Latin America

The Cuban government announced today it is sending a medical team to Haiti for the relief of the victims after the devastating hurricane “Matthew”.

The center of hurricane Matthew left Cuban territory near Baracoa at 2 a.m. Wednesday heading north. Strong winds, rain and coastal flooding persist in some areas of eastern Cuba and people are cautioned to stay put until the storm totally passes.

Hurricane “Matthew”, a Category 4 monster storm, touched land this afternoon at 6:00 p.m. at the eastern end of Cuba with winds of over 130 miles per hour. The eye of the hurricane is expected to last two hours over the island.

The full force of hurricane Matthew is over Haiti on Tuesday morning where catastrophic consequences are forecast and the storm’s center is expected to reach far eastern Cuba by this afternoon.

In Colombia, voters have rejected a peace agreement between the government and the nation’s largest rebel group in a shocking turn of events that threatens to prolong the nation’s 52-year-old civil war. (Video)

The peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas appears to have suffered a major setback on Sunday in the nationwide referendum to ratify or reject the accord. With 99.64% of the polling stations reporting the NO vote leads with 50.23% to 49.76% for the YES.

The US Navy decided on Saturday to evacuate all non-essential personnel from its GITMO base on occupied Cuban territory in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Mathew in the coming days.

Matthew is now a hurricane and is currently projected to hit somewhere in eastern Cuba in four to five days. The center of the storm packs 75 mph winds and is moving west at a speed of 15 mph.