Daily Headlines: November 4, 2016

* Venezuela: A fragile truce between the Venezuelan government and opposition may be in jeopardy after President Nicolas Maduro rejected what he called “ultimatums” such as early elections.

* South America: A recent poll showed “journalist turned anti-establishment senator” Alejandro Guillier as the favorite for next year’s Chilean presidential election, while outside candidates made major gains during local elections last Sunday in Brazil.

* Panama: Scientists studying ant genomes believe the union of the North and South American landmasses may have occurred millions of years earlier than previously believed.

* Latin America: Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Cuba are the best-ranked Latin American states in a gender gap study issued by the World Economic Forum.

YouTube Source – Ruptly TV

Online Sources – Tico Times, BBC News, Nature, AS/COA Online, teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: November 1, 2016

* Brazil: A study from the Getulio Vargas Foundation public policy think tank concluded that the Brazilian economy will continue to be mired in an economic crisis into 2017.

* Cuba: The discrepancy in pay between workers of different nationalities laboring on three major hotel projects in Cuba has not sat well with residents.

* Argentina: Approximately $4.6 billion was reportedly declared by Argentines as part of a tax amnesty plan in effect until November 21st.

* Venezuela: Five imprisoned opposition politicians were released from jail after Democratic Unity Roundtable representatives first met with government represntatives in Vatican-mediated talks .

YouTube Source – Bloomberg (Video uploaded in September 2016).

Online Sources – UPI, Reuters, Xinhua, BBC News

Daily Headlines: October 31, 2016

* Venezuela: Venezuela’s weakened economy is to blame for lowered output at Cuba's joint oil refinery with PDVSA, while government officials and opposition figures from the south American country met in discussions aimed at quelling rising political tensions.

* El Salvador: Ex-President Tony Saca was arrested over the weekend over the alleged embezzlement of an estimated $5 million dollars in public funds and, thus, became the latest former Salvadoran leader to be accused of corruption while in office.

* Mexico: Compatriots Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez did not fare well during the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Mexico held for the second straight year in Mexico City.

* Brazil: Students at more than 1100 high schools and universities occupied their respective educational institutions last week to protest policies under President Michel Temer.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – Xinhua, Al Jazeera English, Newsweek, BBC Sport, Latin American Herald Tribune

Daily Headlines: October 28, 2016

* Brazil: Brazilian authorities warned that a recent outbreak of prison violence between the PCC and Comando Vermelho criminal groups could spill on to the streets.

* Panama: The Panamanian government took a big step in its push to remove the stigma from the Panama Papers leak by signing a multilateral treaty to combat tax evasion.

* Cuba: The United Sates Food and Drug Administration has purportedly given the green light for the clinical trial of a Cuban lung cancer medicine known as CIMAvax.

* Haiti: Spain’s soccer federation has been ordered to return around $240,000 in public funds that were misappropriated instead of being spent on a project in Haiti.

YouTube Source – AFP 

Online Sources – InSight Crime, ESPN FC, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, CBC

Daily Headlines: September 30, 2016

* Brazil: Children's rights groups urged the International Olympic Committee to compensate minors who they claim were victims of police violence during the Rio Olympics and the security crackdown prior to the games held in August.

* Cuba: The campaign of United States (US) presidential candidate Donald Trump is under fire over alleged secret and illicit business dealings with Cuba’s government in 1998, while the Cuban state media blasted “subversive” US-funded programs.

* United States: The OneOrlando Fund commenced distribution this week of donations to some of the families and survivors of the June 12th massacre during a Latino-themed night at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando.

* Venezuela: Representatives of thirty countries led by Paraguay at the Untied Nations Human Rights Council called for a “timely and effective dialogue” in Venezuela and advocated the freeing of all political prisoners.

YouTube Source – ITV News (Uploaded on August 2, 2016: “As battles between security forces and drugs gangs rage ahead of the Rio Olympics, innocent bystanders are getting caught in the crossfire.”)
 
Online Sources – BBC Sport, Newsweek, McClatchy, Latina, Reuters

Daily Headlines: September 26, 2016

* United States: The baseball world, and especially players of Cuban background, is mourning the untimely death of rising star Jose Fernandez who died at the age of 24.

* Latin America: Several recent reports concluded that the burgeoning weapons trade in Latin America “serves to both profit illicit groups and to facilitate criminal violence in the region.”

* Mexico: Jose Alfredo Lopez Guillen became the third Mexican priest kidnapped and killed in less than a week.

* South America: A small diplomatic brouhaha has developed between Bolivia and Chile after Bolivian President Evo Morales alleged that the landlocked country was being denied access to Chilean ports.

YouTube Source – Associated Press

Online Sources – InSight Crime, CBS Miami, CBC, Reuters

Daily Headlines: September 20, 2016

* Mexico: A drill of Mexico City’s earthquake alert system, which was installed following a deadly 8.1-magnitude tremor in 1985, was conducted yesterday on the 31st-annoversary of the quake.

* Argentina: Argentine President Mauricio Macri affirmed his state’s sovereignty claim regarding the Falklands as “standing and non-negotiable” despite improved relations between Argentina and Britain over the disputed islands.

* Haiti: Some 130 Organization of American States observers began arriving in Haiti this week in anticipation of the controversial presidential election rerun scheduled on October 9th.

* Cuba: Iranian and Cuban officials signed several pacts in areas of health, education and science after the heads of government for both countries met in Havana.

YouTube Source – ITN Source (“Mexico City was struck by an earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale followed by an aftershock of 7.5 the next day. Thousands of people were killed with many more made homeless in the three minute quake which caused major damage.”)
 
Online Sources – MercoPress, Xinhua, The Guardian, Reuters, The Miami Herald

Daily Headlines: September 15, 2016

* Latin America: Former Guantanamo detainee Abu Wa'el Dhiab woke up from a coma following the effects of a hunger strike, while Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas said he was duped by a fake website into halting his fast.

* Mexico: Extradition hearings against imprisoned drug capo Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman are expected to start on September 26th though the process could take years to carry out.

* Venezuela: The Vatican confirmed its mediation in the tense and deep political division in Venezuela between the government and the opposition.

* Brazil: Ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva claimed he was a “victim of extremely serious illegalities” after prosecutors charged him with corruption as part of the “Lava Jato” probe.

YouTube Source – Marti Noticias (Guillermo Fariñas halted his latest hunger strike, the twenty-fifth such protest by the Cuban dissident, on Monday after more than two months).

Online Sources – ABC News, Fox News Latino, El Pais, BBC News, CNN

Daily Headlines: September 6, 2016

* Mexico: Several thousand people lined the streets outside of Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes yesterday to pay their last respects to famed singer-songwriter Juan Gabriel who died last week at the age of 66.

* Venezuela: Oilfield services company Schlumberger announced it would scale back operations in Venezuela including laying off workers and withdrawing from projects.

* Cuba: Dissidents believe the Cuban government has been censoring text messages by removing missives with phrases like “human rights” and the names of opposition activists.

* Colombia: Coca-Cola, Chiquita and Drummond are some of the major multinational firms that could face charges over financing Colombia’s former AUC paramilitary group.

YouTube Source – Associated Press  
 
Online Sources – Reuters, Seeking Alpha, Endgadget, Colombia Reports

Daily Headlines: August 31, 2016

* Cuba: Direct commercial flights from the United States to Cuba will resume on Wednesday for the first time since 1961 and could soon reach as many as 110 per day.

* Haiti: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former Haitian president ousted on two separate occasions, made a rare public appearance to back Maryse Narcisse in the race for the country’s next president.

* Colombia: “Today we have a slogan that ... we will not forget the disappeared during peacetime,” said a human rights campaigner calling attention to the more than 45,000 missing people during Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict.

* Venezuela: Several opposition activists have been detained and three journalists were expelled from Venezuela on the eve of what is expected to be a massive anti-government protest in Caracas on Thursday.

YouTube Source – AFP (“US secretary of transportation Anthony Foxx will travel to Cuba August 31, 2016, on the occasion of the first regular flight between the two countries after more than 50 years of suspension, according to local authorities.”)

Online Sources – ABC News, Fox News Latino, Reuters, CNN

Daily Headlines: August 22, 2016

* Cuba: How are Cubans trying to work around the financial and technological barriers that make it very difficult to access the Internet?

* Chile: Hundreds of thousands of Chileans marched nationwide to call for reforming the private pension system in place since the regime of then-strongman Augusto Pinochet.

* United States: A recent study concluded that Latinos age at a slower rate than other ethnic groups despite having higher cases of chronic diseases as obesity and diabetes.

* Mexico: Bad news for the Mexican economy, which suffered its first quarterly loss in approximately three years.

YouTube Source – Wall Street Journal (From August 2015: “The streets of Cuba are famous for their classic American cars and weathered buildings. Now, they are also increasingly popular with Cubans using the Internet.”)

Online Sources – Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, Quartz, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: August 17, 2016

* Bolivia: Landlocked Bolivia took a big step towards being the world’s largest exporter of lithium following its first shipment of the metal to China.

* Brazil: Suspended President Dilma Rousseff proposed early elections though that may not be enough to prevent her from possibly being removed from office by the Brazilian Senate later this month.

* Puerto Rico: At least 500 passengers were evacuated from a ferry that caught fire off the Puerto Rican coast this morning.

* Nicaragua: Opposition parties have called for a boycott of Nicaragua’s upcoming presidential elections that critics claim are rigged to create a “dynastic dictatorship” for current leader Daniel Ortega.

* Mexico: Is the kidnapping of six people including the son of imprisoned capo Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman a sign of increased violence between Mexican drug gangs?

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: August 8, 2016

* Mexico: At least forty people died following several landslides in Puebla and Veracruz states following Tropical Storm Earl though heavy rain is expected to continue and potentially cause “life-threatening flash floods and mudslides.”

* Cuba: Cuban officials blamed the United States for a surge of nationals fleeing from the country including several hundred migrants awaiting deportation from Colombia.

* Ecuador: Maria Duarte, Ecuador's Minister of Urban Development and Housing, claimed to be “optimistic” over the rebuilding of homes destroyed in a major earthquake nearly four months ago.

* Brazil: Several upsets in tennis at the Olympics on Sunday including Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina beating Novak Djokovic, and the Colombian pair of Juan-Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah surprising the top seed in men’s doubles.

* Bolivia: Bolivian authorities last week seized nearly eight tons of cocaine valued at around $350 million from a cargo truck.

YouTube Source – Associated Press 
 
Online Sources – Reuters, CNN, Business Insider, Houston Chronicle, Al Jazeera English, The Tico Times

Daily Headlines: August 2, 2016

* Cuba: The Cuban government accused the U.S. State Department of attempting to rush to settle billions of dollars of claims between both countries.

* Venezuela: Electoral officials have approved the first step in a possible recall vote against President Nicolas Maduro, while Amnesty International blasted a decree that is reportedly shifting more power to the military.

* Argentina: Could the appointment of Edgardo Bauza as new coach of the Argentine men’s national soccer team lure Lionel Messi back into the fold for los albicelestes?

* Mexico: The mayor of a town in Michoacán state and four police officers were arrested and charged with the massacre of ten people purportedly in relation to the local drugs trade.

YouTube Source – Associated Press (From March 2015: “Nearly 60 years after Fidel Castro took over Cuba, American families and companies who have claims on billions worth of confiscated property are wondering if the communist government will pay up as the U.S. and Cuba restore diplomatic ties.”)

Online Sources – ESPN FC, Reuters, The Guardian, BBC News, CNN Money

Daily Headlines: August 1, 2016

* Poland: Pope Francis spent several days in Poland that included a visit to the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz and also declaring Panama as the site of the next World Youth Day.

* Puerto Rico: Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla signed into a law a proposal allowing municipalities to share administrative services in order to cut costs at the heavily indebted commonwealth.

* Nicaragua: Nicaraguan electoral officials unseated twenty-eight opposition members of the federal legislature in a move critics view as consolidating the power of President Daniel Ortega.

* Cuba: JetBlue could become the first air carrier to regular schedule commercial flights to Cuba but the move first requires permission from the island’s government.

YouTube Source – France 24 English 
 
Online Sources – Refinery29, NPR, Vatican Radio, Business Insider, Yahoo7 News

Daily Headlines: July 18, 2016

* U.S.: A new poll indicates an overwhelming majority of residents in the U.S.-Mexico border region are opposed to building a wall between both countries and also support a path to U.S. citizenship for undocumented Mexican immigrants.

* Colombia: Jarlinson Pantano of Colombia won his first Tour de France stage on Sunday, while his compatriot and race contender Nairo Quintana’s expected attack this week may not be enough to dethrone Chris Froome from winning his second straight Tour.

* Cuba: The U.S. Congress is gradually easing its opposition to normalizing ties with Cuba despite staunch opposition from Cuban-American legislators.

* Venezuela: At least 100,000 people took advantage of a brief reopening of the Venezuelan border with Colombia mainly to buy basic goods and medicine.

YouTube Source – Wall Street Journal (From February 2016: “Building a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico would be full of daunting challenges, from environmental regulations to private property laws. But that hasn't stopped politicians from pledging to do it”)
 
Online Sources – Dallas Morning News, BBC Sport, Sky Sports, The Hill, Macon Telegraph

Daily Headlines: July 13, 2016

* Paraguay: A Paraguayan court sentenced eleven farmers to a maximum of thirty years in prison for the deaths of policemen during land rights protests that were the catalyst for the ouster of ex-President Fernando Lugo.

* Ecuador: Human rights groups criticized the Ecaudoran government’s decision last week to deport 75 Cuban migrants arrested for protesting outside the Mexican embassy in Quito.

* Puerto Rico: Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla of Puerto Rico warned that the commonwealth still faces major fiscal challenges despite the recent approval of a law providing relief to the $70 billion public debt.

* Latin America: Officials from Mexico and the United States agreed on a plan to improve access to asylum for Central American migrants seeking to escape rampant violence and economic hardship in their respective countries.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English (From March 2014: “Thousands of Paraguayan farmers have gathered outside the country's Congress in Asuncion to vent their frustration at (then) President Horacio Cartes, who they say has failed to deliver on land reform promises.”)
 
Online Sources – BBC News, ABC News, Reuters, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: July 7, 2016

* Brazil: A new study concluded that the Rio Olympics starting in less than a month have gone a whopping 51% over budget with a price tag of some $1.6 billion.

* South America: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said he will push for the reopening of the border with Venezuela after several hundred women from the neighboring country surged into Cucuta to obtain basic goods and medicine.

* Cuba: The Cuban government will reportedly enact additional energy rationing on top of other austerity measures including cutting work hours and limiting the use of automobiles.

* Argentina: Former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner filed a legal complaint a Buenos Aires judge who froze her assets over alleged financial irregularities.

YouTube Source – Get to Know (Uploaded on February 14, 2016).

Online Sources – Colombia Reports, UPI, BBC News, Financial Times, The Globe and Mail

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