Marking a break from established policy, the Chilean government is considering the opposition’s proposal to increase the mining royalty tax. Government ministers are currently studying the implications of a tax increase, the money from which would be used to aid in earthquake reconstruction.
Haiti will need 11.5 billion US dollars to rebuild after the devastating earthquake in January, the country's government estimates. The amount is a rough estimate of money required for a complete overhaul of the impoverished country, officials say.
The president of the European Parliament has sharply condemned Cuba for arresting a group of women, all of them relatives of political prisoners, who were demonstrating in Havana on Wednesday.
Relatives of two sisters who died in the Feb. 27 tsunami are suing Chilean government agencies they claim are responsible for the absence of an adequate tsunami warning.
The Chilean government has updated the death toll from the Feb. 27 earthquake, saying 700 people lost their lives during or following the quake. Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said just over 500 are confirmed dead, with another 200 missing.
Chile’s new president Sebastián Piñera will make his first international visit next month when he attends the Nuclear Safety Summit in Washington, responding to an invitation from U.S. President Barack Obama.
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) member countries this week agreed to resume lending to Honduras, the latest development institution to recognize the new government of President Porfirio Lobo.
The Inter-American Commission On Human Rights (CIDH) from the Organization of American States, OAS, this week elected Chilean human rights attorney Felipe Gonzalez as its new president.
Seven years after Cuba’s notorious Black Spring clampdown on independent journalism, IPI (International Press Institute) calls for the immediate release of the 19 journalists jailed in 2003 who still remain in prison, as well as of the six other journalists jailed after 2003.
Amnesty International Wednesday called on the Cuban authorities to release all dissidents unfairly detained and to revoke laws restricting freedom of expression and the right to free assembly and association.