Daily Headlines: January 16, 2013

* Chile: Members of the indigenous Rapa Nui community may reportedly seek to declare independence for Easter Island from Chile.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan Official Gazette published a decree signed by President Hugo Chavez hours after Vice President Nicolas Maduro alleged that the ailing leader was “making progress” in his recovery. 
     
* Cuba: Authorities in Cuba claimed to have “contained” a cholera outbreak that has infected at least fifty-one people.

* U.S.: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar became the second Latino member of the Obama cabinet to resign over the past several days.

Video Source – YouTube via UNESCO

Online Sources- euronews, The Latin Americanist, The Guardian, Bloomberg, ABC News

Tsunami waves graze Latin America's Pacific coast

The above video slideshow from Ecuador’s El Universo provides a glimpse at some of the damage from yesterday’s tidal wave on the Galapagos Islands.

Approximately 1000 people are dead and at least 10,000 missing in Japan as a result of Friday’s massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami. While the tidal wave caused a heartbreaking amount of death and destruction in that Asian country, Latin American states along the Pacific Ocean dodged a major bullet.

• Mexico

As we mentioned yesterday, waves measuring 70 centimeters (27.6 inches) reached the Baja California peninsula. Officials in other states removed their tsunami alerts despite waves of 1 meter (3 feet) reaching areas such as Guerrero and Oaxaca.

• Central America

Several countries such as Panama and Honduras suspended their tsunami wave alerts last night after small tidal waves of reached the region’s coast. In El Salvador, for instance, the wave increase was “almost null” though most residents in coastal areas heeded warnings to say away from beaches and ports.

• Peru

The country’s coast was hit last night with tidal waves measuring between 20 and 40 centimeters (7.9 to 15.8 inches) tall. They caused little material damage though there was one fatality after a man fell to his death at a beach south of Lima.

• Chile

Waves measuring no higher than 50 centimeters (19.7 inches) hit Easter Island last night though this morning President Sebastian Pinera ordered that the tsunami alert is lifted for that area. The alert remains for the Chilean mainland; thus, delaying the return of tens of thousands of residents evacuated from low-lying coastal areas hours before the tsunami reached land.

• Ecuador
  

The lone area that appeared to be hit hard by the tsunami was the Galapagos Islands. A “train of waves” hit the coastline of the islands and flooded several piers and nearby streets. In one instance according to local officials the bottom of the sea could be seen after the surf retreated 30 meters (9.8 feet) and then washed onto the coast. No major damage or fatalities were reported and President Rafael Correa removed the emergency “state of exception” originally declared Friday morning.

The effect of the tidal wave in the Americas paled in comparison to the devastation in Japan. Yet people in the Americas such did not take any chances as governments issued warnings and alerts while most residents in coastal areas heeded them. As the saying goes: “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Video Source – El Universo via YouTube
Online Sources- Too many to individually list.

Daily Headlines: February 7, 2011

* Peru: The Third Summit of South American-Arab Countries that was supposed to take place in Lima next week was suspended due to the unrest in Egypt.

* Haiti: Immigrant activists and Haitian expat groups have urged an end to deportations from the U.S. after a recently expelled migrant died of "cholera-like symptoms."

* Chile: Police raided a luxury hotel on Easter Island and evicted a group of indigenous protesters who claimed that the resort was built illegally on their land.

* Cuba: The leader of Cuban opposition group the Ladies in White told the AP that she will try to convince one of her fellow female dissidents to halt her eleven-day-old hunger strike.

Image Source - Reuters/Mohamed Abdel Ghany via Reuters ("Pro-government demonstrators (front) face-off against anti-Mubarak supporters near Tahrir Square in Cairo February 2, 2011.")
Online Sources - MSNBC, Canadian Press, MiamiHerald.com, MercoPress

Weekend Headlines: December 4-5, 2010

* Mexico: Did police behave “completely inappropriately” by exhibiting a presumed 14-year-old hitman in front of the assembled press?

* Cuba: A court commuted the sentence of a Salvadoran man convicted of killing an Italian tourist during a series of bombings approximate twelve years ago.

* Chile: At least two dozen people were injured after police clashed with Easter Island locals over land rights.

* Venezuela: The death toll attributed to heavy rains and increased flooding has risen to 31 according to the government.

Image – ITN (A 14-year-old nicknamed "El Ponchis" allegedly killed four people on orders of a Mexican drug gang.)
Online Sources- Reuters, TVNZ, CNN, El Universal

Koalas discovered on Easter Island

It has always been common knowledge that koala bears are indigenous only to Australia yet a group of scientists may’ve made a vital scientific discovery.

In an article to be published later this month in Science Magazine, researchers from the University of Okoboji and Wossamotta U claimed that they found a new species of koala bear on Easter Island. “Unlike its brethren in Australia this new marsupial has a gray nose and black fur,” said lead researcher Brian Shaw in remarks made to us. Shaw added that the new species of koalas were remarkably found in a few of the mysterious stone structures ubiquitous to the Chilean island.

Chilean president Sebastián Piñera declared his surprise at the news and said that he would send a government expedition to Easter Island in order to confirm the scientists’ claims. The find could reverse one of Piñera’s perceived weaknesses according to a recent poll:

Three weeks after walking into shaky conditions throughout the country, President Sebastián Piñera has achieved a 52% approval rating, with only 18% disapproving…

His weakest virtue is “credibility and trustworthy,” which is a still respectable 63%.

Image- The Telegraph
Online Sources- Santiago Times, Science Magazine, PBS

Daily Headlines: September 15, 2009

* Costa Rica: In an example of the changing face of immigration in some Latin America countries, fifty-four African migrants from as far away as Ethiopia and Somalia were detained in Costa Rica.

* Dominican Republic: Amnesty International denounced proposals to change the Dominican constitution that would hurt reproductive rights including a possible total ban on abortion.

* Puerto Rico: Education officials and Gov. Luis Fortuno defended the silly and controversial decision to ban five prominent books from public high schools curriculums due to their use of slang.

* Chile: The Bachelet administration wants to curb immigration from the mainland to Easter Island in order to preserve the island’s unique environment.

Image- AP (“Undocumented African migrants listen to instructions from a Costa Rican immigration official upon their arrival at a detention center in San Jose, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009.”)
Online Sources- AP, LAHT, Amnesty International, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: September 9, 2009

* Latin America: Fourteen people were killed yesterday in Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil as a result of tornadoes caused by a violent storm.

* Chile: A pair of British scientists believes they know the origin of the red hats on top of the ubiquitous Easter Island statues.

* Guatemala: The local press blamed drug gangs for the murders on Monday of four prison officials.

* Costa Rica: The body of a missing Chicago man who had been hiking in Costa Rica may’ve been found in a crater lagoon.

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- Guardian UK, MSNBC, LAHT, CNN