MEXICO: Women Package the Sweet Taste of Nostalgia
By Emilio Godoy
AYOQUEZCO, Mexico - Years ago, when Catalina Sánchez saw an opportunity to earn an income and improve her family’s living conditions by growing and selling nopales - an edible cactus native to Mexico - she probably never imagined that her idea would spawn three businesses.
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HONDURAS: Unilateral "Unity Government" Announced; Deal "Dead"
By Thelma Mejía*
TEGUCIGALPA - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said Friday that the agreement reached last week to solve the four-month crisis triggered by a coup d'etat was "dead."
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RIGHTS-NICARAGUA: Mudslinging Match Between Gov't, Activists
By José Adán Silva
MANAGUA - Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has been accused before the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights of responsibility for a series of violent incidents, which in the view of some analysts and civil society organisations have harmed democracy in the country.
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LATIN AMERICA: Journalistic Prize for Making Poverty News
By Daniela Estrada
SANTIAGO - The second "Latin America and the Millennium Development Goals" Journalism Prize, sponsored by the UNDP and IPS, was awarded Thursday in the Chilean capital in a ceremony addressed by the head of the U.N. agency, Helen Clark.
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ARGENTINA: Child Benefits Expanded to Unemployed and Informal Workers
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES - A new monthly family allowance of nearly 50 dollars per child that will be paid out as of December to parents who are unemployed or work in the informal economy in Argentina was heralded by experts as an extraordinary step forward in terms of social policy.
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COLOMBIA-VENEZUELA: Border Killings Heat Up Tension
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS - The activities of Colombian armed groups across the border in western Venezuela are aggravating the diplomatic conflict between the two governments, which are ideological opposites, and some analysts have begun to wonder just how far the tension will escalate.
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LATIN AMERICA: Former Leaders Hope to Shape Regional Agenda
By Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON - After two years of work, 20 former presidents of Latin American countries have issued policy recommendations that they hope "will greatly improve the lives and social mobility of Latin America's poor, will produce a new dynamic for economic growth, and will strengthen Latin America's still-fragile democratic institutions".
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RIGHTS-MEXICO: Military Abuses Brought to Inter-American Commission
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY - A case of rights abuses allegedly committed by the Mexican armed forces is coming up for a hearing at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), where it joins a long list of accusations against the army in this Latin American country.
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GUATEMALA: (Barely) Surviving on Beans and Tortillas
By Danilo Valladares
GUATEMALA CITY - Juan Manuel Ardón's bones jut out and his hair is dull and thin: signs of severe malnutrition. He is so weak that he can hardly walk or talk, and the doctors say his weight and stature are those of a six-year-old, rather than 15-year-old, boy.
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VENEZUELA: Homophobia Stalks the Streets - in Uniform
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS - One Friday at around midnight, on Villaflor Street, a favourite spot for gays and lesbians in the Venezuelan capital, Yonatan Matheus and Omar Marques noticed two Caracas police patrol vans carrying about 20 detainees, most of them very young.
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