*
Belize reaffirms ties with Taipei as Taiwanese president
visits
*
Brazil envoy met Putin to push Ukraine peace talks - CNN
Brasil
*
Brazil names rights medal after Black writer, replacing
princess
*
Venezuela reopens maritime border with Curacao and Bonaire
*
Ecuador divided over gun move, gov't says will enforce
rules
April 3 (Reuters) -
The latest in Latin American politics today:
Honduras deploys hundreds of military agents to fight crime TEGUCIGALPA - Honduras' government deployed soldiers across the country as part of a plan to fight criminal groups, authorities said, with official images showing hundreds of soldiers being commissioned for the project. The move comes after leftist President Xiomara Castro implemented a partial state of emergency last December in pockets of the country's largest cities, led mainly by members of the police. The armed forces will assume security responsibilities in seven of the country's mostly semi-urban departments where drug cartels operate and cocaine leaf plantations have been discovered, according to the government outline.
Belize reaffirms ties with Taipei as Taiwanese president visits BELIZE CITY - The prime minister of Belize gave Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen a welcome diplomatic boost during her visit, underlining his nation's support for Taiwan after rival China gained a new regional ally last month. Tsai's visit comes a week after Honduras severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing amid heightened U.S.-China tensions. China claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory with no right to state-to-state ties, a position Taipei strongly rejects.
Brazil envoy met Putin to push Ukraine peace talks - CNN Brasil BRASILIA - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sent his top foreign policy adviser to speak to Russian leader Vladimir Putin about potential peace talks to end the war in Ukraine, CNN Brasil reported. "It would be an exaggeration to say the doors are open (to peace talks), but it's not true to say they are totally closed," the envoy Celso Amorim told CNN Brasil in an interview published on its website.
Brazil creates rights medal named after Black writer, replacing princess BRASILIA - Brazil's leftist government abolished a human rights medal that former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro had named after the daughter of the country's last monarch, replacing it with a prize named after a Black writer and abolitionist. The medal will now be named after Luiz Gama, who was a leader of the movement to abolish slavery in Brazil. When slavery was finally abolished in 1888, the ruling monarch was ill so his daughter Isabel signed the abolition decree. Bolsonaro had established the Princess Isabel Order of Merit days before he left office, naming it after a figure Brazilian conservatives traditionally praise for ending slavery.
Venezuela reopens maritime border with Curacao, Bonaire
CARACAS - Venezuela reopened its maritime border with the islands of Curacao and Bonaire on Monday after just over four years of trade and transit closures, according to authorities from Venezuela and the islands. The government of President Nicolas Maduro in February 2019 announced the closure of the border and revision of diplomatic relations with Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, on the grounds that Curacao served as a hub for food and medicines that the Venezuelan opposition sought to bring to the oil-rich nation at the time.
Ecuador public divided over gun move, gov't says will
enforce rules
QUITO - Ecuadoreans will be able to carry a gun for
self-defense as long as they meet certain requirements to obtain
it, the government said on Monday, amid public outcry over the
measure aimed at curbing rising crime in the Andean country.
Conservative President Guillermo Lasso authorized over the
weekend the possession and carrying of civilian weapons for
personal defense, as well as pepper spray, as a measure to
combat the country's growing insecurity.
(Compiled by Steven Grattan and Sarah Morland; Editing by
Richard Chang)
