Daily Headlines: January 23, 2013 (We’re Back!)

* Guatemala: Pre-trial hearings began in a case against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt who has been accused of genocide related to his brief rule in the midst of Guatemala’s bloody civil war.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan officials and Bolivian President Evo Morales have provided optimistic assessments of President Hugo Chavez who has not been seen publicly since undergoing cancer surgery about six weeks ago.

Update: Is the photo in this article a recent picture of a recuperating Hugo Chavez walking with his brother in Cuba or is it an image originally taken in 2011?   

* Mexico: The dean of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government defended the appointment of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon to a teaching fellowship despite opposition from several anti-violence activists.

* Colombia: Pop music star Shakira gave birth to her first child, Milan Piqué Mebarak, at a hospital in the Spanish city of Barcelona.
 
Video Source – YouTube via user povborders (Excerpt from “Granito”, a 2011 documentary that focused on the efforts to gather evidence against former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt.)

Online Sources including Update- Semana.com, Huffington Post, NPR, Fox News Latino, USA TODAY