Daily Headlines: October 23, 2015 (Updated)

* Mexico: A state of emergency has been declared in three Mexican states in anticipation of the expected landfall today of the category five Hurricane Patricia.

Update (October 24th, 12:30 AM): The storm was downgraded to a category four hurricane hours after it reached Mexico's Pacific coast on Friday night. As of this update, some material damage was reported but no fatalities.  Civil defense chief Luis Felipe Puente nevertheless warned that Patricia could still cause flash floods, landslides and infrastructural damage to states like Colima and Jalisco. (Link in Spanish).


Update (October 24th, 5:15 PM): 

So far, there are no reports of major damage from #Patricia. Our gratitude to all for your thoughts, prayers and actions #PrayForMexico.

— Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN) October 24, 2015

Nevertheless, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto traveled to Colima to oversee the aftermath of Patricia, which was downgraded to a tropical storm and is now drenching the northern border state of Nuevo Leon. (Link in Spanish).

* Paraguay: Former Paraguayan President Federico Franco could become the latest Latin American leader to be investigated for alleged corruption during his rule.

* Cuba: Will the U.S. reverse its historic vote in the U.N. General Assembly next week and opt to condemn the decades-long trade embargo against Cuba?

* Ecuador: Scientists have discovered a new species of giant tortoise on the Galapagos Islands and named them after the longtime caretaker of the late emblematic tortoise George.

YouTube Source – Reuters
 
Online Sources including Updates – BBC News, Xinhua, The Guardian, InSight Crime, Milenio.com, Twitter, El Economista

Daily Headlines: October 22, 2015

* Latin America: Polls indicate that frontrunner Daniel Scioli has a borderline chance to become Argentina’s next president-elect, while surveys suggest that Guatemalan political outsider Jimmy Morales will win in this Sunday’s runoff election.

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela said that the global price of oil must nearly double to $88 per barrel in order to guarantee international investments.

* Cuba: Cuban officials announced a project devised with the help of a U.S. environmental group to protect the nearly 100 species of shark living off the island’s shores.

* Mexico: Authorities arrested six people suspected of “planning, organizing and carrying out” the July prison escape of Sinaloa drug cartel head Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

YouTube Source – AFP (“Argentine President Cristina Kirchner will step down from power after a nearly eight year reign, leaving a deeply divided country behind.”)
 
Online Sources – Reuters, BBC News, Nature.com, ABC News

Daily Headlines: October 21, 2015

* Cuba: Cuban graffiti artist Danilo “El Sexto” Maldonado was freed from jail following a ten-month detention over an “attempted piece of protest performance art.”

* Uruguay: The repatriation of six former Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Uruguay has allegedly served as an obstacle to the White House’s push to close the military facility in eastern Cuba.

* Brazil: Attorneys have filed a new petition to bring up impeachment charges against President Dilma Rousseff over accusations of doctoring government data.

* Vatican: Vatican officials rejected unconfirmed Italian news reports claiming that Argentine-born Pope Francis was sick and diagnosed with a curable brain tumor.

YouTube Source – Oslo Freedom Forum (“Lia Villares accepts the Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent on behalf of imprisoned Cuban artist El Sexto at the 2015 Oslo Freedom Forum.”)

Online Sources – The Guardian, Bloomberg, Reuters, CBS News

Daily Headlines: October 20, 2015

* Canada: The incoming Liberal government under Justin Trudeau could affect Canadian mining interests in Latin America as well as the North American state’s growing Latino immigrant population.

* Mexico: Parents of some of 43 Ayotzinapa students missing for over a year have called on a boycott against a documentary that they claim relies on a “false” version of events.

* Cuba: Cuba’s Foreign Ministry rejected unconfirmed claims that troops from the island were sent to Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro railed against Lorenzo Mendoza, the head of the Empresas Polar food conglomerate, for suggesting that the country needs an international economic bailout.

YouTube Source – Associated Press
 
Online Sources – Newsweek, Voice of America, Reuters, teleSUR English, Latin American Herald Tribune

Daily Headlines: October 19, 2015

* Colombia: In the latest pact between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels, both sides agreed to work together and provide information on the tens of thousands of people missing due to the armed conflict.

* Bolivia: Bolivian officials claimed that spy planes have crossed into national territory and, thus, the government will buy some $229 million in radar equipment from France.

* Argentina: For the first time Argentina made it through to the final four of the Rugby World Cup after Los Pumas blitzed Ireland by a score of 43-20 in the quarterfinals.

* Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff backed beleaguered Finance Minister Joaquim Levy despite mounting pressure against her proposed austerity measures designed to boost the weakened Brazilian economy.

YouTube Source – AFP (“Thirteen years after Medellin was rocked by violence when the government decided to recapture a sector of the city disputed by right-wing paramilitaries and militias, family members and others take part in commemoration events.”)
 
Online Sources – BBC Sport, Voice of America, Fox News Latino, Reuters