Friday, June 15, 2012
Daily Headlines: June 15, 2012
* Latin America: The U.S. military is reportedly looking into using unmanned aerial vehicles or “drones” in Latin America, while Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez confirmed that his country is constructing drones.
* Mexico: Crime reporter Victor Baez became the ninth journalist killed in Veracruz over the past eighteen months after he was kidnapped and murdered this week.
* Cuba: The Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation alleged that over four hundred arbitrary political arrests were committed last month.
* U.S.: A coalition of evangelical groups that includes several Latino religious leaders announced a campaign advocating for widespread immigration reform.
Video Source – YouTube via bornfree138 (The U.S. Border Patrol have used unmanned aerial vehicles or “drones” in recent months along the U.S.-Mexico border).
Online Sources- Reuters, Wired.com, BBC News, LAHT, Huffington Post
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Nicaraguan Child Workers Face Harsh Reality
June 12th was the World Day Against Child Labor and according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) 215 million children worldwide are involved in child labor.
Research by the ILO has found a decrease in the number of child workers in Latin America and the Caribbean. Nevertheless, approximately 5.7 million children (and estimated one in ten minors) throughout the region work. Most of these children work in agriculture yet a few of them work in risky occupations such as fireworks manufacturing and garbage dumps.
The following video via Journeyman Pictures examines the difficulties of several Nicaraguan children working in mining quarries and as vendors in markets. The film highlights the push by some authorities to convince child laborers to give up their work and instead go to school. Yet these kids tend to continue working in order to provide for the basic needs of their impoverished family or uncooperative school officials prevent them:
In the next few days we will look at child labor in other parts of the Americas including minors who are exploited sexually or become child soldiers.
Video Source – YouTube via Journeyman Pictures
Online Sources - International Labor Organization, United Nations
Research by the ILO has found a decrease in the number of child workers in Latin America and the Caribbean. Nevertheless, approximately 5.7 million children (and estimated one in ten minors) throughout the region work. Most of these children work in agriculture yet a few of them work in risky occupations such as fireworks manufacturing and garbage dumps.
The following video via Journeyman Pictures examines the difficulties of several Nicaraguan children working in mining quarries and as vendors in markets. The film highlights the push by some authorities to convince child laborers to give up their work and instead go to school. Yet these kids tend to continue working in order to provide for the basic needs of their impoverished family or uncooperative school officials prevent them:
In the next few days we will look at child labor in other parts of the Americas including minors who are exploited sexually or become child soldiers.
Video Source – YouTube via Journeyman Pictures
Online Sources - International Labor Organization, United Nations
Daily Headlines: June 14, 2012
* Peru: Authorities released the mayor of Espinar, Oscar Mollohuanca, who was jailed after being accused of inciting anti-mining riots two weeks ago.
* South America: Bolivian President Evo Morales said that a 108-year old territorial treaty with neighboring Chile is “dead because Chile has failed.”
* Mexico: The U.S. State Department issued a warning regarding traveling to Mexico due to the recent arrests of several people linked to the Zetas drug gang.
* Cuba: A lawyer for U.S. contractor Alan Gross claimed that his client’s health has greatly deteriorated in the two years he has been imprisoned in Cuba.
Video Source – YouTube via telesurenglish (The Peruvian government declared a state of emergency in Espinar last month after two people were killed during anti-mining protests.)
Online Sources- CBS News, ABC News, Bernama, BBC News
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Daily Headlines: June 13, 2012 (Updated)
* Cuba: The U.S. State Department and several Cuban-American legislators are concerned over the supposed detainment and “physical assault” of Cuban authorities against dissident activist Jorge Luis García "Antúnez".
(Update: Cuban police freed García after he spent four days in a local jail. He remarked to the EFE news agency that police "violently" arrested him on charges of "spreading false news, resistance, disobedience and assault." García accused police of beating and insulting him during part of his detention).
* Central America: According to the Salvadoran press two of the country’s largest street gangs, the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18, might be increasing their presence in nearby Belize.
* Haiti: At least eleven Haitian migrants died on Sunday after the boat they were traveling in capsized off the Bahamian coast.
* Mexico: President Felipe Calderon said that European plans to help out beleaguered Spanish banks should be “firmed up quickly.”
Video Source – YouTube via RadioRepublicaCuba (At least thirteen Cuban dissidents reportedly held a peaceful march in Havana this week calling for the release of activist Jorge Luis García "Antúnez").
Online Sources (including Update) - AFP, Reuters, Insight Crime, Miami Herald, Fox News Latino
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Daily Headlines: June 12, 2012
* Dominican Republic: Employers in the Dominican Republic and migrants from neighboring Haiti are reportedly disappointed with new Dominican requirements for work permits.
* Nicaragua: Will Nicaragua commit to constructing a canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans or will it be yet another failed promise?
* Latin America: The U.S. Labor Department signed agreements with several countries including Peru, Ecuador and Honduras aimed at protecting immigrants from those nations who work in the U.S.
* Cuba: The U.S. Supreme Court refused to publicly comment as to why the high court rejected appeals by seven Guantanamo prison detainees.
Video Source – YouTube via UNESOC (“Haitian migrants toil under the hot sun on sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic. But the majority of them are stateless; even those who are born here, have neither a Haitian nor Dominican passport.”)
Online Sources- Kansas City Star, The Latin Americanist, Inside Costa Rica, Fox News Latino, Reuters
Monday, June 11, 2012
Daily Headlines: June 11, 2012
* U.S.: A Latino Decisions poll published last week found that 82% of Hispanics and 61% of non-Hispanics prefer the DREAM Act over a stricter immigration proposal by Sen. Marco Rubio.
* Honduras: The mythical Ciudad Blanca ruins may have been located by archeologists using laser image mapping rather than the traditional hacking through forests with machetes.
* Latin America: Latin America and the Caribbean should spend $110 billion a year through 2050 in order to cut greenhouse-gas emissions according to the Inter-American Development Bank.
* Argentina: Press rights group Reporters Without Borders “strongly condemned” the recent attacks against at least ten journalists in the Buenos Aires area.
Video Source – YouTube via bkkaykay (This infographic for a pro-DREAM Act campaign explains the bill’s guidelines including who would benefit from the proposal).
Online Sources- The Hill, LiveScience, Bloomberg, Reporters Without Borders
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)