Daily Headlines: September 8, 2015

* South America: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro expanded the partial border shutdown with Colombia that he claims is needed to combat smuggling and crime but has led to the return of at least 10,000 Colombians.

* Mexico: Two Mexican intelligence agents and two prison guards have been charged regarding their alleged roles in the jailbreak last July of Sinaloa drug capo Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

* Guatemala: TV comic turned candidate Jimmy Morales won last Sunday’s Guatemalan presidential election but was unable to prevent a runoff next month.

* Chile: A Chilean court upheld the conviction of two men involved in the killings of filmmaker Charles Horman and journalist Frank Teruggi shortly after the 1973 military coup led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet. 

YouTube Source – CCTV News

Online Sources – Bloomberg, Reuters, USA TODAY, JURIST

Daily Headlines: September 13, 2012

* Peru: On the twentieth anniversary of the capture of Shining Path founder Abimael Guzman, President Ollanta Humala said that he will not negotiate with the guerillas.

* Cuba: Cuban officials said that they would be willing to talk with the U.S. government over possibly releasing imprisoned contractor Alan Gross.

* Latin America: Latin American governments condemned the violent attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya that left four people including Ambassador Christopher Stevens dead.

* El Salvador: Ex-senior Salvadoran military officer Inocente Orlando Montano pled guilty in the U.S. to immigration fraud and could be extradited to Spain over his alleged role in the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- NPR, RTT, Reuters, infosurhoy.com, The Latin Americanist

Abimael Guzman starves for matrimony

Cuban prisoner Guillermo Farinas is close to death after being on a hunger strike for nearly two months. His fasting has been done in order to call attention to 26 very ill political prisoners who he feels deserve to be liberated.

Former Peruvian guerilla leader Abimael Guzman started his own hunger strike on Tuesday. Rather than an unselfish cause like Farinas is doing, the imprisoned Shining Path founder has a more personal reason for his protest:

The jailed leaders of Peru's brutal Shining Path insurgency, Abimael Guzman and his fiancée, started a hunger strike on Tuesday to demand the government let them hold a wedding ceremony.

Guzman, 75, wants to marry his partner of the past two decades, Elena Yparraguirre. Both are serving life terms at different prisons near Peru's capital, having been convicted of commanding one of Latin America's most violent guerrilla movements.

"Abimael Guzman and I went on a hunger strike at midnight," Yparraguirre said on RPP radio. "The government must stop putting up obstacles to prevent us from marrying -- it doesn't let us go to the public registry, to the notary, to get medical exams for the wedding, nothing."

The couple registered to marry lat year but apparently bureaucratic red tape has held up the planned nuptials. Despite being labeled by BBC News as “the most reviled couple in Peru” President Alan Garcia said months ago that the couple has the right to wed.

According to Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission the Shining Path was responsible for nearly half of the country’s 70,000 murders during a bloody struggle against the state between 1980 and 2000.

Image- CPN Radio
Online Sources- EPA, Guardian UK, The Latin Americanist, Reuters AlertNet, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, BBC News