How to programmatically translate/localize taxonomy terms?
I was able to do it using the following code:

&lt;?php
    $enabled_languages = array_shift(language_list('enabled'));
    foreach ($enabled_languages as $language =&gt; $object) {
        if ($language != 'en') {
            //Translate description
            i18n_string_translation_update(
                array('taxonomy', 'term', 12, 'description'), // Path where to store source and translation.
                autotranslate_translate($term-&gt;description, 'en', substr($language, 0, 2)),
                $language
            );
            //Translate name
            i18n_string_translation_update(
                array('taxonomy', 'term', 12, 'name'), // Path where to store source and translation.
                autotranslate_translate($term-&gt;name, 'en', substr($language, 0, 2)),
                $language
            );
        }
    }


?>