Latin America News

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is inviting his mentor Fidel Castro to visit Venezuela during the coming months. Full Story »

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez is praising Carlos the Jackal, the imprisoned Venezuelan once notorious for a series of Cold War-era bombings, assassinations and hostage dramas, saying he was a "revolutionary fighter" and not a terrorist. Full Story »

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan authorities have captured a former Colombian official wanted for collaborating with outlawed right-wing paramilitary fighters. Full Story »

MEXICO CITY - A top drug cartel suspect who turned state's evidence has been found dead in an apparent suicide, while a body found in Guerrero state was identified as a rebel leader who accused the state governor of drug ties, Mexican law enforcement said Saturday. Full Story »

BRASILIA, Brazil - Famed 101-year-old Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer is reportedly back at work just weeks after surgery for gallstones and an intestinal tumor. Full Story »

HAVANA - The husband of an acclaimed dissident Cuban blogger was punched and shouted down by a pro-government mob Friday after he challenged the presumed state agents who earlier roughed up his wife to a street corner debate. Full Story »

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Valuing truth over the right to privacy, Argentina's Congress has authorized the forced extraction of DNA from people who may have been born to political prisoners slain a quarter-century ago — even when they don't want to know their birth parents. Full Story »

MEXICO CITY - Authorities in the western Mexican state of Michoacan are investigating the disappearance of a journalist who wrote about organized crime. Full Story »

GUATEMALA CITY - Guatemalan officials on Friday announced the resumption of international adoptions after a nearly two-year suspension prompted by the discovery that some babies were being sold. Full Story »

SALVADOR, Brazil - Brazil's President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is joining his Palestinian counterpart in calling on Israel to stop building new settlements in areas claimed by Palestinians. Full Story »

SALVADOR, Brazil (AFP) - Israeli settlement expansion on Palestinian territory must stop immediately, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Friday as he seeks to position Brazil as a player in the Middle East. Full Story »

MANAGUA (AFP) - Thousands of pro- and anti-government protesters took to the streets of Nicaragua's capital, protesting and backing President Daniel Ortega's bid to remain in power. Full Story »

SAN DIEGO - A 17-year-old pleaded guilty Friday to murdering a Border Patrol agent who was shot eight times in head, neck and torso in the mountains east of San Diego. Full Story »

CUCUTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Saturday ruled out any military retaliation against Venezuela after Venezuelan troops dynamited two cross-border footbridges. Full Story »

MEXICO CITY - A Mexican once put forward for the title of world's oldest woman has died at 119, government officials said Thursday. Full Story »

SALVADOR, Brazil (AFP) - Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday received Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas here Thursday for the first in a series of discussions on forging peace in the Middle East, the foreign ministry said Thursday. Full Story »

MEXICO CITY - Cash-strapped Mexico City is pressing ahead with new bus lines and bike lanes in 2010, buoyed by prestigious recognition for a world-class transit system that has reduced pollution in one of the globe's largest cities. Full Story »

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization authorized Brazil Thursday to impose trade sanctions on the United States over its support for cotton, as Brazil ratcheted up pressure on Washington over the illegal subsidies. Full Story »