WASHINGTON, D.C. – United States Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel will depart Wednesday for Mexico City to hold talks with his counterparts from Canada and Mexico aimed at bolstering Washington's security ties to its neighbors.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – One person was shot and killed as violent protests erupted Tuesday in Rio's famed Copacabana beach district following the death of a dancer allegedly at the hands of police, less than two months before the World Cup.
GUATEMALA CITY – On the first day of a tour of Central America and the Dominican Republic, the president-elect of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solís, said Tuesday his administration would not promote initiatives to decriminalize illicit drugs, and that the topic should be subject to public debate.
The daily La Nación reported on Tuesday that the U.S. Embassy in San José operated the covert program ZunZuneo behind the Costa Rican government’s back, neglecting to inform the Foreign Ministry and other government officials of the program's true intentions. U.S. Embassy officials say Costa Rica was informed.
An injury to the right knee of Cristian Gamboa won't require surgery, keeping alive the hope that Costa Rica's right back will return in time for the World Cup.
The man picked to lead Costa Rica's Central Bank rejected Citigroup's decision to cut its economic forecast for the country in half after Intel and Bank of America said they would fire 3,000 people.
Critics say that unusually high productivity in the banana sector has come at the expense of Guatemala’s thousands of non-unionized banana workers – as Dole, Bonita and other multinational companies engage in a “race to the bottom” by paying salaries as low as $3 a day. Banana company bosses dispute those allegations.
On U.S. leadership, Costa Rica had the second highest approval rating of any country surveyed in the region, behind only Haiti, according to a Gallup survey of 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The pontiff credited with helping to bring down Communism in Eastern Europe – and whose canonization was made possible by a supposed miracle in Costa Rica – was accused of backing right-wing dictators in Latin America including Augusto Pinochet in Chile during the Cold War.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on a tour of Latin America, met his Venezuelan counterpart Elías Jaua on Monday. China has pledged to invest more than $20 billion in Venezuelan oil and social cooperation.
