Daily Headlines: January 1, 2015

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro promised to enact a series of reforms over the next six months in order to boost a Venezuelan economy that is officially in recession.

* Cuba: Performance artist Tania Bruguera and the husband of blogger Yoani Sanchez were among the roughly fifty dissidents briefly detained and then released by Cuban authorities.

* Colombia: Colombian Teofilo Gutierrez and Jose Pekerman of Argentina have been chosen in a poll by the Uruguayan newspaper El Pais as South America’s top soccer player and coach of the year, respectively.

* Argentina: Argentina may be struggling with a debt default and rising inflation but that hasn’t stopped the country’s Merval from being named the “best performing global index of 2014.”

Video Source – YouTube user CNN

Online Sources – Reuters; NBC News; CNBC