Latin America

• Tuesday, April 16th 2013 - 02:43 UTC

  Brazil, Unasur full support for Maduro & question Capriles attitude; US and OAS more cautious

  

  Despite opposition protests demanding a ballot recount, congratulations are pouring in for Venezuela’s proclaimed President Nicolas Maduro: Brazil, Argentina, Russia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Unasur, although the OAS and the US have adopted a more cautious attitude.

• Tuesday, April 16th 2013 - 02:39 UTC

  Maduro proclaimed elected president; Capriles continues to protest for a recount of ballots

  

  Venezuela's election authority on Monday formally proclaimed Nicolas Maduro the winner of Sunday's presidential vote, despite insistence by the opposition that the ceremony be suspended until a complete recount of votes was carried out given the very tight result.

• Monday, April 15th 2013 - 11:36 UTC

  Growing frustration and recriminations in Uruguayan cabinet over economic policy

  

  Relations inside the Uruguayan cabinet remain tense with some ministers in non-talking terms even when President Jose Mujica cancelled the Monday full ministerial turnout for three specific areas, security, social affairs and production meetings, which function every two weeks.

• Monday, April 15th 2013 - 06:39 UTC

  Capriles won’t accept presidential result until “every vote is recounted, one by one”

  

  Denouncing election irregularities, Venezuelan opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski demanded a recount and said early Monday that he will not recognize the country's presidential results ”until every vote is counted”. His comments came less than an hour after officials said the man former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez handpicked to be his successor had won the country's presidential vote.

• Monday, April 15th 2013 - 06:07 UTC

  Bad start for Maduro: Capriles showing debilitates him inside the Bolivarian nomenclature

  

  Following five hours of a long recount process Venezuela’s National Electoral Council announced early Monday morning that acting president Nicolas Maduro is the new head of state, having defeated Henrique Capriles by less than a two percentage point difference.

• Monday, April 15th 2013 - 03:10 UTC

  Mujica envoy to Buenos Aires to try and re-establish ‘normal contacts’ with Cristina Fernandez

  

  Uruguay’s Deputy Foreign minister Roberto Conde is scheduled to travel to Buenos Aires this week as part of President Jose Mujica’s administration efforts to rebuild bilateral relations with Argentina following his ‘coarse, jail-slang’ descriptions of president Cristina Fernandez and her late husband Nestor Kirchner, which were refuted as ‘unacceptable and denigrating”.

• Monday, April 15th 2013 - 03:05 UTC

  Bachelet proclaimed pre-candidate promises tax and education reforms

  

  Former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet was proclaimed as pre-candidate for the coming presidential elections next November 17 during a political rally in Santiago organized by the Socialists and the Party for Democracy (PPD).

• Saturday, April 13th 2013 - 01:37 UTC

  Falkland Islands’ history and referendum message impact in Honduras and Guatemala

  

  The way the Falkland Islands have developed into a self governing and self financing country and the recent referendum with its strong message, attracted genuine attention of another two countries visited by a Falklands’ delegation.

• Friday, April 12th 2013 - 06:54 UTC

  Maduro pledges he will be elected president and later ‘president’ of Mercosur

  

  In his closing massive campaign rally in Caracas, Thursday evening incumbent candidate Nicolas Maduro pledged that next Sunday he will win the Venezuelan presidential election and later will take over the presidency of Mercosur.

• Friday, April 12th 2013 - 06:50 UTC

  Mujica ‘deepest apologies’ to Cristina Fernandez for the ‘coarse, jail-language’

  

  “My deepest apologies to those whom I might have hurt with my words in recent days” said Uruguayan president Jose Mujica in his daily broadcast on Thursday, the first public apology for the controversial expressions he used last week to refer to Argentine president Cristina Fernandez and her late husband Nestor Kirchner.