We want to thank everyone who voted and made it one of the blog’s most popular polls ever. For the most part the results were very close except for your choice as top news story of ’07. (Can you guess what it is?)
In the meantime, here’s the video for one of our favorite songs of 2007:
Thanks for reading this blog and may all of you have a Feliz Año Nuevo!
Delays have pushed back a rescue mission to free three Colombian hostages that was hoped to have taken place this past weekend.Colombia’s president and Venezuela’s Foreign Minister have traveled to Villavicencio where an international commission continues to wait for the coordinates of where the three hostages may be picked up. The Colombian government has extended the deadline for the use of foreign aircraft in Colombia for the humanitarian mission, though a spokeswoman for the International Red Cross warned the FARC to move forward with the operation as soon as possible.
One of the most intriguing parts of the mission has been the involvement of filmmaker Oliver Stone. Stone- who has admitted to being a “friend” of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez- told local press that he planned to film the rescue mission if it occurs:
Telesur Venezuelan channel founder Jorge Botero who is attending the operation in Central Colombia, said Sunday Stone is the only one authorized to film the moment three hostages held by Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) are to be released in a yet undetermined location.
"Oliver Stone and his cameraman, [Argentine filmmaker Carlos Marco], are confirmed to go with the group of international delegates that will receive the hostages," Botero said.
Update: According to local press, Colombian president Alvaro Uribe claimed that one of the hostages to be rescued, 3-year-old Emmanuel Rojas, is under custody in a medical clinic.
Image- Al Jazeera
Sources (English)- AFP, International Herald Tribune, Xinhua, Reuters
Sources (Spanish)- El Tiempo, RCN
The Argentine government expressed hope that a Somali gang would soon release an Argentine nurse and a Spanish doctor kidnapped last week. According to AFP:"We're optimistic," the Foreign Ministry's head of consular affairs Felix Cordova told reporters, adding that both kidnapped women were "faring well."
"It’s possible that in the next few hours" Spanish and Argentine diplomats would meet in Somalia's breakaway region of Puntland -- where the kidnappings took place -- with its President Mahmud Muza to discuss the hostage situation, he said.
The medics- Mercedes Garcia (image) and Pilar Bauza- work for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) who on Friday demanded medical access to the hostages. The incident was condemned by an “influential Somali politician” who claimed that such violence was rare in Puntland despite the region's semi-autonomous status.
Image- Typically Spanish
Sources- news24.com, AFP, allAfrica.com, Wikipedia
Most discussion on Mexico and immigration centers on the flow of migrants from that country into the U.S. However, an often overlooked issue is the tens of thousands of Central Americans who cross into Mexico via its southern border each year.Mexican president Felipe Calderon has viewed that part of the immigration topic as “a law-and-order problem” and has tried to push a guest-worker program and increased border controls to control the influx of Central Americans into the country. The latest government initiative will be the use of electronic “smart cards” for visitors entering Mexico. According to the Associated Press:
Starting in March, the National Immigration Institute will distribute the cards to record the arrival and departure of so-called temporary workers and visitors. They will replace a non-electronic pass formerly given to foreigners who cross into Mexico, which has proven "easily alterable and subject to the discretion of migration agents," the institute said Thursday.
Will the Mexican government’s initiatives work? We’ll see.
Sources- AHN, Christian Science Monitor, El Universal, PRESS TV, Associated Press,
Image- New York Times (Some Central American migrants board on freight trains to cross into Mexico)
* The photoblog of Argentine First Daughter Florencia “florkey” Kirchner
is “a gossip columnist's dream” according to the Guardian UK.
* Fifteen ex-agents of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet were
sentenced to prison over their role in “revenge killings” of dissidents.
* The Vatican's second-highest official said that he would like to meet
Cuban acting president Raul Castro when he visits the island in February. * Remember the monkey an airline passenger traveling from Peru to New York tried to smuggle under his hat in August? Sadly, the pint-sized primate died last week.
Sources- Guardian UK, fotolog.com, CNN, The Latin Americanist, Houston Chronicle, International Herald Tribune
Image- rollingstonela.com (“Florencia Kirchner in New York, November 2006”)
An International Red Cross (IRC) spokesman said that the mission to free three hostages held by the country’s largest rebel group will be delayed. Earlier today, IRC representative Barbara Hintermann said that the organization won't conduct nighttime operations despite the arrival of two Venezuelan helicopters in anticipation of the operation.The guerillas- known by the Spanish acronym FARC- announced last Tuesday their intention to free the trio of high-profile hostages including a politician and her son who was allegedly conceived with one of her captors.
Representatives from several countries are involved in the delicate mission including ex-Argentine president Nestor Kirchner and filmmaker Oliver Stone. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has been key in the negotiations to release the hostages and said that the helicopters would fly out to get the hostages once he receives permission from the FARC.
The Colombian government has issued a deadline of 6:59pm on Sunday for the mission to be completed.
Image- canada.com
Sources (English)- Reuters Africa, AFP, The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, Monsters & Critics
Sources (Spanish)- El Tiempo
A new scientific study found that Latinas with breast cancer are very vulnerable to a gene mutation common in certain Jewish women. The mutation on the BRCA1 gene is found in 8.3% of Ashkenazi Jewish women with breast cancer, according to the study, yet Latinas with breast cancer were the second highest group with the mutation.The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and looked at over 3000 women in northern California. According to the report’s head author, the findings could help pinpoint which groups need the most help in terms of cancer prevention and treatment:
"The vast majority of breast cancer patients do not have a mutation in these genes," said Esther John, an epidemiologist and lead author of the study. "But if women have a mutation, they do have a very high risk of developing breast cancer. That's why it is important information in the family, because if a mother has the mutation, her daughters are likely to have the mutation as well" …
"It could very well be that when genetic testing is being focused on Hispanic women, that it should be focused on that mutation," said John, a research scientist at the Northern California Cancer Center.
Sources- UPI, Houston Chronicle, Reuters UK, San Jose Mercury News
Image- ABC News
* Cuba’s oil output “rose only slightly” this year yet fills nearly half of the country’s fuel needs, according to the state media.
* Over 70,000 handguns have been destroyed in Argentina as part of a special gun control program.
* Was there a plot to assassinate Hugo Chavez in Guatemala? The Venezuelan president thought so.
* Follow-up: “At no time did I order assassinations or disappearances” said former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori as his trial for human rights abuses continues.
Sources- Xinhua, Associated Press, Reuters UK, Houston Chronicle, AFP, The Latin Americanist
Image- MSNBC
When Tom Tancredo dropped out of the presidential race, he threw his support behind Mitt Romney. An article posted on AlterNet reveals Mitt's Mexican connection.Mitt Romney's father George was born in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1907, the son of Gaskell Romney and Anna Amelia Pratt. Three generations of Romneys lived in Mexico because Miles Park Romney, a polygamist, moved the family there in 1884 as it became increasingly clear that the U.S. government would not tolerate polygamy in the Utah Territory. The 1882 Edmunds Act stripped polygamists of the basic rights of U.S. citizenship, denying them the right to vote, serve on juries or hold office. Not dissimilar to current immigration raids, U.S. federal agents hunted and arrested polygamists. Polygamists were forced to leave the country or risk jail.Mitt's grandparent's crossed back into the U.S. during the Mexican Revolution. But that hasn't made this candidate any softer on the immigration issue.
Right before Christmas Eve some Puerto Rican (three according to some accounts) activists in NYC have been approached by agents of the Terrorist task Force in the New York City area. Some have been served with subpoenas to appear before a grand Jury in Manhattan on January 11th 2008. This linking of the Puerto Rican independence movement with terrorism is not a new one but it is a troubling one. Many feel that the subpoenas are an intimidation tactic aimed at scaring activists.
* Rescuers found a 12-year-old girl who survived for over two days in the Panamanian jungle after a plane crash killed her family.
* Colombia’s newest tourist attraction opened yesterday: a theme park built on the former estate of dead drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.
* Fidel Castro’s health continues to improve according to a speech by his brother, Cuban president Raul Castro.
* Follow-up: Nicaragua’s Supreme Court has started an investigation against the judges who overturned the conviction against Eric Volz.
Sources- Independent Online Edition, CNN, Guardian UK, The Latin Americanist, Associated Press
Image- ABC News (“Francesca Lewis, 12, is carried on a stretcher after being rescued from the jungle in the town of David, west of Panama City, Dec. 26, 2007. Francesca was found Tuesday walking near the wreckage of the plane in the 3,500-feet (1,067-meter) high, jungle-laden flanks of the Baru. (Arnulfo Franco/AP Photo)”)
During a speech given over the weekend, Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa proposed pardoning low-level drug smugglers commonly known as “mules.” Correa said that these and similar drug enforcement laws were drafted years ago under pressure from the U.S. and are unfair to the poor: The current law "treats as the same the boss of the Cali cartel and a poor unemployed single mother who dared to carry 300 grams of drugs," Correa said, referring to an amount equal to about 10 ounces. "It's a barbarity."
According to a 1997 New York Times article, nearly half of the country’s inmates at the time were in jail over drug-related charges.
Earlier this year, the Ecuadorian and Colombian governments quarreled over aerial spraying near both countries’ border. Meanwhile, Ecuador’s government supposedly offered China control of the Manta air base after the contract with the U.S. ends in 2009.
Sources- Reuters, Associated Press, New York Times, The Latin Americanist
Image- Town Topics (Still shot from 2004 film “Maria, Full of Grace”)
Mexican police rearrested the person allegedly behind a 1997 massacre in Chiapas. Authorities from that state said that suspected paramilitary leader Antonio Santiz ordered the killing of 45 natives in Acteal and even provided weapons for the assassins to use.Witnesses to the massacre are unsure whether the Tzotil natives were murdered due to a supposed allegiance with the Zapatistas or as revenge for a killed priest. Whatever the reason may be, the Tzotil community has been split over the Acteal massacre according to an article from the International Herald Tribune:
A decade after the massacre, the Tzotzil live side by side but divided. In one group, the one that backs the PRI [then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party], many of the men have been sent to prison for the killings. The others, from the Abejas [advocate] group, who live down the road, insist that even more killers are at large.
Meanwhile, Mexico's courts struggle to handle what has grown into one of the country's longest and most complex cases. A dozen judges have been involved in the trials and, now, the appeals of their convictions…
"This is the most complicated case in Mexico," said [professor Javier Angulo] in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas State, as he prepared to appeal the convictions of some of the men. "It's possible that in 10 more years we'll still be talking about what really happened in Acteal."
Sources- International Herald Tribune, Reuters, Xinhua, Associated Press,
Image- libertadlatina.org
* The Cuban Catholic church called for “reconciliation and unity” among the island’s people during its annual Christmas message issued on Monday.
* A Texan couple has been taking care of six children after their mother was deported to Mexico last month.
* Italian prosecutors have issued arrest warrants against 140 exiled former “Dirty War” officials.
* An indigenous Mapuche activist was hospitalized in Chile after going on a 75-day hunger strike.
Sources- Associated Press, Caribbean Net News, Dallas Morning News, ABC Online
Image- Department of State (“Christmas light display at U.S. Interests Section, Havana”)
According to an article from the Associated Press, Florida’s government spent lots of manpower and money were spent in the custody case of a Cuban girl: E-mails obtained from the state through an open-records request and other documents show that the Department of Children & Families spent more than $250,000 and accepted many hours of free legal assistance in its unsuccessful effort to have a wealthy Cuban-American couple, former sports agent Joe Cubas and his wife, become the permanent guardians for Rafael Izquierdo's 5-year-old daughter.In addition, the Miami Herald reported that top officials were worried that the case would get out of hand much like the 2000 ordeal over Elian Gonzalez:
'I imagine both parties will likely try to involve the `court of public opinion,' '' wrote Flora Beal, a Miami spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families. ``This could become an Elian-like situation.''
Her e-mail, among documents in the case obtained by The Miami Herald, referred to Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the heart of a 2000 custody controversy that ended explosively when federal agents seized him from his relatives' Little Havana home. And the administrations of both former Gov. Jeb Bush and his successor, Charlie Crist, took unusual steps to make sure that didn't happen again, sources told The Herald.
Earlier this month, a settlement was reached which would grant Inquired custody of his daughter while affording visitation rights to the Cubas.
Sources- Associated Press, MiamiHerald.com, local10.com, PBS, The Latin Americanist
Image- elnuevoherald.com (Images of Rafael Izquierdo and Joe Cubas)
A U.S. grand jury indicted five men charged with acting as “undeclared Venezuelan agents” working in the U.S. The accused- four Venezuelans and one Uruguayan- allegedly tried to cover up the smuggling of over $800,000 destined for Argentina.In other developments in the “Maletagate” hullabaloo, an Argentine prosecutor claimed that he saw the businessman who tried to smuggle the money at the country’s presidential palace two days after the money was seized. The accusation comes days after prosecutor Maria Luz Rivas Diez said that she would expand the charges against Guido Antonini Wilson to include money laundering.
According to the New York Times, U.S.-Argentina relations have become much weaker as a result of the “Maletagate” investigation:
Thursday’s indictment caps a week in which relations between Argentina and the United States appeared to hit a new low. Mrs. Kirchner has reacted angrily to the investigation, which became public just two days after she was sworn in, saying it is meant to drive a wedge between Argentina and Venezuela.
American officials have denied that the case was brought to try to thwart Mr. Chavez.
Sources- Reuters, The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, New York Times, BBC News
Image- BBC News
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez called for an expansion of the Petrocaribe oil program during a summit of affiliated nations being held in Cuba. “Despite the Yankees, our gas is at the service of Venezuela first, and next to our brothers in the Caribbean,” declared Chavez earlier today as he also called for some countries to use social services to repay the oil exported from Venezuela.In addition, Chavez met for over two hours with Fidel Castro yesterday. A brief account in Granma said that the leaders discussed several topics including the Petrocaribe plan, political affairs between Cuba and Venezuela, and “the international situation.”
What is Petrocaribe? According to a 2005 BBC News article:
The Petrocaribe initiative aims to reduce the prices Caribbean nations pay for oil imports. Venezuela already gives preferential treatment to communist Cuba and other nations…
Mr. Chavez has pledged highly preferential oil prices, with Caracas picking up 40% of the cost if oil is selling at more than $50 a barrel, as it is now.
He has promised further concessions to the Petrocaribe signatories if prices hit the $100 a barrel mark.
Sources (English)- CNN, Reuters, AFP, BBC News
Sources (Spanish)- Granma
Image- Cuban News Agency
The Brazilian government has criticized the European Union for putting restrictions on its beef exports. According to Brazil's Agriculture Ministry (via Xinhua): The statement slammed the EU move as "unnecessary, disproportional and unjustified", shortly after the European Commission tightened restrictions on Brazilian beef exports to the27-nation bloc from Jan. 31.
Though Brazil is the world’s top exporter of beef, the E.U. found “a number of serious and repeated deficiencies in Brazil's animal health and traceability systems.” Previous cases of foot-and-mouth disease in Europe influenced the bloc;s decision of allowing Brazilian beef exclusively from “an approved and restricted list of holdings” which meet the E.U.’s guidelines.
Image- BBC News
Sources- Xinhua, Guardian UK, Bloomberg
* Thieves stole a pair of paintings worth over $100 million from the Museum of Art of Sao Paulo.
* The Mercosur trading bloc signed a key free trade agreement with Israel earlier this week.
* Immigrant children are five times more likely to be diagnosed with lead poisoning that U.S.-born kids in New York City, according to a study to be published next month.
* Follow-up: Danish prosecutors filed an appeal against seven people who were acquitted of terrorism charges; the accused sold shirts bearing the logos of rebel groups including Colombia’s FARC.
Sources- BBC News, Bloomberg, International Herald Tribune, The Latin Americanist, Monsters & Critics
Image- Gulf Times (Pablo Picasso’s “Portrait of Suzanne Bloch” was one of the pieces nicked in a robbery carried out yesterday in Brazil)
Do you know of a blog that should be added to the Blogroll? E-mail us at ourlatinamerica@yahoo.com and let us know!
Sources- Babalu Blog, Guanabee, Bloggings by Boz, Chileno, Latin America News Review, Foreign Policy Passport, Plan Colombia and Beyond, kottke.org, Rolling Stone, Ricardo’s Blog, Two Weeks Notice, The Latin Americanist
The following is a video clip of an Academy Award winning documentary entitled “The Panama Deception”. The film is highly critical of the invasion and highlights the estimated 3000 civilians killed, alleged media manipulation, and international condemnation of “Operation Just Cause”.
(Video link):
What do you think of the invasion and/or the documentary?
Sources- YouTube, BBC News, Wikipedia
Tom Tancredo's campaign has tanked (insert collective ::awwwwww:: here). Rumor has it that the Republican Presidential hopeful from Colorado, who based his run almost entirely on hate for immigrants, will announce the end of his run today. He's ranked on the bottom of every poll I've seen among his Republican running mates and looking at some of the things he's said, no wonder. He makes even the most conservative conservative look downright liberal. Never shy about stirring controversy, Tancredo told a radio talk-show host that "you could take out" Islamic holy sites should terrorists ever launch a nuclear attack against the United States.Via / AP & You Tube
When asked if he meant bombing holy sites like Mecca, Tancredo answered: "Yeah" and said he was "just throwing out some ideas."
You know what they say about Latina women, right? Well the fact that one Cubana stands accused of marrying 10 to 23 undocumented men has nothing to do with that. In what is a growing underground industry, Eunice Lopez allegedly married undocumented men for money and if they didn't pay she would threaten to expose them and their status.I understand that bigamy is a crime and we can go back and forth about whether that should even be the case, but what about if Lopez had only married one guy at a time, after legally divorcing the husband she was with before? Why should it be a crime for one person to marry someone in exchange for money?Things that make you go hmmmm. I'm sure race has nothing to do with this whatsoever.
When Catharine Zeta Jones married Michael Douglas it was rumored that their pre-nup stipulated that she would receive 3.2 million dollars for every year that they remained married. Now, tell me, if that's allowable under the law, why is it illegal for someone to marry someone if the main reason for doing so is to secure citizenship? Why is government in the business of deciding whose reasons for marrying should be valid?
* Follow-up: Brazil’s government faces an uphill battle to fix the country’s prison system after the controversy over putting a teenage girl in an all-male adult jail.
* Three former Chilean military officers were fine and sentenced to ten years in prison over a murder committed during the rule of ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet.
* Mexican state oil-firm PEMEX may lose its monopoly over oil refinement and pipelines if a proposal by the country’s Senate is passed.
* The U.N. will investigate possible corruption by peacekeeping forces in several operations such as those in Haiti, according to a spokeswoman on Tuesday.
Sources- Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist, International Herald Tribune, AFP
Image- Christian Science Monitor (2002 image of Brazil’s notorious Carandiru jail)
The following video is from an Argentine “alternative (radio) channel” which offered a retrospective look in 2006 of the Argentinazo. Footage from the 2001 riots are shown as well as varied reactions by people who looked back at those dark days in Argentina’s history.
(Video link):
Sources- CNN, BBC News, YouTube, Wikipedia
Colombia’s largest rebel group- known by the acronym FARC- will allegedly free three hostages later this month. According to a report from Cuban-based agency Prensa Latina, the kidnap victims are to be released to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez; Chavez had briefly served as official mediator between the FARC and Colombian government until last month.
The three hostages to be freed according to the statement are local politician Consuelo Gonzalez, Clara Rojas (an aide to Ingrid Betancourt), and her son Emmanuel who was born out of a relationship between Rojas (image) and one of her kidnappers.
The communiqué from the FARC also blasted the Colombian government for their “diplomatic barbarism” in removing Chavez as liaison and praised French premier Nicolas Sarkozy.
Some family members of hostages have expressed relief at the FARC’s gesture:
“Not only my family but all of Colombia deserves this happiness,'' Ivan Rojas, Clara's brother, told Bogota-based W Radio. ``We had lost hope''…
“We've always said that Chavez was the perfect person for this, because they listen to him, they respect him,'' said Juan Carlos Lecompte, Ingrid Betancourt's husband, in comments broadcast by Colombia's RCN television.
Image- RCN
Sources (English)- Bloomberg, Xinhua, The Latin Americanist
Sources (Spanish)- El Tiempo, Prensa Latina,
Two Bush administration spokespersons commented on a letter issued yesterday by Fidel Castro:Castro’s letter- which was read on Cuban television- implied that he would “retire” and allow younger generations to come into power:
"My basic duty is not to cling to office, much less to obstruct the rise of younger people, but to pass on experiences and ideas whose modest value arises from the exceptional era in which I lived," Castro's letter said, according to a CubaVision anchor.
According to Lucia Newman- ex-CNN Cuba correspondent and Al Jazeera's Latin American editor- Castro’s letter “reinforced” the possibility that he could serve as “an elder statesman.”
Sources- Reuters, AFP, CNN, Al Jazeera
Image- BBC News
A Guatemalan constitutional court refused a Spanish judge’s request to extradite a former dictator and seven others. Efrain Rios Montt was accused of “crimes against humanity” during his 1982-1983 regime by a Spanish magistrate in June 2006. Yet the Guatemalan court decided that Spain did not have the jurisdiction to try Montt and his cohorts.
1992 Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu- who filed charges against Montt in 1999- blasted the court’s decision:
"This only confirms the reason why I did not trust the Guatemalan justice system and filed the complaint in Spain in 1999," Menchu said of the ruling, which was handed down last week but not announced until Monday.
Benito Morales, Menchu's lawyer, said he would ask the court to reconsider the ruling.
Menchu said the former officials "can no longer leave the country because international arrest warrants are still active elsewhere."
Despite being accused of some of Guatemala’s worst atrocities, Rios Montt ran unsuccessfully for president in 2003.
Sources- Voice of America, Reuters, Associated Press, Wikipedia, BBC News
Image- BBC News
The U.S. Border Patrol has increasingly used tear gas and pepper spray in their operations along the U.S.-Mexico border. Though the use of chemicals has been previously used by the Border Patrol against smugglers, the agency's top official in San Diego said that it’s being used more frequently due to increased attacks along the Mexican side of the border. “We have been taking steps to ensure that our agents are safe,” said Mike Fisher who added that Mexican authorities have been slow in responding to agents’ pleas for help.
A spokesman for the Mexican consulate in San Diego said that they’ve asked the Border Patrol to stop using “these kinds of devices.” In addition, some residents of border towns argued that agents’ tactics are too aggressive and heavy-handed:
Residents of the area's hillside shanties and muddy streets say the Border Patrol's measures neglect their welfare. Some agents, they say, show compassion, even apologizing for the tactics. But others are defiant and continue saturating areas despite their pleas.
"I said to the agent, 'Put yourself in my place. I have two children,' " said Robis Guadalupe Argumeo, who added that her home has been gassed three times since August, most recently after a verbal exchange with an agent Saturday. "He said, 'I'm the policeman of the world. No one can touch me.' "
Sources- AHN, Associated Press, Xinhua, Los Angeles Times
Image- New York Times
A U.S. citizen who had been convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend had his verdict overturned by a Nicaraguan court yesterday. Eric Volz had been sentenced to 30 years in jail in 2006 though his defense claimed that he was two hours away when the crime occurred and ten witnesses testified in his favor. Volz' conviction was based on a single eyewitness account as well as some circumstantial evidence.
Nicaragua’s Attorney General told the local press that he would appeal the court’s ruling which would eventually allow Volz to walk free from prison.
Earlier today, Volz’ mother expressed worry about her son’s safety and criticized the Nicaraguan press for “taking justice into their own hands.” She may have a point based on the rhetoric from this article in one Nicaraguan daily:
Volz’ family wasted economic resources on private armed bodyguards during the trial and then with programs on U.S. TV channels that insulted the Nicaraguan justice system…
It’s worth clarifying the manipulation by the appellate judges with the scene of the crime…According to expert testimony, the amount of blood found on the seen of the crime was caused by the heinous manner in which Volz and Chamorro murdered the young girl. - [ed. personal translation]
Sources (English)- Associated Press, CNN, Tennessean.com, Tico Times
Sources (Spanish)- ElNuevoDiario.com.ni
Image- nicatimes.net
* As part of a series on religion in Latin America, the Christian Science Monitor looks at Brazilian favela dwellers that have been increasingly drawn to Pentecostal movements.
* Answer: Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
Question: Who will be the next person to be portrayed as a tattoo on Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona’s body?
* Several Caribbean countries reached a new trade deal with the European Union according to one E.U. official.
* Follow-up: “(Fujimori) acts like he knows less than a fool” said one Peruvian lawyer regarding the actions by ex-president Alberto Fujimori while on trial.
Sources (English)- Reuters Africa, Christian Science Monitor, The Latin Americanist,
Sources (Spanish)- El Diario/La Prensa
Image- Christian Science Monitor
With the New Year fast approaching perhaps one of your resolutions may be to take a vacation in the Americas. Here are some options you may want to consider: * With the increased anxiety over global warming, more and more tourists have opted to visit locations endangered by climate change such as the Amazon rainforest and the Galapagos Islands. According to the International Herald Tribune, one visitor went to the Amazon “before it was turned into a cattle ranch or logged or burned to the ground.”
* Perhaps eco-tourism isn’t your cup of tea and you would much rather do something a little more selfish. Then why not travel to Colombia and get cheap plastic surgery; one procedure that cost as much as $40,000 in the U.S. only cost a quarter as much way south of the border, for instance.
* Are you a television writer sick of being on strike for over a month? Then maybe take a trip to Argentina where unionized extras received an 18% to 20% pay increase earlier this month.
* With all the press coverage of Hugo Chavez you might want to visit Venezuela and check out the situation for yourself. According to Bloomberg, Venezuela has experienced a travel boom partially based on favorable exchange rates for visitors.
* Then again, not everything is rosy for certain tourism sectors; though Jamaica is one of the most sought after Caribbean destinations, the island’s tourism has diminished in quality according to a recent survey.
Sources- International Herald Tribune, Houston Chronicle, BBC News, Bloomberg, Variety, radiojamaica.com, Jamaica Gleaner
Image- BBC News (Carnival revelers in Colombia)
* Brazilian Kaka’s goal and two assists were key in leading AC Milan to a 4-2 win in the World Club Cup final over Argentine side Boca Juniors.
* The American Bar Association backtracked from naming former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales “Lawyer of the Year” and will instead deem him “Newsmaker of the Year”.
* Central American gangs have undergone an “extreme makeover” in their recruiting and operations, according to the Associated Press.
* The first joint space launch between Brazil and Argentina was carried out successfully yesterday.
* Follow-up: Last week’s floods and rains caused by Tropical Storm Olga in the Caribbean has raised the official death count to 38 people.
Sources- Guardian UK, The Latin Americanist, BBC News, USA TODAY, Wonkette, Associated Press
Image- BBC Sport
In a 2006 interview, Niemeyer explained the impetus behind his architectural visions:
“I sought to make an architecture that I think should be done, a thing that creates surprise,” he said. “Even the poorest person, who doesn’t have conditions to enjoy architecture, stops for a moment in front of a new building and is surprised, is filled with a certain emotion.”
Below is the trailer of a 2007 documentary on Niemeyer entitled “Oscar Niemeyer- A Vida É Um Sopro”. It shows several of the buildings he designed and touches on his love for his native Rio de Janeiro.
(Video link):
Sources- International Herald Tribune, arcspace.com, Wikipedia, PopMatters, YouTube
* South American giants Boca Juniors will play European champion A.C. Milan on Sunday for the World Club Cup championship. The Xeneizes won over the Italian squad in the 2003 Intercontinental Cup.* Brazilian striker Kaka can add another award to his mantel; on Thursday he was named as World Player of the Year by World Soccer magazine. Argentina’s Lionel Messi came in second though he was named as Sports Illustrated Latino’s 2007 Sportsman of the Year.
* For some teams, 2007 has been the year of the underdog:
* Though players like Juan Pablo Angel and Cuauhtémoc Blanco flourished last season in Major League Soccer, one Latin American player brought in under the “Beckham Rule” has been an utter disappointment. FC Dallas dropped the option of resigning Brazil’s Denilson; the former international tallied one goal and eight assists during the 2007 season.
* Speaking of designated players and MLS, Argentina’s Olé reported that Juan Sebastian Veron will stay with domestic side Estudiantes de La Plata instead of accepting a “lucrative offer” from D.C. United. (Hat tip: Soccer by Ives).
Sources- Telgraph.co.uk, The Latin Americanist, Reuters UK, ESPN Soccernet, Goal.com, The Sports Network, Wikipedia, Soccer by Ives
Image- CNN (“Neri Cardozo celebrates after scoring the winner for Boca Juniors against Etoile Sahel”)