Latin America

• Thursday, September 1st 2016 - 10:58 UTC

  Fears the “Great March on Caracas” could trigger violent clashes between Chavistas and opposition

  

  Venezuela's opposition and government head into a crucial test of strength this Thursday with massive marches for and against a referendum to recall President Nicolas Maduro that have raised fears of a violent confrontation.

• Thursday, September 1st 2016 - 10:45 UTC

  First US commercial flight lands in Cuba in more than half a century

  

  United States Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx stepped onto Cuban soil from the first U.S. commercial flight to the island nation in more than half a century on Wednesday, a JetBlue Airways flight from Florida, marking a big step in restoring normal relations between the U.S. and Cuba.

• Thursday, September 1st 2016 - 10:29 UTC

  Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia freeze relations with Brazil in support of Rousseff

  

  Venezuela on Wednesday withdrew its ambassador from Brazil and froze ties in response to president Dilma Rousseff's removal from office.

• Thursday, September 1st 2016 - 10:10 UTC

  Pope declines request to help select judges for Colombia's peace tribunal

  

  The Vatican announced Wednesday that, although Pope Francis is pleased about a peace deal between the government of Colombia and the country’s guerrillas, he has declined a request to have a Vatican envoy help select judges for a new peace tribunal.

• Thursday, September 1st 2016 - 07:35 UTC

  Guantanamo Bay inmate is back in Uruguay following his arrest in Venezuela

  

  A former Guantanamo Bay inmate who was resettled in Uruguay and then arrested in Venezuela after going missing has been sent back to Uruguay, officials announced in Montevideo. Syrian Jihad Diyab, 45, who was resettled in Uruguay as a refugee in 2014 -- was jailed at the headquarters of the Venezuelan secret police after going off the radar in Uruguay then traveling to Venezuela, apparently evading border control.

• Tuesday, August 30th 2016 - 04:47 UTC

  Rousseff claims impeachment is a new type of coup; street protests in her support

  

  Brazil's suspended president, Dilma Rousseff, took the stand on Monday at her impeachment trial in the Senate, delivering a last-ditch defense to prevent her final removal from office. “Don’t expect from me the obliging silence of cowards,” Ms. Rousseff, 68, said in a withering attack on her opponents at the start of her testimony.

• Monday, August 29th 2016 - 06:41 UTC

  Morales claims killing of minister and three miners was a coup attempt

  

  Morales claimed that the violent miners protests this week that resulted in the beating and killing of Deputy Interior Minister Rodolfo Illanes and the deaths of three demonstrators were the latest unsuccessful attempt by his political enemies to forcibly remove him from office.

• Sunday, August 28th 2016 - 03:59 UTC

  Eight Paraguayan soldiers executed by rural guerrillas following an attack on a patrol

  

  Eight Paraguayan soldiers died on Saturday in a rural roadside explosion, followed by execution of survivors, 500 kilometers north of the capital Asunción, the government said, blaming it on a criminal group which identifies itself as the EPP, acronym for Paraguayan People's Army.

• Sunday, August 28th 2016 - 03:56 UTC

  Rousseff takes the stand on Monday, following the round of defense witnesses

  

  Suspended Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff's former economy minister testified Saturday that Rousseff did not break any laws justifying impeachment, as her trial closed in on next week's climax. Rousseff is accused of taking illegal state loans to help bridge budget shortfalls and mask the true state of the economy during her 2014 reelection campaign. The president argues the charges are trumped up and amount to a rightwing coup.

• Saturday, August 27th 2016 - 05:12 UTC

  PM Theresa May congratulates President Santos on the historic peace deal

  

  British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke with President Juan Manuel Santos to congratulate him about the historic peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). President Santos thanked the UK for its central role in helping reach the agreement.