LATIN AMERICA

LULA FACES NUMEROUS CHALLENGES AS BRAZIL ASSUMES G20 PRESIDENCY

Photo Credit: Adriano Machado / Reuters

As Brazil takes over the G20 presidency on December 1 from India, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be challenged to fulfil his promise of holding up the interests of the global south amid two ongoing wars and a slowing global economy.

Lula also takes over at a time of bitter internal divisions within the group, the legacy of outgoing president Narendra Modi, whose team, eager to force a joint declaration, ran roughshod over diplomatic niceties in closed-door meetings.

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VENEZUELA HOLDS REFERENDUM ON OIL-RICH GUYANA REGION: FOUR THINGS TO KNOW

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Photo Credit: Leonardo Fernandez Viloria / Reuters

Venezuela is set to hold a referendum on Sunday on whether to establish a new state in a disputed, oil-rich territory long ruled by Guyana.

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POLICE CHARGE DIRECTOR OF MISS NICARAGUA PAGEANT WITH RUNNING ‘BEAUTY QUEEN COUP’ PLOT

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Photo Credit: Moises Castillo

Nicaraguan police said Friday they want to arrest the director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant, accusing her of intentionally rigging contests so that anti-government beauty queens would win the pageants as part of a plot to overthrow the government.

The charges against pageant director Karen Celebertti would not be out of place in a vintage James Bond movie with a repressive, closed off government, coup-plotting claims, foreign agents and beauty queens.

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DETAINEES IN EL SALVADOR’S GANG CRACKDOWN CITE ABUSE DURING MONTHS IN JAIL

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Photo Credit: Salvador Melendez

The day he was arrested, Luis was in a government office trying to get a document attesting to his clean criminal history so he could apply for a call center job.

“What I wanted at that time was something better for my life,” said the 23-year-old, who was working as a baker.

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UN’S TOP COURT BARS VENEZUELA FROM ACTION IN GUYANA BORDER DISPUTE

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Photo Credit: Matias Delacroix

The United Nations’ top court has warned Venezuela to stop any action that would alter Guyana’s control over a disputed territory, days ahead of a planned referendum over the territory.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday told the Latin American country to “refrain from taking any action which would modify that situation that currently prevails” in the Essequibo region that makes up some two-thirds of Guyana.

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