(Editor’s note: The following “hard hitting” interview with U.S. President Barack Obama appeared in the Santiago’s Sunday El Mercurio edition.) Obama arrives in Chile Monday, from Brazil, as part of his Latin American visit that also includes El Salvador.
Argentine organized labour continues to put pressure on the government insisting that a representative from the unions should be in the presidential ticket with Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner who is expected in the coming weeks to announce her re-election bid for next October elections.
With less than three weeks to April 10 Peruvian presidential election the electorate remains volatile with no candidates assured a first round victory (50% plus one votes cast) or making it to the run off.
Cuban government supporters harassed a group of dissidents who met at a home in Havana to commemorate the eighth anniversary of a sweeping crackdown on dissent.
From jail where he is serving two life sentences for crimes against humanity Argentina’s former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla gave some insights to the day before the 24 March 1976 military coup when then president Isabel Martinez de Peron called him asking support from the Armed Forces for her eroding administration.
President Barack Obama, declaring support for Brazil’s rising global economic clout, said the country’s transition from dictatorship to democracy can serve as a model for pro-democracy movements around the world, including in North Africa and the Middle East.
Egyptians have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a package of constitutional amendments, according to official results released on Sunday evening. Slightly more than 77% of voters endorsed the amendments, the country's supreme judicial committee has announced.
Crowds have set fire to the courthouse and other buildings on a third straight day of demonstrations in the southern Syrian city of Daraa. Residents said one person was killed and scores injured when security forces used live rounds against protesters. Witnesses said dozens were also taken to be treated for tear gas inhalation at the main Omari mosque.
A three-storey building in a military command centre used by Muammar Gaddafi has been destroyed in an air strike by coalition forces. The Sunday-night strike was the first reported attack on the Bab al-Azizia, a sprawling compound in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, that Gaddafi has used several times as a setting for televised addresses, and which was bombed by the United States in 1986.
By Younes Abouyoub, Ph.D.
Shortly after the popular uprising started in Libya, the situation quickly turned violent. At first rumors, then confirmed reports talked about mercenaries wreaking havoc in different cities in Libya.