Yesterday, Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermúdez and Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Fander Falconí held their first official meeting since diplomatic ties between the two countries were cut in 2008 after a Colombian attack on a FARC camp in Ecuadorian territory. The meeting between the two counterparts took place in the New York offices of the Council of Americas and lasted four hours. Colombia and Ecuador have not had ambassadors in each other's capitals since March 2008, after a Colombian Army raid a mile inside Ecuadorian territory killed a top leader of Colombia's FARC guerrilla group...
This weekend 54 heads of state and other officials from African nations and 12 from South American nations will arrive in Margarita, Venezuela for the second South America–Africa Summit, headed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and co-chaired by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. The summit is meant to bolster to cooperation and economic ties between the two regions in a variety of areas, including education, energy, communication and the global economic crisis. Cultural festivities began this week in Caracas to...
The showdown in Honduras continues today. De facto President Roberto Micheletti has expressed his willingness to speak with ousted President Manuel Zelaya, who continues to take refuge in the Brazilian embassy. However, the extent of his willingness does not include negotiations that would reinstitute Zelaya as the president of Honduras. With all international airports closed, and border crossings...
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon opened the annual General Debate this morning. All 192 members will make a presentation over the next week and a half. Excerpt from Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's speech : Poor and developing countries must increase their share of control in the IMF and the World Bank. Otherwise, there can be no real change and the peril of new and greater crises will be inevitable. Only...
As noted yesterday, ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya somehow made his way back to Honduras yesterday, showing up at the Brazilian embassy and catching the de facto regime off guard. Details of how he was able to successfully enter Honduras and travel to Tegucigalpa - without alerting the de facto government or being arrested by the Honduran police or military -...
On Thursday the 17th, Paraguay rejected a military cooperation deal with the United States which would have placed about 500 U.S. military and other personnel in the country. U.S. Ambassador to Asunción Liliana Ayalde said, “We regret the decision but we respect it.” Given the diplomatic rifts that the U.S.-Colombia base deal has caused in South America, the increase in weapons purchases throughout the region, and the increasingly tense tone of Unasur meetings, the...