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Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThursday, December 17, 2009 Guyanese National Charged with Smuggling Indian Nationals to the United States A Guyanese national has been indicted on charges of conspiracy and alien smuggling in connection with her role in the smuggling or attempted smuggling of four Indian nationals to the United States. Annita Devi Gerald, aka Annita Rampersad, 52, was charged in a nine-count indictment returned yesterday by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas. Gerald was arrested by ICE special agents in Houston on Nov. 17, 2009, and has been held without...

Chile Appears Set To Elect A Conservative Billionaire businessmen Sebastian Pinera is expected to win the most votes in an election to choose highly popular President Michelle Bachelet's successor. A runoff is likely. An election worker carries voting materials at a polling station ahead of general elections in Santiago. Conservative Sebastian Pinera is considered the frontrunner against former President Eduardo Frei. Incumbent President Michelle Bachelet cannot run because of term limits. (Carlos Espinoza / Associated Press / December 12, 2009) By Chris Kraul December 13, 2009 Reporting from Santiago, Chile - As Chileans vote today for the first time since...

Signs of what could be a previously unknown ancient civilisation are emerging from beneath the felled trees of the Amazon. Some 260 giant avenues, ditches and enclosures have been spotted from the air in a region straddling Brazil's border with Bolivia. The traditional view is that before the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese in the 15th century there were no complex societies in the Amazon basin – in contrast to the Andes further west where the Incas built their cities. Now deforestation, increased air travel and satellite imagery are telling a different story."It's never-ending," says Denise Schaan of the...

Americas: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez was all bluster last weekend, flashing his missiles, hurling insults and spoiling for a fight with Colombia. The big danger here isn't Chavez, but growing White House indifference to an ally. This fall, when U.S. officials agreed to expanded military-base access in Colombia to fight drug trafficking and terrorism, it never occurred to them how much Chavez would use the arrangement as a pretext for aggression. "They are preparing a war against us," Chavez said Monday. So from Russia, he said, "thousands of missiles are arriving," along with T-72 military tanks "to strengthen our armored divisions."...

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez said Monday that Venezuela has received thousands of Russian-made missiles and rocket launchers as part of his government's military preparations for a possible armed conflict with neighboring Colombia. "They are preparing a war against us," Chavez said during a televised address, repeating a charge he has been making for months. "Preparing is one of the best ways to neutralize it." Both Colombia and Washington deny having any plans to attack Venezuela, but Chavez argues they are plotting together a military offensive against Venezuela. Chavez says his government is acquiring more weapons as a precaution....

Wealth: Chile is expected to win entry to OECD's club of developed countries by Dec. 15 — a great affirmation for a once-poor nation that pulled itself up by trusting markets. One thing that stands out here is free trade. At a summit of Latin American countries last week in Portugal, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet suddenly became the center of attention — and rightly so. She announced that her country was expected to win membership in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, an exclusive club of the richest and most economically credible nations. Chile is the first country in...

The Argentinean prosecutor who ferreted out Iranian links to Argentina's largest terror attack warned Wednesday of Teheran's growing terror network in Latin America. "The Iranians are moving fast," assessed Alberto Nisman, who has secured Interpol backing for the arrest of several Iranians, including former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, for ordering the July 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community offices in Buenos Aires. "We see a much greater penetration than we did in 1994." He said that Iran, particularly through Lebanese proxy Hizbullah, has a growing presence in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, using techniques it honed in Argentina before the...

The situation in neighboring Venezuela is going from strange to foreboding. President Hugo Chavez has been unsuccessful in getting the voters to make him president for life, but he has used his presidential powers to replace thousands of key officials with people selected mainly for their loyalty to Hugo Chavez. Since the government controls so much of the economy (mainly because of the oil industry), this has had disastrous results. There are increasing power blackouts, and an increasing number of state employees are not getting paid, or paid on time. There are increasing shortages of consumer goods. There is growing...

Dec 2, 2009 — Field geologists have revisited a site Darwin visited on the voyage of the Beagle, and found that he incorrectly interpreted what he found.  A large field of erratic boulders in Tierra del Fuego that have become known as “Darwin’s Boulders” were deposited by a completely different process than he thought.  The modern team, publishing in the Geological Society of America’s December issue of the GSA Today,1 noted that “Darwin’s thinking was profoundly influenced by Lyell’s obsession with large-scale, slow, vertical movements of the crust, especially as manifested in his theory of submergence and ice rafting to...

The Falklands wolf has puzzled evolutionary biologists since Charles Darwin first encountered it during the voyage of the Beagle in the 1830s. It was the only native land mammal on the Falkland Islands, which are 300 miles off the coast of Argentina. No one knew how it got there or what mainland animals it was descended from — and it did not help that the wolf was hunted to extinction by 1876. But using genetic analysis, Graham J. Slater, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues have solved some of the mystery. The closest living...

Oct 30, 2009 — “Plant fossils give first real picture of earliest Neotropical rainforests,” announced a press release from University of Florida.  The fossils from Colombia show that “many of the dominant plant families existing in today’s Neotropical rainforests – including legumes, palms, avocado and banana – have maintained their ecological dominance despite major changes in South America’s climate and geological structure.” The team found 2,000 megafossil specimens from the Paleocene, said to be 58 million years old.  This is only 5 to 8 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs according to conventional dating.  “The new study provides...

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) - Brazil's vice president says his country should develop nuclear weapons. Jose Alencar says "a nuclear weapon has great importance" to prevent attacks on Brazil because of its extensive borders and maritime holdings. Alencar tells Brazilian newspapers that Brazil doesn't have a program to develop nuclear weapons, but should.

New reseach challenges previous theories of continent population New questions of human origin could shed light on what makes groups of people more or less prone to certain diseases, an OU researcher has found. Cecil Lewis, assistant professor of anthropology and director of the OU Molecular Anthropology laboratory, studied genetic diversity among American populations. His research is not only groundbreaking for anthropology but it could also affect future health research. “I made a number of surprising discoveries, some of which actually applied to the Americas as a whole,” Lewis said. Lewis’ research, which was recently published in the American Journal...

Latin American exports and other effects of global recession appear to be pushing the region more into a Chinese embrace, as cash-flush Beijing builds major channels for purchases of food and raw materials from cash-strapped South American partners.

As Argentina deals with its latest economic crisis, [Candace Piette admires the tango industry's ability to survive through good times and bad.] Tango is about national identity and every note of its music, every gesture of the dance, contains within it their history All correspondents who come to Buenos Aires have to do a story about tango and this was going to be mine. The reason for doing this one was the huge drop in income the tango business was experiencing, because of the global economic downturn. Fewer tourists were coming to the city, and many of the tango shows...

Peru, Bolivia lock horns over ‘Devil’s Dance’ Miss Universe contestant ignites controversy between Andean countries Richard D. Salyer / AP Karen Schwarz, Miss Peru 2009, pretapes her opening number Tuesday for the Miss Universe 2009 competition in Nassau, Bahamas. [Pic in URL] LIMA, Peru - A beauty pageant has set off a beastly battle between Peru and Bolivia, which both claim ownership of the Andean "Devil's Dance." The Peruvian contender for Miss Universe, Karen Schwarz, set off the feud when she donned a wildly ornate dress, boots and cape — accompanied by a multicolored, horned headpiece — as a symbol...

And yet Dems block offshore oil production in the U.S. Two pieces of information here. Connect the dots: 1. The Obama Administration is offering billions in loans for oil drilling off the coast of Brazil. 2. George Soros, the Dems top money man has a huge financial stake in the offshore drilling company. Obama Underwrites Offshore DrillingToo bad it's not in U.S. watersWall Street Journal AUGUST 18, 2009 You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil. The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance...

Leftist leaders from Venezuela and Ecuador have angrily denouced a US military presence in Latin America, warning the "winds of war" were blowing across South America. Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, led the charge, attacking Colombia's decision to host American forces at seven of its bases, a move also condemned by Rafael Correa, Ecuador's leader. Speaking in Quito at a regional summit, Mr Chavez said he was fulfilling his "moral duty" by telling fellow leaders that the "winds of war were beginning to blow," because of the July accord between Bogota and Washington. "This could generate a war in South...

BOGOTA (Reuters) - A plan to increase U.S. troops in Colombia is drawing opposition not just from left-wing populist leaders in the region but from the moderate governments of Brazil and Chile as well. The spreading criticism threatens to isolate Colombia from its neighbors as it combats a cocaine-funded insurgency. The government is expected to sign an expanded U.S. military pact this month after a final round of talks. Colombia, Washington's main ally in the region, says the plan is aimed at strengthening anti-drug efforts. But leftist Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez accuses the United States of setting up a military...

A major and historic winter storm is underway at this Wednesday morning in Argentina. Snow is falling in many parts of the country and in many areas not used to winter precipitation. In Bahia Blanca, a coastal city in the Southern part of the Buenos Aires, the snow storm is heavy and local authorities describe it as the worst snow event in 50 years. Roads are already blocked by snow and ice in the regional. TN news channel reports some areas of the Sierra de La Ventana could pick up even 3 feet of snow, unimaginable to the region.

H1N1: 94 official deaths, unofficial figures say 100 The National Health Ministry reported there are 94 H1N1 influenza deaths in Argentina. Meanwhile, Débora Ferrandini, the vice Health Minister of Santa Fe province announced that there are 30 lethal cases in the province which would lead to an unofficial figure of 100 deaths in the country. Santa Fe's Health Ministry confirmed another H1N1 influenza death in the province, where there already are 26 lethal cases, and adds up to 100 deaths in Argentina since the swine flu outbreak in May. The province's authorities reported yesterday another three deaths, most of the...

After seeing itself isolated in the hemisphere after expelling its president for a series of constitutional violations, the interim government of Honduras got a lifeline from its neighbor earlier today. Costa Rica has offered to mediate a solution to the standoff over Manuel Zelaya’s arrest and exile last week. Roberto Micheletti, the interim president, embraced the offer immediately:

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's ruling Peronist Party was dealt a serious blow in Sunday's mid-term election with its loss of control of Congress. Her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, was defeated in his race against wealthy businessman Francisco de Narvaez for a seat representing the populous Buenos Aires province. Voters cast ballots Sunday for representatives for half of the lower house of Congress and one-third of the Senate posts. Complete results have yet to be announced. Allies of President Fernandez have controlled the Argentinian Congress for six years. But recent polls indicated...

AP reports President Manuel Zelaya’s private secretary told the AP that Zelaya was arrested and brought to a base on the outskirts of the capital, Tegucigalpa. An AP reporter saw dozens of green-helmeted soldiers surround the president’s house Sunday morning and then later jump in trucks and drive away, according to the report. About 60 police continue to guard the house, it said, adding that the president did not appear.

Venezuela and Bolivia are supplying Iran with uranium for its nuclear program, according to a secret Israeli government report obtained Monday by The Associated Press. The two South American countries are known to have close ties with Iran, but this is the first allegation that they are involved in the development of Iran's nuclear program, considered a strategic threat by Israel.

While the world continues to be on alert for a potential swine flu pandemic, South Americans have been suffering for months from one of the worst viral epidemics on record. Hundreds of thousands of people have been sickened by dengue fever this year; more than 70 have died. "This is the largest epidemic in many years," said Dr. Eddy Martinez, the director of epidemiology for Bolivia's Ministry of Health in the capital city of La Paz. By mid-April, he said, there had been more than 55,000 suspected cases in Bolivia's eastern and southern lowlands, with 25 fatalities. Most of those...

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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday canceled his visit to Brazil, without giving an explanation, according to the Iranian news agency IRNA. The visit, which was to include a delegation of over a hundred officials, was meant to focus on expanding trade between the two countries. Senior Brazilian official Roberto Jaguaribe told reporters that the visit would be rescheduled for after the June 12 presidential elections in Iran, though there was speculation that the trip was canceled due to recent protests in Latin America. An AFP report quoted officials as saying that Iranian Ambassador to Brazil Mohsen Shaterzadeh had given...

Globovision of Caracas reports news that we hope is inaccurate, and which will be denied by former President Carter. The Venezuelan television network states that he has accepted an invitation to participate in the cultivation of coca with left wing Bolivian president Evo Morales, who grows it in Boliva. "Given that President Morales has been to my property, and evidently has harvested some peanuts, I hope that on my next visit I can go to El Chapare, where he is going to take me to harvest some coca leaves," responded Carter, which also drew a smirk of happiness from Morales....

A Mexican defender caused outrage by coughing and spitting in the face of a Chilean opponent after growing tired of swine flu jibes.   Chivas' Hector Reynoso also emptied his nose on Sebastian Penco after allegedly being called a leper by the Everton Vina del Mar forward.  The Mexicans were in Chile for a tie in the Copa Libertadores - Latin America's equivalent of the Champions League - and had reported discrimination from locals when they went out shopping in the run-up to the match.   Reynoso, 28, said: 'In the market place, people got out of our way,...

LIMA -- Public health authorities of South American countries took precautionary measures to fend off a possible pandemic after a deadly swine flu virus claimed dozens of lives in Mexico and infected at least 11 people in the United States. In Peru, experts with the Health Ministry said the ministry had initiated a nationwide precautionary plan to deal with potential threats, though no suspicious cases have been reported so far in the country. The Chilean Health Ministry expressed concern over the situation and drafted a contingency plan for epidemic prevention. It also ordered a public health alert that included health...

A British agent left top secret information about covert operations on a bus in South America when she lost her handbag while on assignment. The MI6-trained agent left her handbag on a transit coach at El Dorado airport in Bogota, Colombia. Intelligence chiefs were forced to wind up operations and relocate dozens of agents and informants amid fears the device could fall into the hands of drugs barons. The incident, which was hushed up by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), the agent’s employer, is an embarrassment for the government.

Mystery deepened on Friday surrounding the breakup of a suspected assassination plot against Bolivian president Evo Morales that left three dead, as opposition leaders cast doubt on the government's story and said it was using the plot to influence coming elections. The hazy details of what happened on Thursday, in accounts by Bolivian authorities, seem lifted from the pages of a Hollywood script. An alleged plot against the president and other top officials was broken up by an elite police squad. Three men were killed in their underwear after a half-hour shootout at a hotel. Allegedly among the dead were...

Mystery deepened on Friday surrounding the breakup of a suspected assassination plot against Bolivian president Evo Morales that left three dead, as opposition leaders cast doubt on the government's story and said it was using the plot to influence coming elections... An alleged plot against the president and other top officials was broken up by an elite police squad. Three men were killed in their underwear after a half-hour shootout at a hotel... The dead are believed to be 49-year-old Eduardo Rózsa Flores, Santa Cruz-born son of a Hungarian father and Bolivian mother; Árpád Magyarosi, a Romanian-born Hungarian; and Michael...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago -- U.S. President Barack Obama and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez exchanged greetings with smile outside the venue of the Fifth Summit of the Americas here Friday. Pictures and TV footage issued by the summit's organizing committee showed that Obama and Chavez shook hands and exchanged greetings with very relaxed smile minutes before the opening ceremony of the summit on Friday evening. Reports here said that Obama offered greetings in Spanish, while the Venezuelan president replied in English. Obama also reportedly offered his greetings to other leaders participating in the summit, the first time...

PORT OF SPAIN, April 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and Venezuela's anti-U.S. leader President Hugo Chavez shook hands on Friday at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, the Venezuelan government said. Photographs released by Venezuela's presidential office showed Chavez, a fierce adversary of Washington policies, smiling and clasping hands with Obama at the start of the summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders. (Reporting by Patrick Markey; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Literary agent Carmen Balcells said she doesn't expect to see any more books from Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. "I don't think that Garcia Marquez will write anything else," said Barcells in an interview with the daily La Tercera in which she added that the Colombian writer represented 36.2 per cent of her literary agency's billing. Echoing Balcells was Briton Gerald Martin, the writer of the only authorised biography of Garcia Marquez. "I don't believe either that Gabo will write any more books, although it doesn't seem very regrettable to me because as a writer it was his fate to...

Peru's Shining Path have rebels killed 13 soldiers in two separate ambushes in the south-east of the country. The defence minister, Antero Flores Araoz, said the rebels attacked a military patrol with grenades and dynamite killing a captain and 11 soldiers in one of the most deadliest attacks by the guerrillas in the past decade. Both attacks took place in the Ayacucho region, 340 miles from the capital, Lima.

The conviction Tuesday of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori on human rights charges – including authorizing murder and kidnapping – has been hailed by some as a milestone for justice in Latin America. Mr. Fujimori, who ruled Peru throughout the 1990s, is the first democratically elected leader in the region found guilty, in his own country, of human rights abuses. But the conviction is also an important moment for national healing in Peru, says Efrain Gonzales, the vice rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima. While about one third of the country still supports the former leader,...

Last week the Washington Times reported that Hezbollah is using the same southern narcotics routes that Mexican drug kingpins do to smuggle drugs and people into the United States, reaping money to finance its operations and threatening U.S. national security. The Iran-backed Lebanese group has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America's tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Increasingly, however, it is relying on Mexican narcotics syndicates that control access to transit routes into the U.S. Hezbollah relies on "the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels," said Michael...

MEDELLIN, Colombia (AFP) — The United States supports increasing the Inter-American Development Bank's lending capacity, but only after it meets certain conditions, US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has told the IDB's general assembly. "To help address the region's demand for finance this year and next, we encourage the IDB to expand its existing resources," Geither told the annual board of governors on the 50th anniversary of the IDB on Sunday. "In the context of these efforts, the United States is also prepared to begin a formal review of the capital needs of the Bank to assess the merit of an...

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday blamed the global economic crisis on “white people with blue eyes”

Archaeologists have discovered about 10,000 cave paintings dating back to more than 6,000 years, a pre-Incan cemetery and a citadel in Peru’s Amazon region. 6,000 year old cave paintings Quirino Olivera, a Peruvian archaeologist working for the Andean country’s jungle department of Amazons, has discovered about 10,000 cave paintings that are said to date back more that 6,000 years. The paintings were discovered in caves near the village of Tambolic, in the district of Jamalca, province of Utcubamba, writes Peruvian Times. Olivera said that most of the drawings show hunting scenes and were painted using red, brown, yellow and black...

Venezuela's military has taken control of key airports and sea ports under the terms of a move rubber-stamped by parliament a week ago, reports say. The move centralises the running of the country's main transport hubs. President Hugo Chavez has pushed for the move, describing it as "reunifying the motherland, which was in pieces". Critics of Mr Chavez says the plans are unconstitutional, but the National Assembly backed them a week ago, saying they would improve essential services. State-level governments in Venezuela have controlled the country's most important airports, sea ports and major highways since a move towards decentralisation began...

CARACAS, Venezuela -- President Hugo Chavez on Saturday ordered troops to temporarily seize control of all Venezuelan rice processing plants to ensure they produce at full capacity amid soaring inflation and persisting reports of food shortages. Mr. Chavez told the National Guard to "take control of and intervene in all of these businesses that process rice in Venezuela," including at least a half-dozen local and foreign private companies. "This government is here to protect the people, not the bourgeoisie or the rich," Mr. Chavez said, accusing some companies of slowing production to evade price caps that have slashed their profit...

Editorial note: This story was intended to run days ago, but was withheld out of concern for Mr. Pena's personal safety. AIPNEWS.com The top opponent to Marxist dictator Hugo Chavez, Mr. Peña is coming to Washington to brief and warn American leaders at risk of his life. The announcement was delayed to the last minute to prevent the Chavez regime from arresting Mr. Peña to block his effort to warn American leaders and media. As WorldNetDaily warned recently, Chavez, who is cooperating with the Iranians, may be more dangerous than Osama bin Laden and may unleash acts of terror greater...

DNA tests have identified 23 victims from a mass grave in Peru's southern highlands, a quarter century after they were killed by Peru's military, forensic scientists and a lawyer for the victims' relatives said Wednesday. Peru's government-appointed truth commission said that 123 people were killed in the 1984 massacre in Putis — the largest mass slaying in the bloody 20-year standoff between Maoist Shining Path guerrillas and a state-sponsored counterinsurgency campaign. Peru's prosecutor's office and a team of anthropologists and other experts dug up the remains of 92 victims last year at the high-altitude site.

In the story of the emperor with no clothes, it took someone whose observations are rarely heeded -- a child -- to point out the obvious fact that no one else could acknowledge. In the case of drug policy, it takes people who are usually ignored by Washington policymakers -- Latin Americans -- to perform the same invaluable service. Last week, a commission made up of 17 members, from Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa to Sonia Picado, the Costa Rican who heads the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights, did nothing but admit the truth: The war on drugs is a...

Government and Media Seen Fostering Anti-Semitism in Venezuela, ElsewhereJewish leaders said it had never before happened in Venezuela: a break-in with anti-Jewish intent at one of the city's most prominent synagogues. A dozen armed men overpowered guards, spray-painted office walls with anti-Semitic insults, desecrated historic Torah scrolls and made off with computers containing personal information on congregants. President Hugo Chávez condemned the Jan. 30 attack, which has shaken the country's political establishment. But Jewish leaders, supported by Israeli and U.S. officials, have said the populist government's often incendiary rhetoric toward the Jewish state, coupled with rising anti-Semitic diatribes in pro-government...

This is just a question to Freepers in general. Bush had considerable success in Africa and, at least, broke even in South America. So far, I have not seen Obama talk much about either and I am not able to distinguish any particular Obama policies in the two places. If you know something, I would like to know it, too. Thank you, McVey