Americas

The daughter of Cuban president Raul Castro has once again received a State Department visa to travel throughout the United States after her visit last year outraged Cuban-American members of Congress. Read more...

The Treasury Department is unfreezing the assets of more than a dozen Colombian citizens who petitioned the government to reenter the American financial system.

Sixteen individuals and one company, some designated as narcotics traffickers since 2010, asked the Treasury Department to reevaluate their cases. The department concluded that the petitioners had cut ties with their former partners, and on Tuesday deleted their names from its list of sanctioned people and companies.

Three Cuban-Americans lawmakers wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry to press him to keep Cuba on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The State Department is mandated by law to provide Congress by April 30 of each year an updated report on terrorism around the word. Cuba is one of four countries currently on the list, along with Syria, Iran and Sudan.

The letter was spearheaded by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and signed by Reps. Albio Sires (D-N.J.) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.). The only other Cuban-American in the House, Rep. Joe Garcia (D-Fla.), did not sign on to the letter but also supports keeping Cuba on the list and is drafting his own letter to Kerry, The Hill has learned.

Four Cuban-American members of the House and three Senators are pushing to keep Cuba on the terrorist list.

The State Department strongly denied Friday that a California filmmaker arrested in Venezuela is a U.S. spy sent to foment violence after President Nicolás Maduro's election earlier this month.

Timothy Tracy was arrested Wednesday at the personal request of Maduro, who accused him of "creating violence in the cities of this country." The arrest is the latest source of tensions between the United States and Venezuela despite early hopes that Hugo Chavez's death could pave the way for improved relations.

"These type of accusations are the latest in a series of allegations made by the Venezuelan government in recent weeks against a variety of, quote/unquote 'foreign actors', suggesting efforts to effect political developments in Venezuela. These allegations have not been substantiated,” State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Friday. “The U.S. continues to categorically reject any allegations of U.S. government efforts to destabilize the Venezuelan government or to harm anyone in Venezuela.”

The Obama administration should make progress on human rights a “central part” of U.S.-Mexican relations, a bipartisan group of 24 lawmakers said Friday ahead of President Obama's trip next week.

The letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, spearheaded by Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), comes as President Enrique Peña Nieto has vowed to ensure that “rights established on paper become reality.” The State Department is withholding $18 million in security assistance pending progress on human rights, and the lawmakers urged Kerry to keep the cuts in place until the country shows an increase in the number of official abuse allegations that are prosecuted.

“Now is an opportune moment to work with the Mexican government to improve the situation in that country,” wrote the lawmakers. “We are encouraged by President Enrique Peña Nieto’s strong statements affirming his commitment to human rights and we believe they provide the United States with an important opening to raise our concerns with the Mexican government. We believe that a measurable increase in the number of cases of abuses that are investigated and prosecuted in civilian jurisdiction should be a key benchmark by which the State Department assesses the progress made by the Peña Nieto government on human rights.”

Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver is touting the Keystone pipeline to congressional energy leaders and the State department.

Jamaican authorities have agreed to extradite convicted scammers who prey on American seniors following a Senate probe, the U.S. ambassador to Kingston said.

The promise follows a hearing by the Senate's aging panel last month into scams that fool seniors into handing over money in exchange for a bigger pay-off in the form of fictitious lottery winnings. The scam has hit the home states of chairman Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and ranking member Susan Collins (R-Maine) particularly hard.

The Jamaican Senate passed legislation shortly after the hearing to prosecute the scammers, who fleece American seniors of an estimated $1 billion a year. The United States is Jamaica's biggest trade partner and its main source of tourists, making good relations between the two countries crucial.

The State Department on Tuesday vehemently denied the United States was considering sanctions against Venezuela after the oil-rich country threatened to cut energy exports to the U.S.

Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Roberta Jacobson told CNN's Spanish channel over the weekend she did not know either way if the Obama administration would consider sanctions if the country does not have a full recount of last week's disputed presidential election. Foreign Minister Elias Jaua responded with a promise to retaliate if that happens, prompting State Department Spokesman Patrick Ventrell's remarks on Tuesday.

“I think the Venezuelan side may have looked at that … and read into [it that] we're considering something,” Ventrell said at his daily press briefing. “I'm saying that that's not something that we're currently contemplating at this moment.”

The court said the administration must release the names of graduates of a training camp for the Latin American military.