigrant candidate” and said he borrowed a slogan from Fidel Castro.

Caribbean

A Haitian judge summoned former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier to court Thursday for his failure to abide by the rules of his house arrest.
Cuba will pursue offshore drilling after a rig arrived off the coast of Havana Thursday, where geologists believe there are large oil reserves.
500 Cuban medical workers will work in Jamaica for the next two years to help understaffed hospitals and clinics.
Cleveland Indians pitcher Fausto Carmona was arrested in his native Dominican Republic after it was discovered that he lied about his real name and age.
Ten people affiliated with three Puerto Rican health care companies will be investigated for $2 million in fraud after filing claims for unnecessary medical equipment.

Central America

Honduran President Porfirio Lobo said in a radio announcement that the U.S. will send personnel to help his government combat the violent crime that prompted the Peace Corps to withdraw from the country.
Salvadoran police seized $1.5 million in fake U.S. bills after a four month investigation, along with a pistol and and a trace amount of drugs.
Guatemala’s popular “Bingoton Millionario” lottery launders drug money, according to U.S. officials.

Andes

Nonprofit Venezuelan Prisons Observatory released a report Thursday saying that 560 inmates were killed in Venezuelan prisons last year, a 17.6 increase from 2010.
Chevron lost another attempt to block Ecuador’s collection of an $18 billion judgment against the company for contaminating the rainforest.
Bolivian Deputy Minister for Social Defense, Felipe Caceres, said that Bolivia would attempt a “net eradication” of illegal coca plants by 2012.
Archeologists in Peru discovered evidence of corn consumption dating back 2,000 years earlier than thought.

Southern Cone

A former congressman in Brazil’s Alagoas state was sentenced to 103 years in prison for ordering the murder of a congresswoman and her family in 1998 so he could take her seat in the Chamber of Deputies.
After widespread criticism, Chilean Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said he would withdraw a proposal to force media workers to surrender images to the state without a court order.
Britain’s Prince Harry will visit Brazil in March after a tour of Jamaica, Belize and the Bahamas in an effort to strengthen Latin America relations.
Uruguayan state communications company ANTEL said it would give users a day of free Internet access to support online freedom.

Image: one1world @ Flickr.

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Guatemala’s Perez Molina wants to Discuss Drug Decriminalization

Staff — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:00:54 +0000

Today in Latin America

Top Story — Newly inaugurated Guatemalan President Pérez Molina called for a discussion of regional drug decriminalization during an appearance on Mexico’s Televisa network Wednesday, saying the strategy should be analyzed as soon as possible. “I believe that the decriminalization of drugs would have to be a strategy in which the whole region is in agreement,” Pérez Molina said in the interview. Pérez Molina also praised Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s efforts to combat drug trafficking in the region, alluding that the U.S. was not doing its share to fight drugs and reduce domestic consumption. During his presidential campaign, Pérez Molina advocated a hard-line stance toward drug trafficking.

Read more from Fox News Latino and El Nuevo Herald.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

Eleven Irish couples in Mexico are being questioned for their role in a child-trafficking ring in which at least 4 of 10 children rescued showed signs of sexual abuse.
False rumors that Tarahumara Indians were committing suicide rather than allowing their families to die of starvation have drawn attention to the widespread malnutrition affecting the Tarahumara after a record drought.
The New York Times took a look inside the seized homes of Mexican drug dealers on Wednesday.

Caribbean

Environmental activists in Puerto Rico are rallying against a $50 million waste gassification plant designed to turn landfill waste into energy.
Guards at Guantánamo prison reportedly found an English-language copy of Al-Qaeda’s “Inspire” magazine in the prison, in the midst of a debate about detainees’ rights to private legal mail.
A Puerto Rican police officer was killed by a gunman while attempting to thwart a robbery at a gas station.

Central America

A report by Mexico’s Civic Council on Public Security and Criminal Justice said that the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula has surpassed that of Ciudad Juarez as most violent city in the Americas.
A mass grave discovered in Honduras over the weekend has prompted authorities to suspect that there are at least three more.
The Costa Rican government blocked a subsidiary of Canadian mining company B2Gold from resuming work in the country after a 2007 mine collapse.

Andes

Colombian land reform under the “Victims’ Law” went into effect this month with the goal of returning 3.5 million hectares of land to 4 million Colombians displaced by the country’s internal conflict.
U.S. Ambassador to Peru Rose M. Likins delivered $2 million in equipment and training to Peru to support its security forces.
Bolivia’s Social Defense Deputy Minister Felipe Caceres said there are no Bolivian drug cartels and blamed trafficking on Brazilian and Colombian “emissaries” to Bolivia.

Southern Cone

British Prime Minister David Cameron’s attempt to characterize Argentina’s sovereignty claim to the disputed Falkland Islands as “colonialism” backfired.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague’s visit to Brazil on Wednesday was marked with tension over Brazil’s support of Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands.
The Chilean Court of Appeals asked Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter to clarify his statement that members of a Mapuche activist group are responsible for forest fires in the south of Chile.
A drought affecting Paraguay since November has forced Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo to declare a national food emergency for 90 days.
FIFA’s general secretary told Brazil that it must serve beer at its twelve World Cup venues, despite a ban on alcohol in the country’s stadiums, calling the issue “something we won’t negotiate”.

Image: Surizar @ Flickr.

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Accident in Haiti Kills at Least 29 and Injures more than 60

Staff — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:00:35 +0000

Today in Latin America

Top Story — A dump truck carrying gravel collided with a bus in Port-au-Prince, Haiti late Monday night, killing at least 29 people and injuring 67 more, according to officials. The bus crashed into a sidewalk on Route Delmas where vendors and pedestrians were gathered and the ensuing chaos was broadcast live from the scene of the accident, just in front of national television headquarters. Doctors Without Borders, on hand to help treat the injured along with the national police and Brazilian peacekeepers, said the organization treats an average of 300 people every week injured in vehicle accidents in three Haitian hospitals. Haitian President Michel Martelly’s office released a statement saying that the president had gone to the scene of the crash with Prime Minister Garry Conille.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

Mexican police said Monday that a Canadian citizen was shot dead in the state of Sonora while seven suspected gunmen were killed in Morelos in a shootout with police.
The Mexican Navy seized 14 shipping containers full of material used to make methamphetamine that was bound for Guatemala and Nicaragua.
Federal deportation hearings in Denver and Baltimore will resume this week after more than a month of review by prosecutors to determine which cases are lower priority because defendants have no criminal records.
A Gallup Poll released Tuesday says that more than 4 out of 10 Americans wish that there were fewer foreigners coming into the country.

Caribbean

Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, presumably under house arrest since his return to Haiti in January 2011, is enjoying high-profile public appearances and resurgent popularity in his native country.
Mariela Castro, daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro, says that Cuba will consider legalizing same-sex civil unions in 2012.

Central America

Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes apologized Monday for the Salvadoran miliary’s massacre of some 1,000 people in the village of El Mozote in 1981.
Despite international pressure to protect the human rights of gay and lesbians, at least 62 people in Honduras’ LGBT community have been murdered since 2010.
About 6,000 laborers working on the Panama Canal expansion project went on strike Monday for higher wages.

Andes

Venezuela announced Monday that it was withdrawing its consulate personnel from the U.S. due to threats by exiles with links to terrorism.
Peruvian lawmakers said that Peruvian Vice President Omar Chehade will attempt to hang onto his seat in Congress despite corruption charges and calls to step aside.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez disputed allegations Monday that his new defense minister, Henry Rangel Silva, aided drug traffickers and FARC rebels.
Colombia’s head prosecutor is investigating cost overruns of $1 million for the $2.5 million Under-20 World Cup in Colombia last August.
The last of eleven World War II-era U.S. bombs in the Galapagos Islands are expected to be destroyed by the Ecuadorian government on Tuesday.

Southern Cone

A U.S. appeals court threw out an $185 million award for BG Group Plc after the company claimed that the Argentine government’s freezing of natural gas prices drove a group it controlled into bankruptcy.
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera is predicting an energy deficit within the next three years as demand for energy outpaces supply.
Brazil is modernizing its Navy with new French-built submarines and expanding its role to patrol lakes and rivers.
The Rio de Janeiro police department said that it is investigating allegations that a contestant on Brazil’s Big Brother reality TV show sexually assaulted another.

Image: gina_vince @ Flickr.

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Chile: Jailed Mapuche Leaders Ready to Confront State

Staff — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:00:36 +0000

Today in Latin America

Top Story — Indigenous Mapuche activists jailed in the southern Chilean region of Araucania said Monday that they were prepared for a confrontation with the government in order to reclaim their native lands. In an interview with the AFP from his jail cell, Ramon Llanquileo, one of four Mapuche leaders belonging to the Arauco Malleco Coordination (CAM), also denied the Chilean government’s accusation that the CAM had intentionally set forest fires in Carahue and Quillon, killing seven firefighters and two civilians in early January. Llanquileo and three others were accused and sentenced for a violent attack on a prosecutor’s convoy in 2008, but charges of terrorism against the men were later dropped. ”The CAM recovers Mapuche land but we don’t attack people or provoke fires,” Llaniquileo said. However, the group does claim that it occupies land and has sabotaged some large forestry companies in the region.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

Mexico’s Tarahumara Indians are suffering from a long drought and food shortages in their home state of Chihuahua, with six people reportedly dying of malnutrition.
Three women were detained outside of Guadalajara, Mexico, on suspicion of involvement in a child-trafficking ring, adding to the four women detained last week.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona’s Maricopa County said he would appeal a federal judge’s ruling blocking his employees from detaining people based on the suspicion that they are in the U.S. illegally.

Caribbean

U.S. actor Sean Penn was named ambassador to Haiti by Haitian foreign minister Laurent Lamothe on Saturday.
26 shipwrecked Cubans landed on the Florida Keys on Friday and were taken in by the U.S. border patrol, and will be permitted to stay in the U.S.
The wife of jailed Cuban dissident Wilman Villar said that her husband was in a coma and near death after a hunger strike.
The Puerto Rican Baseball League has been reduced to four teams and no longer fields a team in the capital of San Juan.
Puerto Rico is installing a tsunami warning system in San Juan.

Central America

Three young women were found murdered inside a shack on the outskirts of San Salvador, and may have been victims of drug gang violence.
The FBI, U.S. Coast Guard and Canadian Navy recovered more than 6,700 kilograms of cocaine in a dive off the coast of Honduras, authorities reported Monday.
158 Peace Corps volunteers left Honduras on Monday a week after the U.S. government announced that the volunteers would be pulled out after operating in the country since 1963.

Andes

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said that FARC rebels have been reduced to selling off cattle in order to raise money.
Venezuelan oil minister Rafael Ramírez said Sunday that Venezuela would leave the World Bank international arbitration body and settle disputes with its own judicial system.
A man suspected of cutting women on the buttocks in Virginia was arrested in Peru on Friday.
Homemade banana liquor apparently contaminated by pesticides has killed at least one person in Colombia, according to authorities.
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa celebrated five years in power on Sunday.

Southern Cone

Eighty landless Uruguayan families have taken over a farm in the northern department of Artigas to call for lands promised by the government.
FIFA’s general secretary urged Brazilian lawmakers to approve a bill granting FIFA exclusive rights at Brazil’s 2014 World Cup during a visit Monday.
In a decision angering both Argentina and Princess Cruises, the Falkland Islands turned away a cruise ship on Saturday, saying that passengers onboard with stomach flu would tax the islands’ medical resources.

Image: cÁmARa AccióN @ Flickr.

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Haiti Still Recovering Two Years After Earthquake

Staff — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:00:15 +0000

Today in Latin America

Top Story — Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the Magnitude 7 earthquake that destroyed much of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and left around 316,000 people dead. Since then the country has suffered a widespread cholera outbreak and a contested election that saw singer Michel Martelly take the presidency. Thousands of Haitians are still living in makeshift tent shelters and the country has had a tough road to recovery. While three billion dollars was donated to help the country rebuild, only 18 percent of that money ever made it to the Haitian government, according to the United Nations. ”The international community showed an incredible amount of generosity towards Haiti,” said Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille. “Unfortunately, the systems weren’t in place to make sure that the funding is channeled in an effective way.”

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

Democratic opponents of Arizona’s tough immigration law plan to file a bill that would repeal the law, which is currently blocked by a federal judge pending a Supreme Court decision.
Mexico’s Tourism Department will spend $8 million to promote tourism in 2012 to the “Mayan World”.
Mexican police in Ciudad Juarez ticketed and impounded the toy motorcycle of a six year-old boy after he crashed into an SUV on December 27, according to his mother.
Mercedes-Benz came under fire from conservatives and Cuban-Americans at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas after displaying an enormous image of revolutionary Che Guevara during its presentation.

Caribbean

The Cuban government is allowing some state-run cafes and food services to be privately managed in an experiment in eastern Holguin province.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pronounced Fidel Castro “healthy and fit” on Thursday after meeting with the Cuban leader on his tour of Latin America.

Central America

Guatemalan President-elect Otto Pérez Molina wants to restore U.S. military aid to the country.
At least one inmate was killed in a gang fight inside a juvenile prison in El Salvador.
Costa Rica fell from 26th to 31st in the global peace rankings, making it the second most peaceful Latin American nation behind Uruguay.

Andes

The former husband of Ingrid Betancourt is selling the film rights to his two books about his French-Colombian wife’s time as a hostage.
Venezuela’s Catholic Church raised concerns over the country’s soaring violence rate and asked President Hugo Chávez to curb murders.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Ecuador Thursday for the last leg of his Latin American tour.
The work stoppage of Peru’s biggest mining project due to protests is costing about $2 million a day, according to a company official.
An electric train running between the Peruvian suburb of Villa El Salvador and Lima finally made its first run on January 9 after construction began in 1986.

Southern Cone

Brazilians who check emails from work after hours can qualify for overtime pay under a new law.
Chile has been named the seventh most economically free country in the world by the annual Index of Economic Freedom, pushing it past the U.S.
Uruguay reaffirmed its support for Argentina’s sovereignty claim in the Malvinas Islands and said its stance “has not changed an iota.”

Image: UN Photo/Pasqual Gorriz @ Flickr.

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