Daily Headlines: June 16, 2016

* Honduras: Approximately 500 people rallied in Tegucigalpa and urged for an international investigation into the murder approximately three months ago of indigenous rights activist Berta Caceres.

* Venezuela: At least four people including a sixteen-year-old teen have died in recent days amid growing protests over food and medicine shortages.

* U.S.: A poll released this week found that a whopping 89% of Latinos view presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump unfavorably.

* Mexico: The new special prosecutor appointed to the case of 43 Ayotzinapa students missing since September 2014 has come under fire for purportedly attending the wedding of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán in 2007.

YouTube Source – ODN (From March 2016: “Thousands of mourners turned out for the funeral of slain Honduran indigenous leader Berta Caceres.”)

Online Sources – Rappler, Al Jazeera English, ABC News, Business Insider

Daily Headlines: June 15, 2016

* Latin America: The U. N. Development Programme warned that 25 million Latin Americas that escaped poverty could soon fall back into serious financial hardship due to a “lengthy economic crisis and social exclusion in the region.”

* U.S.: The Latino community in Orlando, Florida tries to recover from the massacre of forty-nine people at a local nightclub including twenty-three Puerto Ricans as well as victims from Mexico as well as Venezuela.

* Argentina: Argentina’s foreign minister reiterated her county’s sovereignty claims over the Falklands but called on an “open dialogue” and better relations with the U.K.

* Puerto Rico: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the upper house will debate a debt relief bill for Puerto Rico later this month yet very close to a July 1st deadline for the island to pay $1.9 billion.

YouTube Source – DW (English) (From September 2015: “Agriculture is helping Paraguay's economy expand fast. Growth came in at about 5 percent last year. But many people still live in extreme poverty.”)
 
Online Sources – NBC News, ABC News, El Pais, Reuters, MercoPress

Daily Headlines: June 14, 2016 (Updated)

* Argentina: The quarrel between Argentina and Monsanto could soon come to an end with both sides purportedly on the cusp of reaching a deal over inspecting shipments of genetically modified soybeans.

* Paraguay: The speaker of Paraguay’s lower legislative chamber will urge the Attorney General’s Office to commence a probe into the deaths of eleven peasants killed in a 2012 massacre that was used by the opposition to impeach then-President Fernando Lugo.

* Mexico: Mexico's Immigration Institute claimed that human traffickers have adopted using luxury tour buses in order to smuggle migrants from Central and South America.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan officials appealed to the country’s Supreme Court in order to halt a referendum process that could lead to the recall of President Nicolás Maduro.

Update: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry today announced the start of "high-level talks" with Venezuela but also supports having the planned referendum and pushed for the liberation of all political prisoners.

YouTube Source – AFP (From October 2014: “In Cordoba, Argentina, a group of environmentalists decided a year ago to block the construction of a corn processing plant of US seed giant Monsanto, in opposition of its use of genetically modified crops.”)

Online Sources including Update – Reuters, BBC News, ABC News, Latin American Herald Tribune

Daily Headlines: June 13, 2016

* U.S.: LGBT centers in the area of Orlando, Florida are working to offer Spanish-speaking grief counselors in light of the massacre of at least fifty people during an “Upscale Latin Saturday” party at the Pulse nightclub.

* Puerto Rico: U.S. President Barack Obama in his weekly address urged the Senate to quickly approve a plan that would help alleviate Puerto Rico’s $70 billion debt.

* Brazil: According to “two unpublished academic studies” researchers have detected a “super bacteria” present in the waters of several venues of the upcoming Rio Olympics.

* Guatemala: Three former ministers who served under disgraced ex-President Otto Perez Molina were arrested on corruption charges while around 2000 protesters in Guatemala City rallied in favor of greater political transparency.

YouTube Source – Jornalistas Livres (Vigils were held in several Latin American cities including Sao Paulo in solidarity with the victims of the mass shooting of at least fifty people in Orlando on Saturday).
 
Online Sources – PBS NewsHour, Fox News Latino, Reuters, Deutsche Welle