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The scattered islands of the vast Pacific Ocean were settled by seafarers who set out from the eastern coasts and islands of Asia and traveled thousands of kilometers by boat. Meanwhile pre-Columbian South America was populated by people who crossed a now-vanished land bridge far to the north. Did these two groups ever meet in the New World? There's a good chance of that, according to a new study, which finds evidence that Easter Islanders may have reached South America and mixed with the Native Americans already there. University of Oslo immunologist Erik Thorsby first began analyzing the people of...

Due to economic instability, in January of 2000, then Ecuadorian President Jamil Mahuad instituted a policy instating the United States dollar as the official currency of Ecuador. Despite disapproval of the policy by current Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa’s administration, no plans are currently in the works to replace the US dollar as the official currency. However, the administration has indicated that it would replace the US dollar in favor of a South American currency if one became available. The dollar replaced "sucres" in Ecuador, at a rate of 1 for every 25,000 sucres. While Ecuador has officially replaced their own...

An international arbitration panel has ruled that Venezuela must pay Exxon Mobil more than $900 million in a long-simmering dispute over the nationalization of Exxon’s assets in Venezuela’s Orinoco Belt, one of the most coveted oil reserves outside the Middle East.

<p>Top secret papers are set to prove that the warship Belgrano was heading into the Falkland's exclusion zone when it was sunk, and not heading back to port as the Argentinians claimed.</p> <p>For decades debate and recrimination has raged over where the ship was heading when it was torpedoed by a Royal Navy submarine.</p>

The Uruguayan Senate has passed legislation to decriminalise abortion in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. A similar move in 2008 was vetoed by President Tabare Vasquez, but current President Jose Mujica has signalled he will sign the bill into law. The legislation now goes to the lower house, which, like the Senate, is controlled by Mr Mujica's allies. Opinion polls suggest a majority of Uruguayans back easing the restrictions on abortion. Under the current legislation, women who have an abortion and the people who assist them face prison. Abortion is only allowed in the case of rape or when...

Brazil boosts naval power to protect oil bonanza SAO PAULO — As it bids for great power status, Brazil is boosting its naval power in the South Atlantic with an ambitious submarine program to protect its huge deep-water oil reserves and project its growing influence. The emerging powerhouse already boasts Latin America's largest navy, but its aging fleet, including the Sao Paulo aircraft carrier -- formerly the French Navy's Foch -- nine British-built frigates and five coastal diesel-electric submarines, is in urgent need of modernization. "The fleet is currently inadequate to carry out its assigned missions" in the South Atlantic,...

Chile’s Constitutional Tribunal has rejected an effort seeking to force the country to recognize the “marriages” of three same-sex couples. The court, which is the nation’s highest authority on constitutional matters, voted 9-1 on Nov. 3rd against the suit challenging the constitutionality of Chile’s Civil Code, which recognizes marriage as the union of “a man and a woman.” The three homosexual couples, who were aided by Chile’s Homosexual Integration and Liberation Movement (MOVILH), sought to register themselves as “married” in September 2010, but were refused. Two of the couples had already contracted “marriages” in Canada and Argentina respectively. The justices...

Uturuncu is a nearly 20,000-foot-high (6,000 meters) volcano in southwest Bolivia. Scientists recently discovered the volcano is inflating with astonishing speed. "I call this 'volcano forensics,' because we're using so many different techniques to understand this phenomenon," said Oregon State University professor Shan de Silva, a volcanologist on the research team. Researchers realized about five years ago that the area below and around Uturuncu is steadily rising — blowing up like a giant balloon under a wide disc of land some 43 miles (70 kilometers) across. Satellite data revealed the region was inflating by 1 to 2 centimeters (less than...

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...

Who says women shouldn’t use sex to get what they want? In the far-away Colombian town of Barbacoas, female residents are making international headlines by withholding sex until the government provides a safe passageway from their village to other towns in the province. The “crossed legs movement” has been going on for the better part of the summer. Barbacoas’ roads in and out of the town are not paved, making travel hazardous, access to medical care difficult, and commodities prices five or six times higher than other areas of the country.

History: President Salvador Allende of Chile really did commit suicide in 1973, an inquest concluded on Tuesday. Now will the Left stop saying the U.S. and Chile's army did him in? Except perhaps for Che Guevara, no one has quite been the heroic totem to the global left than the late Marxist president of Chile, whose death in 1973 made him a martyr to socialism. Allende seemingly legitimized socialism as a democratically elected leader, the first Marxist who in 1970 didn't shoot his way to power.That gave the left hope for more. Elected with just 36% of the vote in...

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...

Peruvian opposition candidate Ollanta Humala is headed to victory over Congresswoman Keiko Fujimori in the Andean nation’s presidential runoff, according to a quick count of ballots and three exit polls. Humala won 51.5 percent compared with 48.5 percent for Fujimori, according to a quick count of 91 percent of ballots at selected polling stations nationwide by Lima-based researcher Ipsos-Apoyo.

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...

Having experienced the Cuban Missile Crisis at the CIA, Langley, ion 1962, I have little enthusiasm for a repeat. But we may get one. A German newspaper is running a disturbing report: BERLIN – The Iranian government is moving forward with the construction of rocket launch bases in Venezuela, the German daily Die Welt wrote in its Friday edition. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is Teheran’s most important South American ally. Iran is building intermediate- range missile launch pads on the Paraguaná Peninsula, and engineers from a construction firm – Khatam al-Anbia – owned by the Revolutionary Guards visited Paraguaná in...

CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay — The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia has taken root in South America, fostering a well-financed force of Islamist radicals boiling with hatred for the United States and ready to die to prove it, according to militia members, U.S. officials and police agencies across the continent. From its Western base in a remote region divided by the borders of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina known as the Tri-border, or the Triple Frontier, Hezbollah has mined the frustrations of many Muslims among about 25,000 Arab residents.... An investigation...has uncovered details of an extensive smuggling network run by Hezbollah...The operation funnels...

Government Report: 50% of Brazil’s Military Equipment Is Obsolete BRASILIA – Half of the Brazilian armed forces’ military equipment is obsolete and in no condition to be used in combat, according to a government report obtained and published on Sunday by the daily Folha de Sao Paulo. The document, which according to the newspaper was prepared by the Defense Ministry, also criticizes the strong concentration of troops and bases in the prosperous southeastern part of the country, something that “reveals the fragility of the armed forces” and the scarce presence of the military in other regions of the country. The...

Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi is well known now for the abuses he has inflicted on his own people during more than four decades of brutal rule in Libya, but few remember the vast campaign of carnage and terrorism he orchestrated across West Africa and Europe when he was at the height of his powers. Nor are his more recent alliance with Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and his long-standing relationship with Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua -- both of whom are busy trampling their constitutions and moving toward dictatorship -- well understood. And the fact that all three governments support the Revolutionary Armed...

It's known as the Coca Cola plane. In early November, drug traffickers landed a Boeing 727 in the Malian desert in Gao state and offloaded as much as 10 tons of cocaine. Then, rather than fly it back across the Atlantic to Latin America, they simply burnt it, treating it like a used Coke can. The terrain of northern Mali is stark desert, and a haven for Islamist insurgents with close ties to Al Qaeda. Initially, investigators thought the plane had crashed in the desert on take off. But now, based on the fact that the plane was largely intact,...

21st Century SocialismThe attempt to destroy democracy in Latin America.  The Obama administration started out on the wrong foot in world affairs. It used techniques better suited for domestic political campaigns — popularity contests — in its foreign policy. In our own hemisphere, the result was confusion for our allies and our enemies alike. The overriding objective of U.S. policy — in Latin America and elsewhere — should be to advance U.S. national interests, not to curry favor with foreign leaders. If we can be liked while advancing our interests, so much the better. But when we try to befriend...

Children at a Gaza refugee camp: Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state under George Bush, suggested in 2008 that Palestinian refugees could be resettled in Chile and Argentina. Photograph: Ali Ali/EPA Palestinians have expressed shock and dismay at the US suggestion to settle Palestinian refugees in Argentina and Chile rather than let them return to ancestral land in Israel. Representatives of the Palestinian diaspora said the plan to ship displaced Palestinians from the Middle East to a new homeland across the Atlantic clashed with their fundamental right to go home. "It's completely unacceptable. It contradicts our inalienable right to return...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — one of President Obama's most strident critics — praised the president's speech in Arizona at a memorial service for the victims of the Tucson shooting spree. The Arizona senator and Obama's 2008 opponent penned an op-ed in the Washington Post, saying Obama "comforted and inspired the country" by calling for greater civility in the nation's political discourse. "I disagree with many of the president's policies, but I believe he is a patriot sincerely intent on using his time in office to advance our country's cause," McCain wrote. "I reject accusations that his policies and beliefs make...

The first F-16s that the Netherlands have sold to Chile took off from Leeuwarden Air Base this morning on their way to their new home in Antofagasta. In total, the South American country is buying 18 aircraft from the Netherlands. The fighters’ first stop will be in Gran Canaria, after which they cross over into Brazil. They will then fly to their final destination in Antofagasta, where the aircraft will be transferred to the Chilean air force. The sale of 18 fighter aircraft is one of the measures in the 'Wereldwijd dienstbaar' polcy adopted in 2007. It states that Defense...

As news agencies reported early this week, the attraction which the governments of Iran and Bolivia feel towards each other has now become manifest in a number of bilateral agreements in various areas, including defence. According to different sources, Bolivian Economy and Finance Minister Luis Arce announced plans to purchase different defence-related equipment from Iran. Bolivian President Evo Morales and his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, signed the agreements during a recent four-day visit of the Bolivian leader to Teheran. “We have expressed ... our interest in buying some airplanes and helicopters of Iranian manufacture, which are basically for training,” Arce...

Russia's agreement to build a nuclear power station and a research reactor in Venezuela has handed the Obama administration and the International Atomic Energy Agency with a headache that won't go away easily. The problem isn't so much the introduction of nuclear energy to the Latin American country, which has growing electricity needs, but the unpredictable policies of populist President Hugo Chavez. U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in Washington the United States hoped both Russia and Venezuela would act responsibly and adhere to IAEA rules. Comparisons with the Iran nuclear row figured in Crowley's briefing with reporters. Any...

Russia's S-300 air defense systems, which Moscow refused to deliver to Iran following a new round of UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic, could be sold to Venezuela instead, a Russian arms trade expert said on Friday. Russia signed a deal to deliver five battalions of S-300PMU-1 air defense systems to Iran in 2007 but banned the sale in September, saying the systems, along with a number of other weapons, were covered by the fourth round of sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council against Iran over its nuclear program in June. "Russia is looking for a buyer of five...

Ecuador teetered on the verge of a government collapse Thursday, as national police took to the streets of Quito, the capital, and attacked the president over what police say was the cancellation of bonuses and promotions. The government declared a one-week state of emergency Thursday afternoon and put the military in charge of security. "This is a coup attempt," President Rafael Correa said in a TV interview... "They're trying to get into my room, maybe to attack me. I don't know," he said in a telephone interview with state-run Ecuador TV. "But, forget it. I won't relent... A video...later showed...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Extradited Hacker Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison for Masterminding First-Ever Hack Into Internet Phone Networks Defendant Also Ordered to Pay Over $1 Million in Restitution NEWARK, NJ—The first individual ever charged with hacking into the networks of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers and reselling hacked VoIP services for a profit was sentenced today to 120 months in prison, United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Edwin Andres Pena, 27, transmitted over 10 million minutes of unauthorized telephone calls over the victims' networks. Pena, a Venezuelan citizen, fled the United States...

BOGOTA, Colombia — A car packed with at least 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of explosives blew up in an office district of Colombia's capital Thursday, shattering windows in dozens of buildings and injuring nine people, police said. No deaths were reported. It was the first car bombing in Bogota since a blast killed two people a year and a half ago, and came five days after Juan Manuel Santos was sworn in as president.

NOTE The following blog entry snippet is a quote: Al-Siyassa: Hizbullah Plan To Establish Terror Network In South America Thwarted The Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyassa, known for its anti-Hizbullah orientation, reports that Mexico has thwarted a Hizbullah plan to recruit Mexican terrorists of Shi'ite Lebanese origin, and form a network that would operate against Israeli and Western targets throughout South America. Posted at: July 06, 2010

The U.S. government announced on Saturday afternoon that for the first time ever a fully operational submarine used by drug traffickers has been seized in the waters of South America. The craft, which could move multi-ton loads of cocaine, was seized in a jungle tributary of Ecuador leading to the Pacific Ocean by Ecuadoran authorities using Drug Enforcement Administration intelligence.

(CNSNews.com) - Amid growing concern about the illicit drug trade across the U.S.-Mexico border, the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas have been linked to South American drug trafficking organizations–and the money Hezbollah and Hamas make from narco-trafficking is used to finance their organizations, according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS). “International terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, have also reportedly raised funding for their terrorist activities through linkages formed with DTOs in South America, particularly those operating in the tri-border area (TBA) of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina,” stated CRS in an April 30 report. As evidence that Hezbollah and...

NOTE The following text is a quote: www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-memorandum-unexpected-urgent-refugee-and-migration-needs-related-somal Home • Briefing Room • Presidential Actions • Presidential Memoranda The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 09, 2010 Presidential Memorandum--Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs Related to Somalia and Food Pipeline Breaks for Refugee and Other Displaced Populations of Concern Globally Presidential Determination -- June 8, 2010 No. 2010-10 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE SUBJECT: Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs Related to Somalia and Food Pipeline Breaks for Refugee and Other Displaced Populations of Concern Globally By the authority vested in me by the...

Elections: Loopy Green candidate Antanas Mockus was hailed in the press as Colombia's next president. But the voters had someone else in mind and stunned with Sunday's result. It exposed Mockus' rise as pure media hype. Where have we seen this movie before? The media hailed the vaguely leftwing Green Party candidate with his hip sunflower campaign theme as "The New Obama." They pointed to polls as proof he'd win the election, said he was a new kind of politician and voters were in a mood for "change." "Colombian election tilting toward a maverick," crowed the Global Post, in a...

Russia and Brazil are negotiating a deal for the delivery of unspecified air defense systems to the Latin American country, a Russian government official said on Friday. "We are considering any system in general terms," said Mikhail Dmitriyev, head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation. "We don't mind what they agree to buy. It could be Tor systems," he added. The Tor-M1, developed by the Russian company Almaz-Antei, is a low-to-medium-altitude, short-range surface-to-air missile system designed to intercept aircraft, cruise missiles, precision-guided munitions and unpiloted aerial vehicles. The talks are being held in the framework of the Russian-Brazilian joint...

Note: The following text is a quote: Heads of Canadian alien smuggling organization sentenced BURLINGTON, Vt. - On May 3, Jose Manuel Galdamez-Serrano, 56, Norvin Gonzalez-Morales, 29, Ruben Damas-Hernandez, 31, and Emmanuel Antonio Galdamez, 27, of Montreal, Quebec, were sentenced in U.S. District Court in Burlington following their guilty pleas to alien smuggling offenses. The defendants were extradited to the United States from Canada to face the charges contained in the indictment. Chief U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III sentenced Jose Manual Galdamez-Serrano to 60 months imprisonment and three years of probation following his guilty plea to one count...

Bolivian President Evo Morales announced a workers' day takeover of four power companies on Saturday, expanding the state's dominion over key industries. Morales signed the nationalization decree at offices of one of the companies in the central city of Cochabamba hours after police and soldiers moved in to secure them. The companies include Bolivia's largest power producer, Empresa Electrica Guaracachi SA, which is controlled by Rurelec PLC of Britain, as well as Empresa Corani SA, a hydroelectric company operated by GDF Suez, which itself is partly owned by the French government. Also nationalized were the Valle Hermoso company, operated by...

<p>CHARALLAVE, Venezuela - A 54-year-old housewife fires the machine gun for the first time, lets loose a thunderous burst of gunfire and beams with satisfaction. A boot camp instructor shouts, "Kill those gringos!"</p> <p>Thousands of civilian volunteers in olive-green fatigues are training over the weekend at a Venezuelan army base, where they learn to crawl under barbed wire, fire assault rifles and stalk enemies in combat. Known as the Bolivarian Militia, this spirited group of mostly working-class men and women-from students to retirees-are united by their militant support for President Hugo Chavez and their willingness to defend his government.</p>

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...

Just two days after US President Barack Hussein Obama shared a controversial and landmark handshake with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez at the Summit of the Americas, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has released a study analyzing the flowering alliance between the increasingly anti-Western Latin America and the virulently anti-Israel Iran. The study was conducted at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC), a non-governmental organization dedicated to Israeli intelligence and terrorism issues. According to the study, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is using anti-Western Hugo Chavez as a springboard into several Latin American countries, such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, and...

SNIPPET: "President Chávez also announced during the visit that Venezuela is working on a preliminary plan for the construction of a “nuclear village” in Venezuela with Iranian assistance so that “the Venezuelan people can count in the future on this marvelous resource for peaceful purposes.” The transfer of Iranian nuclear technology from Iran would be a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions - 1737 (2006), 1747 ( 2007), and 1803 (2008) - that imposed restrictions on Iran’s nuclear technology transfers. In late September 2009, comments by Venezuelan officials offered conflicting information about Iran’s support for Venezuela’s search for uranium deposits....

SNIPPET: "In recent years, U.S. concerns have increased over activities of Hezbollah and the Sunni Muslim Palestinian group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) in the tri-border area (TBA) of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, which has a large Muslim population. The TBA has long been used for arms and drug trafficking, contraband smuggling, document and currency fraud, money laundering, and the manufacture and movement of pirated goods." SNIPPET: "This article is an edited portion of a longer January 25, 2010 CRS report, Latin America: Terrorism Issues (PDF) prepared by Mark P. Sullivan, Specialist in Latin American Affairs for the Congressional Research Service...

"Now Arizona has more than one war in our backyards MY OPINION: Hezbollah using drug routes" By Lionel Waxman, Inside Tucson Business Published on Friday, April 23rd, 2010 SNIPPET: "For years, I have been warning that the Mexican drug war will sweep over Southern Arizona if we don’t close the border. Well now the war is here. But today, I am writing to warn you of another war. It is using the drug routes but it isn’t connected to the cartels. Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese group, is on its way to involving Tubac, Tucson, Phoenix and other parts of Arizona...

"US Accuses Guinea-Bissau Military Officers of Drug Trafficking Two top officers are named as major players in cocaine shipment from Latin America to Guinea-Bissau" SNIPPET: "Na Tchuto denied the allegations on Friday and said that he will cooperate with the United States government. He also said the charges of drug trafficking do not make sense because he was in Portugal on June 29, 2008 when the cocaine shipment from Venezuela arrived. Na Tchuto said he did not return to Guinea-Bissau until July. Na Tchuto also pointed out that he was not arrested by Interpol when he was in Gambia or...

<p>Around 50 people suffered injuries Sunday when part of a glacier broke off and burst the Hualcan River banks in a development the local governor attributed to climate change.</p>

Despite a severe energy-related crisis at home, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has promised generous assistance to Uruguay that will include crude oil at discounted rates and help with oil refining. Chavez is facing political pressures before the National Assembly elections in September over the effects of a drought that depleted water reserves in hydroelectric facilities, causing prolonged disruption in electricity and water supplies in both urban and rural population centers. The drought broke this week with heavy rainfall and flooding in central Venezuela, but with the loss of two lives. Chavez hailed the rainfall, which followed speeches last month invoking...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will lay the cornerstone of a new Russian Orthodox cathedral to be constructed in Venezuela, according to Russia's RIA Novosti news agency. Putin is in Caracas today holding talks with the presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia. RFE/RL asked one prominent Venezuelan commentator about the reported groundbreaking of the Russian Orthodox cathedral. "It seems to me absurd in terms of the Russian population that there is in Venezuela," said Elsa Cardozo, a columnist for "El Nacional" newspaper. "It is a very small community. I don't know the numbers but it is certainly not one of the...

<p>Atomic energy was one of many areas of cooperation discussed as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made his first visit to the South American country.</p>

Note: The following text is a quote: March 30, 2010 Eritrean man pleads guilty to alien smuggling WASHINGTON - Samuel Abrahaley Fessahazion, 23, an Eritrean national, has pleaded guilty to helping smuggle illegal aliens to the United States for private financial gain, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Custom and Border Protection (CBP). Fessahazion, aka "Sami," aka "Sammy," aka "Alex" and aka "Alex Williams" pleaded guilty on March 29, 2010, in Houston to one count of conspiracy and two counts of encouraging and inducing aliens to come to, enter or reside in the United...

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) - An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 hit quake-battered Chile on Friday but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The quake was centered about 47 miles (75 km) south of the city of Copiapo at a depth of 37 miles (60 km). It was felt slightly in Santiago.