Politics

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó was violently blocked Sunday from presiding over a special session of congress where rivals tried to install a substitute in what was condemned as a hijacking of the country’s last democratic institution.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The 2020 Democratic presidential primary initially featured the most racially diverse field in history. Now, with one month until voting begins, the top tier of candidates is all white.

PHOENIX (AP) — The U.S. government on Thursday began sending asylum seekers back to Nogales, Mexico, to await court hearings that will be scheduled roughly 350 miles (563 kilometers) away in Juárez, Mexico.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. secretary-general says 2019 was the most violent year for former fighters from Colombia’s largest rebel group since it signed a peace deal with the government in 2016.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador closed out 2019 with a parting shot at his predecessors, saying imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera had had the same power as the country’s president.

“So today it’s with a heavy heart, and profound gratitude, that I will suspend my campaign for president,” Castro said in the campaign video.

It was definitely a moment.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia’s interim president says her government is expelling the top Mexican and Spanish diplomats in the country over an alleged attempt by members of Bolivia’s former government to leave refuge in the Mexican embassy with Spanish help and flee the country.

MIAMI (AP) — Erik Prince, a major Republican donor and founder of controversial security firm Blackwater, has been referred to the U.S. Treasury Department for possible sanctions violations tied to his recent trip to Venezuela for a meeting with a top aide of President Nicolás Maduro, two senior U.S. officials said.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Nicaraguan government freed 91 protesters Monday, including 16 activists arrested in Nicaragua in November for taking water to demonstrators. Those released included a student leader who is a Belgian dual-national.

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras (AP) — It had been nearly a year since the soft-spoken factory worker applied for U.S. asylum, saying he feared being killed. It had been four months since he’d been deported and flown home to Honduras.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Spanish officials involved in a diplomatic incident left Bolivia on Sunday amid accusations that they tried to help former high-ranking members of deposed President Evo Morales’ administration exit the country.

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile’s human rights watchdog is calling for an investigation into the death of a man during anti-government protests.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — A tense diplomatic feud between Bolivia’s conservative interim government and Mexico expanded to include Spain on Friday when a confrontation broke out as Spanish diplomats visited the Mexican ambassador’s residence in La Paz, where members of the ousted leftist government have taken refuge.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s top financial investigator on Friday reported on the webs of corruption and money laundering that thieves, traffickers and political figures have used to hide their wealth.

It is essential that we recognize the creativity and agency that guides the Haitian anti-corruption movement. While Haiti does not need saviors, those on the ground could use collaborators.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico said Thursday that it will file a complaint against the interim government of Bolivia at the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (AP) — On a vacant grassy lot squeezed between several smoggy highways lies the property where Colombia’s government hopes to build a large museum paying homage to victims of the country’s long civil conflict.

Joe Biden’s presidential bid got a boost Monday from one of the leading Latinos in Congress, with the chairman of the Hispanic Caucus’ political arm endorsing the former vice president as Democrats’ best hope to defeat President Donald Trump.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Tour operator Alejandro Palacios joined hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans protesting in the streets early this year, wanting to believe that things would finally change in the country as upstart opposition leader Juan Guaidó rallied international support and promised a swift end to President Nicolás Maduro’s rule.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Yolanda Avila and Andres Pico are friends who sit next to each other on the Colorado Springs’ city council. But politically the two couldn’t be further apart—Avila is a durable Democrat and Pico an unflinching Republican.