Bolivians Back Coca-Farming Indian in Local Vote
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LA PAZ, Bolivia  - Bolivia's radical Indian leader  Evo Morales, who has infuriated Washington with calls to  legalize coca farming, has come first in municipal elections  that are seen as a springboard for a 2007 presidential vote.
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Venezuelans voted for state governors and mayors on Sunday in a regional election expected to strengthen President Hugo Chavez&#39;s political power two months after he won a referendum on his rule.
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CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelans overwhelmingly voted to keep President Hugo Chavez in office, dealing a crushing defeat to a splintered opposition and allowing the leftist leader to convert one of the biggest challenges of his presidency into an even broader mandate to carry on his "revolution for the poor."   Stunned opposition leaders, who have fought for years to oust Chavez, claimed fraud after results announced Monday by election officials showed nearly 60 percent of voters had said "no" to the question of whether he should leave office immediately.    But former President Jimmy Carter and the Organization of American States endorsed the results of Sunday's vote, which saw one of the biggest turnouts in Venezuela's history, and urged everybody to accept the outcome...
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The Bolivian government on Thursday began legal proceedings to seize the vast landholdings of a prominent opposition leader, saying the property was fraudulently obtained and should be given to a local Indian tribe.
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Bolivia's Senate passes a controversial land reform bill pushed by President Morales after a week of deadlock.
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QUITO, Ecuador  - Ecuador's leftist Rafael Correa, an ally of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, appeared to have clinched Sunday's presidential run-off election after exit polls and one quick count showed he surged past his banana magnate rival to victory.
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Four of Boliviaâs wealthiest provinces celebrated efforts to seek greater autonomy from the central government on Saturday.
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GUATEMALA CITY -- Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchu, who is a Maya Indian, said yesterday she may run for president this year in a bid to become the second indigenous head of state in Latin America. Menchu, a defender of Maya Indian victims of Guatemala's bloody 1960-96 civil war, said several political parties had asked her to run as president or ...
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SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia  - Bolivian florist Marisol  Rioja went on strike, marched in rallies and saw her sales slip  during nearly three weeks of protests for more independence in  her native Santa Cruz province.
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President Hugo Chavez visited flood-ravaged Bolivia on Saturday to show off the fact that Venezuela has pledged 10 times more aid than the Bush administration. But local leaders gave him a cool reception, accusing him of meddling in Bolivian politics.
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LA PAZ, Bolivia  - Indigenous groups andindependent candidates were poised to win local elections inBolivia on Sunday, while support for traditional parties sankfurther after a popular revolt last year toppled formerpresident Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.
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SABANA CRESPO, Colombia  - Coca leaves, the raw  material of cocaine, should speed you up and give you a buzz.  But you'd never know it to look at the Arhuaco Indians of  Colombia's Sierra Nevada, who must be strong contenders for the  title of World's Most Laid-Back People.
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The ritual sacrifice of a snow-white llama Friday symbolically marked President Evo Morales' nationalization of Bolivia's lone operating tin smelter.
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CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelans overwhelmingly voted to keep President Hugo Chavez in office, dealing a crushing defeat to a splintered opposition and allowing the leftist leader to convert one of the biggest challenges of his presidency into an even broader mandate to carry on his "revolution for the poor."   Stunned opposition leaders, who have fought for years to oust Chavez, claimed fraud after results announced Monday by election officials showed nearly 60 percent of voters had said "no" to the question of whether he should leave office immediately.    Scattered protests erupted in Caracas, despite an endorsement of the outcome by former President Carter and the Organization of American States...
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Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu on Monday announced the formation of an Indian-led political movement whose primary aim is to back her probable bid for Guatemala's presidency this fall.
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President Evo Morales says he is lifting the military guard deployed at energy installations around the country when Morales nationalized Bolivia&#039;s natural gas industry.
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Several political organizations in Bolivia are pushing to preserve endangered traditions like Tinku, an ancient ritual once widespread throughout the Andean world.