Tag Archives: latin america

Former Venezuelan oil czar arrested in corruption probe

Venezuela’s once powerful oil minister, who resigned unexpectedly last year as prosecutors probed corruption and other wrongdoing at the highest levels of the state-run crude industry, has been arrested in connection with an alleged scheme that siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars from state coffers, the government announced Tuesday. The Ministry of Communications released images of Tareck El Aissami being …

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AMLO 'offended' by preferred candidate's debate performance

There were plenty of reasons to criticize Mexico’s first presidential debate leading up to the June 2 election. The format was a bit constrictive, and the candidates’ timer wasn’t working at some points, leaving it unclear how much longer they could speak. But President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday he had a novel reason for disliking Sunday’s debate: It …

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Haitian police notch rare win against gangs after reclaiming hijacked ship

Haiti’s National Police agency says that it has recovered a hijacked cargo ship laden with rice following a gunbattle with gangs that lasted more than five hours. Two police officers were injured and an undetermined number of gang members were killed in the shootout that occurred Saturday off the coast of the capital, Port-au-Prince, authorities said in a statement. It …

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Ecuador police arrest former VP in raid at Mexican embassy, prompting diplomatic severing, outcry

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Friday evening announced the severing of diplomatic relations with Ecuador following the arrest of former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas. Ecuadorian police late Friday broke through the external doors of the Mexican embassy in the Ecuadorian capital, Quito, to arrest Glas, who had been residing there since December. Glas sought political asylum at …

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Colombian guerrillas launch multiple attacks against military as ceasefire breaks down

Colombia suffered a series of attacks Thursday night and Friday morning, marking the first major assault against its military since a mafia group born from the now-defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced it was scaling up operations earlier this week. The attacks in the war-torn southwest of the country featured explosives and firearms, and a soldier was wounded, …

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3 migrants, 2 from Cameroon, dead in Mexico highway crash

Three migrants died in a highway accident in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, authorities said Thursday. At least two of the dead — a man and a woman — are from the African nation of Cameroon, and the identity of the third is being checked. Five more migrants were injured and are being treated at local hospitals. The country’s …

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Over 53,000 Haitians flee capital in weeks following gang takeover

More than 53,000 people have fled Haiti’s capital in less than three weeks, the vast majority to escape unrelenting gang violence, according to a United Nations report released Tuesday. More than 60% are headed to Haiti’s rural southern region, which worries U.N. officials. “Our humanitarian colleagues emphasized that these departments do not have sufficient infrastructure, and host communities do not …

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Diplomatic crisis averted after Argentina's Milei trades jabs with leftist Colombian counterpart

Argentina and Colombia have agreed to end a diplomatic spat that escalated over right-wing Argentine President Javier Milei’s visceral attack on his leftist counterpart in Colombia last week, prompting the country to order the expulsion of Argentine diplomats. In a joint statement late Sunday, the foreign ministries of the two Latin American nations said they “have taken concrete steps to …

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Colombian mayor issues 6-month prostitution ban in tourist-heavy neighborhoods

The mayor of Colombia’s second-largest city has issued a six-month ban on prostitution in some of the city’s most famous neighborhoods, arguing that it is a necessary step to prevent the sexual exploitation of children. Mayor Federico Gutierrez said Monday that the ban will be enforced in the neighborhoods of Provenza and El Poblado, two areas of the city that …

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US citizen arrested in Dominican Republic, accused of killing 3 women in Honduras

Police in Honduras announced that American citizen Gilbert Reyes Bermúdez was arrested in the Dominican Republic for allegedly killing three women in the Honduran island of Roatán. The 36-year-old suspect is accused of killing María Antonia Cruz, Nikendra McCoy and Dione Solórzano after going out with them on Jan. 6. The following day, Reyes Bermúdez was accused of fleeing Honduras …

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