Panama: Barro Blanco dam construction suspended
After years of controversy, Panama's government has ordered a temporary halt to the building of a dam opposed by local indigenous communities.
After years of controversy, Panama's government has ordered a temporary halt to the building of a dam opposed by local indigenous communities.
Indigenous leaders give the government until Feb. 15 to cancel a dam they've protested for years. Meanwhile, a former president who promoted the dam has fled the country.
Amid peace talks in Havana, Colombia's FARC issued an angry communique insisting "We are not narco-traffickers." But major coke busts supposedly linked to the guerillas continue.
US media generally ignored the 25th anniversary of the Panama invasion, the start of a quarter-century wave of bloody US military interventions. The victims haven't forgotten.
Colombia's top brass held their first meeting with FARC leaders at peace talks in Havana—as Panamanian authorities claimed interception of a massive FARC cocaine shipment.
Nicaragua approved a route for its proposed inter-oceanic canal—sparking demands both by the Rama indigenous people and neighboring Costa Rica to be consulted in the project.
Panama's mega-scale Barro Blanco dam is now 64% complete, but the indigenous Ngöbe-Buglé haven't given up their fight against the project.
Amid multiple legal challenges, Nicaragua's interoceanic canal project could be delayed for a year, while the rival Panama Canal expansion faces massive cost overruns.
The current expansion of the Panama Canal will accommodate 90% of the world's 370-vessel liquified natural gas fleet—a new bid to undermine Nicaragua's canal plans.
Panama detained but quickly released an ex-CIA agent wanted for kidnapping in Italy. Cuban sources link him to the Contragate scandal; since 2005 he's been living in Honduras.
The US has been spying on telecommunications in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and 11 other Latin American countries—with a focus on oil and other economic issues.
Campesinos are protesting three dams planned for the area where they live; meanwhile, the indigenous Ngöbe Buglé are still fighting a dam being built in their territory.