Latin America

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) — Problems with electronic voting systems forced the Dominican Republic to suspend municipal elections across the country on Sunday.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s armed forces and civilian militias took the streets in cities, beaches and border regions on Saturday for drills ordered by President Nicolás Maduro, amid tensions between Washington and Caracas.

MEXICO CITY — In a country where femicide is, unfortunately, the norm, the brutal murder of Ingrid Escamilla, 25, at the hands of her partner who not only killed her, but skinned her body and cut it up in an attempt to get rid of the evidence, sparked outrage as Ingrid became a victim not just once, but three times.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Dozens of women spray-painted slogans such as “We won’t be silenced” on the facade and doorway of Mexico City’s National Palace on Friday, following the gruesome slaying of a young woman last weekend.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said Friday that authorities haven’t detained opposition leader Juan Guaidó because the courts haven’t ordered it, but he warned: “It will come.”

Puerto Rico’s Industrial Development Company and the island’s Tourism Company sent more than $2.6 million in pension funds and $1.5 million, respectively, to false bank accounts.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Dozens of trophies, balls and cups sit on two worn, wooden shelves in the small home in a Buenos Aires suburb of Mara Gómez, who is poised to become the first transgender woman to play professional soccer in Argentina.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Many U.S. holding cells along the Mexican border were less than half-full, even empty, during an unprecedented surge of asylum-seeking families from Central America, newly unsealed court documents show, raising questions about the Trump administration’s claims that it had to make people wait in Mexico because it didn’t have the means to accommodate them.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The government of President Nicolás Maduro demanded that Washington stop piling on punishing financial sanctions aimed at forcing a regime change in Venezuela as it took its case to the International Criminal Court on Thursday.

It was the first meeting in Washington between an Ecuadorian and U.S. president in 17 years.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — An ally of President Nicolás Maduro said Wednesday that officials have detained a close relative of opposition leader Juan Guaidó, accusing the uncle of trying to smuggle “dangerous materials” into Venezuela.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ecuadorian President Lenín Moreno’s talks at the White House with President Donald Trump on Wednesday marked the first time in nearly two decades that a chief of state from the small South American nation had met in Washington with a U.S. president.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The former head of Mexico’s state oil company was arrested Wednesday in Spain on an international warrant issued by Mexico, authorities said.

Mario Estrada was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States.

As Salvadorans living in the diaspora, we can get easily consumed by Salvadoran media outlets that claim that people want harsher penalties and stricter policing to combat gang violence.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo continues to be a dangerous place for asylum seekers waiting to cross into the United States after being sent back to await the outcome of their petitions, according to a report released Tuesday.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — President Nayib Bukele said Tuesday he will obey a Supreme Court order that he stop pressuring lawmakers to approve a $109 million loan he is seeking to bolster El Salvador’s fight against gangs, lowering tensions after military and police were deployed to the congress over the weekend.

Opposition leaders said Bukele’s actions created a constitutional crisis.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Lawmakers suspended work by commissions in congress Monday, including a treasury committee responsible for debating a $109 million security loan sought by President Nayib Bukele, a day after heavily armed troops and special forces were deployed in and around the building in a display that alarmed many in a country with a not-too-distant history of military dictatorship.

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Prosecutors opened what some are calling Ecuador’s trial of a century Monday against former President Rafael Correa and 20 other high-ranking politicians and business leaders accused of operating a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme.

URUAPAN, MEXICO (AP) — Alejandra Uvilla fled her home city of Apatzingán because of overwhelming violence, moving 65 miles (105 km) north to bustling, mountain-nestled Uruapan in the avocado belt of Michoacán state. Three years later, the bloodshed is even worse here.