“It was a short meeting but very good,” Solís told reporters. The two leaders touched on the environment, renewable energy, security and U.S. investment in Costa Rica.
Authorities suspect that the March 14 murder of Giovanni Villatoro, 20, a cameraman with the Intercable news station, occurred because his company refused to pay extortion money.
To create strains of heat-resistant beans, scientists crossed the protein-rich common bean — a food staple in Latin America and Africa — with the drought and heat-resistant tepary bean.
Last August the Nicaraguan Army’s top official, Gen. Julio César Avilés, told reporters that the country’s military was in the process of buying airplanes, helicopters, and vessels to protect Nicaraguan sovereignty, “taking into account the evolution of threats and risks to our country.”
On Tuesday, the chapel at the Hospital Divina Providencia in San Salvador, where Romero was killed 35 years ago, was packed with people who came to honor the former archbishop.
Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova was defense minister during the 1980-1992 war pitting a U.S.-backed government against leftist rebels, which left some 75,000 dead and another 7,000 missing.
The plan was formulated in the wake of last year’s unprecedented exodus to the U.S. of families and children traveling alone from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Many were fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries.
Barack Obama's administration has asked the U.S. Congress to approve $1 billion in funding for Central America to bolster security and stem illegal immigration into the U.S. from its southern neighbors.
Alfonso Portillo left no doubt that he plans to jump into the country's election-year political scene, though not as a candidate. He said he wanted to seek a national agreement aimed at reforming the Guatemalan government.
Eliminating customs duties between the two Northern Triangle countries would be a big step toward implementing the long-planned Central American Customs Union.
