Latin America

• Thursday, February 5th 2015 - 03:26 UTC

  Uruguay with Pope's blessing to try new approach to human rights and disappeared persons issues

  

  Uruguay will be attempting a new approach to the human rights and disappeared persons issues, a still unfinished legacy from the military dictatorship, (1973/1984) and the decade of armed sedition which preceded the collapse of the country's democracy. The announcement is expected later this month and basically means replacing “truth and justice” for “truth and memory”, following to a certain extent the South African experience.

• Saturday, January 31st 2015 - 10:44 UTC

  Moody's downgrades Petrobras credit rating because of corruption scandal

  

  Moody's Investors Service has downgraded the credit rating of Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras because of the widening kickback-corruption scandal affecting the country's largest corporation.The credit rating agency announced its decision late Thursday in a statement posted on its website.

• Saturday, January 31st 2015 - 09:30 UTC

  Despite fourth quarter blip US economy fundamentals remain robust with strong tailwind

  

  US economic growth slowed sharply in the fourth quarter as weak business spending and a wider trade deficit offset the fastest pace of consumer spending since 2006. GDP expanded at a 2.6% annual pace after the third quarter's spectacular 5%, the Commerce Department said in its first fourth-quarter GDP snapshot.

• Saturday, January 31st 2015 - 09:23 UTC

  Falklands/Malvinas: Celac summit, including Commonwealth members, support Argentina's 'legitimate' claims

  

  The Celac summit held in Costa Rica and which brings together all Latin American and Caribbean countries released a declaration expressing full support for Argentina's 'legitimate' rights over the Falklands/Malvinas, recalls that 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of Resolution 2065 (first UN Assembly General resolution on the Falklands dispute) and again call on the goods offices of Ban Ki-moon to help start negotiations on the Argentina/UK dispute.

• Thursday, January 29th 2015 - 07:45 UTC

  Parents of 43 Mexican kidnapped students refuse to accept the 'official' probe results

  

  The parents of the 43 students kidnapped four months ago in the southern state of Guerrero say Mexico's attorney general has no scientific proof to support his assertion that the youths were killed and their bodies burned.

• Thursday, January 29th 2015 - 06:53 UTC

  Fidel Castro in “good health and feels great admiration for Pope Francis”

  

  Fidel Castro is in good health and feels “deep admiration” for Pope Francis, Brazilian intellectual Frei Betto said on Wednesday a day after meeting with Cuba's former president. He and Fidel discussed a wide range of subjects and the 88-year-old leader of the Cuban Revolution remains “very optimistic,” Betto told reporters in Havana.

• Thursday, January 29th 2015 - 06:32 UTC

  Raul Castro demands the return of Guantanamo and compensation for US trade embargo

  

  Cuban President Raul Castro demanded on Wednesday that the United States return the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba and compensate his country for damages before the two nations re-establish normal relations.

• Wednesday, January 28th 2015 - 07:21 UTC

  US moves into the Caribbean to replace Venezuela as cheap gas supplier

  

  The United States Monday rolled out a new initiative for Caribbean countries to ensure energy security in a move widely seen as distancing the Caribbean from Venezuela for their oil and energy needs.

• Tuesday, January 27th 2015 - 06:18 UTC

  Poverty reduction in Latin America stalls during 2014: totals 167 million

  

  Poverty affected 28% of Latin America’s population in 2014, revealing that its decline has stalled at around that level since 2012, while indigence rose to 12.0% from 11.3% during the same two-year period in an overall context of economic deceleration, according to projections from a study presented On Monday by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.

• Monday, January 26th 2015 - 07:17 UTC

  Venezuela denies authorization to former presidents to visit political prisoner

  

  The Venezuelan government has turned down a request by former presidents of Chile and Colombia to visit opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez in jail. Chile's Sebastian Piñera and Colombia's Andres Pastrana say they are in Venezuela to support the opposition and have called for the release of Mr Lopez, who was arrested nearly a year ago.