CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez is famous for speeches that last for hours, and Thursday should have been a special day for the loquacious socialist to let loose. But even with a parade of foreign dignitaries in town to laud him and a large, boisterous crowd on the day he was to be sworn in for a triumphal new term, Mr. Chávez’s silence spoke loudest of all. The country had been warned in advance that Mr. Chávez was too sick to slip on the presidential sash and raise his hand to take the presidential oath.
Accredited Third States
WASHINGTON, CMC – A new study has found that last year the Obama administration spent more on immigration enforcement affecting the Caribbean and other countries than on all the other major federal law enforcement agencies.
The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group, in its 182-report said the US government spent nearly US$18 billion on immigration enforcement.
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez’s supporters have not ruled out swearing him in from his hospital in Havana. His detractors are calling for government investigators to go check his pulse themselves. The justices whom Mr. Chávez’s allies have named to the Supreme Court have decided that he can continue to govern in absentia.
NEW YORK, CMC – The Grenada-born American legislator, who was arrested during the West Indian American Day Carnival Parade two years ago, is hailing the decision of a court to strike down part of the New York Police Department (NYPD) “stop-and-frisk” policy.
“I thank Judge Scheindlin for standing up to the abuses of the stop, question and frisk tactic and standing up for the residents of the Bronx who have been unfairly targeted and unjustly arrested,” Brooklyn Councilman Jumaane Williams told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Wednesday.
CARACAS, Venezuela, (UPI) -- A Venezuelan Supreme Court ruling letting President Hugo Chavez begin his new term Thursday in absentia was politically motivated, a key opposition leader said.
The court's ruling was intended "to resolve the problem" in the ruling United Socialist Party of a growing power struggle between Vice President Nicolas Maduro and National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, Henrique Capriles said.
The power struggle has "totally paralyzed" the government, he said.
CARACAS -- Of all the people flocking here Thursday to mark President Hugo Chávez’s new six-year term, the man of the hour, the ailing Comandante, will not be among them.
On Tuesday, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello announced that Chávez will miss the event, as he remains in Cuba where he is recovering from complicated cancer surgery that has kept him incommunicado for a month.
SAO PAULO -- A top Brazilian newspaper is reporting that popular former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be investigated for allegations that he knew about a massive cash-for-votes scheme, the nation's biggest corruption scandal.
The Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reports Wednesday that the attorney general has ordered the formal investigation. It cited no sources.
Before hours call to the attorney general's office weren't answered.
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's decision to postpone the inauguration of President Hugo Chavez as he remains in Cuba battling cancer has prompted furious accusations from the opposition that the government is violating the constitution and should tell the country how ill the socialist leader really is.
CHICAGO, CMC – A leading United States newspaper Tuesday said that Jamaica’s debt crisis is in a worse financial shape than Greece and suggested that the Portia Simpson Miller administration consider a bailout plan with significant debt relief.
The Chicago Tribune in an editorial said that Jamaica has more debt in relation to the size of its economy than any other country and warned against the Caribbean island becoming what it labelled “The Greece of the Western Hemisphere”.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is in a "stable situation" in a Cuban hospital receiving treatment due to a severe respiratory infection, his government said Monday.