CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez's continued silence in the week since his return to Venezuela has only deepened the mystery about his health. While tweets and letters have been issued in Chavez's name, and officials insist they have had long meetings with him, no photos have emerged and even an ally as close as Bolivian President Evo Morales was turned away without a bedside meeting. Some Venezuelans have questioned whether the socialist president is at a military hospital in Caracas at all, whether he even returned from Cuba or whether he is in fact still alive.
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GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Stabroek News - Last week the Canadian Foreign Minister, John Baird, made a diplomatic foray into Latin America, in a follow-up to, or probably reassessment of, Canada-Latin American relations since Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited the area in 2007. As part of Latin America, or the Americas as they are sometimes referred to in North America, Baird took in two countries that are part of the Cariforum system, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, in both of which Canada has maintained a substantial interest.
WASHINGTON, CMC - In a move clearly designed to save money, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency says it has released a number of Caribbean and other immigrant detainees from jails and detention centers across the country. ICE said that the move comes as automatic US federal budget cuts loom on March 1.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House may soon propose the biggest change in US food aid since the programmes were created during the Cold War – donating cash for hunger relief instead of shipping American-grown food thousands of miles to global trouble spots, say farm groups and charities. Reformers have argued for years that cash donations, the method used by most nations, are more efficient and speedier. But food donation has been the favoured US approach since the Food for Peace programme was enacted in 1954.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Three dozen arms control and human rights groups have written to US President Barack Obama ahead of new arms-trade negotiations at the United Nations next month, urging him to back a tough treaty that would end loopholes in international weapons sales. Arms control campaigners say one person every minute dies worldwide as a result of armed violence and a convention is needed to prevent the unregulated and illicit flow of weapons into conflict zones and fueling wars and atrocities.
UNITED NATIONS, CMC – Three Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries are in arrears with payments to the United Nations and have “lost” their vote in the world body. According to a January 15th letter sent by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the President of the General Assembly, Dominica along with Grenada and St Lucia are among 18 countries in arrears. Dominica owes US$7,231, while St. Lucia is in arrears to the tune of US$35,727 and Grenada US$40,100.
HAVANA, Cuba, CMC – Russia’s Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov says his country will forgive part of Cuba’s US$25 billion Soviet-era debt and restructure the rest as part of agreements that include Havana getting Russian jetliners worth US$650 million. On an official visit here, Manturov told reporters that Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and Ricardo Cabrisas, vice president of the Council of Ministers, had initialed the debt agreement, adding that the details would be worked out by the end of the year.
WASHINGTON, CMC – The United States has denied reports that it plans to remove Cuba from a list of countries that support terrorism. “I saw that report. Let me say firmly here it is incorrect,” US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters here. “This department has no current plans to remove Cuba from the state sponsor of terrorism list. “We review this every year, and at the current moment when the last review was done in 2012, we didn’t see cause to remove them,” she added.
Cuban President Raul Castro has been re-elected for a second five-year term. The 612-member National Assembly of People's Power Sunday elected Castro, who turns 82 in June, as president of the State Council, Xinhua reported. "The National Assembly of People's Power today approved, in this capital, Army General Raul Castro Ruz as president of the Council of State, and elected Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, as its first vice president," Cuba's state-run National Information Agency (AIN) said.
WASHINGTON, CMC – The US Supreme Court has declined to block the deportation of thousands of Caribbean and other immigrants who over two years ago were not warned by their lawyers that, when they pleaded guilty to serious crimes, they would be targeted for deportation. The law calls for mandatory deportation for Caribbean and other immigrants, including lawful permanent residents, who have an “aggravated felony” on their record. In a 7-2 decision, the justices refused to apply the ruling retroactively to cases of immigrants who had unintentionally pleaded guilty before 2010.