Daily Headlines: November 19, 2012

* Colombia: Envoys representing the Colombian government and the FARC rebels are scheduled to continue historic peace talks today in Cuba.

* Ecuador: President Rafael Correa said Ecuador would welcome "with open arms" Spanish workers fleeing economic woes at home.

* Brazil: Over one million people took part in Rio de Janeiro's Gay Pride parade, which had the theme of combating homophobia.

* Mexico: The Attorney General's office contradicted a federal police report regarding the controversial shooting of two CIA agents last August.

Online Sources: BBC News, ABC News, Bloomberg, Gulf Times

Video Source: YouTube via Al Jazeera English

World Watch: Fighting in Abidjan

* Ivory Coast: Forces loyal to internationally recognized President Alassane Ouattara have supposedly taken over the presidential palace while U.N. and French troops have fired against soldiers loyal to incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo.

* China: Contemporary artist Ai Weiwei has reportedly “disappeared” as part of a “massive” crackdown by Chinese authorities “on lawyers, writers and activists.”

* Yemen: At least 12 protesters were killed by “Yemeni security forces and gunmen in civilian clothes” in the city of Taiz.

* U.S.: Could the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan soon become the next head of the Central Intelligence Agency?

Image – Luc Gnago/Reuters via The Guardian (“Civilians pass a pro-Gbagbo soldier near the presidential palace in Abidjan.”)
Online Sources- The Guardian, BBC News, NPR, Voice of America, MSNBC

Weekend Headlines: July 4, 2010

* Mexico: An IBM study concluded that the traffic in Mexico City and Beijing is the worst among twenty major cities worldwide.

* Peru: Scientists recovered the fossil of a massive prehistoric whale that existed over twelve million years ago.

* Chile: According to recently declassified documents the CIA was involved in the assassination of one of Salvador Allende’s closest supporters in 1971.

* Argentina: In a unique tit-for-tat, visiting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad pledged to support Argentina’s claims to the Falklands in exchange for Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s backing of Syria’s claims to the Golan Heights.

Image – CNN (Traffic in Mexico City).
Online Sources- MSNBC, The Latin Americanist, Washington Post, AFP, Reuters

Daily Headlines: November 3, 2009

* U.S.: The case of a Guatemalan women escaping her abusive husband may lead to a major change for victims of domestic abuse who seek political asylum in the U.S.

* El Salvador: According to renowned travel guide Lonely Planet, El Salvador is one of the world’s top holiday destinations.

* Argentina: The country’s final Dirty War-era president along with four ex- generals have gone on trial over the kidnapping, torture, and disappearances of 56 political dissidents.

* Cuba: “Fidel Castro is the victim, the offended person, the individual against whom they conspired," opined one Cuban magazine in response to his sister- Juanita- revealing that she formerly worked with the C.I.A.

Image – Guardian UK
Online Sources- UPI, Sky News, AFP, BBC News, The Latin Americanist

Castro's Sister Worked With CIA

Jaunita Castro, younger sister of Fidel and Raúl, has added another twist to the ongoing saga that is the Castro reign in Cuba. In a shocking revelation, Juanita has admitted that she collaborated with the CIA both before leaving the island in 1964 and while living in exile in Miami. During those years the CIA plotted a series of unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro.

In her new book "Fidel and Raúl, My Brothers: The Secret History" and in an interview (in Spanish) with Univision 23 in Miami, Juanita says she lost faith in her brothers' movement after Castro opponents were executed on Raul and Fidel's orders.

For years Juanita kept a low profile and ran a Miami pharmacy. Her book, released today, also details previously untold accounts of the early life of Fidel and Raúl.

Image: Palm Beach Post
Online Sources: Miami Herald, New York Times, Univision 23 Miami

Daily Headlines: February 26, 2009

* Cuba: The U.S. House of Representatives approved a spending bill that included provisions to relax travel and remittance restrictions to Cuba. The bill will likely face a serious challenge in the Senate, however.

* Latin America: Could Argentina, Ecuador and Venezuela be “destabilized” due to the global economic crisis? CIA Director Leon Panetta thinks so.

* Guatemala: The country’s government still has a long way to go to repair the human rights violations during the civil war according to Amnesty International.

* Colombia: Time magazine examines the shortcomings of extraditing suspected Colombian drug capos to the U.S.

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- Time, AP, Amnesty International, BBC News, Reuters

Report: CIA lied over downed Peruvian plane

According to several sources, a top secret report alleged that the CIA covered-up the downing of a 2001 missionary plane in Peru.

Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter were killed after their plane was shot down by a Peruvian air force jet. The missionaries' plane was first spotted by a U.S. reconnaissance flight who claimed to have tried to stop the Peruvian jet from shooting down Bowers’ plane. Peruvian officials disputed that version and insisted that the Bowers’ plane accidently flew into Peruvian air space from Brazil. Both governments were contradicted by the Bowers’ missionary church who said that the plane was shot down despite being in constant contact with Peruvian air traffic control.

U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra released a report by the CIA inspector general that alleges of a massive cover-up. According to the report, CIA officials possibly lied to Congress and withheld information to the Justice Department over what really happened in the Bowers incident.

Hoekstra was chair of the House Intelligence Committee during the investigation of the tragedy though he now believes that the CIA deliberately misled him:

"What's most disturbing is what led up to the Bowers incident," Hoekstra told reporters. "If there had been accountability in the program, if there had been respect for procedures and adherence to the law, the Bowers (family) never would have been shot down.

"It was the senseless killing of a family, done by an agency that wasn't following the rules."

Image- New York Times
Sources- New York Times, CNN, BBC News, MSNBC, Fox News, mlive.com

Quote of the Day: The wrong “perra”

“The Guatemalan military bugged the bedroom of the US ambassador in 1994 and caught her cooing to someone who was not her husband but did share her female secretary's name.

The CIA passed on this juicy tidbit to Washington DC, where it became the buzz of the capital during a period of difficult relations with Guatemala. And who did the recipient of these sweet-nothings turn out to be?

The ambassador's 2-year-old poodle.”

--Excerpt from the Christian Science Monitor’s review of “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA”.

Source- Christian Science Monitor

Image- MSNBC