From Dec. 3-5, B’nai B’rith International held its annual policy conference in Montevideo, Uruguay-the first international B’nai B’rith event ever held in Latin America. Former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Vice-Prime Minister of Israel Moshe Yaalon and U.S. State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Hannah Rosenthal were among the conference’s many high-profile speakers. They spoke about issues from efforts to delegitimize...

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) today announced that he will request a Congressional hearing on the threat to the United States posed by Iran’s diplomatic and espionage activities in Latin America first thing next year in his capacity as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. The hearing will examine the growing influence of Iran in Latin America and the implications for the U.S. and its allies in the region. The hearing follows the Iranian...

Caracas - The Venezuelan Government released an official communication yesterday denouncing accusations made against Venezuela by Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon as “slanderous” and “abusive”. Yaalon accused Venezuela of working with Iran to create a “terrorist infrastructure” in Latin America that could “attack the interests of the United States or in the United States,” during his visit to Uruguay this week. The Venezuelan Government...

Less than 24 hours after he was reported missing, the badly beaten body of Jose Trinidad de la Cruz Crisoforo, a peace activist in his seventies, was found near the town of Aquila in Michoacan state. According to authorities, the corpse bore signs of torture. De la Cruz was found with his hands tied behind his back and at least four bullet wounds, and his left ear was almost detached. Other activists told press that de la Cruz had been beaten and threatened with death in June. As a result...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico uncovered and stopped an international plot to smuggle late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son Saadi into the country using fake names and false papers, authorities said Wednesday. A Canadian woman, a Danish man and two Mexicans were arrested on November 10 and 11 over an elaborate plan to bring Saadi Gaddafi, who is now in Niger, and his family to Mexico using forged documents, safe houses and private flights, they said. Mexican officials acted on a tip...

Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon declared on Monday in an interview that Iran is framing, with the little help of Venezuela, a "terrorist infrastructure" in Latin America against the United States, Israel and their allies. "The idea is framing a terrorist infrastructure to be underlying for a while and in due time be able to attack the interests of the United States or in the United States," as well as "Israeli or Jewish interests or of any other country...

WASHINGTON - Undercover American narcotics agents have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds as part of Washington's expanding role in Mexico's fight against drug cartels, according to current and former federal law enforcement officials. The agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders, those officials said, to identify how criminal organizations move their money,...

A group of Venezuelans opposed to the Venezuelan government said at a press conference that their e-mails and social networks accounts in Twitter or Facebook have been hacked. On the occasion of the Summit of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac), the well-known figures said that the vandalistic acts against their personal accounts have been due to the "policy of computer terrorism promoted by the government of Hugo Chávez Frías." Among the people affected...

Relatives bid farewell to former FARC hostages executed by FARC troops during a military raid (Photo: AFP) Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe said that Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez acknowledged some years ago that he was aware of the presence of guerrilla members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Venezuela. Chávez would have told him that he would not order their capture because he (Chávez) wanted to "make a contribution to...

high-profile Mexican peace movement blamed the country's government Tuesday for the death of one of the group's most vocal members. Nepomuceno Moreno Nunez, 56, was shot Monday afternoon as he crossed a street in Hermosillo, Sonora, authorities said. Investigators collected nine shell casings from the scene. "For the death of Nepomuceno, we blame, by omission, federal and state authorities who did not respond to his requests for protection," the Movement for Peace with Justice and...