News: Americas -- MiamiHerald.com
News: Americas -- MiamiHerald.com

• U.N. unit in Haiti linked to sex abuse of girls
  Girls as young as 13 were having sex with U.N. peacekeepers for as little as $1. Five young Haitian women who followed soldiers back to Sri Lanka were forced into brothels or polygamous households. They have been rescued and brought home to warn others of the dangers of foreign liaisons.
• Chávez supporters denounce corruption
  After suffering a defeat on proposed constitutional reforms, President Hugo Chávez's administration will face a new battle: the growing denouncements made by chavistas about official corruption in Venezuela.
• Clashes mark Bolivian states' rallies for autonomy
  With only scattered skirmishes reported, four provinces in this country's eastern lowlands celebrated proposals Saturday that would give their regions more government autonomy in a direct challenge to President Evo Morales.
• OAS trying to defuse Bolivian tensions
  The Organization of American States has sent an envoy to Bolivia, signaling the growing concern over the potentially explosive political crisis over constitutional reforms backed by leftist President Evo Morales.
• Lawmakers clear the way for 2 of Chávez's reforms
  Two weeks after Venezuelan voters rejected radical constitutional reforms proposed by President Hugo Chávez, the National Assembly has adopted a development master plan that clears the legal way for at least two of the reforms.
• Venezuelans held as agents sue over $7M
  A Miami bank is holding back $7 million from two of the Venezuelans accused of acting as agents of their government in an $800,000 scandal, apparently under pressure from U.S. prosecutors, their lawyer complained Thursday.
• Legendary architect to celebrate 100th birthday
  When the legendary Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer turns 100 on Saturday, he'll mark the milestone in typically humble fashion, with an intimate lunch for friends and family.
• 4 accused in cash case uncommon men
  The four men arrested in Miami on charges of secretly working on behalf of the Venezuelan government range from a flashy entreprenuer to a corporate lawyer.
• Venezuela accused in campaign probe
  Federal prosecutors dropped a bombshell in a federal courtroom in Miami on Wednesday, alleging for the first time that the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez secretly tried to funnel nearly $1 million in cash to the presidential campaign of newly elected Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
• Uribe's anticorruption chief resigns
  Colombia's top corruption fighter resigned Wednesday, just days after El Nuevo Herald reported on documents showing his father, then the minister of justice, had commented before his assassination in 1985 that relatives of current President Alvaro Uribe might try to kill him.
• Argentine president: Cash charge is `garbage'
  (AP) -- Argentina's president reacted angrily Thursday to U.S. charges that a suitcase full of Venezuelan cash was intended to finance her presidential campaign, calling it an example of ``garbage in international politics.''
• Rio police called brutal, corrupt
  Although he knew the risks he was running, Jorge da Silva Siqueira Neto, a father of six, refused to keep his mouth shut when police officers from a nearby battalion overran the slum where he lived and began terrorizing his neighbors.
• Préval names new electoral body
  Haitian President René Préval has named a new nine-member Provisional Electoral Council known as the CEP to organize two critical elections.
• Candidates target Castros for indictment
  The frustration of Miami exiles over the Cuban government's downing of two Brothers to the Rescue planes more than a decade ago has now filtered into the presidential race, with top GOP candidates calling for the indictment of Fidel and Raúl Castro.
• Ex-President Fujimori defiant as trial begins
  Former President Alberto Fujimori went on trial Monday on charges of approving a death squad. He energetically rejected the allegations and said he saved Peru from disaster by crushing leftist insurgencies in the 1990s.
• Storm moves toward Hispaniola
  Ten days after the official end of the hurricane season, a storm named Olga formed Monday night over the Virgin Islands. Forecasters said the system -- technically a subtropical storm -- was moving toward Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, carrying strong bursts of wind and rain.
• Cuba's words, actions differ on rights
  Human rights monitors will be allowed into Cuba to scrutinize civil liberties, the foreign minister announced Monday -- just as a protest for International Human Rights Day was stalled by a police-led pack of hecklers.
• Chávez snubs trade with Colombia
  Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez seems intent on keeping up his diplomatic spat with Colombia despite the harm it will cause to their $5 billion in trade, and vowed to turn to other nations as business partners from now on.
• Mexico's 'cannibal killer' commits suicide
  (AP) -- A man dubbed ''the cannibal'' by Mexico's press after police found cooked pieces of his slain girlfriend on a plate in his apartment has committed suicide, prison authorities said Tuesday.
• Olga brings rain to Puerto Rico, Hispaniola
  The burly, late-season batch of squalls known as Olga moved over Puerto Rico on Tuesday and headed toward the Dominican Republic and Haiti.