Daily Headlines: March 22, 2016

* Latin America: The U.N. concluded that the poverty rate in Latin America and the Caribbean grew by seven million people in roughly one year, while a report found that the region is very vulnerable to cyber attacks.

* Ecuador: The Ecuadoran government announced the creation of a new marine sanctuary that will protect some 18,000 square miles around the Galapagos Islands.

* Mexico: Some 200,000 residents in Mexico have been displaced as a result of dam construction nationwide according to a new study.

* U.S.: The Latino electorate in Arizona could be key in deciding who will win today's Democratic presidential primary in that state.

YouTube Source – DW

Online Sources – Andina, Nearshore Americas, National Geographic, teleSUR English, The Hill

Daily Headlines: June 18, 2013

* Brazil: Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Brazil’s main cities on Monday in the latest round of protests over several gripes including public transit price hikes and the use of state funds in the building of World Cup venues.
 
* Venezuela: President Nicolas Maduro reportedly discussed crime and hunger at a Vatican meeting with Pope Francis, while opposition figure Henrique Capriles sent a letter to the Pope that highlighted human rights abuses in Venezuela.

* U.S.: In a 7-2 vote the U.S. Supreme court struck down an Arizona voting registration law that opponents claimed discouraged Latinos from voting.

* Peru: “What we are trying to do is defend and keep the lake, so that is why we will be camping at the site indefinitely,” said one of the organizers of a march opposed to a planned $4.8 billion gold and copper mine in northern Peru.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- ABC News; The Latin Americanist; Fox News Latino; Gulf Times; Reuters; France24

Daily Headlines: June 26, 2012

* Bolivia: Despite calls by the government to “avoid any bloodshed” scores of police on strike clashed with supporters of President Evo Morales in La Paz yesterday.

* U.S.: Hours after the Supreme Court issued a mixed ruling on Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration law the Justice Department set up a hotline to report "potential civil rights concerns" related to that law.

* Ecuador: The last surviving member of the Pinta Island subspecies of giant tortoises died on the Galapagos Islands on Sunday.

* Argentina: China is seeking to deepen its economic ties to Latin America by signing a series of agricultural agreements with Argentina.

Video Source – YouTube via CNN

Online Sources- BBC News, CBS News, CNN, Bernama, The Latin Americanist

Supreme Court Issues Split Decision on Immigration Law (Updated)

This morning the U.S. Supreme Court (USSC) issued a mixed verdict on Arizona's controversial SB 1070 immigration law.

The majority of the high court voted to uphold one of the key provisions of the law that permits police officers to check the immigration status of people they stop. In doing so, the USSC rejected the stance that only the U.S. federal government can enforce immigration laws.

Yet the judges also struck down parts of SB 1070 that they viewed as an intrusion into federal law. The court rejected the following three sections:

• obligating all immigrants to obtain or carry immigration registration papers;
• making it a state criminal offense for an undocumented immigrant to seek work or hold a job; and
• allowing police to arrest suspected illegal immigrants without warrants.

Arizona's Classroom Battleground

Arizona has become a key state in the often-acrimonious discussion over illegal immigration, particularly with respect to the controversial S.B. 1070 immigration law. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to render a verdict next month on the legality of the statute though that decision might do little to change other debates in Arizona related to race and ethnicity.

“Precious Knowledge” is a documentary that focuses on the contentious fight over Mexican American studies programs in Arizona public schools. Last January, for example, Tuscon education officials dropped Mexican-American Studies courses due to supposed promotion of ethnic resentment. As noted in this article from Fox News Latino, however, such actions have allegedly created “a web of censorship and confusion (that) has entangled the city’s public schools”.

The following trailer for “Precious Knowledge” includes portions of interviews with teachers, parents and lawmakers who are for and against the ethnic studies ban:

Daily Headlines: February 23, 2012

* Ecuador: President Rafael Correa said that he might annul the controversial prison sentence against three former newspaper directors accused of libeling him. (Note: link is in Spanish).

* Honduras: Relatives of some of the 359 inmates who died in a Honduran prison fire last week have called on authorities to confirm a preliminary report claiming that the cause of the blaze was accidental.

* U.S.: A group of Latino student activists supporting the DREAM Act protested outside of the site of last night’s Republican presidential debate in Arizona.

* Bolivia: At least ten people are dead as a state of emergency was issued for parts of the Amazon region hit by heavy flooding.

Image Source – Flickr via Gobierno de Chile (Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, seen here in the dark blue jacket during a 2010 visit to Chile, has come under fire from press rights groups after suing three former newspaper directors for libel). (CC BY 2.0)

Online Sources- El Espectador, Cronkite News, BBC News, The Australian, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: December 13, 2011

* Mexico: According to the Mexican archdiocese over 5.6 million people visited the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City this year.

* U.S.: The Supreme Court agreed to listen to a case next year involving Arizona's controversial anti-immigration S.B. 1070 law.

* Colombia: Human Rights Watch blasted a proposed judicial reform that could “virtually guarantee impunity for human rights violations committed by the security forces.”

* Caribbean: Representatives of several countries including the U.S. and Cuba reportedly met last week in order to discuss potential problems with increased Cuban offshore oil drilling.

Image Source – Flickr via Joaquin Martinez (Mexicans domestically and worldwide commemorated the annual celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe yesterday).

Online Sources – Miami Herald, MSNBC, Bloomberg, AFP

Daily Headlines: November 1, 2011

* Argentina: New rules took effect yesterday that may make it more difficult to purchase dollars but could also prevent capital flight and tax evasion.

* Venezuela: The government ordered the nationalization of over 716,000 acres of cattle grazing lands controlled by a British firm.

* U.S.: Seventy-six people were arrested in Arizona and suspected of working for a Mexican drug smuggling gang.

* Colombia: The country’s beleaguered domestic intelligence agony was dissolved and will soon be replaced by a new entity.

Image Source – Flickr user Jorge Gobbi (CC BY 2.0)

Online Sources- ABC News, BBC News, MercoPress, MSNBC

Daily Headlines: September 13, 2011

* Chile: European researchers at an observatory in Chile discovered fifty “exoplanets” located outside of our solar system.

* U.S.: The possible discrimination against Latino educators in Arizona may've factored in the decision to halt monitoring classrooms to see if teachers speak with accents.

* Brazil: The country’s currency, the real, fell to its weakest level in ten months due to worries over a possible Greek default.

* Mexico: Monterrey mayor, Fernando Larrazabal has refused to resign despite allegations of corruption related to the last month’s deadly arson at the Casino Royale.

Image – ESO via MSNBC (“An artist's depiction of a super-Earth." Scientists using the Harps instrument in Chile’s La Silla Observatory discovered sixteen “super-Earths”).

Online Sources- UPI, The Guardian, Bloomberg, LAHT

Daily Headlines: June 21, 2011

* Dominican Republic: The Dominican Republic has become the latest Latin American country to back the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state.

* Chile: A court suspended the controversial Hydroaysen project, which was backed by the government yet strongly opposed to by environmentalists and some residents of the Patagonia region.

* U.S.: Representatives of several Latino groups criticized Senator John McCain for claiming that undocumented immigrants caused major wildfires in Arizona.

* Panama: Former leader Manuel Noriega could soon be extradited from France to his homeland where he will serve numerous prisons sentences.

Image – Reuters (“Palestinian protesters gesture in front of Israeli soldiers during clashes near the West Bank village of Deir al Hatab June 5, 2011.”)
Online Sources- Bernama, LAHT, BBC News, The Latin Americanist, CNN

Daily Headlines: May 24. 2011

* Honduras: The Central American country could soon be readmitted into the Organization of American States after Honduran president Porfirio Lobo and ousted leader Manuel Zelaya signed a key pact with the help of the Colombian and Venezuelan governments.

* Peru: Conservative presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori led in two polls over her nationalist opponent Ollanta Humala though plenty of undecided voters are still up for grabs.

* U.S.: According to a newly released report, Arizona’s Latino population dropped by 100,000 residents since the controversial SB 1070 anti-immigration law went into effect over a year ago.

* Mexico: Authorities claimed that police freed 62 women including a 13-year-old girl who were forced to work as prostitutes.

Image – AP via MSNBC ("Honduras' President Porfirio Lobo, left, and Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya, right, shake hands after signing an agreement as Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos applauds in Cartagena, Colombia, Sunday, May 22, 2011. The accord allows the return of Zelaya to his homeland and Honduras' re entry into the Organization of American States, OAS, as a solution to the crisis caused by the June 2009 coup that sent Zelaya into exile and caused the OAS to suspend Honduras as a member.")
Online Sources- Reuters, LAHT, AS/COA Online, MSNBC

U.S.: Court upholds Arizona immigration law injunction

Last July, U.S. federal judge Susan Bolton struck down several sections of Arizona’s controversial immigration SB 1070 law. Bolton placed a temporary injunction on some provisions including making it a criminal offense for non-citizens to not carry paperwork and allowing local police to check a suspect’s immigration status.

As CNN’s website reported, an appeals court this afternoon upheld Bolton’s decision:

In its ruling, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit sided with the U.S. Justice Department and against Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the measure known as SB 1070 into law last year…

Monday's decision came more than five months after both sides presented their cases in San Francisco to the federal appeals court judges. The ruling was written by federal Judge Richard Anthony Paez and supported in full by Judge John Noonan. Judge Carlos Bea partially concurred and partially dissented from the ruling opinion…

"We hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion," the ruling states. "Therefore, we affirm the district court's preliminary injunction order enjoining these certain provisions of SB 1070."

Today’s decision could be appealed by Arizonan officials and taken all the way to the Supreme Court.

Arizona became the epicenter of the national immigration debate due to the implementation of SB 1070. Proponents of the measure argued in part that it was needed to control illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico. The Justice Department sued to block the law while other critics including Latino right groups argued that SB 1070 would lead to harassment of Latinos residing in Arizona.

The fervor in Arizona has received less media attention compared to roughly a year ago but that hasn’t stopped some states from trying to pass their own SB1070-like laws. Legislatures in at least ten states have defeated “restrictive immigration measures” according to the Immigration Impact website. Yet as Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer noted, “Arizona-styled bills” are being debated in four states including Florida and Oklahoma.

Image- Gallo/Getty via Al Jazeera English (Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, CNN, The Guardian, Immigration Impact, Miami Herald

Daily Headlines: February 25, 2011

* Haiti: Presidential candidate Michel Martelly appealed to Haitians living abroad by visiting expats in Florida yesterday.

* U.S.: Some Arizonan legislators who backed the controversial SB 1070 law have introduced tougher anti-immigration bills that would have a deep impact on the Latino community.

* Guatemala: A Guatemalan forest preservation group was named along with a Nepali NGO as the co-winners of a prestigious conservation award given by the U.N.

* Cuba: The trial of Alan Gross, a U.S. contractor accused of spying in Cuba, was set for March 4th.

Image – AP/ Guillermo Arias via CTV News (“Haiti's presidential candidate Michel 'Sweet Micky' Martelly, a popular musician known for his sarcastic music and hip-thrusting onstage personality, is accompanied by his wife Sophia to cast his vote during general elections in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010.”)
Online Sources- MiamiHerald.com, CSMonitor.com, The Latin Americanist, AHN, CNN

Daily Headlines: November 16, 2010

* U.S.: The presidents of Mexico and Colombia were vocal in their opposition against California’s defeated Prop 19 yet they’ve yet to comment on an Arizona voter initiate that approved medical marijuana.

* Argentina: The Paris Club group of creditor nations agreed to negotiate the repayment of Argentina’s debt without IMF supervision.

* Dominican Republic: Reliever Neftali Feliz won the American League’s Rookie of the Year as a result of an All-star season that included recording forty saves.

* Mexico: A seven-month-old baby was among the ten migrant hostages freed by the Mexican navy on Monday.

Image – CNN (“Arizona joins 14 other states that permit medical marijuana. The store in the photo is in California.”)
Online Sources- MLB.com, Christian Science Monitor, The Telegraph, Reuters, Canadian Press

Daily Headlines: October 5, 2010

* Chile: President Sebastian Pinera expressed his hope that 33 miners trapped underground since early August could be freed before the end of next week.

* U.S.: Eleven Latin American countries including Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru filed a legal brief in Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's appeal of a July ruling on a controversial immigration measure.

* Colombia: The country’s inspector general barred two former intelligence chiefs from nearly two decades of public office due to their roles in an illegal wiretap scandal.

* Haiti: Some Canadian politicos alleged that the government staged a “photo op” by rerouting a post-earthquake flight with 24 Haitian orphans.

Image – BBC News (“Alberto Segovia, outside the San Jose mine in Copiapo, Chile, shows a portrait of his brother Dario Segovia, 48, one of 33 miners trapped inside.”)
Online Sources- CBC, AP, The Latin Americanist, MSNBC, Voice of America

Immigration Patrolling Northern Border

In talking with people from Latin American about the US' immigration laws, I like to note that people residing in the US - even in Arizona - are subject to less stringent immigration checks than occur in the countries that send droves of immigrants to the US. Never in the US, I like to point out, will police knock on doors in hotels to ask for proof I'm in the country legally (as has happened to me in Honduras).

Or so I thought. The New York Times reports today on the federal government's expanded use of border and documents checks along the areas near the Canadian border. Government agents are more regularly boarding public transit, including trains, and asking passengers to prevent proof of their legal status.

The catch, which the agents are unlikely to point out, is that passengers have no legal obligation to provide such proof. As the Times story points out:

"Legal scholars say the government’s border authority, which extends to fixed checkpoints intercepting cross-border traffic, cannot be broadly applied to roving patrols in a swath of territory. But such authority is not needed to ask questions if people can refuse to answer."

The government defends the practice as a vital part of its national security and immigration strategy, but several critics say the practices are another example of the government overreaching its authority.

Image Source: New York Times ("Border Patrol agents in the north routinely board Greyhound buses and Amtrak trains to check the immigration status of riders.")

Online Sources: Fox News, New York Times

Daily Headlines: August 27, 2010

* Puerto Rico: Approximately 30,000 teachers went on a one-day strike on Thursday to protest against problem's with the island's education system and government-backed reforms.

* U.S.: There may be a record this year in the number of deaths of migrants crossing into Arizona’s Pima County despite a local push for tougher immigration policies.

* Latin America: Is there an arms race in Latin America? Not in the opinion of one senior U.S. diplomat.

* Colombia: Most residents living near the Galeras Volcano have opted not to evacuate despite an increased risk of eruption.

Image – Kansas City Star
Online Sources- LAHT, UPI, CNN, The Latin Americanist

Judge blocks portions of Arizona immigration law (Updated)

Update (9:15pm): For the last word on Wednesday's court decision on SB 1070 here are a few reactions:

• "Arizona may be frustrated, as are we, with Congress' failure to seriously address comprehensive immigration reform. Nevertheless, the solution is not a patchwork of varying state laws each trying to be more repressive than the next to force immigrants to go elsewhere." - statement from the League of United Latin American Citizens.
• "The Obama administration has a light touch when it comes to securing the border but a heavy hand when it comes to sicking their lawyers on the people of Arizona." - joint statement from Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever.
• "I promise you this debate is going to get hotter and hotter and hotter" - remarks made by Federation for American Immigration Reform president Dan Stein to CNN.
  

Update (4:15pm): Of the seven lawsuits filed against SB 1070 Judge Bolton's decision focused primarily on the one presented by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Interestingly the DOJ's case did not challenge some of the law's provisions according to the Arizona Daily Star's website:

• Making it a crime to stop a vehicle in traffic to hire a day laborer or for someone looking for work to get into a stopped vehicle;

• Requiring state officials to work with the federal government regarding illegal immigrants;

• Allowing Arizona residents to file suit against any agency, official, city or county for adopting policies that restrict the ability of workers to enforce federal immigration law "to less than the full extent permitted by federal law.

Meanwhile several local politicos have already reacted to the judge's decision; Gov. Jan Brewer said that she will appeal yet admitted that she was "heartened by some findings" in Bolton's ruling. On the other hand, state Attorney General Terry Goddard criticized the bill and urged repairing "the damage to Arizona's image and economy."

Update (3:30pm): So what did Judge Bolton place a preliminary injunction on? In a nutshell here's the answer according to The Guardian:

• Requiring a police officer to make a reasonable attempt to check the immigration status of those they have stopped

• Making it a crime for non-citizens to fail to carry documentation

• Creating a new crime of seeking to work while not a legal resident

• Allowing police to make arrests without warrants if there is a belief the person has committed an offense that allows them to be expelled from the US

Update (2:45pm): A few quick points based on Judge Bolton's decision (which you can read in its entirety here):

1. It's vital to note that the blocks placed by the justice on areas of SB 1070 are temporary and could be overturned by an appeals court in the likely event that attorneys for Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer go in that direction.
2. The judge ruled that the law is against the Supremacy Clause in that the law would trump the federal government's authority on immigration enforcement. During the hearings, however, she was reportedly critical of some of the federal government's arguments and "seemed reluctant to accept that local police making the inquiry intruded on federal authority."
3. Bolton questioned the "vague wording" of the law that she said influenced her to grant preliminary injunctions for parts of the measure rather than permitting all of it to go into effect tonight.
   
4. While Bolton focused on the Justice Department's lawsuit she did not address the arguments made in other lawsuits against SB 1070 over potential racial profiling.
5. Lastly some food for thought - will the judge's decision lead to an increased push behind fair and comprehensive federal immigration reform?

Original Post: In a piece of breaking news, Judge Susan Bolton blocked parts of a strong anti-immigration law set to go into in effect in Arizona this Thursday at midnight. The law will reportedly still take in effect tonight without certain portions declared illegal by the justice according to the AP:

The law will still take effect Thursday, but without many of the provisions that angered opponents — including sections that required officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws. The judge also put on hold a part of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places.

The ruling apparently agreed with the basic points presented by the Department of Justice's lawsuit but also did not back their call for a permanent injunction of the entire law. Furthermore, the judge's decision is not expected to calm the high political tension over immigration that has centered in Arizona.

We'll have more later today on the details and fallout from Judge Bolton's ruling.

Online Sources - Too many to list
Image - The Guardian (A Border Patrol agent checks the ID of a driver trying to cross one of the U.S. borders.)

Today's Video: Utah's list of shame

The debate over immigration in the U.S. has centered on Arizona and the SB 1070 that is set to go into effect a week from today. Yet the discussion has at times been ugly in other parts of the country such as Utah where there has been an uproar over the distribution of a suspected illegal immigrant blacklist of 1300 mostly Latino names. newsy.com recently took a look at how several media sources focused on the controversy including some of the consequences of the ugly incident:
pp

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

Arizonan vets reject Cinco de Mayo celebration (Updated)

Update: The Justice Department has officially filed a lawsuit against Arizona over the state's anti-immigration law.

The immigration debate has gotten increasingly contentious in recent months, especially with the signing of Arizona’s controversial SB 1070 into law. At times the discussion has become juvenile such as Cardinal Roger Mahoney comparing the law with Nazism and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer claiming that “most” undocumented immigrants are “drug mules.” Unfortunately this disrespectful rhetoric has even pervaded one local veterans group.

Members of Arizona's largest American Legion Post in Apache Junction voted to bar the group’s Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Of the 26 veterans involved in the vote only one- ex-Army corporal Harry Robert Warren- voted against the measure. As Warren told one local news source, the decision was "retaliation" against the demonstrations by some Latino groups in protest of SB 1070. "It brings animosity between the different races," added Warren who hopes that the decision can be put up for a new vote in a few months.

“It caught me by total surprise,” mentioned Post Commander Felix Gonzalez to The Arizona Republic in response to the group’s vote. Additionally:

Gonzalez, the son of a Mexican-American father and mother with Spanish roots, said he was powerless to block or postpone a vote, despite his position as the Post's top administrative official.

The official reason given for the vote was that because Mexico does not celebrate Cinco de Mayo as a national holiday, there is no reason for the Post to celebrate it, Gonzalez said.

Though Cinco de Mayo is not a Mexican national holiday it is observed in several regions. Furthermore, the day commemorates Mexico’s military victory over France in the Battle of Puebla and may have prevented major French help of the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War.

Image- San Francisco Sentinel
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Huffington Post, USA TODAY, CNN, abc15.com, The Arizona Republic, Wikipedia