News on Central America

El Salvador apologizes 30 years after massacre

2011-12-10T17:30:15Z

El Salvador's government asked for "forgiveness" Saturday over a civil war-era massacre in 1981 in which soldiers executed more than 1,000 people, nearly half of them children.

Sunday marks the 30th anniversary of the slaughter at the small northeastern village of El Mozote, where troops rounded up men, women and children, accused many of collaborating with leftist guerrillas, and killed them in cold blood.

It was among th...

US Senate defeats expanding Obama trade powers

2011-09-20T21:30:22Z

The US Senate on Tuesday rejected a Republican push to expand President Barack Obama's powers to negotiate trade deals, amid a broader fight over accords with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea.

With those three deals edging toward...

In El Salvador, Obama offers hope, funds

2011-03-22T18:30:31Z

President Barack Obama told Salvadorans he remains committed to reforming US immigration policies and pledged to help keep the tiny Central American country on a path of development.

Immigration, security and economic growth figured as the central issues of Obama's visit and talks with Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes, a leftist who extended an effusi...

San Miguel

2010-11-29T14:59:20Z

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Obama makes four appointments, bypassing Senate

2010-08-25T13:26:39Z

VINEYARD HAVEN, Massachusetts (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday made four recess job appointments to his administration, including a new U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, postponing the nee...

Obama committed to passing free-trade deals: Clinton

2010-05-13T09:15:27Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is committed to finalizing free-trade agreements with Colombia and Panama but faces "political winds" and an uncertain outcome, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on...

No clear Obama pledge on stalled trade pacts: lawmaker

2010-06-25T19:23:51Z

President Barack Obama made no commitments to move forward on stalled free trade pacts with Colombia, Panama and South Korea during private talks with lawmakers this week, a top ally said Thursday.

"In terms of specific trade agreements, there was no discussion," the number two Democ...

Accessory Transit Company

2010-10-22T09:11:20Z

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Free trade pacts prospects 'not good': top US lawmaker

2010-06-25T21:43:26Z

Prospects for reviving and approving US free trade pacts with Panama, Colombia and South Korea are "not good," Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Thursday.

And US President Barack Obama "is sending ...

Senator raps Obama stalling on trade deals

2010-06-25T21:50:28Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States risks being "wallflowers at the dance" as other countries pursue trade deals while the Obama administration sits on the sidelines, a senior Republican senator said on Thursday.

The Democratic Obama administration so far has only produced false starts on trade, allo...

Chavez, Ortega chide Obama over "stuck" Latam policy

2010-06-25T21:54:19Z

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Reuters) - The presidents of Venezuela and Nicaragua, both fierce critics of U.S. policy, on Friday accused President Barack ...

Pro-trade Democrat raps White House on Panama deal

2010-06-25T22:02:12Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading Senate Democrat urged the White House on Friday to say when it would send a free-trade agreement with Panama to Congress, saying he worried it was getting postponed amid work on healthcare reform.

The complaints from Senate Finance C...

Leftist Funes takes over as El Salvador's president

2010-04-16T12:00:53Z

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - Leftist Mauricio Funes was sworn in as El Salvador's president on Monday, vowing a break with a past scarred by civil war as he brought a party founded by Marxist guerrillas to power for the first time.

Funes, a former televi...

Central America to US: Slow deportations

2010-04-16T15:57:42Z

Central America pushes US to slow flood of deportations

Central American leaders will push the U.S. to slow a flood of deportations when Vice President Joe Biden meets with them Monday, promising a "new day for relations" with a region that has felt ignored.

It is the first top-level visit t...

Ex-Salvadoran rebels seek power through ballot box

2010-04-16T16:02:46Z

El Salvador vote could bring former rebels to power for first time since civil war

El Salvador's former guerrillas, behind the bespectacled, moderate face of a former TV journalist, could take power for the first time since the nation's civil war in elections Sunday that threaten to uproot two decades of conservative rule.

Mauricio Funes, plucked...

Nicaragua: The Tobacco-Producing Country That Endures

2010-09-21T15:49:26Z

To cigar smokers, Nicaragua is already legendary. Through regime change, social upheaval, and revolution, this Latin American nation has produced some of the world's finest tobacco. And since the post-1959 "cigar diaspora"-when many of Cuba's great cigar makers fled the country to seek more propitious conditions than those they expected to find under Castro-it's produced many of the world's finest cigars, too.

Since 1959, Nicaragua has been a cigar powerhouse, producing some of t...

Guatemala Bus Fire

2011-01-04T14:01:53Z

A passenger wounded in a city bus that caught fire waits for medical attention in the emergency room of a public hospital in Guatemala City, Monday Jan. 3, 2011. The man is one of 16 people injured when the city bus exploded Monday afternoon. The cause of the explosion in which five people died is unknown. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Guatemala Emergency Room

2010-12-27T14:32:13Z

In this photo taken May 5, 2010, medical students and paramedics rush a man with gunshot wounds to the operating room at the emergency of the San Juan de Dios hospital in Guatemala City. Guatemala is one of the most violent countries in the hemisphere with over 50 murders for every 100,000 residents. In 2009 at least 6,451 p...

APTOPIX Guatemala Emergency Room

2010-12-27T14:31:59Z

In this photo taken June 12, 2010, students and doctors fit on the X-ray table a man who was beaten as he was robbed, at the emergency room of the San Juan de Dios hospital, Guatemala City. Guatemala is one of the most violent countries in the hemisphere with over 50 murders for every 100,000 residents. In 2009 at least 6,4...

School Board Shooting

2010-12-23T08:01:38Z

In this image taken from video released by WJHG-TV on Dec. 15, 2010, Ginger Littleton, right, sneaks up behind Clay Duke before hitting him with her purse, while he holds Bay City school board members hostage in Panama City, Fla. The purse that Littleton

CORRECTION Phoenix Drop House

2010-12-03T17:01:27Z

Members of the Phoenix Police Department S.W.A.T. team stand in front of a home as detectives interview a suspect in custody at a suspected drop house Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010, in Phoenix. Police say three suspected smugglers are in custody, and 10 juveniles, who are from Mexico,