Full Coverage: South America

26.01.2006 Brazil's president Lula is not coming to this year's World Social Forum, being held this week in Venezuela. He has a lot of work to do at home to prepare his beleaguered party for November's elections, and his role as champion of Latin America's left may be usurped by one of three local colleagues: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Argentina's Nestor Kirchner, or Bolivia's Evo Morales.

26.01.2006 Brazilian Indians have called on President Lula to dismiss the country's top Indian Affairs official, Mércio Pereira Gomes, who is visiting London this week, after he implied that Indians already have enough land and that future land claims may be restricted.

24.01.2006 The resounding victory of Michelle Bachelet as Chile’s first woman president represents an important social advance in a country where women are often treated as second class citizens. But few observers see the Chilean elections as reflective of the leftward trend taking place in much of Latin America.

20.01.2006 LA PAZ, Jan 19 (IPS) - With an Aymara ritual, an official ceremony and a mass celebration, Bolivia will see its first indigenous president, Evo Morales, take office this weekend, with around 10 Latin American presidents in attendance.

20.01.2006 Sunday's inauguration of Evo Morales as President of Bolivia is a milestone for for indigenous peoples around the world, says an international women's rights organisation.

20.01.2006 Just days before Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, US multinational Bechtel has backed down after a major international campaign and dropped a legal suit for $50 million against Bolivia.

20.01.2006 Very low-cost electricity that is not just clean but potentially beneficial for the environment, and comes from a flexible source that can be set up on any river without altering its course is the promise a Canadian company made in Brazil this week.

17.01.2006 O ministro da Economia Popular da Venezuela, Elias Jaua, em palestra proferida na noite da última sexta-feira, 13, no Sindicato dos Comerciários do Ceará, defendeu que o nordeste do Brasil seja o epicentro de um novo tipo de integración em que todos sejam incluídos.

17.01.2006 It's official--physician and former political prisoner Michelle Bachelet has handily won Sunday's run-off election and will become Chile's first female president.

16.01.2006 The Colombia Solidarity Campaign is appealing for protests to be made over army murders of civilian activists in the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado, and indigenous communities in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

15.01.2006 As Liberia prepares to install Africa's first woman head of state, Chile goes to the polls to decide whether a former political prisoner will become the first female president of a country where women did not win the right to vote until 1949.

13.01.2006 Chile's presidential runoff election will take place this Sunday and the female vote will play a decisive role in determining if front-runner Michelle Bachelet will become Chile's first female president. While this election has widened women's participation, resistance to cultural change has been evident throughout.

10.01.2006 The Brazilian government refused to submit to a U.S. mandate requiring aid recipients to publicly declare their opposition to prostitution, costing the country $40 million of HIV/AIDS funds. Now, Brazilian NGOs are facing budget constraints and are worried the loss of money will wash away the huge strides they have made in fighting the pandemic.

10.01.2006 A total of 38 Brazilian Indians were murdered in 2005 - the highest figure for 11 years, a trend attributed by a Brazilian organisation to the government's failure to recognise Indian land.

05.01.2006 In a victory for student environmental and human rights activists, the University of Michigan has suspended its business relationship with the Coca-Cola company because of its practices in India and Colombia.

03.01.2006 Three weeks ago New York University canceled their business contracts with Coca-Cola over the company's failure to address rights abuses with which it is charged in India and Colombia. Last week the University of Michigan followed suit.