L.A. Times - Latin America

Mexico aid should be withheld, Human Rights Watch says

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

It calls on the Obama administration to not release tens of millions of dollars under the Merida Initiative unless Mexico allows soldiers accused of drug war abuses to be tried in civilian courts.

Citing alleged rights abuses by Mexican soldiers assigned to the drug war, Human Rights Watch urged the Obama administration Monday to not release tens of millions of dollars in withheld security aid unless Mexico allows such abuse cases to be tried in civilian courts.

Calderon's drug offensive stirs 'wasp nest'

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The 2 1/2-year offensive has uncovered deep corruption and sparked violent gang wars, presenting a stark reality: The longer and harder the war is fought, the more complex and daunting it becomes.

Reporting from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and Mexico City -- In the baddest precinct of Mexico's most violent city, Jose Manuel Resendiz is the law.

Tensions linger between Colombia and Ecuador

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Ecuador announces stiff tariffs on hundred of Colombian imports, apparently the latest retaliatory measure in the countries' dispute over a 2008 raid into Ecuadorean territory.

Ecuador today will begin imposing stiff tariffs on hundreds of Colombian imports, the latest round in a festering dispute between the neighbors.

Mexico drug cartel gunmen kill 5 in attacks

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

La Familia launches ambushes against federal police and soldiers in Michoacan state after failing to free a leader held by authorities, officials say.

Authorities were interrogating a suspected ringleader of the drug cartel La Familia on Sunday after the crime syndicate launched a series of coordinated commando attacks against federal police and Mexican soldiers over the weekend that left five dead and a dozen wounded.

Honduras had a new kind of coup

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The upheaval epitomizes a new kind of Latin American struggle, in which elected leftist leaders defy the status quo and test the limits of democracy.

On Saturday, June 27, the order came down: Arrest the president.

Pesticide cases could be upended

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

An L.A. judge's dismissal of Nicaraguan banana workers' litigation against Dole puts numerous related cases in jeopardy.

The unraveling of multimillion-dollar Los Angeles cases alleging that Nicaraguan men had been sterilized by pesticide exposure is now threatening to upend hundreds of other claims in U.S. courts, as judges examine charges that plaintiffs' lawyers orchestrated an extraordinary international fraud.

Mark the fall of Berlin Wall with tour

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Also: Austria, Nepal, Hong Kong, Aruba

1 Germany

U.S. ties Haiti in Gold Cup, still advances

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The U.S. finishes in first place in Group B and will play the third-place team from Group A or Group C next Saturday in Philadelphia.

. -- Stuart Holden scored in the first minute of second-half injury time, giving the United States a 2-2 tie with Haiti on Saturday night in its final first-round game of the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament.

G-8 pledges $20 billion to fight world hunger after appeal from Obama

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:13:00 -0700

At the end of the Group of 8 summit, President Obama says the leading industrialized nations made progress on climate change and nuclear nonproliferation. Afterward, he visits Pope Benedict.

World leaders agreed to come up with $20 billion to fight hunger after a personal appeal from President Obama, who capped the European leg of his latest foreign trip with a visit to the Vatican this morning.

Mexico day-care fire bares an opaque political culture

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Parents pressing for answers have encountered the worst of Mexico politics -- impunity, corruption and secrecy. A list of owners of such day-care centers shows many are politically connected.

The grief-numbed parents of Hermosillo buried their babies and waited for answers.