Latin America: Week in Review, Venezuela
Venezuela Election: Henrique Capriles Rally Draws Thousands
October 1, 2012 By Staff
Top Story — Henrique Capriles, the Venezuelan opposition candidate for the upcoming presidential elections, led a rally that gathered as many as 260,000 supporters on Sunday.
One week before the presidential election scheduled for Oct. 7, Capriles packed Bolivar Avenue, the biggest road in Venezuela’s capital. The crowd of supporters was the largest opposition gathering in recent years.
Read more at the Associated Press.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is planning to grant reprieves to same-sex couples in deportation cases, the Associated Press reports.
- Mexico’s union members expressed concern over the weekend over the lower house’s passing of a major labor reform law that they say would strip workers of benefits.
Caribbean
- Wealthy prison inmates in the Dominican Republic were stripped of their perks, including laptops and air conditioning, on Friday.
- Puerto Rican pop star Chayanne’s representative was released from a Guatemalan jail on Saturday. Vega is still under investigation for money laundering.
Central America
- Paul Romer, the economist responsible for the plan to establish privately run cities in Honduras, has been pushed out of his own project.
- The Honduran Government is stationing soldiers on public buses to reduce soaring levels of violent crime.
- One of Guatemala’s richest men, Joe Harbie, died in a helicopter crash on Friday.
Andes
- Henrique Capriles issued a statement Sunday demanding justice for the killings of three Venezuelan opposition activists in Barinas state over the weekend.
- Bolivian miners signed a deal with the government over the weekend, ending a dispute over control of rich mining deposits.
Southern Cone
- Chevron paid a $17.3 million fine for unspecified irregularities leading to an oil spill off the coast of Brazil last year.
- Paraguay’s economy shrank 2.3 percent after a severe drought affected soybean exports, the central bank said on Friday.
Image: jorgelmartinezf @ Flickr.
Subscribe to Today in Latin America by Email
