elections.( Reporting by Dave Graham; Writing by Drazen Jorgic)....

of returning the country to the dark days of the Somoza dictatorship.( Writing by Drazen Jorgic

SAN JOSE/ PANAMA CITY( Reuters)-Authorities in Costa Rica and Panama said on Tuesday they detained more than 40 people suspected of operating a cross-country people-trafficking organization by smuggling migrants overland to the United States. The network handled migrants from Asian and African countries and to a lesser extent people from Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela, according to the Costa Rican security ministry. Panamanian authorities carried out 35 raids and 21 arrests, while on Costa Rican soil

TEGUCIGALPA( Reuters)-A huge fire destroyed or damaged more than 200 houses and businesses on the Honduran island of Guanaja on Saturday, forcing hundreds of residents to flee for safety and ravaging the tourism-dependent resort, relief authorities said. Dramatic video footage shared on social media showed rows of seaside houses engulfed in flames and wooden homes collapsing in Guanaja, a Caribbean island about 70 kilometres( 44 miles) off the north coast of Honduras. Honduran Air Force dropped

MEXICO CITY( Reuters)-Gunmen stormed a hotel in Mexico's central San Luis Potosi state on Tuesday and kidnapped some 20 foreigners believed to be mostly from Haiti and Venezuela, the state's attorney general's office said. The gunmen ransacked the building and took off with the logbook of guests, making it hard to identify who was kidnapped at the Sol y Luna hotel in Matehuala, about 195 kilometers( 121 miles) north of the city of San Luis Potosi, the regional capital." We are trying to find the

MEXICO CITY( Reuters)-Mexican journalists on Tuesday were set to start nationwide protests in 28 cities and towns to denounce the recent murders of three reporters, demanding an end to impunity that has often characterized the killings of their colleagues. The planned protests follow the murder of seasoned journalist Lourdes Maldonado on Sunday, some three years after she raised the issue of killings with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and said she feared for her life. Mexico is one of th

MEXICO CITY( Reuters)-A Mexican cartel leader who became one of the most wanted criminals in Mexico due to his gang's industrial-scale theft of petroleum has been sentenced to 60 years in prison, state prosecutors said on Friday. Jose Antonio Yepez, a notorious fuel thief blamed for fanning a sharp surge in violence in the central state of Guanajuato, was arrested in 2020 in what was a major coup for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Known as" El Marro"( The Mallet), Yepez was the boss of t

MEXICO CITY( Reuters)-The Organization of American States( OAS) on Friday adopted a resolution criticizing Nicaragua's presidential elections, panning President Daniel Ortega's electoral victory over the weekend as unfair and urging future action. Ortega clinched a fourth consecutive term in office on Sunday after jailing political rivals ahead of a vote that U.S. President Joe Biden termed a" a pantomime election that was neither free nor fair, and most certainly not democratic." In a vote by t

MEXICO CITY( Reuters)-Mexico's Navy in the port city of Veracruz was loading food and medicines onto a ship bound for protest-hit Cuba, the Veracruz mayor's office said on Thursday, in what appeared to be a show of support for the Communist-run island. Mexico's leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has criticized the long-standing U.S. embargo of the Caribbean island and blamed the measure for fomenting the biggest unrest to hit Cuba in decades. The shipment of Mexican aid was being prep

MEXICO CITY( Reuters)-A spate of violence in Haiti could hinder the Caribbean country's response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Pan American Health Organization( PAHO) said on Wednesday, shortly after Haiti's president was assassinated in his home.... The 1.1 million new coronavirus cases reported in the Americas last week represented a slight decline from the earlier week.... Etienne added that community transmission of the highly contagious Delta variant continues to be limited in Latin Am