Daily Headlines: June 27, 2013

* Latin America: More than 100,000 people participated in a march calling for educational reform in Chile, while ongoing street protests continued yesterday in several Brazilian cities.

* Peru: Prosecutors have reportedly revealed a scheme alleging that $240,000 in illicit payments were made to then-President Alan Garcia's administration in exchange for the pardoning of imprisoned drug traffickers.

* U.S.: A new State Department report concluded that Iranian influence in Latin America is declining due to several factors including “a strong sanctions policy, and Iran’s poor management of its foreign relations.”

* Dominican Republic: With a fatality rate of 41.7 per hundred thousand people, the World Health Organization found that the Dominican Republic is the world’s worst country for drivers.

Video Source – YouTube via user NTDTV

Online Sources- The Guardian; GlobalPost; Peru this Week; Bloomberg; Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: April 18, 2011

* Peru: President Alan Garcia denied that he would grant disgraced and imprisoned ex-President Alberto Fujimori a pardon for human rights abuses.

* Mexico: The police chief of Tamaulipas was fired in the wake of at least 145 bodies found in mass graves.

* Haiti: For the second time this year U.S. immigration authorities deported a group of Haitians to the Caribbean country.

* Latin America: According to the U.N. only half of Latin America’s 600,000 people infected with AIDS receive medical treatment.

Image – Reuters (“Peru's Former President Alberto Fujimori listens to the judge during the reading of the sentence of his trial at the special police headquarters in Lima April 7, 2009.”)
Online Sources- Bloomberg, BBC News, HaitiLibre.com, Xinhua

Daily Headlines: January 26, 2011

* U.S.: A federal judge handed down a sentence of life in prison in the case of the first former Guantanamo detainee to be tried in a civilian court.

* Venezuela: One month after he passed away legal wrangling continues amongst family members of ex-Venezuelan president Carlos Andres Perez over where he should be buried.

* South America: After meeting on Tuesday the presidents of Uruguay and Peru both called for greater unity and cooperation throughout Latin America.

* Peru: Lori Berenson might not return to prison after a Peruvian court upheld her parole.

Image – Shirley Shepard /AFP-Getty Images via MSNBC (Ahmed Ghailani was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted for his role in a pair of deadly U.S. embassy bombings in Africa in 1998).
Online Sources- Bloomberg, People’s Daily Online, NPR, BBC News

Peru: Lori Berenson released…again

Convicted rebel ally Lori Berenson was freed on parole by a Peruvian judge. This may sound like déjà vu but it’s not:

A Peruvian court Friday granted freedom to U.S. citizen Lori Berenson, who has served 15 years of a 20-year prison sentence for collaborating with leftist insurgents.

Berenson, who will turn 41 next week, was initially freed in May but sent back to jail in August when a panel of judges ruled the release of the American was flawed because police had failed to confirm where she would be living in Lima while on parole.

It’s unknown if Berenson, a U.S. citizen who gave birth to a child while jailed last year, will again petition to leave Peru and return to the U.S. Peruvian president Alan Garcia did admit in a September interview that she was “not a threat” to his country and seemed inclined to have her leave. The same may not be said for most Peruvians who “widely disapproved of the decision to release her” according to polls cited by BBC News.

Image- CBS News (“U.S. activist Lori Berenson attends her hearing at court in Lima, Peru, Monday Aug. 16, 2010. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia).”)
Online Sources- BBC News, MSNBC, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, Gothamist

Daily Headlines: October 15, 2010

* Haiti: The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved extending the presence of the 13,000-plus members “peacekeeping force” in Haiti.

* U.S.: Two Pennsylvania men were found guilty of hate crime charges in the 2008 beating death of an undocumented Mexican.

* Peru: Did President Alan Garcia slap a man who heckled him during a hospital visit last week?

* Guatemala: Ex-interior minister Carlos Vielman could be extradited from Spain in order to serve trial for the extrajudicial murders of seven inmates in 2006.

Image – MSNBC (“A U.N. peacekeeper from Nepal mans a machine gun from atop an armored vehicle as Haitians wait for food in Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince” last January.)
Online Sources- FT.com, Al Jazeera English, CNN, Monsters and Critics

Daily Headlines: September 15, 2010

* Ecuador: In a novel initiative the Ecuadorian government is seeking international donations in exchange for foregoing oil drilling in the Yasuni national park.

* Latin America: According to the International Press Institute, Mexico and Honduras are the top two most dangerous countries for journalists this year.

* Chile: Esperanza (Spanish for hope) was the name of the child that was born to the wife of one of the miners trapped in a Chilean mine for over a month.

* Peru: Faced with low support president Alan Garcia shook up several cabinet positions yesterday.

Image – Independent.co.uk
Online Sources- BBC News, MSNBC, Reuters, Sify, The Latin Americanist

Sour times for Peru’s Garcia

In a poll taken in late August roughly two out of three Peruvians disapproved of President Alan Garcia’s performance. This figure is unsurprising, as the leader of the Andean country has apparently made several missteps in recent weeks.

In May convicted rebel supporter Lori Berenson was released from prison after having served fifteen years behind bars. Last month, however, an appeals court overturned her parole and she was ordered to return to prison. Yet Garcia may have rubbed some of his countrymen the wrong way when he mentioned in an interview last week that he does not consider Berenson as a “threat” to Peru. "How much can Peru really fear a woman who spent 15 years in prison?... She has a little boy, and that moves me a lot," said Garcia who added that he would consider commuting her sentence so she can return to the U.S.

Yesterday Garcia suddenly backtracked from a controversial decree he emitted recently. Originally he presented Decree No. 1097 as a reform that would’ve allowed judges to dismiss charges against those “whose cases have suffered an excessively long investigation." The government claimed that the law would not affected those already sentenced for human rights violations such as ex-president Alberto Fujimori.

Critics of the move claimed that the law would’ve granted amnesty against those being investigated of human rights violations during the Peruvian civil conflict. Opposition grew against Garcia’s decree including among some members of his political party. One of Peru’s foremost literary figures even came out against the law:

Acclaimed novelist Mario Vargas Llosa tendered his “irrevocable” resignation from presiding over the commission charged with the construction of a memorial to victims of 20 years of politically motivated violence in Peru, a move he said he made to reject a controversial decree he called a “barely disguised amnesty” for rights abusers.

Garcia has also come under fire for supporting the possibility of expanding the U.S. military presence in Peru in order to combat the illegal narcotics trade. One former senior army official claimed that such a move would hurt “the moral and combative spirit of (Peru’s) troops.”

Under Peru’s constitution Garcia is not allowed to run again for the presidency; that could be a relief for some of his countrymen disappointed at his current term in office.

Image- EFE
Online Sources- Gothamist, MSNBC, EFE, BBC News, LAHT, Angus Reid Consultants

Daily Headlines: June 28, 2010

* Mexico: Popular grupero musician Sergio “El Shaka” Vega was killed mere hours after denying Internet rumors of his death.

* Argentina: In the latest chapter in the tug-of-war between Argentina and the U.K. over the Falklands British Prime Minister David Cameron said that he “would not budge” regarding the sovereignty of the disputed islands.

* U.S.: Authorities captured 34 Cuban migrants after they arrived on a beach in Florida on Sunday.

* Peru: Tensions between indigenous groups and President Alan Garcia could reignite after he vetoed a law that would’ve curbed energy exploration in the rainforest area.

Image – tribunalatina.com
Online Sources- The Guardian, Miami Herald, The Latin Americanist, Scotsman.com, BBC News

Daily Headlines: September 21, 2009

* U.S.: According to the Government Accountability Office, the U.S.-Mexico border barrier will cost $6.5 billion over the next 20 years and the fence has been broken into at least 3,363 times.

* Brazil: “We want the public to become aware of our struggle and of the difficulties of inclusion, of accessibility… and that is what we came to show,” said one of the hundreds of disabled Brazilians who demonstrated yesterday.

* Argentina: According to the local press Argentina will make an offer to payback part of a multibillion dollar debt to the Paris Club group of creditor countries.

* Peru: President Alan Garcia's approval rating continues to be very low (28%) as anger continues over June’s deadly clashes between police and protestors.

Image- CBS News (“The $6.5 billion price tag is in addition to the $2.4 billion that has already been spent to build fence segments along the U.S.-Mexico border.”)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, AP, LAHT, Forbes.com, Reuters

Weekend Headlines: September 5-6 2009

* Mexico: Mexico's Health Department will start a new program designed to push immigrants in the U.S. to provide health care for their families still in Mexico.

* Cuba: Cuban state daily Granma released a photo reportedly taken on Thursday of an ailing Fidel Castro meeting with a visiting Chinese senior official.

* Argentina: U.S. and Argentine officials are not pleased with Iran’s approval as defense minister of a man accused of the deadly 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires.

* Peru: In light of June’s deadly protests the United Nations blasted president Alan Garcia for violating the rights of Peru’s indigenous population.

* Uruguay: Despite having “a reputation as the least corrupt nation in Latin America” Uruguay has been shaken up by a series of corruption scandals regarding the government-owned telecom firm.

* Puerto Rico: In another sign of the commonwealth’s weakened economy, the head of the local Home Builders Association said that over 40,000 construction jobs have been lost.

Image- New York Times (“Edy Patricia Rodríguez, 18, an illegal immigrant, recovered from childbirth last month at the JPS Health Network hospital in Fort Worth.”)
Online Sources- Voice of America, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, LAHT, ABC Online, MSNBC, Xinhua

Peruvian quake victims peeved at Garcia

It has been two years since a major earthquake shook Peru and cost the lives of at least 500 people. The city of Pisco was left in ruins as thousands of people were homeless. Relief efforts were slow to come by with the exception of some political propaganda/foreign aid.

Since then, rebuilding in the affected area has been woefully slow despite promises by the Peruvian government. "We get lots of promises from our government, but nothing happens" said one local who symbolizes the growing anger in the area against President Alan Garcia. Tensions came to a boil last week when anti-Garcia protests became violent:

On Saturday, riot police used tear gas to disperse protesters who had blocked a section of the Pan-American highway leading to Pisco.

Demonstrators pelted police with stones…

Only 25% of the planned reconstruction has taken place in Pisco, the worst-hit town in the area, our correspondent says.

Some 40,000 people in the region are still living in tent cities or one-room pre-fabricated shacks.

Many local residents say millions of dollars in reconstruction funds have never reached them, accusing officials of corruption and inefficiency.

Garcia’s folly has turned into an advantage for Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Pisco residents have praised the Venezuelan leader after his government paid for the construction of 100 three-bedroom homes which were subsequently distributed for free.

Image- Christian Science Monitor (“Making do: One-year-old Augusto Martin Hernandez plays near a tent on a soccer field where he now lives with his grandmother.”)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, BBC News, FT.com

The Half-Year That Was: Bloodshed in Peru

There have been numerous protests throughout the Americas so far this year yet none have been as brutal as the violence in the Peruvian Amazon.

Demonstrators had rallied for weeks against the government in an effort to stop what they deemed as land exploitation and to bring attention to the lack of social services in the impoverished Amazon area. Negotiations between officials and protest leaders were fruitless as tensions simmered. The bubbling cauldron finally boiled over on June 5th after demonstrators and policemen clashed. President Alan Garcia accused protestors of “barbarity” in the deaths of 22 officers while locals blamed the police for being heavy-handed and attacking unarmed people. Thirty people officially died though some estimates claim a lot more.

In the aftermath of the violence, Peru’s government repealed a series of laws at the center of the Amazonian protest. More demonstrations have taken place while Garcia’s popularity has tumbled and he has subsequently shaken up his Cabinet. Unrest continues as the possibility of a repeat of June 5th remains all too real.


Online Sources- Al Jazeera English, BBC News, FT.com, ABC Online, YouTube, Los Angeles Times, Angus Reid Consultants

Peru’s Garcia in damage control mode

The violence from last month’s confrontations between indigenous protesters and police is surely still ringing loud in the minds of Peruvian officials. Eager to avoid further problems from upcoming protests and declining popularity, President Alan Garcia is trying to take preventative measures:

Peruvian President Alan Garcia bowed to opposition pressure on Tuesday and said he will reshuffle his cabinet following deadly clashes last month between police and indigenous groups.

Garcia and his cabinet have been sharply criticized for botching negotiations with protesters who were demanding the government strike down laws designed to open their ancestral lands in the Amazon to foreign mining and oil companies…

"He needs to choose a cabinet that would give him breathing room and put him in a better negotiating position," said political analyst German Munoz. "If he does the opposite, he will have more problems."

Prime Minister Yehude Simon announced weeks ago that he would resign from his post though it remains to be seen who else follows him out.

While Garcia tries to avoid damage on one end, he may be opening another can of worms by permitting a major energy project in the Amazon by European firm Perenco.

Image- AFP (“Natives armed with spears set a roadblock at the entrance of the Amazonian town of Yurimaguas” last month.)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Living in Peru, Vivirlatino, Reuters

Daily Headlines: July 7, 2009

* Chile: The U.N. investigation into the death of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto started last week and will be led by Chilean ambassador to the U.N. Heraldo Munoz.

* U.S.: Another reason for immigration reform – an alliance of police chiefs said that it would provide better security and improved law enforcement.

* Venezuela: Antonio Ledezma- the Metropolitan Mayor of Caracas- claimed that he will be going on an “indefinite” hunger strike against what he claimed were efforts by the federal government to undermine his authority.

* Peru: The country’s largest labor union is planning a three-day national protest starting today against President Alan Garcia.

Image- BBC News (“Benazir Bhutto was assassinated leaving a party rally in December 2007.”)
Online Sources- LAHT, The Telegraph, AFP, Forbes

Peru’s Garcia hammered by another protest

Peruvian President Alan Garcia’s level of popularity has hit its lowest point since November as most of his countrymen are upset over the weakening economy and his handling of anti-government protests. Another demonstration in Peru could make things worse for the unpopular leader.

Approximately 3000 miners have blocked off one of Peru’s main highways for a second day as they are upset with the actions of their U.S.-run employer- Doe Run. The company has repeatedly cut the workforce at its smelter in La Oroya much to the chagrin of workers and union reps.

Further complicating matters is that the troubled company has undergone numerous delays in cleaning up massive environmental damage at La Oroya which was to be completed years ago. As losses mount trying to clean La Oroya, the company keeps shedding jobs thus leading to the blockade.

Despite calls for government intervention the Garcia administration has decided against doing so:

Peru's Government reiterated that it has no plans to intervene in the Doe Run mining company (one of the biggest mineral exporters in the country) in order to save it from financial collapse…

“An intervention would be very complicated in terms of responsibilities and financial consequences, because it is very likely that we would have to face international claims,” said Pedro Sanchez (Peru's Minister of Energy and Mining) to a local radio.

Image- Javno.hr
Online Sources- Living in Peru, Washington Post, the Latin Americanist, LAHT, Reuters

Daily Headlines: June 22, 2009

* Ecuador: President Rafael Correa said that he would consider allowing Ecuador to throw out foreign oil firms that sue the state in international courts.

* Peru: President Alan Garcia’s popularity has hit its lowest point in eight months as people are indignant over his handling of anti-government protests.

* Mexico: Over 1500 additional troops have been sent to the border city of Ciudad Juarez in an attempt to stop drug-related violence.

* U.S.: Portugal could join fellow E.U. members Italy and (possibly) Spain in taking in detainees from the Guantanamo prison camp.

Image- CNBC
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, LAHT, Washington Post, ABC Online, AHN

Peruvian MPs repeal controversial land edicts

After roughly two months of protest including days of ugly confrontations, Peru’s Congress overturned a pair of controversial land laws decreed by President Alan Garcia:

The decrees had been issued by Alan Garcia, the Peruvian president, in 2007 to give him powers to implement a free trade pact and outlined plans to regulate investment in the Peruvian Amazon.

However, indigenous groups said they were not consulted on the laws and that the decrees would affect their ancestral lands…

The measure was approved 82-12 after a five-hour debate in Peru's single-chamber legislature, attended by about 30 Amazon native Indians of the Ashanika community.

"This is a historic day for all indigenous people in Peru," said Daysi Zapata- director of the indigenous rights group Aidesep- though she also acknowledged that seven of Garcia’s decrees are still on the books.

Peruvian Prime Minister Yehude Simon- who has come under fire for his handling of the protests- said that the changes wouldn’t put at risk Peru's free trade pact with the U.S.

In the meantime, Peru's foreign minister and Bolivian President Evo Morales have engaged in a war of words that included recalling Peru’s ambassador in La Paz. Also, Peruvian indigenous leader Alberto Pizango arrived yesterday in Nicaragua days after the Central American country granted him political asylum.

Image-BBC News
Online Sources- BBC News, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, AP, Al Jazeera English

Peruvian Prime Minister Planning to Quit

The Prime Minister of Peru, Yehude Simon, stated today that he is planning on quitting, Reuters reported.

His announcement comes as opposition leaders are calling on President Alan Garcia to fire Simon for failing to stop the recent clashes between police and members of Peru's indigenous communities. The unrest began after the Peruvian Congress passed two laws that would make it possible to increase foreign investment in the Amazon. On Monday, Simon asked Congress to revoke the new laws.

At least 34 people have died after police raids tried to break up blockades.

"Obviously, I am going to go for sure as soon as all is calm, in the coming weeks," Simon told RPP radio, a day after apologizing to indigenous leaders and saying the government failed to win their support before passing the laws.

Online sources: Reuters
Image: LivinginPeru.com

Peruvian PM proposes scrapping controversial laws

Could a series of controversial land laws passed by Peru’s government soon be cancelled? Apparently that may be the case as the controversy still lingers over a series of fatal clashes in the Peruvian Amazon:

Peru's prime minister said on Monday he would ask Congress to revoke two laws that aim to increase foreign investment in the Amazon rain forest after deadly clashes between police and indigenous groups.

Yehude Simon signed a pact with tribal leaders in the jungle city of San Ramon that included a promise to present a bill in Congress by Thursday that would strike down legislative decrees 1090 and 1064, state news agency Andina reported.

Simon added that he would back removing a state of emergency placed in the Amazonian city of Bagua were some of the deadliest disturbances took place.

Though President Alan Garcia previously deemed the demonstrators as “barbarians” and ignorant to economic progress, Peru’s government seems to be taking a softer tone. Congress voted to suspend the controversial land use decrees last week as pressure mounted domestically and internationally.

Nevertheless, the Garcia administration has been accused of backing the repression of residents from the Amazonian region. Officials recently shutdown a Bagua radio station for allegedly spreading “unofficial information” while the government continues to reject negotiating with the region’s main indigenous group. No wonder that recent U.S. Spanish-language daily “La Opinión” blamed the government for its “lack of respect and sensitivity to the indigenous population, by
not establishing a consultation process involving them in decisions about their lands.”

Image- AFP (“Indians of the central Peruvian jungle continue blocking a main highway in Andahuaylas.”)
Online Sources- La Opinión, The Latin Americanist, AFP, Stamford Advocate

Solidarity protests held throughout Peru

Numerous marches in unity with protesting indigenous communities were held throughout Peru yesterday.

An estimated 20,000 people rallied in the streets of Lima calling on President Alan Garcia and the government to permanently revoke a series of controversial land-use edicts in the Amazon. "The jungle isn't for sale," chanted some marchers who also accused the government of covering up what really occurred in a series of violent confrontations last weekend between police officers and protesters in northern Peru.

Though most of yesterday’s nationwide protests were peaceful, Lima police launched tear gas at some marchers who threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the Congress building.

The country’s legislature voted on Wednesday to temporarily lift the presidential decrees yet there’s still plenty of tension in the Peruvian Amazon. While indigenous groups worry that they will lose their lands in the name of energy exploration and development, the impoverished region’s economy has been virtually paralyzed:

Online Sources- YouTube, New York Times, AP, Los Angeles Times