Regional News

We are two weeks away from the referendum on constitutional changes in Venezuela. An IHT article offers a detailed look at what is happening and what it means.

You may remember the arrests here related to the Sinaloa drug cartel operations. The articles on NL include:

• Drug Cartels Take Aim at Nicaragua
• Sinaloa Cartel Dismantled in Nicaragua
• Drug Cartel Members Trial to Start Wednesday

Atlantic Free Press has an interesting article on Bolivia. For those that like to classify Bolivia as "just mini-Venezuela" as far as political direction, it offers some background to show what Bolivia is trying to do and why.

IHT has an interesting article that addresses the idea of illegal immigrants to the US getting to stay if they have children that are US citizens. The article is specifically about a lawsuit to address this issue. This quote is about one of the legal children with an illegal parent who is in the lawsuit.

On Sunday, elections for Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power were held in Cuba. The BBC, says "Their role is principally to approve national laws which are put forward by Cuba's Council of State". There was an amazing voter turnout of over 95%. What isn't clear is how "democratic" the "who process" is.

The BBC said:

IPS offers some subtext on the apparent lack of enthusiasm among the people in Mexico and Central America with regard to the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP).

The following is written by a usano at the National University in Costa Rica. It was posted to a mailing list at UNA and has received wide distribution at UCR and other places. The author is from the US, lives in Costa Rica and has no interest in returning to the US.

An article in Prensa Latina reports that the presidents of Honduras and Nicaragua have agreed to meet at the border on Monday, the day the World Court intends to announce its decision on the territorial dispute between the two countries.

Znet offers an interesting article analyzing the current gender issues in Latin America and contrasts it with what was happening in the 1980s and 1990s. I hadn't thought about these differences. Contrasting present events with 1960s Cuba and 1980s Nicaragua, the article says

Latin Business Chroncile offers a nice propaganda piece about how wonderful CAFTA will be for Costa Rica. For anyone who has lived in Costa Rica for any reasonable amount of time (and seen press coverage), the bias is very transparent. But, who knows.

The Christian Science Monitor has a fairly long article on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's New York reception and his subsequent travel in Latin America. The punch line is that Iran wants to secure a seat on the UN security council.

On Oct. 7, Costa Ricans will vote whether or not to adopt DR-CAFTA, the controversial Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement signed in August 2004 and implemented in 2006 by El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Honduras.

The vote will determine whether the country joins its neighbors in forming a NAFTA-like relationship with the U.S

The Kansas City Star has an article about growing coca in Bolivia. It's about impoverished farmers, not drug manufacturers.

RH Reality Check (RH stands for Reproductive Health) has an article about the Latin America abortion rights issue.

Petroleum World reports that PDVSA, the Venezuelan oil company, will start exploration for oil off Cuba's shores. Venezuela currently supplies about 100,000 barrels/day of oil to Cuba.