by the El Reportero’s news services
Eleven people were killed in a gunfight between gangsters and police and the army in Guerrero, southern Mexico on Dec. 7. The pace of killing in Mexico does not seem to be slowing. On Dec. 6 and 7 at least 26 people were killed by gangsters. The worst incident was the gunfight in Palos Altos, Guerrero, which went on for several hours. The gory weekend capped a horrible week for the government: from Nov. 29 Dec. 5, a total of 213 people were killed by gangsters. This was the highest figure since President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa took office on Dec. 1, 2006.
Russian president visit to Venezuela coincides with it Navy’s arrival
The media devoted considerable attention in late November to a visit by Russia’s President Dmitri Medvedev to Venezuela, timed to coincide with the arrival of a Russian naval task force in the Caribbean Sea. The fleet was due to begin planned joint manoeuvres with the Venezuelan navy, its first ever joint exercise with a Latin American country in western hemisphere waters. While Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez presented the event as a strengthening of his ‘strategic alliance’ with Moscow, Medvedev spent less than two of his nine day tour of the region in Venezuela.
Chávez puts Venezuela on electoral footing again
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez embarked on a re-election campaign this week. Before the results of the regional elections on Nov. 23, had been fully digested, Chávez decided to “authorise” the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) to organise a referendum to amend the constitution to allow him to seek re-election in December 2012. The 1999 constitution imposes a two-term presidential limit. Chávez said he wanted the process to be swift, positing a date of February for the referendum.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, left, and Cuban President Raúl Castro take a long walk
HAVANA — Russia’s president met with revolutionary icon Fidel Castro yesterday, discussing Guantanamo Bay and hopes for a multipolar world with Cuba’s former leader at the end of a tour of Latin America aimed at raising Moscow’s presence in the region.
Dmitry Medvedev spent hours talking and sightseeing with President Raul Castro before meeting privately with his 82-year-old older brother.
Medvedev said he was happy with his visit when he left the island yesterday, Cuba’s Prensa Latina news agency reported.
“We have defi ned what we are going to do next, we have cleared up everything regarding credits, and in Russia we will await President Raul Castro’s visit,” Prensa Latina quoted the Russian president as saying. The news agency gave no details about what had been defi ned and cleared up.
In an essay released hours after meeting Medvedev, Fidel Castro wrote that he emphasized to the Russian leader Cuba’s demand for the return of “up to the last square meter” of land occupied by the U.S. military base at Guantanamo.
Nicaragua’s Ortega defiant after US, Europe yank aid
MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Amid growing concern that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega is leading his country off the path to democratic reform, foreign donors have started to cut off massive amounts of economic aid. Combined with the worsening global financial crisis, the Western Hemisphere’s second-poorest country finds itself in increasingly dire fi nancial straits.
The US was suspending the remaining $64 million of $175 million awarded in grants for sustainable development projects in Nicaragua. But Mr. Ortega, a former wsocialist revolutionary and cold-war nemesis of the United States, shrugged off the move, saying that Nicaragua would soon get some help from Russia and Venezuela, both of which are eager to expand their infl uence in the region.
