Latin America News: 8-26-07

Castro signs essay amid health rumors

AP - Sun Aug 26, 2:43 PM ET

HAVANA - Fidel Castro signed a lengthy essay published Sunday saluting a Cuban political figure but giving no hint of how he is feeling, even amid rampant rumors of his death.

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• Venezuelan funding to Latin America AP - Sun Aug 26, 1:58 PM ET
  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government has pledged more than $8.8 billion in aid, financing and energy funding in Latin America and the Caribbean so far in 2007. Bandes is a Venezuelan state development bank. Below is a list of pledges sorted by type.


• Chavez offers billions in Latin America AP - Sun Aug 26, 1:51 PM ET
  CARACAS, Venezuela - Laid-off Brazilian factory workers have their jobs back, Nicaraguan farmers are getting low-interest loans and Bolivian mayors can afford new health clinics, all thanks to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
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  Argentines win stage tango contest AP - Sun Aug 26, 2:49 AM ET
  BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - An Argentine couple captured the stage category at the World Tango Championships on Saturday, followed by Chilean and Japanese pairs.
  
  
• Gitmo chief: Detainee has gained weight AP - Sat Aug 25, 9:27 PM ET
  SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The commander at Guantanamo Bay denied reports that the physical and mental health of an Al-Jazeera cameraman held there is deteriorating.
  
  
• About 1,100 Colombians flee to Ecuador AP - Sat Aug 25, 9:06 PM ET
  QUITO, Ecuador - More than 1,000 refugees fleeing fighting between the army and leftist guerrillas in Colombia have crossed the border into Ecuador in recent days and a local official warned Saturday that the number could rise.
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  Peru quake victims battle hunger, cold AP - Sat Aug 25, 6:42 PM ET
  PISCO, Peru - An unforgiving wind lashes Juan Escate as he huddles around a bonfire with his three children, chilling him as he ponders how to fulfill his wife's dying plea.
  
  
• Colombia to offer up paramilitary boss AP - Fri Aug 24, 2:07 PM ET
  BOGOTA, Colombia - A powerful paramilitary boss faces a long prison sentence — and possible extradition to the United States — because he broke a partial amnesty deal by continuing to run a drug smuggling ring from jail, authorities said Friday.
  
  
• 35 kids removed from Guatemala orphanage AP - Fri Aug 24, 12:48 AM ET
  GUATEMALA CITY - Authorities removed 35 babies from an adoption home catering to Americans that was raided two weeks ago and took them to several private orphanages, the government said.
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  Dean leaves Mexico relatively unscathed AP - Fri Aug 24, 12:12 AM ET
  POZA RICA, Mexico - It drove terror deep into Mexico, smashing ashore as the third most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever to hit land.
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  Hurricane robs Maya of vital fruit trees AP - Thu Aug 23, 3:58 PM ET
  UH-MAY, Mexico - Thousands of Mayan Indians lost homes as Hurricane Dean blew through the Yucatan peninsula, but their real wealth was the trees, now scattered and broken in the storm's wake. Village after village is carpeted with fallen mangoes, oranges, guanabanas and mameys that will never be harvested.
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  U.S. Customs seizes sub full of coke AP - Thu Aug 23, 2:00 PM ET
  MEXICO CITY - A submarine-like vessel filled with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine was seized off the Guatemalan coast, U.S. officials said.
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  25 inmates dead in Brazil prison fire AP - Thu Aug 23, 1:51 PM ET
  SAO PAULO, Brazil - Rioting inmates rounded up rivals in a Brazilian jail cell Thursday and torched it, killing 25 prisoners and showing once again how gangs rule the lockups across Latin America's largest nation.
  
  
• Peru's president put to test in quake AP - Thu Aug 23, 12:18 PM ET
  LIMA, Peru - An earthquake that leveled towns in southern Peru was the first big test of the presidency of Alan Garcia, one of Washington's top allies in Latin America.
  
  
• Mexico Senate takes up migrant's cause AP - Thu Aug 23, 12:35 AM ET
  MEXICO CITY - A Mexican Senate committee passed a measure Wednesday urging President Felipe Calderon to send a diplomatic note to the United States protesting the deportation of an illegal migrant who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year.
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  No Mexican oil damage reported from Dean AP - Wed Aug 22, 9:17 PM ET
  POZA RICA, Mexico - Hurricane Dean flooded a major Mexican oil city Wednesday, but there was no known damage to any of the country's production facilities on shore or in the Gulf of Mexico, the state-owned company said.
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  Venezuela Congress OKs Chavez's reforms AP - Wed Aug 22, 3:59 AM ET
  CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's National Assembly, dominated by allies of President Hugo Chavez, gave unanimous initial approval Tuesday to constitutional reforms that would allow him to run for re-election and possibly govern for decades to come.
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  Dean third-most intense hurricane ever AP - Wed Aug 22, 12:18 AM ET
  MIAMI - Hurricane Dean was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall since record keeping began in the 1850s, based on its central atmospheric pressure, forecasters said.
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  List of Category 5 Atlantic Hurricanes AP - Tue Aug 21, 11:47 PM ET
  Atlantic Hurricanes that made landfall as Category 5 since records began in 1886, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center. The specified location is where the hurricane made landfall:
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  U.S. woos Latam students AP - Tue Aug 21, 11:26 PM ET
  SAO PAULO, Brazil — U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings looks more like a college recruiter this week, traveling through South America with American university leaders to woo international students spooked by lengthy visa delays linked to post-9/11 security.
  
  c/s

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Come Together and Create!
Peter S. Lopez ~aka:Peta
Sacramento, California, Aztlan
Email: sacranative@yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Humane-Rights-Agenda/

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