The U.N. Security Council headed to Colombia on Wednesday to demonstrate its commitment to the peace agreement between the government and the country’s largest rebel group and to promote efforts at reconciliation. British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, who is co-leading the visit, said council members want to listen to the parties and the people, and are going “with a message of… Read more »
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The state of Rio de Janeiro will receive support from Brazil’s National Security Force and Federal Highway Police to help local authorities fight the wave of violence seen in the state in last few weeks, according to Rio’s governor, Luiz Fernando Pezão. Pezão was in Brasilia on Wednesday (May 3rd) to ask Brazil’s President Michel… Read more »
Dramatic video shot by citizens on the ground show tanks marked ‘GNB’ (the Venezuelan National Guard), with their roofs on fire, plowing through a crowd of protesters in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. Laura Rangel, a journalist who captured the moment on film, told Reuters three protesters were injured, one of them seriously. At least one person was caught underneath a vehicle,… Read more »
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — U.S. trade deficits in goods with Mexico and Japan hit the highest levels in March in almost a decade, though the nation’s trade gap overall was virtually unchanged. The deficit dipped 0.1% to $43.7 billion in March to reach a five-month low, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a $44.5 billion gap…. Read more »
Halfway into a 24-hour worker strike, Brazil’s biggest cities have partially shut down — with many major thoroughfares clogged and businesses shuttered for the day. The nationwide strike mounted by unions aims to unravel a set of measures supported by President Michel Temer, legislation that would loosen labor laws and roll back pension regulations. NPR’s Philip Reeves reports, “As darkness… Read more »
President Trump is seeking to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. In an interview with NPR’s John Burnett, Mexico Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo says Mexico is anxious to retool the 23-year-old agreement in areas as varied as energy and telecom. John Burnett speaks with Audie Cornish about what he’s learned. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: After months of bashing the North… Read more »
Pope Francis has called for the respect of human rights and an end to violence in Venezuela, where nearly 30 people have died in unrest this month. Francis, speaking to tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square on Sunday for his weekly address, decried a “grave humanitarian, social , political and economic crisis that is exhausting the population”…. Read more »
A judge in Brazil has jailed eight men for plotting attacks during the 2016 Rio Olympics last year and for using the internet to promote the Islamic State (IS) militant group. The men were arrested shortly before the beginning of the Games, in August, after the FBI alerted the Brazilian authorities. They are all Brazilian nationals. The ringleader, Leonid El… Read more »
In 1979, Daniel Ortega was a revolutionary commander who overthrew Nicaragua’s pro-American dictatorship and took power. Today, after a long period in the wilderness, he is running the country again. Since his election in 2006, the country has seen stable economic growth, less poverty and less violence. But Nicaragua remains the second-poorest country in Latin America after Haiti. Our reporters… Read more »
Nationwide strikes led by Brazilian unions to protest President Michel Temer’s austerity measures crippled public transport in several major cities early on Friday across this continent-sized nation, while factories, businesses and schools closed. In the economic hub of Sao Paulo, the main tourist draw Rio de Janeiro and several other metropolitan areas, protesters used barricades of burning tires and other… Read more »