We anticipate publishing several posts over the weekend in order to make up for the lack of articles over the past few days. Among the many topics we hope to discuss are the speeches by several Latin American and Caribbean leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.
As part of his remarks at the U.N. yesterday Bolivian president Evo Morales called on Chile to grant Bolivia access to the sea and critiqued the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Morales also took part in a soccer match to raise awareness of a U.N. program against domestic violence.
As seen in the below video via El Diario/La Prensa, the event included the participation of ex-Chilean president and current head of the UN Women program Michele Bachelet:
The game between Bolivian officials and U.N. staff was reportedly a clean match that thankfully avoided the rough stuff of a 2010 encounter Morales was involved in.
Video Source– YouTube via El Diario/La Prensa
Online Sources – AFP, Huffington Post
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Daily Headlines: September 27, 2012
* Colombia: A Colombian anti-landmine campaign group concluded that over ten thousand people in the South American country have been either injured or killed due to landmines.
* Peru: Coca production in Peru increased for the sixth consecutive year despite government efforts to promote alternative cash crops according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
* Mexico: The Mexican navy announced the capture of Ivan Velazquez Caballero, one of the suspected co-leaders of the notorious Zetas drug gang.
* Cuba: A bipartisan group of forty-four U.S. senators sent a letter to Cuban President Raul Castro calling for the release of imprisoned contractor Alan Gross.
Video Source – YouTube via user unmineaction
Online Sources- Fox News Latino, BBC News, Reuters
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Daily Headlines: September 26, 2012
* Mexico: Trade unions and the #YoSoy132 student movement are among the groups protesting against a labor reform proposal backed by President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto.
* Haiti: According to the U.N. a little more than half of the approximately $5.33 billion pledged at a donors' conference after Haiti's 2010 earthquake has been disbursed.
* Ecuador: Several U.S. business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers called on the White House to cut trade benefits to Ecuador.
* Peru: The Inter-American Court of Human Rights urged Peruvian officials to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that could’ve led to an early release of jailed ex-President Alberto Fujimori.
Video Source – YouTube via Milenio
Online Sources- MSNBC, Washington Post, Reuters, Mercopress
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Asylum Granted to Guatemalan Massacre Survivor
A survivor of one of the worst massacres in Guatemalan history was reportedly granted political asylum in the U.S.
According to the lawyer for 33-year-old Oscar Ramirez Castañeda, his client won his asylum request after proving that he was one of only two known survivors of the infamous Dos Erres massacre.
"Oscar is very, very grateful to get asylum, which means he can remain in the United States with his wife and their four children," Scott Greathead said to Reuters yesterday. "And if he hadn't gotten it, his prospects would have been very, very dangerous in Guatemala because he is so implicated in these cases against members of the Guatemalan military”.
Castañeda was only three-years-old in 1982 when a Guatemalan special forces unit searching for rebels murdered 250 villagers. He was subsequently kidnapped and raised by an army lieutenant, and he’s currently a restaurant manager in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Castañeda’s mother and eight siblings were among the victims of the incident that occurred in the midst of Guatemala’s decades-long civil war. His father, who for many years believed that his son had perished, reunited with Castañeda after DNA tests proved that they were related.
While Castañeda received excellent news regarding his immigration status the same cannot be said for one of the suspected perpetrators of the Dos Erres massacre.
Daily Headlines: September 25, 2012
* Cuba: The Ladies in White opposition group accused Cuban authorities of “repression” by preventing them from holding a vigil in Havana for political prisoners.
* U.S.: The Food and Drug Administration urged consumers to avoid using an over-the-counter medicine manufactured in El Salvador known as Intestinomicina.
* Ecuador: The foreign ministers of Ecuador and Britain might meet this week in order to discuss the fate of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
* Mexico: The Mexican government will reportedly review a labor union's complaint against Alabama's crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
Video Source – YouTube via AFP (Video uploaded in May 2012).
Online Sources- LAHT, VOXXI, MSNBC, Marketwatch
Monday, September 24, 2012
Daily Headlines: September 24, 2012
* Honduras: Antonio Trejo, a land rights lawyer critical of a government project to build privately run cities, was gunned down outside a church near Tegucigalpa.
* Brazil: Ministers from the BASIC group of emerging countries, which includes Brazil, called for stronger steps to be taken against man-made climate change.
* Argentina: President Cristina Fernandez issued a December 7th deadline for the breakup of the Grupo Clarin media conglomerate.
* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez holds an eighteen-point lead over election rival Henrique Capriles according to a poll by the Venezuelan Institute of Data Analysis.
Video Source – YouTube via user hchtvdigital
Online Sources- BBC News, Bloomberg, Bernama, Bradenton Herald
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