Daily Headlines: January 31, 2011

* Bolivia: Thousands of people marched outside of the U.S. embassy in La Paz last week in protest against a global ban on coca chewing.

* Uruguay: Striker Luis Suarez may be best known for his infamous handball in last year's World Cup yet his blinding speed and knack for scoring helped him secure a $36 million deal to play for English club Liverpool.

* Haiti: The country's electoral council announced that on Wednesday it would declare the winners of the first round of the presidential election that international observers claimed was rigged.

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez denied that the government has any plans to takeover Spanish-owned Banco Provincial.

Online Sources - MSNBC, BBC News, Reuters, Democracy Now, The Latin Americanist
Image - AP Photo/Juan Karita via Boston.com ("Indigenous gather in front of the U.S. embassy to inaugurate the national day of coca leaf-chewing in La Paz, Bolivia, Wednesday Jan. 26, 2011. Bolivia has petitioned the U.N. to end an international ban on coca leaf-chewing. A mild stimulant, the leaves have deep cultural and religious value in the region. The U.S. will file a formal objection...to Bolivia’s proposal, according to a senior U.S. government official.")

Sean Penn on Chavez Critics

Gotta give it up to Breitbart for writing a snappy headline.

ACTOR SEAN PENN WANTS REPORTERS JAILED FOR CALLING CHAVEZ ‘DICTATOR’ just screams click me.

Also of note, Bill Maher's pronunciation of Chavez is atrocious. Video below:



The full quote that led to the headline:

"Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it. And this is mainstream media, who should -- truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies."

Online Sources: Breitbart.tv
Video Source: Daily Motion via Real Time with Bill Maher

Daily Headlines: July 6, 2009

* Mexico: About 350 people protested the lack of justice and government corruption related to a nursery school fire that killed 48 children last month.

* Venezuela: The government nationalized the Venezuelan division of Spain’s Banco Santander.

* Ecuador: Will 23-year-old Ecuador international Antonio Valencia be enough to replace Cristiano Ronaldo on Manchester United?

* Peru: Nearly a month after claiming he would quit due to violent protests against the government, Prime Minister Yehude Simon said on Friday that he would resign sometime this week.

Image- CNN (“Two girls lay flowers during a funeral of one of the 48 children who died in the day-care fire.”)
Online Sources- LAHT, BBC Sport, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, Voice of America

Bolivian Ministers Seek Asylum in Peru.

Three ministers who served under former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada are seeking asylum in Peru, the Associated Foreign Press reported over the weekend.

They fled Bolivia after the Morales administration revealed plans to bring formal charges against them on May 18th. The ministers are accused of aiding the killing of 65 people in October 2003 when the government put down a popular uprising using the military and security forces. Peru's foreign minister, Jose Garcia Antonio Belaunde, affirmed that one minister has already been granted asylum while the other two applications are still under review.

This incident comes on the heels of a similar tension in the region. Peru granted asylum to Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales, which resulted in Venezuela recalling its ambassador from Lima.

Image: vivirlatino.com

Online sources: AFP, Reuters

Spain gives green light to Venezuelan bank takeover

Spain’s government will not oppose the planned nationalization of the Banco de Venezuela- a subsidiary of Spanish firm Banco Santander. “We will not intervene” Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa de la Vega said last week as Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez tried to assure creditors that the bank’s nationalization would “strengthen the Venezuelan financial system.”

It’s unknown if further bank takeovers will occur in Venezuela; several foreign firms like Citigroup and Spain’s BBVA have units in the South American country.

Chavez’ plan was met with opposition by Venezuela's largest business chamber- Fedecamaras- who also rejected numerous presidential decrees enacted last month:

The new laws includes measures which would set up neighborhood-based militias, move the country towards a socialist economy and increase state control over agriculture.

The decrees met with opposition from Fedecamaras, the Venezuelan federation of chambers of commerce.

Jose Manuel Gonzalez, a business chamber leader of Fedecamaras, said: "We ask the president: Why does he fear democracy?"

He said that the package of laws included socialist concepts that voters rejected last year as part of a proposed overhaul of Venezuela's constitution.
"We are sure that this is nothing more than imposing the reform project that was rejected in December," Gonzalez said.

Image- AFP

Sources- The latin Americanist, International Herald Tribune, Al Jazeera English, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Canadian Press

Banco de Venezuela to be nationalized says Chavez

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez announced plans to nationalize the local arm of Spain’s Banco Santander.

In a televised speech earlier today, Chavez said that the government would attempt to purchase the Banco de Venezuela after Santander’s directors wanted to sell it to a private firm. Chavez neglected to provide too many details as to why he wanted to nationalize Banco de Venezuela except to say that “the government was interested” in buying it.

It was a week ago that Chavez reconciled with Spanish King Juan Carlos yet Chavez anticipates a backlash from across the Atlantic:

"There'll be headlines in the Spanish press, 'Is Chavez harming Spain'... to undo the (diplomatic) relations we've just mended," he said, alluding to his meetings last week in Spain with King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The meeting closed a diplomatic spat over a verbal squabble between Chavez and the king at a Latin American summit in Santiago in November, during which the king told Chavez to "shut up."

Part of several key sectors have been nationalized in Venezuela under Chavez such as telecom, energy, and oil. Not all of the government's gestures have gone smoothly as was the case with ExxonMobil earlier this year.

Image- BBC News

Sources- The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, Reuters UK, eluniversal.com, Al Jazeera English, AFP