Today in Latin America

Top Story – A shootout in the northern Mexican city of Torreón that began in a shopping mall and continued onto a highway left eight people dead, including seven alleged drug cartel members and one policeman, The Associated Press reports.

Mexican federal agents Monday responded to an attempted kidnapping at the shopping mall, where they were met by gunfire allegedly from members of Los Zetas, a paramilitary group aligned with the Gulf Cartel.

The main shootout occurred after police and soldiers chased the alleged cartel members onto a nearby highway. One suspect, three policemen and two kidnap victims were also wounded.

The shootout occurred on the same day as the La Familia cartel strung banners in the western state of Michoacán urging citizens and other gangs to form a front against Los Zetas, and only two days after 16 people were killed in the border city of Ciudad Juárez.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

• Undersecretary of State for Latin America Arturo Valenzuela said at a forum in Spain that Honduras is on the right track to regain admission to the Organization of American States and reiterated his call for a truth commission to investigate the events that led to a military coup in July 2009.

• Paraguayan soccer star Salvador Cabañas, who was recently shot in the head in the bathroom of a Mexico City bar, has recovered the ability to speak and move, though he suffers from amnesia.

Caribbean

• An armed group attacked a U.N. food convoy in Haiti, causing anxiety about the security situation. Notwithstanding the attack, U.N. food aid is beginning to reach Haitians more efficiently.

• Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuño called on the National Guard to help the island control crime.

• A wax museum in the city of Bayamo, Cuba, unveiled a life-size, wax statue of Ernest Hemmingway that the AP says looks “spookily real.”

Central America

• Nicaragua will not recognize the Honduran government of Porfirio Lobos.

• Colombia’s Avianca airline completed a merger with Taca of El Salvador.

Andes

• The Inter American-Commission on Human Rights expressed “concern regarding violence” in recent protests against the closing of opposition-aligned RCTV, in which two people died.

• Venezuela deported three major suspected drug traffickers to Colombia, the United States and France.

Southern Cone

• Tarso Genro announced his resignation as Brazil’s Justice Minister in order to launch a campaign for the governorship of Rio do Sul. Other government ministers are expected to leave their posts to campaign for office in coming weeks.

Image (c0d1g0 @ Flickr): The city of Torreón.