Puerto Rico Offering Vending Machines With Clean Needles (Fox News)
A needle exchange program in Puerto Rico is testing a vending machine that provides drug users with clean syringes after-hours to fight the spread of HIV and hepatitis C.
Buy Into Brazil (Forbes)
There’s a lot to like about South America’s biggest economy.
Q&A: Indigenous Rights Appeals Increasingly Reach Inter-American System
SANTIAGO, Oct 8 (IPS) – Standards relating to indigenous peoples’ rights, laid down by the Inter-American Commission and Court of Human Rights, are increasingly being incorporated into the laws of countries in the region, according to Víctor Abramovich, First Vice President of the Commission.
VENEZUELA: Land for Yukpa Indians, But No ‘Territory’
CARACAS, Oct 13 (IPS) – The Venezuelan government handed land titles to 41,600 hectares to three communities of around 500 Yukpa Indians on the western border with Colombia. However, the question of the demarcation of the broader ancestral territory of the entire ethnic group, made up of around 10,000 people, is still pending.
Body Found at Base of Famous Fort in Puerto Rico (Fox News)
Police in Puerto Rico are investigating whether a man fell from the fortified city wall that surrounds San Juan’s colonial district.
GUATEMALA: Only 10 Agents to Fight Human Trafficking Nationwide
GUATEMALA CITY, Oct 13 (IPS) – In spite of a new law against human trafficking in effect since March, little has been done in Guatemala to fight the trafficking of children, and child sex tourism has begun to flourish, experts warn.
Fitch Downgrades Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority Revs to ‘BBB+’; Outlook Stable (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
NEW YORK—-Fitch Ratings downgrades the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s outstanding power revenue bonds to ‘BBB+’ from ‘A-’. The Rating Outlook is Stable.
COLOMBIA: US Should Open Its Files on Palace of Justice Massacre
BOGOTA, Oct 9 (IPS) – A declassified U.S. State Department cable dated January 1999 blames Colombian soldiers for the killings of civilians rescued by the military operation to retake the Palace of Justice from guerrillas who had seized the building in November 1985.
ARGENTINA: Opposition, Media Giants to Fight New Law
BUENOS AIRES, Oct 12 (IPS) – While civil society groups celebrated Argentina’s new broadcasting law, media giants threatened to fight it with a wave of lawsuits, and opposition lawmakers pledged to revise it after the next Congress convenes in December.
BOLIVIA: Amazon Nuts at Exploitative Prices
LA PAZ, Oct 8 (Tierramérica) – Bolivia is the world’s leading exporter of the shelled Brazil nut, a nutritious food source that grows abundantly in the country’s Amazon rainforest region. But in this tropical paradise, many of the nut-gatherers live in hellish conditions.
