Daily Headlines: August 15, 2016

* Argentina: Human rights group the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo held their 2000th weekly march in Buenos Aires days after the United States (US) declassified hundreds of documents related to actions during the “Dirty War” era.

* Cuba: Former Cuban president Fidel Castro made a rare public appearance to celebrate his 90th birthday and also penned a letter thanking his compatriots “for the signs of respect, greetings, and gifts” he has recently received.

* Puerto Rico: The US government declared a public health emergency in Puerto Rico due to the spread of the Zika virus that has infected at least 10,000 people there.

* Guatemala: A Canadian legal aid group has called on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to probe a local mining firm accused of allegedly using legal chicanery to prevent a referendum over a Guatemalan mine.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English

Online Sources – BBC News, The Bubble, Vice News, The Toronto Star, The Atlantic

Daily Headlines: June 29, 2016

* Cuba: A U.S. federal judge ruled that a group of Cuban migrants who climbed a lighthouse off the Florida Keys must be returned to their homeland as part of the “wet foot, dry foot” policy.

* U.S.: Non-citizen Latinos may be barred from voting in federal elections but a new report found that they are a politically active group and could play an important role in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

* Peru: President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski claimed a “social revolution” is needed to reduce inequality, particularly for the most impoverished regions of Peru.

* Mexico: Canada and Mexico reached key immigration and trade agreements prior to the start of the “Three Amigos” summit today of the leaders of both nations plus the U.S..

YouTube Source – Associated Press (From June 2015: “The US-Cuba relationship is changing, but the U.S. Coast Guard continues to interdict thousands of Cuban migrants risking their lives to take advantage of the controversial 'wet foot dry foot' policy.”)

Online Sources – NBC NEWS, CNN, The Atlantic, Xinhua

Daily Headlines: June 2, 2016

* Mexico: Many Mexican states are reportedly hurrying to implement judicial reforms including “increasing transparency and better guaranteeing access to fair and timely trials” before a June 18 deadline.

* Honduras: Members of the Honduran indigenous rights group that included assassinated activist Berta Caceres warned of the return of alleged "death squads" that roamed the country during the 1980s.

* Cuba: Jose Daniel Ferrer, a Cuban dissident allowed to travel to the U.S., called on his fellow political opponents on the island to unite and create a shared strategy in light of the rapprochement between the Obama and Castro regimes.

* Colombia: The U.N. agency representing refugees urged Canada to renew an expiring agreement to help resettle Colombians displaced by armed conflict.

YouTube Source – CCTV Americas Now (Judicial reforms in Mexico were started in 2008 but most states have yet to fully implement new measures).
 
Online Sources –The Christian Science Monitor, The Hamilton Spectator, Latin American Herald Tribune, teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: March 15, 2016

* Venezuela: Authorities in southeastern Venezuela have recovered the bodies of seventeen men missing for over a week and possibly massacred in a case of illegal mining.

* Cuba: Ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s trip next week to Cuba, the Treasury Department announced new relaxing of travel and trade restrictions.

* Canada: A new report concluded that deporting convicts from Canada to Jamaica and Honduras could have a “boomerang effect” on crime in the North American country.

* U.S.: As a new slate of presidential primaries take place today, it’s worth noting that Latinos don't represent a monolithic voting bloc.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English (June 2014 report on the Venezuelan mining industry.)
 
Online Sources – CBC, Fox News Latino, Quartz, MarketWatch

Daily Headlines: January 29, 2016

* Colombia: President Juan Manuel Santos called on the U.S. to remove the FARC from its list of terrorist groups in order to help advance peace talks that could end with a full agreement by March.

* Puerto Rico: While the Zika virus continues to spread across the Americas, Puerto Rican health officials warned that the flu reached epidemic levels on the commonwealth.

* Latin America: Caracas, Venezuela supplanted San Pedro Sula in Honduras as the world’s most violent city according to the Mexico-based Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice. 

* Mexico: Should Canada’s new government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau focus on more on strengthening ties with Mexico than the U.S.?

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – NBC News, Reuters, ABC News, The Telegtaph, The Globe and Mail

Daily Headlines: December 24, 2015

* Brazil: Brazilian Attorney General Rodrigo Janot is investigating if embattled congressional leader Eduardo Cunha received $475,000 in bribes related to next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

* Uruguay: Eugenio Figueredo, the former vice president of soccer governing body FIFA, was extradited to his native Uruguay where he will be arraigned in connection to a massive corruption scandal.

* Canada: Canadian immigration authorities withdrew the deportation order against a Salvadoran refugee who has received sanctuary in a British Columbia church since 2013.

* Puerto Rico: Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla believes that the island will be unable to make a $1 billion debt payment due on New Year’s Day.

YouTube Source – PBS NewsHour (The toxic waters where certain aquatic events are schedules is one of numerous problems that have arisen in preparation for the 2016 Rio Olympics).
 
Online Sources – CBC, Reuters, BBC News, SI.com

Daily Headlines: October 20, 2015

* Canada: The incoming Liberal government under Justin Trudeau could affect Canadian mining interests in Latin America as well as the North American state’s growing Latino immigrant population.

* Mexico: Parents of some of 43 Ayotzinapa students missing for over a year have called on a boycott against a documentary that they claim relies on a “false” version of events.

* Cuba: Cuba’s Foreign Ministry rejected unconfirmed claims that troops from the island were sent to Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro railed against Lorenzo Mendoza, the head of the Empresas Polar food conglomerate, for suggesting that the country needs an international economic bailout.

YouTube Source – Associated Press
 
Online Sources – Newsweek, Voice of America, Reuters, teleSUR English, Latin American Herald Tribune

Daily Headlines: September 9, 2015 (Updated)

* Brazil: Financial analysts surveyed by Brazil’s central bank believe the country this year will face its worst economic performance since 1990 and predicted that the economy will keep shrinking in 2016.

Update: More bad news for the economy as Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday downgraded the Brazilian government’s sovereign debt rating to junk status.

* Ecuador: Canada’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of proceeding with an environmental damages lawsuit against Chevron though the tribunal did not “endorse the underlying Ecuadorian legal case.”

* Latin America: A new study found that digital use in Latin America grew between April 2014 and April 2015 including increases of 147% and 351% in activity for Facebook and Twitter, respectively.

* Cuba: Some 140 Cuban dissidents including twenty members of the Ladies in White were reportedly arrested yesterday while on their way to a Catholic mass.

YouTube Source – CNNMoney (“Brazil is struggling with high unemployment, rising inflation and a currency trading at 12-year lows.”)
 
Online Sources including Update – MercoPress, The Latin Americanist, Financial Post, Billboard, Latin American Herald Tribune, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: August 25, 2015

* Latin America: China’s recent economic woes could have major financial repercussions to Latin American states that rely heavily on trade with the Asian country and are heavily dependent on oil exports. 

* Caribbean: Tugboat operators are concerned over potential safety hazards regarding the expansion of the Panama Canal, while the U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua criticized potential land expropriation for the construction of a new interoceanic waterway.

* Brazil: The Brazilian government will eliminate 10 of its 39 ministries as part of “President Dilma Rousseff's commitment to an unpopular austerity plan.”

* Puerto Rico: The number of murders in Puerto Rico dropped by 40% since a record high 1164 homicides in 2011 according to the FBI.

YouTube Source – Associated Press

Online Sources – PRI, Tico Times, International Business Times, Reuters, Latin American Herald Tribune

Daily Headlines: May 20, 2015

 
* Uruguay: Four former Guantanamo detainees relocated to Uruguay agreed to end their almost month-long protest in front of the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo.

* Brazil: Visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff signed numerous deals worth tens of billions of dollars.

* Mexico: U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill they claimed will help prevent a “continental trade war” against Canada and Mexico.

* Chile: A Chilean court ordered reopening the investigation into the mysterious death of Eduardo Frei Montalva, an ex-president and staunch critic of strongman Augusto Pinochet, in 1982.

YouTube Source – AFP

Online Sources – ABC News, CTV, Reuters, news.com.au

Daily Headlines: May 5, 2015

* South America: Chilean representatives requested the International Court of Justice to dismiss landlocked Bolivia’s long-standing claims of access to the Pacific Ocean.

* Mexico: The U.S. and Canadian embassies in Mexico issued travel warnings for tourists visiting a Jalisco state that has been the setting for a recent uptick in violent drug-related crime.

* Cuba: Alan Gross, the former contractor who spent over three years in a Cuban jail, will lobby for a new political action committee seeking stronger ties between the U.S. and the Caribbean nation.

* Brazil: Brazil will likely fall into a deeper recession and also raise interest rates according to financial analysts reporting to the Central Bank.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English
 
Online Sources – Bloomberg, CBC News, MercoPress, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: October 20, 2014

* Nicaragua: At least 24 people are dead and more than 33,000 are homeless as a result of heavy rain and flooding in areas of Nicaragua.

* Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff has apparently reversed a downturn in recent polls and is currently in a statistical dead heat with challenger Aécio Neves ahead of Sunday’s Brazilian presidential runoff election.

* Mexico: The World Trade Organization criticized the U.S. for not complying with a 2012 ruling to change meat labeling rules that were deemed discriminatory against Mexico and Canada.

* Uruguay: Will former president and current ruling party candidate Tabaré Vázquez earn an outright win in the October 26th general election or be forced into a second round next month?

Video Source – teleSUR English (Video uploaded on October 11, 2014).

Online Sources – NTDTV; NBC News; The Latin Americanist; Reuters; Buenos Aires Herald

Daily Headlines: February 18, 2014

* Honduras: A United Nations-affiliated report released yesterday found that Honduras continues to have the world’s highest homicide rate even though the rate in murders dropped 6.5% last year.

* U.S.: Is the "fear of deportation" be one of the main reasons behind sagging Latino enrollment in health care programs covered under the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare?

* Mexico: The proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, expanding free trade and easing travel restrictions are topics likely to be discussed by the heads of the U.S., Canadian and Mexican governments at the  “Three Amigos” summit that starts today.

* Brazil: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff clamed that her country will become the world’s top producer of soybeans by the end of this year.

Video Source – AFP via YouTube (“In Honduras, the military police is a highly visible presence in the most violent region of Tegucigalpa and the San Pedro Sula, where residents have been plagued by violent gang crime”).

Online Sources- CBC News; Herald Sun; New York Times; Time

Daily Headlines: October 8, 2013

* Cuba: Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno said that for the 22nd straight year his country will push for a U.N. condemnation of the decades-long U.S. trade embargo on the island.

* Brazil: “The United States and its allies must immediately stop their spying activity once and for all,” Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff tweeted after new allegations emerged accusing the Canadian government of spying on the South American country.

* Mexico: The possibility of a U.S. government debt default has apparently led to increased anxiety among economists and officials in Mexico.

* Dominican Republic: Pope Francis named the Vatican’s new ambassador to the Dominican Republic after the previous envoy was removed while being investigated for possible sexual abuse.

Video Source – YouTube via NTDTV (188 nations voted last year at the U.N. General Assembly against the U.S. embargo against Cuba with only the U.S., United States, Israel and Palau supporting the blockade).

Online Sources- Reuters; The Latin Americanist; Voice of America; Salon; CSMonitor.com

Daily Headlines: June 24, 2013

* Honduras: The State Department issued a new travel warning advising, “U.S. citizens that the crime and violence levels in Honduras remain critically high,” while a group of twenty-one senators urged a review of aid to the Honduran police and military.

* Uruguay: Voters defeated a proposal to hold a national referendum aimed at overturning a 2012 law legalizing abortion.

* Canada: Quebec officials have called on the Canadian government to permit thousands of Haitian earthquake refugees to stay in the country by not lifting a moratorium on deportations.

* Brazil: Hosts Brazil will take on Copa America winners Uruguay in a Confederations Cup semifinal to be held later this week.

Video Source – YouTube via AFP (Video uploaded on April 2012).

Online Sources- U.S. State Department; ABC News; news24.com; CBC; CNN

Daily Headlines: April 3, 2013

* Venezuela: Interim leader Nicolás Maduro and main opposition candidate Henrique Capriles held competing rallies yesterday as official campaigning began for Venezuela’s April 14th presidential election.

* Guatemala: Victims of sexual assault including one woman who claimed that she had found Guatemalan soldiers raping her daughter were among the latest testimony in the genocide trial of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt.

* U.S.: Pressure from Latino media groups such as the National Association of Hispanic Journalists may have been instrumental in the Associated Press’ decision to drop using the term “illegal immigrant.”

* Canada: Some forty temporary workers from Latin America received compensation five years after a Canadian court ruled in their favor in a discrimination lawsuit.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- euronews, Houston Chronicle, The Latin Americanist, The Vancouver Sun, Huffington Post

Daily Headlines: January 7, 2013

* Venezuela: Chavistas and opposition politicos continue to be at loggerheads over the health of ailing President Hugo Chavez who is supposed to be inaugurated on Thursday for a third straight term.
    
* Chile: President Sebastián Piñera announced the application of Chile's tough Pinochet era anti-terrorism law as a result of increased tensions with indigenous Mapuche activists.

* Mexico: Could Canada’s guest worker program for Mexicans serve as an example for the U.S. to emulate?
 
* Colombia: Honduras’ ambassador to Colombia resigned after it was discovered that a bacchanalian holiday party was held at the embassy in Bogota last month.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources- Businessweek, Huffington Post, VOXXI, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: August 9, 2012

* Colombia: Jairo Varela, the founder and leader of renowned salsa band Grupo Niche, died at the age of 62 due to an apparent heart attack.

* Guatemala: A former Guatemalan military commander accused of taking part in the infamous Dos Erres massacre could soon be extradited from Canada to the U.S. where he awaits trial.

* Brazil: The federal legislature backed an affirmative action-like law that supporters hope will increase Afro-Brazilian enrollment in universities.

* Mexico: Archeologists have supposedly found an ancient Aztec burial site containing a skeleton surrounded by nearly 1800 human bones.

Video Source – YouTube via juanitolinares

Online Sources- Billboard, The Latin Americanist, CBC News, BBC News, Huffington Post

Daily Headlines: July 4, 2012

* Colombia: Former Mauricio Santoyo turned himself in to U.S. authorities and awaits trial over allegedly helping paramilitaries smuggle cocaine.

* Latin America: At least three people died in clashes between Peruvian police and demonstrators opposed to a gold mining project, while fifty people were injured in Nicaragua during protests against education reforms.

* Canada: Is there a link between the suspected arson of a Montreal radio station and the station’s criticism of Haitian President Michel Martelly and ex-dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier?

* Nicaragua: The country’s legislature overwhelming approved a government-backed plan for the constructing of a transoceanic canal aimed at being an alternative to the Panama Canal.

Video Source – YouTube via canalNTN24

Online Sources- CNN, BBC News, Fox News Latino, Montreal Gazette, Tico Times

Tourism Continues Upward Climb in Mexico

According to new data the numbers of foreign tourists to Mexico continues to increase despite rampant violence in several parts of the country.

Mexico's Tourism Department reported on Monday that there was a 5.3% increase in foreign visitors to the country between January and April of this year compared to the same period in 2011. Nearly five million tourists representing 147 nationalities visited Mexico in the first four months this year according to the government data.

Despite State Department travel warnings against visiting areas of Mexico hurt by drug related violence the U.S. is the country with the highest amount of tourists visiting Mexico during the first four months this year. One of the reasons for this could be the 7.2% increase in spring breakers traveling to Mexico this year compared to 2011. (Perhaps this explains why some of the main destinations for foreign travelers were Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and Cozumel).

The data also revealed significant increases in visitors coming from overseas countries like Russia (71.0% increase), Sweden (40.8% increase) and China (34.8% increase). Mexican tourism also received major increases in visitors from Latin American countries such as Brazil (69.5% increase), Argentina (27.4% increase) and Guatemala (83.4% increase).