• 'Betty' Reflects the Latina Experience. [Dallas Morning News] The title character of the ABC series Ugly Betty is a smart, ambitious, endearing Latina who doesn't give up easily despite working at a fashion magazine packed with superficial, back-stabbing beauties. At home in Queens, she speaks English and Spanish, takes care of her father, sister and nephew, and talks about her quinceañera, or sweet 15th birthday celebration. In this ugly-duckling character, some Latinas are seeing a positive role model and they're seeing a little of themselves reflected on the TV screen. Ms. Pereira, who is from Venezuela, remembers watching the original Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty La Fea, which aired on Telemundo and that ABC adapted for American audiences. A producer at Univision in Needham, Mass., Ms. Pereira says her fellow chicas talk about the new show and how they're glad that the character remained a Latina in her crossover to the United States.

Argentina

• Women's Groups Push for Gender Parity in OAS. [Inter Press Service] Women's groups in Latin America have launched a campaign to press the Organisation of American States (OAS), which has never had a female secretary general, to live up to the principle of gender parity at the highest levels, where women are remarkable only for their absence. "This is one of the arenas where women's entry is most difficult, because the positions are prestigious and highly-paid," Lorena Fries, from the Chilean organisation Humanas - Regional Centre for Human Rights and Gender Justice, which is leading the campaign, told IPS.

• UN Refugee Agency Applauds Argentina. [Scoop.co.nz] The United Nations refugee agency today welcomed Argentina’s recent approval of a refugee law, saying it provides a solid framework for protection of rights, and noting in particular its special provisions for refugee women and children. Argentina’s Congress approved the refugee law last Wednesday, the latest move by the South American country that has been making steady progress over the past few years in handling refugee issues, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said. “The law provides a very solid framework for the full exercise of refugees’ rights. It guarantees the processing of asylum claims in a reasonable timeframe, facilitates access to documentation, education, health and employment,” UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler told reporters in Geneva. “It has special provisions for refugee women, children and victims of violence… It is the result of the current Government’s demonstrated interest in human rights and refugee issues, as well as of a concerted effort by refugees, legislators, civil society and of UNHCR’s Office in Argentina.”

• A Sampling of Latino Cinema. [San Jose Mercury News] The 10-day San Jose run of the International Latino Film Festival -- San Francisco Bay Area begins today, with 15 films showing in four venues across the city. The lineup is far-reaching, with several films, including a documentary about famed Mexican entertainer Germán ``Tin Tan'' Valdez, taking on the immigration issue. Festival founder Sylvia Perel says organizers purposefully filled the roster with films for every movie buff, including a couple of requisite love stories. ``They are phenomenal,'' says Perel, who started the festival to introduce others to Latino films -- a genre she fell for as a girl in Argentina.

• Bolivians Ponder a Female President. [Angus Reid Global Scan, Canada] Adults in Bolvia are split over the gender of their next head of state, according to a poll by Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado. 39% of respondents would rather have a woman as president, while 36% would prefer a man.

• Abortion in Latin America Illegal, Risky - but Not Rare. [San Luis Obispo Tribune] Abortion is mostly illegal in Brazil, but you would not know it from the numbers. Every year an estimated 1.4 million Brazilian girls and women take the law into their hands, and often put their health at risk, to terminate their pregnancies. This gives Brazil an abortion rate much higher than that of the United States, even though one country allows the procedure and the other all but bans it. Illegal abortion has become a fact of life, and not just in Brazil. Across much of Latin America, even as judges, legislators and activists debate whether abortion laws should be tightened or loosened, millions of women are finding clandestine ways to end their unwanted pregnancies. For Brazilians such as Marta Leiro, the question is not whether to break the law but how.

• Abortion's a Fact of Life in Brazil. [Sun-Sentinel.com] Abortion is mostly illegal in Brazil, but you would not know it from the numbers. Every year an estimated 1.4 million Brazilian girls and women take the law into their hands, and often put their health at risk, to terminate their pregnancies. This gives Brazil an abortion rate much higher than that of the United States, even though one country allows the procedure and the other all but bans it. Illegal abortion has become a fact of life, and not just in Brazil. Across much of Latin America, even as judges, legislators and activists debate whether abortion laws should be tightened or loosened, millions of women are finding clandestine ways to end their unwanted pregnancies.

Chile

• Chile, Abortion Legalization Rejected. [Prensa Latina, Cuba] The so-called "deputies for life" won the majority of votes (61-21) and rejected a proposal for a new legislation on the issue of abortion amid an increasing movement seeking its legalization. Boosted by parliamentarians Marco Enriquez-Ominami, of the Socialist Party and Rene Alinco, representative of the Party for Democracy, the initiative was defeated by most of Christian Democrats and the deputies from Alinco´s party. That shows the insufficient depth of the Chilean democracy, said Alinco demanding at least the analysis of the matter of abortion. The deputy considered there was a clear evidence of hypocrisy in the vote as great percentage of the deputies has been involved in cases of abortion, he added.

• Chile for Conditional Abortions. [Prensa Latina, Cuba] The National Confederation of Civil Employees of Municipal Health (CONFUSAM) urged the government and Congress to open a national debate on legalization of abortion for therapeutic ends. The organization pointed out "each year thousands of abortions are done on women in extremely risky conditions." They indicated abortion should be a possibility for mothers whose life is at risk, due to complicated pregnancy. After mentioning it is already legal in several countries, they recalled it was also permitted in Chile until 1989. According to a survey made by the Humanas corporation and a Chilean University, 75% agree on legalizing abortion with at-risk mothers; 71% agree only in cases of rape; 68.4 agree in case of fetus malformation and 20.4 agree for any circumstance.

• Chilean Court OKs Supply of Morning-After Pill to Girls Without Parents' Approval. [The Associated Press] An appeals court on Friday rejected challenges to a government plan to supply morning-after birth-control pills free to girls as young as 14 without permission from their parents. Judge Haroldo Brito said a Santiago Appeals Court panel voted 3-0 to reject three petitions that sought to block the program to distribute the emergency contraceptive to young girls. Brito said the three justices decided that "the government program does not violate the parent's right to give sexual education to their children" as claimed in the petitions filed by Pablo Zalaquet, the mayor of a suburban Santiago municipality, and two members of private-school parents associations. There was no immediate reaction from the plaintiffs, but they could appeal to the Supreme Court.

• Concubines, Queens Inspire Writers Isabel Allende, Gioconda Belli. [The Associated Press] Chilean author Isabel Allende's 1982 best-seller "House of Spirits" helped generate a wave of Latin American literature featuring heroines who dared cross geographic, political and social boundaries. Now, the grande dame of Latina lit, whose books have been translated into 27 languages, is going back — way back — to the 16th century. Her latest novel, "Ines of My Soul," tells the tale of a real life Spanish seamstress, Ines Suarez, who wielded the sword as well as the needle, beheading her enemies, pulling arrows from soldiers' flesh, divining water in the desert and captivating the heart of Chilean conqueror Pedro de Valdivia.

Colombia

• New Public Private Partnership. [ReliefWeb] An agreement signed this week between IOM, the Colombian government, the US Agency for International Development and Argos, a Colombian cement company, will make the reintegration of ex combatants more sustainable by incorporating income generation projects. The new initiative aims to develop activities that promote the reintegration into civil life of 350 persons, mostly heads of households. Seventy five% of the beneficiaries will be demobilized combatants and 25% will come from vulnerable groups, mainly women.  It will be implemented in three municipalities in the northern Departments of Antioquia and Sucre, which host a high number of demobilized persons. The two income generation activities that will get underway shortly include an agriculture project, for the majority of the recipients, and a sewing project targeting vulnerable women. The projects will be supported by two private companies that have agreed to market the goods produced by the beneficiaries.

• Women’s Rights Prize. [Women's eNews] The Peter Gruber Foundation awarded three activists its prestigious $300,000 Women's Rights Prize Nov. 2. Luz Mendez is from the National Union of Guatemalan Women, one of Guatemala's oldest rights groups, which was forced into exile for many years and remains under pressure since the group's return in 1996. Julie Su is co-founder of Los Angeles-based Sweatshop Watch, which works against the exploitation of migrant workers. Chile's Cecilia Medina Quiroga is the only female judge on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and works to integrate women's rights into international law.

• Nicaragua Shaken By Child's Abortion. [CBS News] An abortion undergone by a 9-year-old rape victim has touched off an explosive debate in Nicaragua, where reaction to the abortion has outraged the Roman Catholic Church, toppled a Cabinet minister and sparked demands for liberalization of pregnancy laws. The case began when the girl, daughter of an impoverished Nicaraguan migrant worker in neighboring Costa Rica, was found to be pregnant. A 22-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of raping her. When hospital officials in Costa Rica seemed to oppose an abortion, the girl's family brought her home with help from the Women's Network Against Violence and sought permission for an abortion here.

• Nicaraguan President Bolanos Signs Bill That Bans Abortion in All Cases. [Kaiser network.org] Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos signed into law a bill that bans abortion in all cases. Nicaragua's Asamblea Nacional, the national Legislature, in October voted 52-0 with nine abstentions and 29 not present to pass the bill. Under the law, women convicted of having an illegal abortion and those convicted of assisting them receive mandatory six-year prison sentences. The law eliminates exceptions to the country's abortion ban allowing procedures in cases of rape or when three physicians certify a woman's health is at risk.

• Nicaragua Votes to Ban Abortions. [Legalbrief] Nicaragua has approved a sweeping new law banning abortions, even in cases where the mother's life is at risk. According to a report on the BBC News site, the National Assembly approved the Bill by 52 votes to none, and the Bill is now likely to be signed into law. Abortion has become a central issue in the campaign for Nicaragua's presidential elections on November 5. Left-wing Sandinistas in Parliament supported the Bill for fear of alienating Roman Catholic voters before the election, correspondents said. The former Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega was a defender of Nicaragua's limited abortion rights and a critic of the Catholic Church when he led a left-wing Nicaraguan Government in the 1980s. He has since been reconciled with the church and has become a strident opponent of abortion. Nicaragua already has strong anti-abortion laws, with women and doctors who take part in abortions facing prison sentences of up to six years.

• Staying Power of Religion Shows Up in Nicaragua Elections. [Contra Costa Times] In one of the more interesting election campaigns of the year, a hard-core leftist embraced religion, came out firmly against abortion and openly campaigned as if God was on his side. Election results weren't official at the time of this writing, but victory seemed a foregone conclusion. It obviously was not Harold Ford in Tennessee. Nor. Hillary Clinton in New York. I'm talking about Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. Ortega, the former leader of the Soviet-backed Communist Sandinista regime, is now a card-carrying Catholic (metaphorically speaking, unless Catholics actually do carry cards). Ortega's critics say he played the religion card to get elected. (He had lost two previous bids to regain the presidency that he lost in 1990.) Whether the new pro-life Ortega is sincere is an interesting question, but it's irrelevant to a more interesting phenomenon: the resurgence of religion across the globe, including America.

• Three Peruvian Women: a Poet, a Politician, and a Manager. [Living in Peru, Peru] LivinginPeru.com sat down with three successful Peruvian women to discuss their jobs, their passions, and their professional opinions. Find each of these interviews below, beginning with up and coming poet, Nora De Pollaro, followed by the Cuzqueñan congresswoman Maria Sumire, and ending with Ana Maria Bugosen, general manager of the Limenian café chain, 4-D.