Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela have avoided war, but now two other Andean nations are gearing up for battle. This time the foe is the United Nations, and the cause is the right to chew coca, the raw material of cocaine. It may not sound as important as the diplomatic row that shook the region earlier this month. But the dispute is momentous for millions of people in Bolivia and Peru — where the coca leaf is sacred to indigenous ...

The United Nations and the Organization of American States said Saturday they are worried over Venezuelan government statements about an independent TV station that has criticized President Hugo Chavez. In a joint release, freedom of expression investigators Frank LaRue of the U.N. and Catalina Botero of the O.A.S. "express their concern in light of the statements made by the highest-level government authorities, which generate an atmosphere of intimidation in which the right to freedom of expression is seriously limited." Venezuela ...

Venezuelan federal investigators raided the suburban Caracas home of the president of Globovision, a privately run television station that has frequently opposed President Hugo Chavez's policies.

Two Americans banned from entering the United Kingdom because the government feels they have been "stirring up hatred" responded by slamming the country's home secretary, and one of them threatened to sue her. Radio talk show host Michael Savage and the anti-gay Rev. Fred Phelps were listed Tuesday among white supremacists and radical Islamic clerics who will not be allowed into the country. Savage, whose conservative daily show can be heard on radio stations across America, lashed out in an ...

Venezuela has blasted Peru's granting of political asylum to a Venezuelan politician wanted on corruption charges. "Despite the amount of evidence, the Peruvian government decided to grant Manuel Rosales political asylum," Venezuela's government said in a statement Monday. "It's a decision that thwarts international law, inflicts a blow to the fight against corruption and is an affront to the people of Venezuela." Asylum was granted to Rosales -- the mayor of Maracaibo, Venezuela -- on humanitarian grounds, Peru's foreign minister ...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday he appreciated U.S. President Barack Obama's friendly gestures at last weekend's Summit of the Americas, but said they don't change his view of the United States as an imperialist nation. Chavez's fiery diatribes against the United States have included referring to former President George W. Bush as the devil. He was photographed with Obama at least twice at the summit -- once when Obama shook hands with him and other leaders, and again when ...

A Venezuelan mayor who says President Hugo Chavez is persecuting him on trumped-up corruption charges has gone to Peru, that nation's foreign minister said Tuesday. Maracaibo Mayor Manuel Rosales, who belongs to a different political party than does Chavez, was supposed to have turned himself in to authorities on Monday but failed to appear. Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde told CNN en Español that Rosales entered the country as a tourist and has not asked for political asylum. ...

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez is considering naming an ambassador to the United States, signaling a shift in the historically tense relations between the two nations -- one that the Obama administration welcomed. "It is possible we will begin evaluating the designation of an ambassador in the United States," Chavez said in a statement Saturday after the meeting of leaders and representatives from 34 countries at the the fifth Summit of the Americas. "We want to move in that ...

The big winner out of this week's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad may be a decades-old book about the exploitation of Latin American people throughout history. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose anti-U.S. rhetoric has included calling former President George W. Bush the devil, approached Obama Friday and handed him a copy of "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent." In just hours, the book, by Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano, rocketed to bestseller status ...

President Obama said Friday he is seeking "a new beginning" in U.S. relations with Cuba. "Every one of our nations has a right to follow its own path," he told representatives of 34 countries at the Summit of the Americas. "But we all have a responsibility to see that the people of the Americas have the ability to pursue their own dreams in democratic societies. "Toward that end, the United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba." Obama arrived in ...