Latin America News

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - Costa Rica promised to restore ties with the Honduras after it elects a new president on Sunday, joining other nations in rejecting ousted President Manuel Zelaya's insistence that recognizing the vote would legitimize a June coup. Full Story »

CARACAS, Venezuela - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas dismissed an Israeli plan to temporarily halt new construction of West Bank settlements as insufficient on Friday, saying Palestinians don't accept Israel's tack in trying to restart peace negotiations. Full Story »

OLVESTON, Montserrat - Light ash has fallen over the capital of Montserrat after the Caribbean island's temperamental volcano hurled another round of hot rocks and gases. Full Story »

NOVO PROGRESSO, Brazil - Drawing his .40-caliber pistol, Severiano Pontes dashes across the steaming, muddy jungle floor, a hunch telling him what he would find around a bend. Full Story »

MANAUS, Brazil - Brazil's president said Thursday that "gringos" should pay Amazon nations to prevent deforestation, insisting rich Western nations have caused much more past environmental destruction than the loggers and farmers who cut and burn trees in the world's largest tropical rain forest. Full Story »

MANAUS, Brazil - Brazilian diplomats denied Thursday that there is a crisis in relations with the U.S., while acknowledging differences with the government of President Barack Obama on issues such as Iran's nuclear ambitions and relations with post-coup Honduras. Full Story »

SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, Brazil - Brazilians will be seeing a whole lot more of the student whose short pink dress got her booted from college: She's agreed to march in the nation's famously flesh-baring Carnival parades. Full Story »

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - Uruguay's likely next president tried to lead an armed revolution as a young man, hiding in sewers, killing a police officer and twice escaping prison through elaborately dug tunnels. Full Story »

PORT-AU-PRINCE, - Haiti's electoral council has banned the influential party of exiled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from next year's legislative elections. Full Story »

HAVANA - Cuba's armed forces launched three days of intense military exercises across the island Thursday, a mobilization that state-controlled media says is designed to guard against an American invasion. Full Story »

FARMINGTON, N.M. - New Mexico officials say a suspected drunk driver hit and dragged a 72-year-old man 200 feet under his pickup truck. Full Story »

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Felipe Calderon said in an interview that crime gangs and drug cartels were "taking over Mexico" before he launched his offensive against them, and said the crackdown had achieved uneven results. Full Story »

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras chooses a new president on Sunday in an election that may defuse a crisis caused by a coup against President Manuel Zelaya, but the vote is splitting Washington and Latin America. Full Story »

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Felipe Calderon said Wednesday that the top priority in the second half of his term will be reducing poverty, after the war against drug cartels took center stage in the first three years of his administration. Full Story »

CARACAS (Reuters) - An earthquake of 5.6 magnitude shook western Venezuela early on Friday, panicking residents and damaging some buildings, officials said. Full Story »

NEW YORK - A young woman from Mexico was smuggled over the border and forced to work as a prostitute for years in Brooklyn, and the remains of an infant were found in concrete at the home where she was held prisoner, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. Full Story »

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba began its biggest military maneuvers in five years on Thursday, saying they were needed to prepare for a possible invasion by the United States. Full Story »

McALLEN, Texas - Authorities say a truck carrying illegal immigrants from Guatemala and Mexico has plummeted more than 40 feet off a cliff in southwest Texas. All 18 aboard were injured. Full Story »