Blog entries

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online’s news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup. Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email. Fernández Pushes for New Central Bank Head Argentine President Cristina Fernández de … Read more

The government of Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner asked Central Bank President Martín Redrado to leave his post on Wednesday after he refused her request to transfer $6.6 billion in Central Bank reserves to help pay government debts. Argentine government debts are expected to rise to $13 billion this year. President Kirchner appointed former … Read more

Latin America is losing another champion in the Senate, Chris Dodd (D-CT), who has announced that he will not seek re-election in November.  The five-term Senator was facing a tough fight and soft poll numbers, and the announcement was not really unexpected by political observers.  Nonetheless, coupled with the recent passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, … Read more

The calls for a path to legal residency for millions of people residing in the United States without formal documents are growing louder.  Four immigrant students started off the new decade by setting off for Washington DC from Miami to draw attention to the nation’s undocumented population.  But those who don’t personally risk deportation are … Read more

The Bolivian government accused Peruvian President Alan García on Monday of auctioning Peru’s natural resources to transnational companies and repressing his country’s indigenous population. The accusations from Iván Canelas, Bolivia’s presidential spokesman, were made in response to a statement from García over the weekend that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez orders Bolivian President Evo Morales to … Read more

A Native American group in British Columbia has won a ruling by the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) that will likely lead the federal government to defend its record on indigenous land rights at an international tribunal that the commission will set up later this year. The Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group, … Read more

The global economic decline has hit Central America hard. Unemployment has increased, remittances from emigrants have declined and governments face rising deficits and debt that jeopardize their ability to meet increased social demands. The story is similar in much of the world, but the situation is particularly precarious in these countries, because they are among … Read more

The Daily Focus will resume on Monday, January 4, 2010.

For the first time, Peruvian officials have publicly identified the Shining Path guerrilla group’s military commander, Orlando Alejandro Borda Casafranca. The region where the group operates, Valley of the Apurimac, has become Peru’s largest producer of cocaine, which officials believe has helped fuel a resurgence of guerrilla violence in recent months. Few details are known … Read more

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced on Sunday that an unmanned reconnaissance aircraft flying from Colombia violated Venezuelan airspace over the northwest state of Zulia near the countries’ shared border. According to Mr. Chávez, who yesterday described the incident as an act of war, the plane uses U.S. technologies. In response, Chávez has ordered his military … Read more

For the past couple of months, we’ve seen a one-of-a-kind rush in the media to cover stories on deforestation, climate change and carbon markets ahead of the climate conference in Copenhagen (COP15). It was about time that these issues joined the mainstream: for most Americans, the need to lower global carbon emissions had been a … Read more

The Colombian rock star Juanes and Ecuadorian musician Juan Fernando Velasco symbolically exchanged their countries’ flags on Thursday on the Rumichaca Bridge, one of many border crossings between their countries. Antonio Navarro, the governor of Colombia’s Nariño province was among the 500 people who attended the ceremony, which is part of a bilateral effort to … Read more

In a pretend conversation written in Una Hoja de Papel, a child asks his grandfather what Guatemala’s Lake Atitlán—Central America’s deepest lake—was once like. “It was very beautiful, crystal clear waters, you could see through the waters to the pebbles on the shore,” the grandfather recalls. “It was once nominated as one of the seven … Read more

Brazil’s Senate ratified Venezuela’s entry into Mercosur on Tuesday, but approval from Paraguay remains a final hurdle to expanding Latin America’s largest trade bloc. Miguel Carrizosa, head of the Paraguayan Senate, said Wednesday that Venezuela should be kept out of Mercosur “as long as President Hugo Chávez continues intervening in foreign affairs.”  But Senator Emilio … Read more

From the Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online’s news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup. Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email. Immigration Reform Debate Revived with New House Bill Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) … Read more