Daily Headlines: August 28, 2015

* Guatemala: Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in Guatemala City on Thursday and businesses closed shop in order to call for the resignation of scandal-hit President Otto Perez Molina.

* Puerto Rico: Tropical Storm Erika hit Puerto Rico this morning as the commonwealth faces one of its worst droughts in more than a century.

* Ecuador: President Rafael Correa claimed that Ecuador’s economy, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar, has caused oil production to outpace earnings from sales of crude.

* Brazil: Brazil’s largest telecommunications firms are reportedly campaigning to place more regulations against popular messaging tool WhatsApp.

YouTube Source – EFE
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino, Reuters, USA TODAY, NBC News, ZDNet

Today’s Video: The Nose Doesn’t Know

Last Tuesday we looked at a short yet clever 1995 Argentine advert that received two gold Clios. Today we continue to highlight award-winning commercials made by Latin American ad agencies with an anti-drug PSA from Colombia. This brief but deft piece below the page break earned Colombia a Golden Lion at the Cannes Lions Festival over a decade ago:

Daily Headlines: August 27, 2015

* Latin America: Economic experts and environmental analysts warned that Latin American and Caribbean states must lower water consumption for agricultural needs in order to ensure water security throughout the region.

* U.S.: A Texas court issued a reprieve against the execution of a convicted Nicaraguan national, while the mother of an Argentine on death row in Texas for 19 years is hoping that Pope Francis will intervene during his U.S. visit next month.

* Ecuador: For the second straight year an InterNations survey named Ecuador as the best country for expats including the highest scores in areas like “feeling welcome,” “personal finance” and “cost of living”.

* Colombia: A coalition of Colombian women’s rights groups called for the government to take a more active role in investigating sexual violence by “state security forces, paramilitaries and other private actors.”

YouTube Source – CCTV Americas Now

Online Sources – Economic Times, Fox News Latino, The Guardian, U.S. News & World Report, NBC News

Daily Headlines: August 26, 2015

* Guatemala: The Guatemalan Supreme Court gave the green light for impeachment proceedings against President Otto Perez Molina, while another tribunal ordered former dictator Efrain Rios Montt to face a retrial on genocide charges.

* Argentina: Police clashed with protesters in the Argentine province of Tucuman over allegations of ballot burning following last Sunday’s gubernatorial election.

* El Salvador: El Salvador’s Attorney General claimed to have uncovered a plot by street gangs to detonate explosives against his office and other government agencies.

* Puerto Rico: The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, which is in more than $8 billion in debt, cut its ties to Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras as part of a move to save costs.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English (Efrain Rios Montt was found guilty of ordering the massacre of over 1700 indigenous Guatemalans in 1982 but the conviction was overturned in 2013).
 
Online Sources – CNN, Business Insider, Voice of America, ABC News, Yahoo News

Today’s Video: Buzzed

In early July we examined a commercial for a German company conceived by Brazilians, filmed in Uruguay, and recipient of one of the top prizes at this year’s Cannes Lions Festival. This week we will look at other award-winning commercials made by Latin American ad agencies.

Made by the Argentine creative team of Carlos Bayala and Gabriela Scardaccione, the 1995 spot below the page break received two gold Clios for a deceptively simple ad hiding a very clever twist ending:

YouTube Source – Clip40AnnReel
 
Online Sources (English) – Campaign Magazine, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: August 25, 2015

* Latin America: China’s recent economic woes could have major financial repercussions to Latin American states that rely heavily on trade with the Asian country and are heavily dependent on oil exports. 

* Caribbean: Tugboat operators are concerned over potential safety hazards regarding the expansion of the Panama Canal, while the U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua criticized potential land expropriation for the construction of a new interoceanic waterway.

* Brazil: The Brazilian government will eliminate 10 of its 39 ministries as part of “President Dilma Rousseff's commitment to an unpopular austerity plan.”

* Puerto Rico: The number of murders in Puerto Rico dropped by 40% since a record high 1164 homicides in 2011 according to the FBI.

YouTube Source – Associated Press

Online Sources – PRI, Tico Times, International Business Times, Reuters, Latin American Herald Tribune

Daily Headlines: August 24, 2015

* Guatemala: During a televised speech on Sunday night, a defiant President Otto Pérez Molina refused to step down from his post despite being implicated by investigators in a growing customs fraud scandal.

* Peru: President Ollanta Humala is expected to sign into law a proposal allowing the Peruvian military to shoot down suspected aircraft attempting to smuggle drugs.

* El Salvador: “An internal dispute involving the feared Barrio 18 gang” is believed to have been the cause of a prison riot that left at least fourteen people dead.

* U.S.: A recent survey found that the environment is a topic that has gained importance among potential Latino voters.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English (“Thousands of demonstrators demanded the ouster of Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina on Saturday following the arrest of Vice President Roxana Baldetti in a graft scandal that has rocked the country.”)

Online Sources – Bloomberg, The Indpendent, RTE, NPR