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President Bush had many important foreign policy issues to discuss when he went to Lima, Peru, last weekend, but you wouldn't have known it from watching NBC's weekend "Today" show on Sunday. Because while Bush was talking about narcotics trafficking, trade and international terrorism with Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, "Today" and other Sunday news shows led with the case of convicted American terrorist Lori Berenson. American media coverage of President Bush's trip to Mexico, Peru and Central America revealed how our media establishment views Latin America. Basically, our journalistic agenda-setters in New York and Washington ignore our neighbors to the...

Middle Eastern terrorists have infiltrated Latin American countries—especially Mexico—to plan an attack against the United States, according to an alarming exposé broadcast this week by the world’s largest Spanish news network. Related Article Here The Univision documentary, “La Amenaza Irani,” (Iranian Threat), uses undercover, never-before-seen video footage to illustrate how Iran’s growing political, economic and military ties to Latin America threaten U.S. security. The videos were part of a seven-month investigation in which college-aged Mexicans infiltrated diplomatic circles in Mexico to obtain recordings that prove diplomats from Iran, Venezuela and Cuba planned a cybernetic attack against the White House, FBI,...

(English-language translation) Its big yellow "M" on a red background is practically recognizable anywhere in the world, and it is one of the symbols of globalization, but there is one place in Latin America where the McDonald's chain did not have the expected success. It was in Bolivia where, despite the restaurant's attempt to adapt to local tastes (including llajwa, the sauce Bolivians season their dishes with, and folkloric music), it did not succeed. Therefore, in 2002 and after 5 years in the country, the hamburger chain decided to close its 8 franchises in La Paz, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz....

Face of evil: MOHSEN RABBANI The Islamic Shiite cleric active in Latin America since the early 1990s. Responsible for the 1992 and 1994 anti-Jewish massacres in Argentina. Wanted in that country and by the Interpol for the crimes. Called for Israel to be "wiped off," in 1994. 'Chief' Islamic operator of Hezbollah - Quds activities of: Islamizaton --including 'recruting converts for Islam'-- and terror networks in Latin America, resides in Brazil. Lightning Out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil - Pages 122-3Tom Diaz, Barbara Newman - Random House Digital, Inc., 2006 - History - 272 pagesThe man directly responsible for this cell-building...

China is continuing its bold economic and geopolitical march through the Caribbean and Latin America, using its growing economic might to dole out grant aid and soft loans to win friends and influence governments, continuing its plans to displace the United States as the region's major trading partner in the not-too-distant future. For two days this week, a large Chinese delegation led by Vice-Premier Wang Qishan spent hours in talks with Caribbean leaders and business delegations. By the time the forum ended in Trinidad's capital of Port of Spain, Beijing had unveiled measures worth $6.3 billion aimed at sealing better...

(CNSNews.com) -- The Iranian government is racing to launch its first Spanish-language news channel by the end of this year, which is expected to reach audiences in Latin America and Europe, a Brazilian news outlet reported. HispanTV, the name of the upcoming Iranian channel, has already made its debut on the Web, covering news in Iran, the Americas, the United States, Canada, Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa and also reporting on culture, health, sports, society, economy, and technology. The Iranian channel is expected to air “varied” programming, including interviews and talk shows about movies and books on Iranians and...

Perhaps the biggest foreign-policy story of the past decade, thoroughly overlooked by the American media after 9/11 and its subsequent monomaniacal focus on terrorism, security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the fact that Latin America has essentially moved away from Washington's influence. This quiet revolution from below, in rejecting the Monroe Doctrine, first enunciated in 1823 whereby the U.S. essentially barred European powers from influence in Latin America, has essentially for nearly 200 years served as an ideological platform for countless U.S. interventions south of the border but has yet to register on the radar the politicians...

A Republican move to end $48.5 million in funding to the Organization of American States is the wrong tack to take in a region where U.S. influence appears to be eroding. For much of the last decade, the United States has been relatively disengaged from Latin America, getting involved mostly to combat drugs or violence. Now, the House Foreign Affairs Committee has approved a measure that would further limit the U.S. role in the region. Under the proposal, which would have to be approved by both the House and the Senate, the U.S. would eliminate its $48.5-million contribution to the...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has placed utmost importance on secrecy, carefully offering only scraps of information about his condition… Maria Teresa Romero, a professor of international studies at the Central University of Venezuela, said controlling information about Chavez's illness is important for him both to secure his hold on power in Venezuela and in his United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

Private companies received nearly $2 billion in Latin American drug war contracts between 2005 and 2009, according to a report released Thursday by Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). That money may as well have been stuffed in garbage bags and dropped randomly from the backs of airplanes. The two major agencies tasked with overseeing the drug war in Latin America—the State Department and the Department of Defense—lack “a centralized database or system with the capacity to track counternarcotics contracts," McCaskill found. As a result, both agencies struggled to explain contracts worth millions of dollars that were awarded to unknown recipients to...

First it was Venezuela, then Bolivia, then Ecuador, then Nicaragua. Now it’s my native Peru. One by one, largely unremarked here, Latin America’s nations are turning to the authoritarian Left. Ollanta Humala, who won yesterday’s presidential run-off, is typical of the breed of modern caudillo. A cashiered former army officer, he had concocted an angry and aggrieved programme which mingled ethnic nationalism, hostility to private enterprise, nostalgia for pre-Columbian times and anti-Chilean revanchism..... Humala’s opponent in the run-off was Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the man who, as president in the 1990s, closed down Congress and gave himself autocratic powers, and...

Elections: For years, Peru has been Latin America's top-performing economy, leading the pack on GDP, inflation, poverty eradication, free trade and markets. So why did Peru's voters suddenly elect a communist? Markets plummeted in Peru on Monday after leftist Ollanta Humala won Peru's presidency with nearly 51% of the vote. Stocks on the Lima exchange fell 13% at last glance, their biggest one-day drop since records began in 1990. Bonds and the currency were down, too. It was painful because Peru had been the brightest light among Latin America's economies. Embracing markets over two decades had paid off handsomely for...

Peru’s Keiko Fujimori conceded defeat in yesterday’s presidential election to Ollanta Humala, who won a narrow victory as voters overlooked his past support for Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and rallied behind his pledges to stamp out corruption and extend a mining boom to the nation’s poor. Fujimori, speaking to reporters in Lima, said she will lead a responsible opposition and “build bridges” with Humula’s government. She said she will offer him her personal congratulations in a meeting later today. “I recognize his triumph,” said the 36-year-old congresswoman. “It’s important that the country continues its economic course and that it has clear...

Chávez’s purchase of $15 billion in weapons causes concern in Latin America BY ANTONIO MARIA DELGADO With the acquisition of hundreds of tanks, helicopters and bulletproof vehicles as well as submarines and missile networks, Venezuela is arming itself at a speed unprecedented in the history of the South American country. Experts consulted by El Nuevo Herald have said that Hugo Chávez’s has created unrest in the region with purchases to expand its military that total more than $15 billion. The analysts warned that the purchases are made in an improvised fashion, following a “dubious” process with no bidding or prior...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – As a nuclear nightmare stalks Japan, and Libya and Bahrain crush hopes for reform, US President Barack Obama on Friday heads to an oasis of surprising stability in a troubled world -- emerging Latin America. Obama plans to highlight an amazing economic leap forward by Brazil, which has lifted millions from poverty and won a new global influence that President Dilma Rousseff seems keen to wield. He will cite Chile's evolution from authoritarian misery to increasingly prosperous democracy as an example for Middle Eastern nations emerging from repression. And in El Salvador, Obama hopes to show that...

Leftists Advance: Nation by Nation The Venezuelan people are not the only ones suffering under this resurgence of fanatical left-wing leaders. The BBC reported in 2005 that 75 percent of South Americans were governed by leftist rulers, all of whom had risen to power in the preceding six years. And the trend has only accelerated since then, with some analysts using the term “Pink Tide” to describe the phenomenon that has enveloped Latin America. Bolivia: With strong backing from Chavez, former coca farmer Evo Morales of the Movement for Socialism assumed power in 2006. His party now controls about two-thirds...

The Washington Post recently reported on the successful Palestinian drive to achieve statehood recognition from South American countries. Over the past few months, several countries—including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay—have endorsed the existence of an independent Palestinian country. (In years past, Palestine had garnered official recognition from Costa Rica, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.) To a casual observer, the wave of recognition may seem like a spontaneous outburst. In fact, there was nothing spontaneous about it. The flurry of diplomatic activity represents the culmination of a robust Palestinian lobbying push that was blessed and encouraged by former...

Colombia has announced it is negotiating with China to build an alternative to the Panama Canal. The proposed transport route is intended to promote the flow of goods between Asia and Latin America. The plan is to create a "dry canal" where the Pacific port of Buenaventura would be linked by rail, across Colombia, to the Atlantic Coast. Trade between Colombia and China has increased from $10m in 1980 to more than $5bn last year. The announcement came from the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, who told the Financial Times that the project was "a real proposal... and it is...

The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) decided at a meeting on Friday to set up a South American Parliament in Bolivia to promote the bloc's integration. Chilean President Michele Bachelet, also the UNASUR's temporary president, and Bolivian President Evo Morales opened the meeting in Bolivia's Cochabamba province which drew representatives from 12 countries in the region. "There are many tasks that the UNASUR is urged to accomplish, as part of the Latin American and Caribbean efforts," Bachelet said. Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia said that UNASUR members consider it necessary to promote the construction of the institutionalism and the...