Portal:Latin America/In the news/2006

December

 * 19 December: Hugo Chávez announces his plans to merge the parties which support the Bolivarian Revolution into the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. (BBC)
 * 19 December: Chilean congress approves the creation of two new administrative regions within the country (Peoples Daily)
 * 17 December: Armed militia in Peru ambush and kill seven people involved in a crackdown on the illegal growing of coca. (BBC)
 * 10 December: Ex-Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet dies. (The New York Times) (CNN)
 * 8 December: Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez visits Argentina to discuss Venezuela's integration into Mercosur, and the possibility of a gas pipeline between the two countries. (BBC)
 * 3 December: Former President of Chile Augusto Pinochet is in a military hospital after having had a heart attack. Doctors decide to perform coronary artery bypass surgery. (BBC), (Ireland Online)
 * 3 December: Venezuelan people vote in the presidential election with incumbent Hugo Chávez seeking a new six-year term. With 78% of votes counted by the National Electoral Council, Chávez wins with 61% over 38% for Rosales. (Reuters)
 * 1 December: Felipe Calderón becomes the President of Mexico. (Reuters)

November

 * 28 November: Rafael Correa will be the next President of Ecuador after winning the election with 57 per cent of the vote (94% counted). He will not be officially confirmed until all the votes are counted. (Reuters)
 * 26 November: Ecuadorian election: People in Ecuador go to the polls to choose a new president between Rafael Correa and Álvaro Noboa. (BBC News)
 * 25 November: General Augusto Pinochet issues a statement accepting responsibility for everything that happened in Chile during his rule. (BBC)
 * 21 November: A fire in a marketplace in Guatemala City kills at least 15 people. The fire started from a cigarette in a fireworks stall. (BBC)
 * 20 November: Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was narrowly defeated in the Mexican general election, is proclaimed "Legitimate President of Mexico" by his supporters and promises to set up a "parallel government". (BBC)
 * 17 November: A change to Nicaragua's abortion law bans abortion in all cases, removing an exception where the woman's life was in danger. (Guardian)
 * 7 November: Daniel Ortega elected as President of Nicaragua with 38 per cent of the vote. His conservative opponent Eduardo Montealegre has conceded defeat. (Reuters)
 * 7 November: After 48 rounds of voting, Panama is elected to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. (DPA)
 * 6 November: Felipe Pérez Roque, the Foreign Minister of Cuba, backs away from earlier predictions that Fidel Castro would return as the President of Cuba by December raising concerns about the progress of Castro's recovery from intestinal surgery. (USA Today)
 * 6 November: Bombs explode at Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal, an opposition party's headquarters and a bank in the capital. (RTÉ News)
 * 6 November: Daniel Ortega has an early lead over Eduardo Montealegre, according to partial results from the general elections in Nicaragua. (The New York Times)
 * 5 November: Nicaraguans go to the polls to elect a new President and National Assembly, with the presidential race led by Sandinista Daniel Ortega and conservative Eduardo Montealegre. (BBC News)
 * 1 November: Bolivian President Evo Morales retracts plans to nationalize the country's mining industry, promising to do so at an unspecified later date. (UPI)
 * 1 November: Venezuela and Guatemala have agreed to withdraw from the race for a seat on the United Nations Security Council; both agreeing to support Panama after 47 rounds of voting. (The Canadian Press)
 * 1 November: The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attack a rural police command in Colombia, killing at least 16 officers as part of a two-week offensive. President Álvaro Uribe had earlier withdrawn from negotiations. (Reuters)

October

 * 29 October: Mexican federal police seize the center of Oaxaca, which had served as the headquarters for the five-month protest occupation of the city. (International Herald Tribune)
 * 29 October: President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wins a second term in a landslide victory with 61 per cent of voters supporting him. (AP via Phillyburbs)
 * 28 October: Cuban television shows images of convalescing leader Fidel Castro walking and reading the day's newspapers showing that he is recovering from his emergency surgery in July. (Reuters), (BBC)
 * 27 October: A judge orders the arrest of former President of Chile Augusto Pinochet for torture, murder and kidnapping (Villa Grimaldi case) in the early years of his regime, from 1973 to 1990. (ABC News Australia)
 * 26 October: The National Assembly of Nicaragua passes a law banning all abortions in the run-up to general elections.(BBC News)
 * 25 October: Nicaragua - Oliver North calls the potential election of Daniel Ortega "bad for your country [Nicaragua]"(Guardian.co.uk)
 * 25 October: Venezuela - The government proposes to end its search for a seat on the UN security council if Guatemala does too. Guatemala opposes the idea. (BBC)
 * 25 October: Argentine prosecutors formally charge the Iranian government and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah over the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre which killed 85 people. (BBC)
 * 24 October: Brazil - CVRD, a mining company, is now the world's second largest, behind BHP Billiton. (BBC)
 * 23 October: Nicaragua - Plans are suggested for a Nicaragua Canal to rival that of Panama. (BBC), (Reuters)
 * 23 October: Hurricane Paul becomes a Category 2 hurricane off Mexico's Pacific coast as it heads for Baja California. (CBS News)
 * 22 October: Tropical Storm Paul is upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane and is threatening Baja California. (Reuters Alertnet)
 * 22 October: Based on extraofficial partial results, Panama has approved in a referendum a US$5.25 billion plan to expand the Panama Canal by 79% (40% of votes counted). Real-Time counting of votes (BBC News) (CNN)
 * 18 October: Chilean police detain 366 high school student protestors in Santiago, and use tear gas and water cannons to disperse their one day strike which called on the government to reform the education law, originally enacted under Augusto Pinochet. (Deutsche Presse-Agentur)
 * 17 October: UN Security Council election: The contest between Guatemala and Venezuela for a seat on the United Nations Security Council remains stalemated after a second day of voting. (BBC)
 * 16 October: UN Security Council election: Voting for the Latin America and the Caribbean seat on the Security Council commencing 1 January 2007 remains deadlocked after ten rounds of voting between Guatemala and Venezuela and may be thrown open to other candidates. (BBC)
 * 15 October: Ecuador's presidential election goes to a second-round run-off between Rafael Correa and Álvaro Noboa, to be held on 26 November. (BBC News)
 * 13 October: Cellulose plant conflict: Demonstrators again block border crossings between Argentina and Uruguay after the World Bank announces its decision to continue funding the disputed paper mills. (BBC)
 * 13 October: Abimael Guzmán, leader of Peru's Sendero Luminoso guerrillas, is sentenced to life imprisonment at the conclusion of his retrial on terrorism charges. (BBC)
 * 10 October: A passenger bus plunges into a ravine near the city of Chiantla in northwestern Guatemala, killing 42 people. (BBC)
 * 7 October: Buenos Aires - Citizens demonstrate for the return of Jorge Julio Lopez, who has disappeared since testifying against figures from the Argentine government. (BBC)
 * 6 October: A truce is called in Bolivia after a dynamite battle between rival groups of tin miners kills 16 people in the department of Oruro, with another 60 people injured. President Evo Morales sacks his mining minister for not anticipating the violence. (ABC News Australia)
 * 6 October: Tijuana, Mexico - The entire city is to be searched to find anyone who is involved in drug smuggling. (BBC)
 * 6 October: Caracas - Nicolás Maduro demands the USA extradite Luis Posada Carriles. (BBC)
 * 1 October: General Elections 2006 in Brazil are taking place.

September

 * 30 September: A Brazilian Air Force search and rescue team locates the wreckage of Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 near the town of Peixoto de Azevedo, in northern Mato Grosso state. The Boeing 737-800 disappeared from radar after allegedly colliding in mid-air with an Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet. There are no reports on survivors. (Reuters) (Globo, Portuguese) (AP)
 * 29 September: Gol Transportes Aéreos Flight 1907 with 155 passengers onboard collides with a smaller jet in midair, 470 miles south of Manaus, Brazil. The Boeing 737-800 wreckage has been found by FAB near Peixoto de Azevedo (Reuters) (G1 NEWS, Portugesse) (Associated Press)
 * 24 September: Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro is detained in John F. Kennedy International Airport for secondary screening. (BBC)
 * 24 September: At least 47 people, including a number of children, are killed in a bus crash near Quito, capital of Ecuador. (CNN)
 * 21 September: Response to President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez's remarks that United States President George W. Bush is like the devil: (Washington Post)
 * Democratic United States Representative Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi calls Chávez a "thug." (Reuters)
 * United States Representative Charles Rangel (D) also said in a press release that an attack on Bush is "attack on all of us (Americans)." (Rangel Press Release)
 * Australia, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says Chávez is "A Dictator without Class." (News Limited/AAP)
 * Iowa Senator Tom Harkin (D) says that Chávez's comments were "incendiary." (Radio Iowa)
 * 21 September: Former Peruvian spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos is sentenced to a 20-year prison term for running guns to Colombian FARC guerrillas. (BBC)
 * 20 September: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, addressing the United Nations 61st General Assembly, said 'Yesterday the devil was here, and today it still smells of sulfur at this podium,' in reference to US President George W. Bush.
 * 17 September: Mexico - Andrés Manuel López Obrador is "elected" leader of Mexico in a parallel government to the one backed by the Federal Electoral Tribunal. (BBC), (news.yahoo.com)
 * 17 September: Spence, Chile - Another strike by Chile's copper workers begins against BHP Billiton, this time at a different mine. (Reuters)
 * 17 September: Mexico - Hurricane Lane batters the west coast. (BBC), (news.yahoo.com)
 * 15 September: Peru - A 1300-year-old headdress was returned to Peru following its recovery from theft. (news.yahoo.com)
 * 15 September: Bolivia - Andres Soli, the man in charge of Bolivia's nationalisation programme for its oil and gas reserves, resigns. (news.yahoo.com)

August

 * 30 August: Panama - The scheme to widen the canal causes a massive increase in job applicants to help work on the construction. (People's Daily Online)
 * 30 August: Caracas - The mayor, Juan Barreto, will expropriate golf courses in the city for housing for the poor. (BBC)
 * 29 August: Escondida - The strike by mine workers continues its impasse. (BBC)
 * 29 August: Mexico - The Federal Electoral Tribunal declares that the election was fair. (BBC)
 * 28 August: Quito - Maria Esther de Capovilla, the world's oldest woman, dies aged 116. (Yahoo news)
 * 28 August: La Paz - Jorge Alvarado, the president of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos, the country's national oil company, resigns. (Yahoo news)
 * 17 August: Peru - Ollanta Humala is accused of murder from when he was an army captain. (BBC), (Voice of America)
 * 17 August: Brazil - The current account surplus reaches its highest ever level at 1.45%. (BBC)
 * 17 August: Tungurahua - A volcano erupts in Ecuador, killing one and leaving sixty missing. (BBC), (ABC News)
 * 16 August: Uruguay - Health workers of the Uruguayan Health Federation strike in protest about an alleged reneging on an increased pay deal by bosses. (From El País Uruguay)
 * 16 August: Foz de Iguazu, Brazil - A special intelligence force is to monitor the Triple Frontier. (BBC)
 * 16 August: Brasília - Alfredo Stroessner dies at the age of 93. He had been living in exile from Paraguay since 1989. (BBC), (BBC), (Times Online)
 * 10 August: Brasília - A huge corruption scandal finds 72 senators guilty of bribe-taking. (BBC), (Washington Post)
 * 10 August: Colombia - A court finds more than 140 soldiers guilty of stealing money from FARC. (BBC)
 * 10 August: San Salvador - The government announces it will send 380 troops to Iraq. (Chron.com)
 * 10 August: Argentina - Three are arrested on evidence they were involved in the Dirty War. (CNN)
 * 9 August: Mexico - A partial recount begins following the controversy of the general election. (BBC)
 * 9 August: Venezuela - Hugo Chávez announces the breaking of ties with Israel following the 2006 Israel–Lebanon conflict. (BBC)
 * 9 August: The strike at the Escondida mine continues as talks stall. (BBC)
 * 4 August: Cuba - A broadcast on television shows the editor of Communist Youth and other commentators rejecting calls for democracy from the US. (BBC)
 * 4 August: Cali - Four police and the driver die from a car bomb.(BBC)
 * 4 August: Chile - Despite a strike planned for next Monday, workers at the biggest privately-owned copper mine in the world, the Escondida mine, have submitted a settlement to managers. (BBC)
 * 3 August: Urucena, Cochabamba Department - Evo Morales seeks support for a law to take unproductive land from farmers in order to redistribute it. He has promised to redistribute 200,000 km² by 2011. (BBC)
 * 3 August: Caracas - Saab will not sell weapons to Venezuela after 1 October, following a US arms embargo. (BBC)

July

 * 31 July: Hanoi - Having signed trade deals with Russia (BBC) and asked for investment from Iran (BBC), Hugo Chávez signs oil and farming deals with Nguyễn Minh Triết, Vietnam's President. (BBC)
 * 30 July: Haiti - CARICOM governments provide an aid package for the country. (Jamaica Gleaner News)
 * 30 July: Mexico City - Several hundred thousand people protest against what they believe to have been the rigged general elections and in favour of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. (BBC)
 * 30 July: Rio de Janeiro - Although the Doha trade talks appear to have petered out, the US and Brazil hope to restart them. (BBC)
 * 29 July: Uruguay - The country pays back US$900m to the IMF, saving $40mUSD in interest payments. (MercoPress)
 * 29 July: Peru - Alan García is sworn in as President for a five year term. (BBC)
 * 28 July: Haiti - Yvon Neptune is released from prison. (BBC)
 * 28 July: Ecuador - The World Bank gives the country $111mUSD in loans to improve sanitation, education, and infrastructure. (Kansas City infoZine
 * 22 July: Córdoba, Argentina - The leaders of the countries in Mercosur pledge to cut poverty, ending the summit. (BBC), (People's Daily Online)
 * 20 July: Venezuela - The Inter American Press Association claims that freedom of the press is being compromised by Hugo Chávez's administration. (BBC)
 * 20 July: Brazil - Volo de Brasil buys Varig, and may sack 8000 of its 10000 workers. (BBC)
 * 20 July: Port-au-Prince - UN forces fight gangs in Haiti. From two to eight people were killed in the battling. (BBC)
 * 20 July: Lima - Judge Hernan Saturno Vergara, who was arbitrating on an alleged drug cartel, is shot dead. (BBC)
 * 19 July: Santiago - The Salvador Allende Solidarity Museum, an art gallery, opens in the building used by the National Information Centre. (BBC)
 * 14 July: Panama - The National Assembly of Panama approved unanimously the Panama Canal Expansion Proposal that will go to a National referendum on October 22, 2006. (The Washington Post).
 * 13 July: El Salvador - Following a policeman's murder, police arrest at least 190 maras, or street gang members. (BBC)
 * 13 July: Mexico City - Supporters of defeated Presidential candidate Manuel López Obrador begin to gather in the capital. (BBC)
 * 13 July: Colombia - The activity of Galeras, a volcano, causes Colombian officials to tell people living nearby to leave. (BBC)
 * 12 July: Latin America - The IMF states that the economy of Latin America has grown at its fastest level for 25 years since 2004. (Reuters)
 * 12 July: Cuba - The President of the National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcón, tells the country that accepting any money from a new US fund would be illegal. (BBC)
 * 7 July: Brazil - Police arrest Luciano Daniel, accused of being the biggest cocaine trafficker in the country. (BBC)
 * 6 July: Brazil - The campaigning for the Brazilian general elections, 2006 begins.
 * 6 July: El Salvador - Students kill two police in a dispute over bus tickets. (BBC)
 * 5 July: Venezuela - Venezuela joins the Mercosur trading bloc. (BBC)
 * 4 July: Mexico - Andrés Manuel López Obrador demands a full recount in the Mexican general election, 2006 after his side appears to have narrowly lost. (BBC)
 * 3 July: Nicaragua - Herty Lewites, a candidate in the Nicaraguan general election for President, dies suddenly. (BBC)

June

 * 26 June: São Paulo - Following attacks on police stations, Brazilian police have killed 13 people on the city's outskirts. (BBC)
 * 24 June: Brazil - Lula da Silva announces he will stand in the Presidential election in October. (BBC)
 * 24 June: Colombia - FARC announce they are prepared to negotiate with the government if it ends attacks on them. (BBC)
 * 23 June: Brazil - In Cantanduvas, the first of a new, more secure type of prison, created in response to First Capital Command violence, is opened. (BBC)
 * 23 June: Guatemala - Rival gangs in a youth prison fight, leaving four dead and five injured (People's Daily Online)
 * 22 June: Bolivia - Bolivian doctors protest against Cuban immigrants who they say are taking their jobs. (BBC)
 * 21 June: Cuba - the government jails Juan Carlos Robinson, a former senior figure within the Communist Party of Cuba. (BBC)
 * 21 June: Madrid - Néstor Kirchner meets King Juan Carlos I of Spain in a diplomatic visit. (CNN)
 * 20 June: Buenos Aires - Miguel Etchecolatz, a former police officer, goes on trial for his alleged part in Argentina's Dirty War. (CNN)
 * 18 June: São Paulo - More than one million Brazilians celebrate in the annual Gay Pride parade. (BBC)
 * 17 June: Bolivia - Carlos Villegas, the Planning and Development Minister, announces a scheme to invest $7bn in public works to reduce poverty. (BBC)
 * 16 June: Chile - The National Environmental Commission (CONAMA) approves a gold-mining scheme worth $1.5bn, despite environmental concerns. |(BBC)
 * 16 June: Mexico - During an on-going strike, teachers are wounded in a confrontation with police. (BBC)
 * 15 June: Venezuela - Later this year, Russia will complete the sale of 24 Sukhoi Su-30 fighter planes to the country. (BBC)
 * 15 June: Hamburg - Ecuador beat Costa Rica 3-0 in 2006 FIFA World Cup to qualify for the Second Round. Costa Rica are knocked out. (FIFA.com)
 * 14 June: Honduras - Coffee continues to be smuggled across the border to Guatemala. (Scotsman)
 * 13 June: Argentina - Néstor Kirchner puts into effect a law that reduces the powers of Argentina's armed forces. (BBC)
 * 13 June: Quito - CAN reunites to combat a potential breakup of the organisation. (Boston Globe)
 * 12 June: Colombia - FARC declares war on the National Libertation Army. (BBC)
 * 12 June: Cuba - The first named storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Alberto, makes landfall, causing heavy flooding. (BBC),(CNN)
 * 10 June: Haiti - a new government takes charge following former President Aristide's fleeing the country. (BBC)
 * 4 June: Peru - Alan García wins the Presidential runoff against Ollanta Humala. (BBC)