HAVANA (AP) — Cuban officials blamed the United States late Tuesday for instigating a surge in the number of Cuban migrants attempting to reach the U.S. through Central America amid ongoing efforts to normalize relations between the former Cold War foes. In a statement aired on the government’s nightly broadcast, Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Relations … Continue reading
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — From the tables of Buenos Aires pizza parlors to the fields of this South American nation’s farmlands, Argentines are intensely debating a question they must answer during Sunday’s presidential runoff election: How large a role should the government play in their lives? At the center of the debate is the … Continue reading
TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — There are many reasons for the historic reversal of migration between the U.S. and Mexico, according the Pew Research Center, which announced Thursday that more than 1 million Mexicans headed south to re-establish their lives in the last five years, while only 870,000 migrated north to the U.S. Some have grown … Continue reading
CIUDAD VICTORIA, Mexico (AP) — Police have detained six people in northern Mexico in connection with the killing of the father and brother of movie director Alejandro Monteverde. Federal police chief Francisco Galindo said Sunday the arrests were made the previous day during an operation in the south of Tamaulipas state. He said the suspects … Continue reading
MARIANA, Brazil (AP) — The flood of mud came without a warning. The only hint the roughly 600 residents of Bento Rodrigues had that a sea of viscous, clay-red mud was about to flow into their village with the destructive power of lava was a deafening clap. The sound of two dams bursting Thursday afternoon … Continue reading
MADRID (AP) — Mexican author Fernando del Paso has won the 2015 Cervantes Prize, the Spanish-speaking world’s highest literary honor, Spanish officials announced Thursday. Education Minister Inigo Mendez de Vigo highlighted del Paso’s mix of tradition with modernity and his recreation of episodes that are fundamental to Mexico’s history in his novels. Del Paso’s works … Continue reading
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Two nephews of Venezuela’s powerful first lady have been indicted in New York after being arrested in Haiti on charges of conspiring to smuggle 800 kilograms of cocaine into the U.S. The arrest of Efrain Campos and Francisco Flores is likely to exacerbate already tense relations between the U.S. and Venezuela … Continue reading
CAMAGUEY, Cuba (AP) — On the 14th of September last year, nine Cuban men pushed their scrap-metal raft into the Florida Straits, started up its tractor-trailer engine and disappeared north into the night. A few days later the rumors started in Camaguey. A broken raft had washed ashore without a passenger in sight, one neighbor said. State … Continue reading
SAN MANUEL CORTES, Honduras (AP) — A U.S. investigation into alleged money laundering for drug traffickers by one of Honduras’ most powerful families has resulted in some unusual victims: thousands of hungry crocodiles. At least 7,500 crocodiles on a private farm in northern Honduras have been poorly fed in recent weeks because of a lack … Continue reading
LIMA, Peru (AP) — A secretive Roman Catholic society with chapters across South America and in the U.S. has revealed under pressure that a Vatican investigator is looking into allegations that its founder sexually molested young recruits. The scandal at the Peru-based Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, or Sodalitium of Christian Life, has close parallels to other … Continue reading
PALMAS, Brazil (AP) — The first World Indigenous Games closed Saturday night with a pumping ceremony that brought together nearly 2,000 participants from more than two dozen countries for a monumental extravaganza. Nothing quite like it had ever rolled into Palmas, a sunbaked outpost in the geographical heart of Brazil, and the 5,000-seat arena was … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — Searchers using high-tech sonars have discovered the deep-water wreckage of a vessel believed to be the cargo ship El Faro, which went missing Oct. 1 with 33 crewmembers during Hurricane Joaquin, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said late Saturday. The federal agency said the wreckage is some 15,000 feet below the … Continue reading
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba announced Wednesday that it is launching a long-term plan to preserve its sharks in cooperation with a U.S. environmental group, part of a rapidly accelerating partnership between the two countries aimed at preserving their shared waters in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida Straits. Nearly a year after Presidents Barack Obama … Continue reading
PALMAS, Brazil (AP) — The first World Indigenous Games got off to a rocky start Friday as the opening ceremony’s colorful parade of native peoples was marred by technical hitches and a noisy protest against the Brazilian government. Billed as indigenous peoples’ answer to the Olympics, the nine-day event has drawn around 2,000 native people … Continue reading
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — There’s a beauty contest for almost everyone in pageant-obsessed Venezuela. In the popular Miss Gay Venezuela competition, men don elaborate wigs and layers of makeup to show off their skills in what they call “the art of transformation.” At the ninth annual event on Sunday, the frenzy of backstage activity was … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 