Daily Headlines: December 19, 2011

* Peru: Federal authorities have yet to explain why Lori Berenson was barred from leaving Peru despite a court allowing her to spend the holidays with her family in the U.S.

* Mexico: Senior officials issued an apology to an indigenous woman who was raped and tortured by the military in 2002.

* Cuba: Restrictions on travel and remittances from the U.S. to Cuba were dropped by Congress from a $1 trillion spending bill.

* Brazil: The environmental secretary for Rio de Janeiro state claimed that thousands of barrels of oil from a leak reached the shore.

Video Source – YouTube via larepublicaweb1 (The above video from Peruvian TV claimed that paroled activist Lori Berenson arrived late to the airport and subsequently missed her flight to the U.S. But according to Gothamist “witnesses claim that Berenson was ‘at the airport hours before the flight was to leave.’”)

Online Sources- Gothamist, Houston Chronicle, UPI, MSNBC, ABC News