Havana
Overture rebuffed: Cuba has rejected an offer by the Organization of American States to conditionally lift the decades-old suspension of its membership. At an OAS meeting in Honduras last week, Venezuela and Nicaragua threatened to quit the group unless Cuba was readmitted, something the U.S. strongly opposed. After personal intervention by President Obama, who telephoned Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the group compromised, offering to readmit Cuba, but not seat it until it met standards of democracy and human rights. The Cuban government said in a statement that it appreciated “this expression of sovereignty and community,” but would not return to the OAS because the group has long been supportive of Washington’s hostility toward Cuba.
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Drug war in tourist town: Mexico’s raging drug war came to the port city of Acapulco with a vengeance this week. For four hours last Saturday night, soldiers and drug traffickers took over the streets of the hotel district, shooting at one another with machine guns and even launching grenades. In the end, 17 people were dead, including two innocent bystanders. “It was like something out of Rambo,” a witness told the newspaper Reforma. Acapulco, known for all-night discos and towering hotels, is a favorite destination of cruise ships.
Bagua, Peru
Protest turns violent: Protests by Amazon tribes against government decrees that allow oil drilling in the jungle turned violent last week, leaving dozens dead. Indian leaders said as many as 100 protesters were killed, while the government said 23 police officers were killed, some of them stabbed with spears. Indians have been blockading roads in the Amazonas region for two months. The clash began when 400 riot police tried to break through a blockade enforced by some 2,500 Indians armed with spears and machetes. The leader of the protesters, Alberto Pizango, escaped and sought asylum in the Nicaraguan Embassy. Peruvian President Alan Garcia vowed to press ahead with oil and gas develop-ment. “We will not give in to violence or blackmail,”
Garcia said.
Rio de Janeiro
Plane had faulty sensors: Faulty airspeed sensors may have caused Air France Flight 447 to crash into the ocean en route from Rio to Paris last week, experts said this week. While no official determination has been made, Air France confirmed that it noticed last year that the airspeed sensors on its Airbus 330s were prone to icing up, and that it had begun upgrading them in April. But the sensors on Flight 447 had not yet been replaced. Airspeed sensors are crucial because flying too fast can damage a plane’s frame, while flying too slowly causes stalling and loss of control. Air France said it would ground all Airbus 330s until the sensors were upgraded. Brazilian searchers this week recovered more than two dozen bodies from the water. The plane was carrying 228 people.
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