Daily Headlines: November 21, 2014

* Mexico: Tens of thousands protested in Mexico and abroad on Thursday in support of forty-three students missing for nearly two months and possibly massacred by drug gang hitmen.

* U.S.: Despite receiving nine Latin Grammy nominations, Calle 13 failed to win an award as they were upset by Enrique Iglesias for best urban song and the late Paco de Lucia for album of the year.

* Colombia: Preparations are underway for the liberation of five people recently kidnapped by the FARC including a Colombian army general.

* Nicaragua: Officials claimed that construction of a $50 billion interoceanic canal will begin in December and rejected concerns over possible environmental damage.

Video Source – YouTube user Newsy World
 
Online Sources – Latin American Herald Tribune; ABC News; Reuters; CBC

Daily Headlines: November 20, 2014

* Chile: A Chilean court ruled that the state should pay around $7.5 million to the families of thirty ex-political prisoners incarcerated on a remote island during the military rule of Augusto Pinochet.

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro decreed twenty-eight laws this week including ones that would raise taxes on luxury items and increase international reserves.

* Mexico: President Enrique Peña Nieto will reportedly release details of his personal wealth following the controversy over first lady Angelica Rivera’s ownership of a $7 million mansion.

* Colombia: An agreement was reportedly reached for the liberation of a Colombian army general and four others captured by the FARC, and whose kidnapping led to the suspension of peace talks between the government and the rebels.

Video Source – YouTube user comunaburguesa (Footage circa 1973 of detainees at the prison on Chile’s Dawson Island, which was located near the southernmost tip of South America).

Online Sources – BBC News; Bloomberg; ABC News; The Guardian

Daily Headlines: November 19, 2014

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro announced plans to arrange a meeting with countries excluded from the OPEC cartel in order to discuss the plummeting prices of oil.

* Brazil: Eike Batista, the man once named as Brazil’s wealthiest person but is allegedly $1 billion in debt, went on trial over charges of insider trading. 

* Mexico: Mexican first lady Angelica Rivera said that she would sell her shares in a $7 million mansion built by a construction firm that received government contracts under President Enrique Peña Nieto.

* Honduras: Police discovered the bodies of the reigning Miss Honduras, Maria Jose Alvarado, and her sister who had been missing for approximately one week.

Video Source – CCTV America via YouTube

Online Sources – BBC News; The Guardian; Bloomberg; ABC News

Daily Headlines: November 18, 2014

* Peru: A new report published two weeks before Peru hosts a U. N. climate conference found that the country is the world’s fourth most dangerous state for environmental activists.

* Brazil: Approximately 400,000 signatures have been gathered on a public petition to prevent a controversial pick-up artist from speaking in Brazil.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan state-owned oil firm PDVSA agreed to sell 1.6 million tons of oil and nine tons of petroleum derivates to Russia over the next five years.

* U.S.: The U.S. Border Patrol has allegedly conducted at least ten thousand drone flights along roughly nine hundred miles of the border region near Mexico. 

Video Source – Pulitzer Center via YouTube (Video uploaded in 2012),
 
Online Sources – BBC News; The Guardian; Latin American Herald Tribune; The Huffington Post

Daily Headlines: November 17, 2014

Note: Before we list some of the main stories from the Americas, we would like to apologize for not publishing this post earlier in the day. Unfortunately we were affected by technical difficulties.  Thank you for your kind attention.

* Colombia: The Colombian government suspended peace talks with the FARC after President Juan Manuel Santos blamed the rebels for kidnapping an army general.

* Mexico: The disappearance and possible massacre of forty-three university students is reportedly hurting tourism in the state of Guerrero.

* Brazil: The head of Petrobras claimed that the company would full investigate with the latest corruption scandal to rock the Brazilian state-run oil giant.

* Haiti: A one report found that Haiti is the country with the world's third-highest proportion of slaves compared to their population.

Video Source – euronews via YouTube
 
Online Sources – BBC News; The Latin Americanist; Christian Science Monitor; NPR; Reuters