Latin America: Week in Review, Mexico
Mexico Aids U.S. To Foil Iranian Assassination Attempt Of Saudi Ambassador
October 12, 2011 By Staff
Today in Latin America
Top Story — After being denied entry to Mexico, an Iranian-American man was arrested by U.S. authorities for allegedly plotting to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States. Mexico’s deputy foreign minister for North America Julian Ventura gave few details about the role Mexican authorities played in preventing the suspect, Manssor Arbabsiar, from blowing up Saudi Ambassador Adel Al-Jubeir in the U.S. However Ventura did say that Arbabsiar was denied entry to Mexico on September 29 because a warrant was issued for his arrest and that he was detained at New York City’s Kennedy airport during a return stopover. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that Arbabsiar was arrested upon his return from Mexico, where he had met with an undercover U.S. agent posing as a member of a Mexican drug cartel. The U.S. Justice Department charged Arbabsiar along with Gholam Shakuri, a member of Iran’s Quds Force, with conspiring to kill al-Jubeir with a bomb in a restaurant. The Mexican Embassy in Washington D.C. released a statement suggesting authorities from the two countries cooperated closely. “From the very first moment, Mexico and the United States exchanged information and acted in a coordinated way,” the embassy said.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- A U.S. Senate panel approved Tuesday free trade deals with Colombia and Panama after a long delay.
- Lawyers for Alabama asked a federal appeals court not to block the state’s controversial immigration law because of an appeal filed by the U.S. government and civil rights groups.
- The flow of Central American migrants coming through Mexico fell 70 percent from 2005 to 2010, according to the country’s National Migration Institute.
- Hurricane Jova is expected to soon make landfall on Mexico’s Pacific coast, but has weakened to a Category 2 storm.
Caribbean
- Puerto Rico’s coquí llanero frog may become protected as an endangered species, U.S. environmental officials announced Tuesday.
- The Dominican government has confiscated or annulled almost 1,600 birth certificates for people of Haitian descent, the Jesuit Refugee and Migrant Services told reporters Tuesday.
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said on state television that he will return to Cuba next week for medical tests to evaluate his cancer treatment.
- Three years after Canada pledged $18 million to build a national police academy in Haiti, the project has het to begin, according to a report in The Vancouver Sun.
Central America
- Belize is becoming a transit hub for Mexican drug cartels smuggling cocaine and other substances through Central America, according to U.S. narcotics agents and Belizean officials.
- A Catholic bishop in Honduras said he plans to run for president because politics in the country “screwed the poor.”
- U.S. authorities inspecting commercial items from a courier on a Taca Airlines flight from El Salvador discovered 245 grams of cocaine hidden inside a set of bed knobs.
- Intel Costa Rica’s general manager said that the country’s new tax law revision may threaten overseas investment.
Andes
- Venezuela rejected a number of of recommendations Tuesday made by the United Nations as part of a human rights evaluation.
- Ecuador’s Planning Secretary said Tuesday that President Rafael Correa will not veto a proposed anti-monopoly law.
- Colombian officials said that an airstrike killed 11 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group and wounded as many as 30 others.
- The Peruvian government will force Freeport-McMoRan to stop relying on volunteer workers to keep its Cerro Verde mine open during a strike, or the mining company will have to pay a fine.
- The Bolivian government is providing teachers with free laptops that feature a stenciled image of President Evo Morales on the back.
Southern Cone
- Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said Tuesday that the expansion of financial aid for Brazil’s poorest citizens will not boost the nation’s birthrate.
- Paraguayan troops have poured into two northern provinces in an effort to combat a guerrilla movement that has killed members of local police forces as well as kidnapped for ransom and robbed local banks.
Image: U.S. Embassy Kabul Afghanistan @ Flickr.
