A newly formed Latin American and Caribbean organization has issued statements in support of Argentina’s claim to sovereignty over the British-ruled Falkland Islands and against U.S. sanctions on Cuba at the end of its first two-day summit. However, the 33-member Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, or CELAC, declined to engage in stronger anti-Western [...]
2011 Dec 07 | Posted in
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CENTRAL AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN,
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Mexican President Felipe Calderon admitted on Sunday that in spite of combating drug cartels for five years, criminals today pose “an open threat” to Mexico’s democratic society. In a speech marking the start of his sixth and last year in the presidency, Calderon said that interference in elections by drug gangs “is a new fact, a worrisome fact.” [...]
2011 Dec 06 | Posted in
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Counter Narcotics,
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Illegal Drugs Trafficking,
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Caught up in a corruption scandal, the leader of Mexico’s leading opposition party resigned on Friday, just seven months before national elections in which his candidate is favored by a wide margin. Humberto Moreira, who became president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) president in March of this year, was under pressure to resign for contracting [...]
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent thousands of National Guard soldiers into the streets of Caracas and surrounding states on Thursday, to reinforce police overwhelmed by widespread violent crime. “We’ve been fighting and reducing overall crime rates, but we’ve fallen short when it comes to the number of homicides,” Chavez said to troops at a downtown [...]
2011 Nov 20 | Posted in
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Another Mexican official on Friday accused drug traffickers of attempting to influence elections in the western state of Michoacan, a charge previously leveled by some candidates and party leaders. Outgoing acting interior secretary Juan Marcos Gutierrez claimed a drug cartel conducted “boldfaced interference” in last Sunday’s state elections. Although he declined to name the group, a [...]
2011 Nov 20 | Posted in
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Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff on Friday approved the formation of a Truth Commission to investigate human rights abuses committed during and prior to that nation’s military dictatorship, which ran from 1964 to 1985. The creation of the seven member commission is the strongest step yet taken by the Brazilian government to resolve the many incidents of violence [...]
Mexican Interior Secretary Francisco Blake Mora, point man for that nation’s ongoing war against violent drug cartels, died Friday when his helicopter crashed route to a meeting of judicial officials. He was 45. Blake Mora was President Felipe Calderon’s sword bearer in the bloody military and law-enforcement push against traffickers, frequently traveling to violence-racked cities [...]
2011 Nov 12 | Posted in
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JUSTICE,
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Bolivia and the United States on Monday announced the end of their three-year stalemate, with the signing of a “framework agreement” to re-establish diplomatic relations. Bolivian president Evo Morales in 2008 expelled the US ambassador and DEA agents, accusing them of supporting conspiracies by his conservative opposition. Washington soon reciprocated by inviting the Bolivian ambassador [...]
The death last week of Alfonso Cano, who replaced Manuel “Sure Shot” Marulanda as head of the Colombian FARC in 2008, leaves a historic vacuum at the top of Latin America’s most long-lived guerrilla movement. Cano, 63, was considered the principal ideologue of the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, having dominated their political wing before [...]
Doctors and nurses deployed by the dozen from a Chinese navy hospital ship in Jamaica Tuesday, as part of a humanitarian mission to portray China’s growing military as a responsible global power. China’s 584 foot Peace Ark carries over 100 medical volunteers offering free surgery, CAT scans, eye care and other procedures. Launched three years [...]
