Politics

• Friday, February 22nd 2013 - 01:11 UTC

  Cuban dissident wants an end to US economic embargo and close down Guantanamo

  

  Famed Cuban dissident Yoani Sanchez defended before the Brazilian Congress the end of the US economic embargo and called for the closing down of the US Guantanamo military base.

• Thursday, February 21st 2013 - 04:43 UTC

  Unasur, invited by electoral officials will observe the April 21 election in Paraguay

  

  Paraguay’s Superior Electoral Tribunal, TSJE said on Wednesday that representatives from Unasur, Union of South American Nations, would be present as observers of the electoral process scheduled for next April. The accord was signed by TSJE president Alberto Ramirez Zamonini and the head of Unasur High Level Group, Salomon Lerner.

• Thursday, February 21st 2013 - 04:41 UTC

  Correa hopeful Paraguayan elections will be “transparent and democratic”

  

  Re-elected Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa is hopeful “transparent and democratic” elections will be held in Paraguay next April, a country with which he is waiting to normalize relations.

• Thursday, February 21st 2013 - 04:39 UTC

  Latinamerica’s achievements and challenges exposed in London before LSE

  

  The achievements of democracy in Latin America, while simultaneously warning of the challenges that remain and that must be addressed in order to avoid stagnation in the current political process the region has been following in recent years, was highlighted by OAS chief in an address to the London School of Economics, LSE.

• Thursday, February 21st 2013 - 01:47 UTC

  Nationalized airport operators demand 90 million dollars from Bolivia

  

  The Spanish infrastructure company Abertis said it was seeking 90 million dollars from Bolivia in compensation for the nationalization of its subsidiary Servicios de Aeropuertos Bolivianos (Sabsa). Abertis was also considering other possible legal claims, its chief executive Francisco Reynes said.

• Thursday, February 21st 2013 - 01:44 UTC

  Rousseff says end of poverty is close; 48 million Brazilians registered in social support programs

  

  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff raised the monthly stipend of 2.5 million people living below the poverty line to make good on her promise to eradicate extreme poverty in Brazil. Even when announcing she has almost met her anti-poverty target halfway through her four-year term, Brazil’s last census points to 700,000 families who still live in extreme poverty but are not registered on government social programs.

• Thursday, February 21st 2013 - 01:37 UTC

  Japan posts huge January trade deficit: weak Yen, energy bill and dispute with China blamed

  

  Japan’s trade deficit soared to a record 17.4 billion dollars on energy imports, a weaker Yen and the territorial dispute with China, the country’s main trade partner. Exports climbed 6.4% in January from a year earlier, the first rise in eight months while imports increased 7.3%, the Finance Ministry said in Tokyo.

• Thursday, February 21st 2013 - 01:35 UTC

  Cameron describes as “deeply shameful episode” 1919 massacre of Indians by colonial troops

  

  British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the site of a colonial-era massacre in India on Wednesday, describing the episode as “deeply shameful” while stopping short of a public apology.

• Thursday, February 21st 2013 - 00:24 UTC

  Pinochet generals and ministers incognito and “non official” visits to UK

  

  The fluid relation between Pinochet’s regime in Chile and the UK following Margaret Thatcher’s victory in 1979 is not nothing new, however declassified British documents of the time to which BBC World had access, reveal the intensity of those links in defence and political issues, including in March/April 1982 when the Argentine military invasion of the Falkland Islands.

• Wednesday, February 20th 2013 - 06:01 UTC

  Dissident labour unions challenge Argentine government anti-inflation and salaries policies

  

  A major labour dispute is turning into an ugly conflict with the main Argentine dissident labour union challenging the government of President Cristina Fernandez and her latest policy of freezing supermarket prices for two months in a bold attempt to contain inflation.