Daily Headlines: December 26, 2014 (Updated)

* Argentina: Former dictator Reynaldo Bignone received a twenty-five year prison sentence for the illegal adoptions of children during the “Dirty War” era.

* U.S.: U.S. immigration officials began a pilot program earlier this month to place GPS tracking devices on undocumented migrants caught crossing the border from Mexico. 

* Colombia: The FARC rebels agreed to release a Colombian soldier who was kidnapped hours before a ceasefire want into effect on December 20th.

Update: Th FARC freed soldier Carlos Becerra Ojeda on Friday.

* Nicaragua: At least two people have died during protests this week against construction of a $50 billion interoceanic canal.

Video Source – YouTube user locomotiv63

Online Sources – The Independent; The Guardian; Voice of America; Latin American Herald Tribune; NBC News

Daily Headlines: December 24, 2014

* Spain: Immigrants from several Latin American counties were among the big winners who will receive about $490,000 from Spain’s $3 billion “El Gordo” lottery.

* Cuba: The U.S. government will pay $3.2 million as part of a settlement to recently liberated former subcontractor Alan Gross.

* Brazil: The first woman to head Brazil’s biggest agrarian lobbying group was selected to become the country’s first female agriculture minister.

* Argentina: Researchers in Argentina have reportedly created “the first prosthetic arm in Latin America to use sensors to respond to nerve impulses.”

Video Source – YouTube user Reuters

Online Sources – Bloomberg; Reuters; The Latin Americanist; ABC News

Daily Headlines: December 23, 2014

* Nicaragua: Work officially began on Monday on a $50 billion interoceanic canal that is backed by China and expected to be completed in 2020.

* Uruguay: At least 1200 cannabis growers have been registered as part of a program allowing the legal cultivation and selling of marijuana.

* Argentina: A U.S. appeals court upheld a ruling forcing the Argentina government to pay millions of dollars to holdout creditors.

* Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff pledged to take “drastic” measures to jumpstart Brazil’s sagging economy and claimed that the corruption scandals hitting Petrobras are “overblown.”

Video Source – YouTube user euronews

Online Sources – Latin American Herald Tribune; Reuters; Voice of America; The Latin Americanist; NBC News

Daily Headlines: December 22, 2014

* Latin America: Argentine dark comedy “Savage Tales” and a Venezuelan biopic on Simon Bolivar were two of the movies selected for the Best Foreign Language Film shortlist at the upcoming Oscars.

* Mexico: Leaders of Mexico's Roman Catholic Church are expected to meet today with relatives of forty-three missing (and possibly massacred) university students.
  
* Dominican Republic: Prosecutors in Poland suspended the investigation against an ex-Vatican ambassador to the Dominican Republic accused of child sex abuse.

* Colombia: Five Colombian soldiers were killed in combat hours before an “indefinite” ceasefire by the FARC went into effect on Saturday.

Video Source – YouTube user TrailerHD

Online Sources – Al Jazeera America; The Latin Americanist; The A.V. Club; BBC News