(nyt) High in the hills of Guatemala, shut inside the one-room house where he spends day and night on a twin bed beneath a seriously outdated calendar, Luis Alberto Jiménez has no idea of the legal battle that swirls around him in the lowlands of Florida. Shooing away flies and beaming at the tiny, toothless elderly mother who is his sole caregiver, Mr. Jiménez, a knit cap pulled tightly on his head, remains cheerily oblivious that he has come to represent the collision of two deeply flawed American systems, immigration and health care. Eight years ago, Mr. Jiménez, 35, an illegal immigrant working as a gardener in Stuart, Fla.  More...

(bbc) French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages held by rebels in Colombia have been rescued by government troops. Ms Betancourt had been held for more than six years by the rebel Farc group and was their highest-profile captive. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had made her rescue a priority, said he was very happy. Her children, who spoke of their joy, are to fly to meet her. The Farc has been fighting to overthrow the Colombian government for 40 years.  More...

(nyt) SAN PEDRO DE MACORIS, Dominican Republic — Two obsessions define this country: baseball and Haiti. Ángel Luis Joseph, a teenage outfielder with a hot bat, is caught between Dominicans’ devotion to the one and disdain for the other. So many major leaguers have emerged from this sugar town that agents keep an eye on even pint-size players with potential. Ángel, 17, was only a lanky grade school boy when his coach noticed he showed all the signs of becoming a standout. Before long, the San Francisco Giants came calling with a $350,000 offer, he said.  More...

(reuters) Brazil will press ahead with plans to create quotas for blacks in universities and public sector jobs to redress longstanding inequalities despite opposition, a government minister said on Tuesday. On the 120th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Brazil, Minister for Racial Equality Edson Santos said the reforms were essential to tackle huge disadvantages blacks still face in the job market, education and society at large. "The abolition of slavery in Brazil was incomplete and blacks continue at the very bottom of the social pyramid," Santos told reporters. Brazil, which was one of the last major countries to abolish slavery, claims to have the world's second-largest black population after Nigeria. Nearly half of the around 185 million population considers itself black or dark-skinned.  More...

(Counterpunch) As the debate over the U. S. -Colombian free trade deal heats up in Washington, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe has grown concerned. On the Hill, the deal faces an uncertain future. Many Democrats have opposed the initiative because Colombia’s labor and human rights record continues to remain atrocious.  More...

(usat) Before Emira Woods arrived in Haiti last week, she had heard the stories about people there making a meal out of dirt. But as dire as the food crisis is in that impoverished Caribbean nation, she wondered whether such accounts were overblown. "I wanted to see to what extend it was sensationalized, and to what extent it was real," Woods said Sunday, as she recounted to me her visit to Cité Soleil, a notorious slum on the western edge of Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital. (Photo - Food aid: St. Clare’s church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, feeds 1,000 people a day / Eric Thayer, Getty Images) "The first thing we heard was that … for many people without access to food this was a way to survive," said Woods, a senior official of the Institute for Policy Studies.  More...

(ajz) Raul Castro has been named the new president of Cuba by the country's national assembly, succeeding Fidel Castro, his ailing brother. Raul, 76, who has led a caretaker administration since Fidel suffered ill health 19 months ago, was selected in a meeting of the 614-member assembly on Sunday. "Fidel is irreplaceable; the people will continue his work when he is no longer with us physically, though his ideas always will be here," Castro said in his acceptance speech. "I accept the responsibility I have been given with the conviction I have repeated often - there is only one Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel is Fidel and we all know it well. " The national assembly gave Raul permission to consult Fidel on major state matters.  More...

(miamiherald) Saying he is no longer healthy enough to hold office, Cuban leader Fidel Castro has announced he will not seek reelection after 49 years in power and nearly 19 months sidelined by illness, marking the first official step in a long-awaited succession in the island's leadership. ''It would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer,'' the 81-year-old Castro wrote in a letter published in Tuesday's editions of Cuban newspapers. ``This I say devoid of all drama. '' Castro's not-unexpected announcement came just days before the Cuban National Assembly meets Sunday to select members and president of its Council of State. The president of the council is the official ruler of Cuba -- and that's been Castro since the council was established in 1976.  More...

(bbc) No-one will be staying up watching television late into the night after Sunday's Cuban polls to see if there are any major upsets. There are 614 candidates contesting 614 seats for the new National Assembly or Parliament. There has been no campaigning, political rallies are not allowed and the most famous candidate, Fidel Castro, has not been seen in public for almost a year-and-a-half. The only real indications that an election is taking place are the sheets of paper posted on shop and office windows, with a photograph and short biography of each candidate. Yet more than 90% of voters are expected to turn out on Sunday for what is a key step in determining whether 81-year-old Mr Castro remains as head of state.  More...

Venezuelans have rejected constitutional changes proposed by Hugo Chavez, the president, in a close-run referendum, according to the National Electoral Council. Chavez conceded defeat in a live broadcast on Monday, having narrowly lost the vote on proposed changes to the constitution that included the removal of presidential term limits. The electoral authority announced early on Monday the "No" camp had won 51 per cent of the vote compared to the pro-Chavez "Yes" camp's 49 per cent. It said the result could not be reversed with the number of uncounted votes remaining and declared Chavez the loser. It was the first victory for an emboldened opposition against Chavez after nine years of electoral defeats.  More...

(bbc) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has urged voters to approve constitutional changes in a referendum on Sunday. Addressing tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in Caracas, he also threatened to stop oil supplies to the US if it tried to disrupt the vote. The reforms include allowing abolishing presidential term limits and ending the autonomy of the Central Bank. Mr Chavez said the proposed changes would return power to the people, but critics accuse him of a power grab. Mr Chavez said that his opponents could try to sabotage the vote, with backing from Washington, through violent protests.  More...

Police in Puerto Rico are probing the incident at the Ms. Puerto Rico competition over the weekend when Ingrid Marie Rivera's gown and make-up were spiked with what is suspected to be pepper spray. Police have the gown and other items at a crime lab. But on NBC Today, reporter Kerry Sanders, said police are investigating, but they can't figure out how Ms. Puerto Rico was able to control her tears from the pepper spray when she had to go on stage.  More...

(ajz) Venezuela's president has struck back at Spain's king, who told him to "shut up" at a leader's summit in Chile over the weekend. Hugo Chavez suggested on Sunday that King Juan Carlos knew beforehand that a coup was going to be staged against Chavez in 2002. Chavez said Spain's ambassador had appeared at Venezuela's presidential palace during the two-day coup to support Pedro Carmona, the interim president, with the king's blessing. "Mr King, did you know about the coup d'etat against Venezuela, against the democratic, legitimate government of Venezuela in 2002?" Chavez said to reporters in Chile. "It's very hard to imagine the Spanish ambassador would have been at the presidential palace supporting the coup-plotters without authorisation from his majesty.  More...

(ajz) Hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless as severe floods continue to rage through Mexico's southern state of Tabasco, in the country's worst natural disaster for decades. Rescue workers and police were out in force on Saturday helping flood victims, as fears grew of a looming health crisis. The floods have affected more than one million residents, half of Tabasco's population, but only one death has been reported. In the southern state of Chiapas at least four people died after rain-swollen rivers burst their banks, damaging 5,000 homes and 16 bridges. Flood waters looked ready to recede on Saturday, but forecasters said that with a cold front due to move into the area there could be more rain in store.  More...

(dominican today) In a bulletin issued last night the Emergencies Operations Center (COE) reported 11 deaths and 13 missing, while other sources say up to 21 fatalities and 33 missing in different zones of the country, from Tropical Storm Noel’s heavy rains. The COE says the 11 fatalities occurred in the country’s southern region although the newspaper Diario Libre says it confirmed the deaths of three more in the cities La Vega and four in Bonao, in the country’s central area. Radio reports also cite four deaths in Villa Altagracia. COE president Luis Luna Paulino said the red alert continues for most provinces and reported 3,295 people evacuated, 1,010 of those taken to shelters. The Education Ministry and most universities suspended classes until tomorrow Wednesday.  More...

(bbc) Two candidates in Sunday's regional elections in Colombia have been killed, bringing the total of candidates killed during the campaign to at least 21. Gratiniano Murcia and Liliana Polania from the Citizen Convergence party were shot as they campaigned in the south-western province of Caqueta. The government has blamed most of the deaths on guerrillas from the far-left Farc movement. Some parties have withdrawn candidates due to the increasing violence. The two murdered candidates were visiting the town of El Diamante on Tuesday when they were shot.  More...

(ajz) Thousands of students have clashed with police in Venezuela during a protest against proposed constitutional changes that will allow Hugo Chavez, the president, to run for re-elections indefinitely. Demonstrators pushed through police lines in central Caracas on Tuesday, as police fired tear gas to disperse the protest. Protesters marching to the congress building, also exchanged a volley of rocks and bottles with small groups of pro-Chavez demonstrators. Several people were slightly injured during the clashes, witnesses said. "With this reform, the president is going to control everything.  More...

(nyt) Ms. Pierre is the Dominican Republic’s most polarizing human rights advocate, a dark-skinned woman who says she can only dream of a country in which her color — and the skin tone of hundreds of thousands of other Dominicans like her who are of Haitian descent — is a non-issue. Carlos Morales Troncoso, the Dominican foreign minister, was among those who were infuriated at the honor Ms. Pierre received from the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights.  More...