Daily Headlines: January 30, 2009

* Venezuela: Venezuelan-owned oil firm Citgo resumed shipments of free heating oil in the U.S. yesterday with a delivery to a shelter.

* Mexico: More bad news for the Mexican economy – Volkswagen will lay off 800 workers at its Puebla plant.

* Bolivia: The last Drug Enforcement Administration agent departed Bolivia months after the entire operation was ordered to leave.

* Chilean: A local appeals court upheld the life sentences against Manuel Contreras- the intelligence chief under the Pinochet dictatorship who was convicted in June 2008.

Image- daylife.com (“Felix Rodriguez, CITGO president and CEO climbs out of a heating oil truck during a ceremony in which a homeowner receives discounted heating oil as part of the CITGO-Venezuela heating oil program, in partnership with Citizens Energy Corporation, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2006.”)
Online Sources- MSNBC, Los Angeles Times, IHT, BBC News, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: January 8, 2009

* Colombia: Thin-skinned execs at the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation are planning a multimillion dollar lawsuit against cartoonist Mike Peters for the above comic strip.

* Venezuela: The country’s state-run oil firm PDVSA announced that it would reverse a decision which would’ve halted a program supplying cheap heating oil to underprivileged U.S. neighborhoods.

* Dominican Republic: Officials in Haiti are none too pleased with their neighbors after the deportation of over 500 Haitians seeking refuge in a Dominican church.

* Ecuador: Legislators in Ecuador condemned Israeli attacks on Gaza and called them “crimes against humanity.”

Image- Colombia Reports
Online Sources- Dominican Today, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, Ynetnews, AP

Daily Headlines: January 7, 2009

* U.S.: Univision could lose millions of dollars in ad revenue from programs like prime-time telenovelas should it be defeated in a royalties trial with Mexican media giant Televisa.

* Guatemala: Rescue workers have called off their search efforts for victims of a large landslide that killed at least 35 people.

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez stopped a three-year program that supplied cheap heating oil to underprivileged U.S. neighborhoods.

* U.S.: Ex-Florida governor Jeb Bush has declined running in 2010 for the Senate seat vacated by Mel Martinez.

Image- Los Angeles Times (“A Televisa crew shoots an episode of the telenovela "Un Gancho al Corazon" ("A Hook to the Heart") in Mexico City. Ads from Televisa programming generate a significant chunk of Univision's TV revenue.”)
Online Sources- Voice of America, Bloomberg, Reuters, New York Times, The Latin Americanist