Chile, Latin America: Week in Review
Chile: Police Clash With Student Protestors Over Educational Reforms
August 5, 2011 By Staff
Today in Latin America
Top Story — Chilean police clashed with protesters on Thursday, in a confrontation that led to at least 552 detentions and 29 police injuries. The incident was the latest in a series of protests and student strikes that has dragged on since May. President Sebastián Piñera has made two proposals to reform the education system, but continues to encounter resistance from the student groups. The education protests have sent Piñera’s approval ratings tumbling to 26 percent, according to a poll released yesterday by CEP. The figure marks the lowest level a president has attained since Chile transitioned back to Democracy in 1990.
Read more in this news brief.
Just Published at the Latin America News Dispatch
- Violence against Mexico’s LGBT community is darkening what should be its shining moment — the passage of milestone legislation, including a law legalizing gay marriage in Mexico City. Daniel Hertz reports from Mexico’s capital.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- The Mexican military arrested a man in the northern city of Saltillo who was allegedly the number two financial operator for the Zetas drug cartel.
- Until a legal battle over the offer is resolved, Mexico’s banking regulator can’t rule on a bid by Grupo Mexico to up its stake in airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico.
Caribbean
- Miami’s National Hurricane Center issued a warning for Haiti and parts of the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and Cuba, as Tropical Storm Emily moves toward the island of Hispañola. 600,000 people remain homeless in Haiti, after the Jan. 12 earthquake last year.
- Cuban authorities have ordered cuts of up to 60 percent in prices for agricultural equipment to newly authorized private farmers who cultivate state land.
Central America
- Police in El Salvador have found links between a local street gang and Mexico’s violent Zetas drug cartel.
- Honduras restored diplomatic relations with Nicaragua earlier this week after the later broke off ties following the ousting of former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in 2009.
- Israel’s deputy director-general for Latin America expressed “surprise” and “disappointment” at Honduras recognizing Palestinian statehood.
- A judge in Guatemala said that a U.S. family must return their adopted daughter to her birth mother, siding with a human rights group that says the girl was stolen by a child trafficking ring.
Andes
- Senate Congress members may have reached a deal to bring pending free trade deals with Colombia and Panama to a vote.
- Venezuela signed a $1 billion deal with Iran to build 10,000 houses, according to a statement on the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry’s Web site.
- Bolivian police dismantled a large cocaine-producing laboratory in the province of Santa Cruz.
- The Committee to Protect Journalists congratulated Peruvian President Ollanta Humala for his first week in office but said that the country needs to take steps to decriminalize defamation.
- Dole Food signed a collective bargaining agreement with Ecuador’s banana union after months of negotiations.
Southern Cone
- Industrial & Commercial Bank of China is close to a deal to acquire Standard Bank Group Ltd.’s Argentina unit for $800 million.
- A family feud puts in jeopardy the $2.6 billion takeover of Schincariol, Brazil’s second-largest brewer, by Japan’s Kirin Holdings.
Image: FabsY_ @ Flickr.
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