On the heels of Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama’s second formal appointmentâformer Sen. Tom Daschle for secretary of health and human servicesâappears to be another tilt to the neocons. The New York Times Nov. 20 notes potential conflicts… Read moreTom Daschle: “regime change” extremist
Al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri released a video statement Nov. 19 calling US President-elect Barack Obama a “house slave” who had aligned himself with the “enemies” of Islam. “You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand in… Read moreAl-Qaeda disses Obama, invokes Malcolm X
A missile from a US drone struck a purported militant hideout in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province Nov. 19âthe 20th such attack since August, but the first outside of the country’s Tribal Areas. The strike in Bannu district left five… Read moreUS bombs Pakistan âagain
Colombian officials declared a state of emergency Nov. 19, boosting their powers of arrest and money seizure to help deal with multimillion-dollar investment scams that have targeted mostly poor investors. President Ălvaro Uribe’s office said the measure was taken because… Read moreColombia declares state of emergency over financial scams
Nicaragua remains violently divided more than a week after contested national municipal elections. On Nov. 18, the opposition Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC) candidate for mayor of Managua, Eduardo Montealegre, called off a planned march, charging intimidation by followers of the… Read morePost-electoral violence continues in Nicaragua
The leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) nations met in Washington, DC on Nov. 15 for the group’s first summitâan emergency session to discuss the world financial crisis. The G20 combines the Group of 8 (Britain, Canada, France, Germany,… Read moreLatin America plays leading role at first G20 summit; Fidel unimpressed
On Nov. 11 Costa Rica’s Legislative Assembly passed the last enabling laws necessary for the implementation of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), a trade accord strongly promoted by the US. President Arias said it would take effect… Read moreCosta Rica approves CAFTA
After the Nov. 15 Group of 20 (G20) summit in Washington, Chinese president Hu Jintao flew to Costa Rica for the first visit by a Chinese president to Central America. He and Costa Rican president Oscar Arias were to sign… Read moreHu does Costa Rica
Some 400,000 Chilean public employees staged a two-day strike on Nov. 11 and 12 to push for a 14.5% pay increase. The National Association of Government Employees (ANEF), which includes 15 unions and associations, said the job action was 90%… Read moreChile: government workers strike
On Nov. 12 Cuba released La Paz en Colombia (Peace in Colombia), a 265-page book by former president Fidel Castro giving new information about the Cuban government’s relations with Colombia’s leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In the book,… Read moreFidel spills frijoles on FARC
Puerto Rico’s conservative New Progressive Party (PNP) gained easily over the centrist Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in elections on Nov. 4, with PNP gubernatorial candidate Luis Fortuno winning 52.8% of the vote to 41.3% for the PPD candidate, current governor… Read morePuerto Rico: right wins elections
US President-elect Barack Obama in his Nov. 16 appearance on 60 Minutes was asked by interviewer Steve Kroft: “Can you give us some sense of when you might start redeployments out of Iraq?” His answer stated fairly explicitly that his… Read moreObama: out of Iraq, into Afghanistan?
