Latin America: Week in Review
OAS To Send Delegation To Assess Political Situation In Honduras
June 9, 2010 By Staff
Ex-president of Honduras Manuel Zelaya.
Today in Latin America
Top Story — The 40th General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) voted on Tuesday to send a high-level delegation to Honduras in order to assess the situation in the country.
While the resolution does not clearly specify the purpose of the delegation, the decision to send it was apparently prompted by disagreement over whether Honduras should be readmitted to the hemispheric body.
The delegation will be headed by secretary-general of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, and must make its recommendation “no later than July 30th, 2010,” according to a press release.
Honduras was dismissed from the OAS following a coup against the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya in the summer of 2009. The coup leaders accused Zelaya of attempting to perpetuate himself in power and subsequently held elections in which Zelaya was barred from participating.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced on Monday that the Obama administration favors reinstating Honduras’ membership in the OAS. “Now it is time for the hemisphere as a whole to move forward and welcome Honduras back into the Inter-American community,” she said at the OAS meeting in Lima, Peru.
The proposal to reinstate Honduras has divided the OAS, with many Latin American nations arguing that Honduras must take further steps to demonstrate its commitment to democracy and human rights.
“Honduras’s return to the OAS must be linked to specific means for ensuring re-democratization and the establishment of fundamental rights,” Brazilian deputy foreign minister Antonio de Aguiar Patriota said, according to The BBC. He cited allowing Zelaya back into the country as one condition.
Just Published at the Latin America News Dispatch
- Read the third installment of The Latin America News Dispatch’s World Cup Preview, featuring Group E and F.
- Alison Bowen in her blog, Beyond Borders, reports on New York groups drawing attention to immigration reform in the U.S.
- A case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights may challenge Brazil’s amnesty law, which shields people from punishment for political crimes committed during the military dictatorship.
- Silvio Rodríguez visits the United States for the first time in 30 years. The Latin America News Dispatch reports on the press conference he gave in New York City on Tuesday.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- A 14-year-old boy was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent at an international bridge near downtown El Paso, Texas.
- Mexican authorities have recovered 55 bodies from abandoned mine near Taxco in Guerrero state since finding the first bodies in May. Drug cartels are the main suspects for why the bodies were in the mine.
- A 12-year became the youngest matador to perform in Mexico City’s premier bullfighting arena.
Caribbean
- The Cuban government plans to split Havana province in two, as part of an initiative favored by head of state Raúl Castro to improve efficiency.
- The New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday the permanent closure of three Brooklyn businesses accused of illegally offering immigration advice and charging exorbitant prices to file paperwork.
- A woman gave birth to quintuplets in northern Dominican Republic.
Central America
- The head of the United Nations anti-impunity commission in Guatemala quit after citing that the government had not kept its promise to reform the justice system.
- The Honduran government has ordered a work schedule that allows 200,000 public employees time off to watch the national team play in the World Cup.
- A Los Angeles judge, who is overseeing a case by Nicaraguan banana workers against Dole, said she was worried about her safety and those of witnesses due to escalating unrest in Nicaragua.
- Dredging International has won the contract to dredge an area of the Panama Canal’s manmade body of water, Gatun Lake.
Andes
- The Colombian peso is nearing a three week high thanks to speculation foreign direct investment into oil and mining.
- Venezuelan authorities arrested two more former officials allegedly responsible for allowing 1,200 shipping containers filled with food to rot.
- Peruvian President Alan Garcia’s approval rating has sunk, despite the country’s recent economic upturn.
- During a stop in Qutio, Ecuador, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attacked Latin American nations who fail to collect taxes from wealthy citizens.
- Bolivian scientists hope to rescue a group of pink river dolphins stranded in the mud-clogged Paila River.
Southern Cone
- Brazil’s economy is growing at the fastest rate in over a decade, after posting a 9 percent growth in GDP over the first three months of 2010, compared to the same time last year.
- Chilean ambassador to Argentina Miguel Otero resigned on Tuesday, after his comments about former dictator Augusto Pinochet caused an uproar in both countries.
- The OAS voted unanimously to restart negotiations between Britain and Argentina on the disputed sovereignty over the Falklands Islands, known in Argentina as the Malvinas.
- A new round of talks began this week in Paraguay to consider Venezuela’s incorporation into Merco Sur and Paraguay’s inclusion into UNASUR, both of which have been stalled for months.
Image: Presidencia de la República del Ecuador @ Flickr.
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3 Comments
[…] of local talent which will have to work hard to beat some of the more experienced squads. Also the political unrest in the country of the past year might have players minds […]
[…] OAS to send delegation to assess political situation in Honduras, Latin America News Dispatch […]
[…] While the OAS resolution authorizing the visit does not clearly specify the purpose of the delegation, the decision to send it was apparently prompted by disagreement over whether Honduras should be readmitted to the hemispheric body, Latin America News Dispatch reported. […]
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