Source: EFE Caracas, May 24 (EFE).- The Coca-Cola Company of Venezuela said in a communique that it has used up its inventories of refined sugar for industrial use, which has in turn forced the company to temporarily suspend all lines of soft drinks containing that ingredient, though they will continue to produce others. "The sugar shortage means a temporary interruption of lines of soft dr...

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, May 23 (EFE).- Drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman will not appeal any ruling opening the way for his extradition to the United States, a move approved by the Mexican Foreign Relations Secretariat last week, if he reaches an agreement with U.S. authorities, defense attorney Jose Refugio Rodriguez told EFE. "Joaquin is n...

Monument at Punta Querandí, Wikimedia Commons Buenos Aires, May 22 (EFE).- A small patch of land is the epicenter of a conflict to defend the rights of Argentina's original inhabitants against construction firms. Punta Querandi, a little "peninsula" in a river in the Buenos Aires provincial town of Dique Lujan, was isolated by the collapse of its only bridge and by the private neighborhoods...

David, Panama, May 21 (EFE).- Panamanian authorities have stopped selling tickets for Mexico-bound flights to transfer nearly 4,000 Cubans stranded in the Central American country since last December, an immigration official told EFE. Dozens of Cubans trying to make their way to the United States have been waiting in line in this western city, capital of Chiriqui province, to purchase the $575 ...

Police officers stand guard next to a company list showing the Mossack Fonseca law firm outside their office in Panama City April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso Montevideo, May 20 (EFE).- The Panama Papers are "the tip of the iceberg" with respect to offshore companies, according to Panamanian financial expert Julio Aguirre, who said Friday that the massive leak of Mossack Fonseca's documents ...

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, May 20 (EFE).- Mexico's Foreign Relations Secretariat said Friday it had approved the extradition of notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman to the United States so he can be tried by federal courts in California and Texas for a range of crimes. In a statement, the secretariat said it conveyed its decision to the ...

Wikimedia Commons Caracas, May 17 (EFE).- A U.S. military aircraft "with lethal technical abilities" illegally entered Venezuelan airspace twice over the past week, President Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday. "Our military aviation detected the illegal entry, for unusual espionage tasks, of the Boeing 707 E-3 Sentry, which is an airborne early warning control center system that has all the mecha...

Guatemala special forces soldiers on patrol. Wikimedia Commons Guatemala City, May 15 (EFE).- The Guatemalan government on the weekend denounced what it said was a new incident of the "excessive use of force by the Belizean army" after the detention of three Guatemalans for illegal gold mining in an operation that resulted in one of the men being wounded. In a brief communique released by t...

(Photo: EFE via El Mundo) Colombian police Sunday said they had seized eight tons of cocaine from the country’s most active criminal syndicate, the Usuga clan. In a statement, police said they found the drugs hidden on a banana plantation near the border with Panama, in Colombia’s northwest Uraba region. "The biggest seizure of drugs in history. A hit against criminals," Colombian Presid...

(Reuters OMX) Caracas, May 14 (EFE).- Crowds of Venezuelan opposition members gathered Saturday in Caracas to demand that electoral authorities act quickly to hold a recall referendum that might succeed in removing from office the president of Venezuela, the Chavista Nicolas Maduro. The demonstration that began around 10:00 a.m. downtown in the Venezuelan capital was called two days ago by ...

FARC guerrilla unit marching in 1998. Wikimedia Commons Geneva, May 13 (EFE).- The UN Refugee Agency, or ACNUR, reported Friday that more than 6,000 people have fled their homes and another 7,000 are trapped by armed clashes in the Colombian region of Choco, one of the most violent in the country. The battles, according to UNHCR, are between illegal armed groups seeking control of this terr...

Presidential Standard of Brazil. Wikimedia Commons Brasilia, May 12 (EFE).- Vice President Michel Temer will become Brazil's acting president on Thursday after the Senate voted to remove Dilma Rousseff from office for up to six months while she is tried in that chamber for allegedly violating budget laws. The vote to impeach and suspend Rousseff came after a marathon session in the upper ho...

Wikimedia Commons Toronto, May 10 (EFE).- Canadian William Gadoury, age 15, discovered an ancient Maya city in the Yucatan jungle without leaving home while reviewing satellite images on his computer, local media reported Tuesday. Gadoury, who admits being fascinated by the Maya civilization, discovered that the location of bright stars in various constellations corresponded to the location...

(YouTube / ODN) Spain’s Minister of Justice, Rafael Catala on Monday proposed leaving some US $4 billion to $17 billion worth of gold and silver on the seafloor off the coast of Colombia in order to avoid conflict over its ownership. The treasure is the cargo of the legendary galleon San Jose, a Spanish ship that was sunk in 1708 near the coast of Cartagena of the Indies, which was discover...

YouTube Commons Lima, May 9 (EFE).- The Cuzco Decentralized Culture Directorate reported Monday that vandals had painted eight graffiti with aerosols on five streets of the historic center of that ancient Inca city, which they called a crime against culture. The graffiti were sprayed on the stone walls with black paint to form the word "KOYOS 16," at a height of approximately 40 centimeters...

Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, May 8 (EFE).- Mexican authorities shut down a Web site that posted erotic pictures of minors and extorted them in exchange for removing the photos, the Attorney General's Office, or PGR, reported Sunday. Two people have been arrested so far for their association with the network operating in the southern states of Campeche, Yucatan and Quintana Roo, the head o...

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons Mexico City, May 7 (EFE).- Mexican authorities on Saturday transferred notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman from the Altiplano prison in the central state of Mexico to another maximum-security prison in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, amid rumors about his possible extradition to the United States. Mexico's Gover...

Illustrative image. (Flickr Commons) Caracas, May 6 (EFE).- Venezuelan politician German Mavare, leader of the opposition UNT party, died Friday after being shot in the head, an assassination that occurred in the western state of Lara, his organization said. "The board of the UNT expresses its deepest sorrow for the slaying of colleague German Mavare. We demand justice and an end to violenc...

Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif will begin a diplomatic tour of Latin America on Sunday. (Archive/Reuters) Iran’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will begin a diplomatic tour of Latin American states on Sunday, May 8, according to Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "The Iranian foreign minister’s 6-day-long visit to Brazil, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela a...

Wikimedia Commons San Juan, May 2 (EFE).- Cinefiesta, San Juan's prestigious international short film festival, has canceled its next edition after finding it lacked sponsors due to the economic crisis the Caribbean island is going through, its chief promoter, Luis Cruz, announced Monday. Despite the fact that 5,044 short films from 124 countries have been entered for this year's edition, C...

Pixabay Commons Caracas, May 1 (EFE).- The Venezuelan government on Sunday moved local time up 30 minutes, to four hours behind UTC, with an eye toward dealing with the emergency caused by the ongoing severe drought. The time change will enter into effect as of May 1 and brings Venezuela back to the time schedule that prevailed until 2007, when the government shifted the nation's clocks bac...

Source: Animal Defenders International Lima, Apr 30 (EFE).- A group of more than 30 lions rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia have departed this capital for a natural sanctuary in South Africa, an operation known as "Spirit of Freedom" that was organized by the British-based non-governmental organization Animal Defenders International. "Simba is sleeping. The 'Spirit of Freedom' has ...

Photo by Robert Moreno, citizen journalist in Maracay Caracas, Apr 27 (EFE).- A series of violent disturbances erupted in several Venezuelan cities over frequent power and water cuts and longstanding food shortages, regional officials and media outlets said Wednesday. The governor of the northwestern state of Zulia, Francisco Arias Cardenas, said Wednesday that "destabilizing actions" had t...

A Russian T-72 battle tank, similar to those heading to Nicaragua. (CC) Russia will deliver 50 new T-72B1 battle tanks to Nicaragua this year, in a deal worth some US $80 million, according to Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency and Nicaraguan media. The first batch of 20 tanks is ready for shipment, and the remaining 30 are to be delivered by the end of the year or early 2017, according to th...

Source: Wikimedia Commons San Juan, Apr 26 (EFE).- Puerto Rican drug agents on Tuesday found a caiman inside an abandoned apartment in the San Juan district of Rio Piedras while they were carrying out monitoring operations in the area. The Puerto Rico police issued a statement saying that the agents also found two ammunition clips and many rounds of ammo in the apartment. The officers tu...

File photo from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Senator Loren Legarda of the Philippines called on nations to immediately ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change and stressed on the need to target the more ambitious but safer 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit. Legarda, Global Champion for Resilience of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), made the statement during the pr...

Wikimedia Commons Bogota, Apr 24 (EFE).- Colombian and U.S. authorities seized 1,850 kilograms of cocaine in two operations conducted in Guatemalan and Salvadoran waters, arresting four Ecuadorians and two Colombians, Bogota authorities reported Sunday. The first anti-drug operation was carried out in Guatemalan waters by Colombia's Dijin and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, suppor...

Guatemala special forces soldiers on patrol. Wikimedia Commons Guatemala City, Apr 23 (EFE).- Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales will meet Saturday in the United States with OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro and the secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, or IACHR, Emilio Alvarez Icaza, to ask that they investigate the death of a 13-year-old boy on the Guatemala-Belize bor...

John Cocgh - Flickr Commons Managua, Apr 22 (EFE).- Nicaragua is undergoing the most severe environmental crisis in its recent history, a group of 15 non-governmental organizations said during the presentation of a report coinciding with Earth Day. The drastic reduction or disappearance of 34 rivers, the near-complete evaporation of at least four lakes, the loss of nearly 6,000 hectares (14...

Wikimedia Comons Caracas, Apr 22 (EFE; beer context by The Costa Rica Star).- Residents of Venezuela are hunkering down for a long summer without beer and with diminished electricity. Venezuela's Electric Energy Minister Luis Motta Dominguez has announced the start of electricity rationing next Monday due to the drought affecting the entire country, and which will remain in effect for 40 da...

(CRS Archive) El Salvador has deployed a heavily armed special police force to hunt down gang leaders who have made the Central American nation one of the world's most violent and deadly places to live, leading to record numbers of Salvadorans seeking refugee abroad including here in Costa Rica, El Salvador’s government said Wednesday. The force includes 600 army commandos and 400 specially...

Fidel Castro pictured in July 2014. (Russian state media) (VOA) In a rare public speech Tuesday, former Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro told a crowd of party loyalists that while he is close to the end of his life, “the ideas of Cuban Communists will remain” long after he is gone. Castro was speaking during the closing of the Cuban Communist Party congress in Havana, which had just re-a...

U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuba's President Raul Castro walk past honor guards during their first meeting on the second day of Obama's visit to Cuba, in Havana March 21, 2016. REUTERS/Carlos Barria By Lou Lorscheider (VOA) Cuba's Communist Party says 84-year-old President Raul Castro will hold the party's highest post for another five years, alongside his chief lieutenant, 85-year-old ...

Flickr Commons Quito, Jul 19 (EFE).- Volunteers are working to help animals, the silent victims of natural disasters, in the aftermath of the magnitude-7.8 earthquake that killed 413 people and injured more than 2,000 others in Ecuador. Lost and abandoned dogs wander the streets of the Pacific coastal areas shattered by Saturday's earthquake, with some pets sleeping in the rubble of their f...

(Screen Shot / USGS) By Ana Isabel Martinez and Julia Symmes Cobb PEDERNALES, Ecuador (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.2 earthquake shook Ecuador's coast early on Wednesday, terrifying locals and impeding rescuers after a bigger weekend quake battered the same area and killed nearly 500 people. The latest earthquake hit 25 km (15 miles) off Muisne on the northwest Pacific coast at a depth of 15...

Popocateptl in 2004. Wikimedia Commons Puebla, Mexico, Apr 18 (EFE).- Several eruptions of the Popocatepetl volcano left the city of Puebla covered with a white cloud at sunrise Monday, which led authorities to decree a yellow alert, which obliges residents to take preventive measures to protect food and drinking water. According to a report by the Cenapred disaster management agency, start...

Rescue team members wait outside a clinic that was evacuated after tremors were felt resulting from an earthquake in Ecuador, in Cali, Colombia, April 16, 2016. REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga The death toll of the powerful earthquake that devastated Ecuador and prompted Pacific tsunami alerts all the way north to Costa Rica has surpassed the 300 mark, and it includes a mother and son from Canada. ...

(VOA) The death toll from a powerful earthquake in Ecuador surged to 233 on Sunday, as daylight aided rescue and recovery efforts from the overnight devastation. The latest figures from the office of President Rafael Correa more than triple earlier estimates. Hundreds more people were injured when the the shallow 7.8-magnitude quake struck late Saturday along the South American country's...

By Yuri Garcia GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (Reuters) - Ecuador launched rescue operations on Sunday after its biggest earthquake in decades killed at least 77 people, caused devastation in coastal populations, and left an unknown number trapped in ruins. The 7.8 magnitude quake struck off Ecuador's Pacific coast on Saturday night and was felt around the Andean nation of 16 million people, causing...

Wikimedia Commons Caracas, Apr 15 (EFE).- The scarcity of medicines in Venezuela continues to be a tragedy visible in pharmacies and hospitals around the country, weeks after congress declared a "humanitarian health crisis" that includes the lack of 872 essential medications. Cancer patients, HIV carriers, diabetics and those suffering hypertension must either trek from one drugstore to the...