Central America

GENEVA — Nicaragua has become the last country in Central America to clear its territory of antipersonnel mines, government officials said yesterday. Nicaragua removed and destroyed its last antipersonnel mine on April 13, the country’s Ministry of Defense said. An announcement by Nicaragua’s president was conveyed to a meeting of signatories to the 1997 Ottawa Convention, which requires states to destroy land mines in their territory. Most of the antipersonnel mines in Nicaragua were left over from the civil war that ended in 1989, according to the Geneva-based UN office, which...

At least 105 people have died in flooding and landslides provoked by 10 days of heavy rains in Central America, authorities said Thursday. More than a million people have been affected in the region, prompting officials to ask for humanitarian aid and urge those unaffected to show solidarity. Almost 60 inches (152 centimeters) of rain have accumulated in the past 10 days. The cumulative record of Hurricane Mitch, which devastated the region in 1998, killing 11,000 people, was 34 inches (86 centimeters)

A week of heavy rains across Central America have caused landslides, floods and bridge collapses that have left at least 84 people dead, authorities said Monday. Nine others are missing. El Salvador's director of civil protection, Jorge Melendez, said the rain will continue until at least Wednesday because of the presence of two low pressure systems in the area. The amount of rain over the last seven days exceeds the cumulative record of Hurricane Mitch, which devastated the region in 1998, killing 11,000 people, Melendez said.

A week of heavy rains across Central America have caused landslides, floods and bridge collapses that have left at least 84 people dead, authorities said Monday. Nine others are missing. El Salvador's director of civil protection, Jorge Melendez, said the rain will continue until at least Wednesday because of the presence of two low pressure systems in the area. The amount of rain over the last seven days exceeds the cumulative record of Hurricane Mitch, which devastated the region in 1998, killing 11,000 people, Melendez said.

At least 105 people have died in flooding and landslides provoked by 10 days of heavy rains in Central America, authorities said Thursday. More than a million people have been affected in the region, prompting officials to ask for humanitarian aid and urge those unaffected to show solidarity. Almost 60 inches (152 centimeters) of rain have accumulated in the past 10 days. The cumulative record of Hurricane Mitch, which devastated the region in 1998, killing 11,000 people, was 34 inches (86 centimeters)

VERACRUZ, Mexico -- Hurricane Stan slammed into Mexico's Gulf coast yesterday, forcing authorities to close one of the nation's busiest ports and spawning storms across the region that left at least 66 people dead, most from landslides in El Salvador. Stan, which whipped up sustained winds of 80 miles per hour before weakening to a tropical storm, came ashore along a sparsely populated stretch of coast south of Veracruz, a major port 185 miles east of Mexico City. The storm's outer bands swiped the city, knocking down trees and flooding low-lying neighborhoods, authorities said.

GUATEMALA CITY — The death toll in Central America from landslides and flooding triggered by the year’s first tropical storm surged to 99 yesterday as authorities struggled to clear roads of debris and reach cut-off communities. Torrential rains that have pounded an area stretching from southern Mexico nearly to Nicaragua eased somewhat, as rivers continued to rise and word filtered out from isolated areas of more deaths in landslides. In Guatemala, 82 people were killed as rains unleashed lethal landslides across the country, according to...

WASHINGTON - Zoos in the US, Panama, and Mexico are deploying researchers in Central America to develop new ways to fight a fungus blamed for wiping out dozens of frog and amphibian species as part of a project announced yesterday. The Smithsonian Institution is leading six other zoos - among them Zoo New England in Stoneham - and institutes in the Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project, which aims to raise $1.5 million to fight the fast-spreading chytrid fungus. Their protection efforts will focus on a small slice of Panama that is the only area in...

Netflix Inc. climbed after the mail-order and online movie rental service said it will offer movie streaming in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean this year, a major expansion of the company’s geographic footprint. Netflix has been available only in the United States and Canada. Investors have sought insight into the company’s international growth plans. The expansion will total 43 countries, Netflix said. It did not specify when the streaming service would be for sale, beyond “later this year.’’ It will be available in Spanish, Portuguese, and English.

SAN SALVADOR -- Heavy rains pounded Central America for a fourth day yesterday, pushing rivers over their banks, flooding communities and unleashing at least two deadly mudslides. The region's death toll surpassed 150, authorities said. Hurricane Stan, which had led to rain storms in Central America, weakened to a depression over the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca yesterday, a day after making landfall along Mexico's Gulf coast. But rains continued in parts of Central America and southern Mexico.

Netflix Inc. climbed after the mail-order and online movie rental service said it will offer movie streaming in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean this year, a major expansion of the company’s geographic footprint. Netflix has been available only in the United States and Canada. Investors have sought insight into the company’s international growth plans. The expansion will total 43 countries, Netflix said. It did not specify when the streaming service would be for sale, beyond “later this year.’’ It will be available in Spanish, Portuguese, and English.

SAN SALVADOR — President Obama vowed closer cooperation yesterday with the Central American nations where US policies on crime, immigration, and other issues have outsize influence on populations that depend heavily on their giant neighbor to the north. Speaking in El Salvador, the final stop on his three-country Latin American tour and the only one in Central America, Obama promised to work on increasing trade and economic growth, fighting drug trafficking, and creating opportunities so that people can find opportunity in their home countries and “don’t feel like they have to head north to...

GUATEMALA CITY — The remnants of Tropical Storm Matthew drenched parts of Central America and southern Mexico yesterday, a day after it weakened to a tropical depression. The storm’s forward movement slowed to a crawl and top wind speeds fell to about 25 miles per hour. Its center was about 40 miles southeast of the Gulf Coast city of Villahermosa, an area already hit by severe flooding in recent months. Forecasters at the US National Hurricane Center in Miami said the system’s slow movement means it could produce rainfall totals of 6 to 10 inches over parts of Mexico...

GENEVA — Nicaragua has become the last country in Central America to clear its territory of antipersonnel mines, government officials said yesterday. Nicaragua removed and destroyed its last antipersonnel mine on April 13, the country’s Ministry of Defense said. An announcement by Nicaragua’s president was conveyed to a meeting of signatories to the 1997 Ottawa Convention, which requires states to destroy land mines in their territory. Most of the antipersonnel mines in Nicaragua were left over from the civil war that ended in 1989, according to the Geneva-based UN...

GUATEMALA CITY — Villagers used hoes and pick axes to hunt for victims of landslides that have killed at least 179 people in Central America while officials in Guatemala’s capital tried to cope with a vast sinkhole that swallowed a clothing factory. Thousands remained homeless and dozens were still missing following the season’s first tropical storm. Rescue crews struggled to reach isolated communities to distribute food and water. “This is a total tragedy,’’ said Jose Vicente Samayoa, president of a neighborhood group in Amatitlan, a flooded town south of...

GUATEMALA CITY — Flooding and landslides from the season’s first tropical storm have killed at least 145 people and left thousands homeless in Central America, officials said yesterday. Dozens of people are still missing, and emergency crews are struggling to reach isolated communities cut off by washed-out roads and collapsed bridges caused by Tropical Storm Agatha. The sun emerged yesterday in hardest-hit Guatemala, where officials reported 120 dead and 53 missing. In the department of Chimaltenango, a province west of Guatemala City, landslides...

GUATEMALA CITY — The remnants of Tropical Storm Matthew drenched parts of Central America and southern Mexico yesterday, a day after it weakened to a tropical depression. The storm’s forward movement slowed to a crawl and top wind speeds fell to about 25 miles per hour. Its center was about 40 miles southeast of the Gulf Coast city of Villahermosa, an area already hit by severe flooding in recent months. Forecasters at the US National Hurricane Center in Miami said the system’s slow movement means it could produce rainfall totals of 6 to 10 inches over parts of Mexico and Guatemala,...

GUATEMALA CITY — The death toll in Central America from landslides and flooding triggered by the year’s first tropical storm surged to 99 yesterday as authorities struggled to clear roads of debris and reach cut-off communities. Torrential rains that have pounded an area stretching from southern Mexico nearly to Nicaragua eased somewhat, as rivers continued to rise and word filtered out from isolated areas of more deaths in landslides. In Guatemala, 82 people were killed as rains unleashed lethal landslides across the country, according to government...