Latin America

• Monday, April 5th 2010 - 23:23 UTC

  Fariñas reply to Raul Castro: determined to continue “fasting until death”

  

  Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas accepted as a challenge the warning launched on Sunday by president Raul Castro that Havana will not be “blackmailed or yield” to “hunger strikers” and promised that now “more than ever” he was determined “to continue fasting until death”.

• Friday, April 2nd 2010 - 23:03 UTC

  Putin consolidates Russian partnership with Venezuela

  

  Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived Friday in Venezuela for his first visit to the OPEC nation as he prepared to sign energy, defense, and financial agreements with President Hugo Chavez.

• Thursday, April 1st 2010 - 06:01 UTC

  Machu Picchu set to reopen to tourists

  

  Peru's most treasured archaeological site, Machu Picchu, is due to be formally re-opened after it was closed for two months.

• Thursday, April 1st 2010 - 05:46 UTC

  Around 50 percent of foreigners’ hotel reservations cancelled in Chile

  

  The historic February 27th earthquake left more than 90 percent of Chile’s hotels and tourist services without structural damage. The same can’t be said about Chile’s tourism industry. A huge number – perhaps as much as half – of all upcoming reservations made by foreigners have been cancelled.

• Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 19:38 UTC

  Putin’s visits Venezuela Friday, sets alarm bells ringing in Washington

  

  Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will pay his first visit to Venezuela to meet with President Hugo Chavez on April 2, a government source told RIA Novosti in Moscow on Wednesday.

• Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 19:10 UTC

  Chilean president announces housing emergency plan totalling 2.5 billion USD

  

  Chilean President Sebastian Piñera announced this week the second part of his emergency reconstruction plan during a visit to the lower-middle class borough of Lo Prado. Beneficiaries of the new program are mostly lower middle class families.

• Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 18:28 UTC

  US and EU pledge 2.75 billion USD in aid to rebuild Haiti

  

  United States and the European Union pledged Wednesday a combined 2.75 billion USD in aid for rebuilding Haiti following the January earthquake that killed about 200,000 people and devastated the capital, Port-au-Prince.

• Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 18:24 UTC

  High-quality oil in once guerrilla infested Colombian jungle

  

  Petrominerales Ltd., mostly owned by Canadian companies said Monday that an oil well drilled in Colombia has produced a prolific 15,600 barrels of high-quality crude per day, following similarly strong results from two other wells on its Candelilla discovery.

• Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 18:15 UTC

  Former Defence minister leads in Colombia’s presidential May election

  

  According to the latest poll by Ipsos-Napoleon Franco published by Colombian newspaper Semana over the weekend, the former Defence minister in President Alvaro Uribe cabinet, Juan Manuel Santos, is clearly ahead in the presidential polls with 36% vote intention.

• Wednesday, March 31st 2010 - 18:13 UTC

  Colombia’s FARC warns next release only under “humanitarian exchange”

  

  Colombian army Sgt. Pablo Emilio Moncayo emerged from more than a dozen years in captivity Tuesday as Marxist inspired drug funded FARC rebels released him to a humanitarian delegation headed by opposition Senator Piedad Cordoba.