Daily Headlines: May 5, 2016 (Updated)

* Brazil: A Brazilian top court judge ordered Eduardo Cunha, the chief of the Chamber of Deputies chief and strong advocate for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, to step down from his post over corruption charges.

Update: The Supreme Court subsequently issued a unanimous ruling suspending Cunha as lower House leader.
 
* Argentina: President Mauricio Macri, who was one of the figures named in the recent “Panama Papers” leak, claimed that he is willing to collaborate with investigators regarding his alleged links to two offshore firms.

* Guatemala: The genocide retrial of ex-strongman Efrain Rios Montt was suspended indefinitely after attorneys for indigenous victims succeeded in separating his case from that of former intelligence head Jose Rodriguez.

* South America: For the fifteenth straight year the Copa Libertadores will not have a repeat champion after reigning titleholders River Plate of Argentina were ousted in the round of 16 by modest Ecuadoran side Independiente del Valle.

YouTube Source – AFP (“Street artist Luiz Bueno paints a mural on Paulista Avenue, in the financial heart of Sao Paulo, depicting Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, Vice President Michel Temer, the lower house Speaker Eduardo Cunha and the head of the opposition PSDB party Aécio Neves "conspiring" with each other, to bring awareness to the current political crisis.”)
 
Online Sources including Update – Time, The Latin Americanist, Buenos Aires Herald, Business Standard, ESPN FC, ABC News

Daily Headlines: March 17, 2016

* Honduras: A member of Honduran indigenous rights group Copinh was killed nearly two weeks after acclaimed environmentalist Berta Cáceres was murdered.

* Guatemala: For the fourth time former Guatemalan strongman Efrain Rios Montt faces a trial on charges of genocide while a judge tossed out separate attempts by defense attorneys and lawyers for civil war victims to delay proceedings.

* Mexico: Restrictions go into place barring the use of thousands of autos in Mexico City on Thursday days after the megalopolis issued its first air pollution alert since 2005.

* Colombia: Colombia’s main labor unions as well as student activist and social organizations will mobilize today to protest against the government.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English
 
Online Sources – The Guardian, ABC News, NBC Latino, Colombia Reports

Daily Headlines: January 12, 2016

* Venezuela: Venezuela’s new opposition-led congress has been thrown into disarray after the Supreme Court voided new legislative actions over the swearing in of three barred lawmakers.

* Mexico: Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, alleged co-leader of the Sinaloa drug gang along with Joaquin Guzmán, is reportedly Mexico’s most wanted criminal days after the recapture of “El Chapo”.

* Guatemala: A Guatemalan tribunal once again suspended the trial of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

* Europe: Lionel Messi of Argentina captured the Ballon d’or as the world’s top male soccer player for a fifth time while Brazil’s Wendell Lira won the goal of the year award.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – Reuters, The Tico Times, The Latin Americanist, BBC Sport

Daily Headlines: December 9, 2015

* Guatemala: The Guatemalan Constitutional Court tossed out an appeal by the attorneys representing Efrain Rios Montt and stated that the ex-dictator’s genocide trial will go on as scheduled for next month.

* U.S.: A new report found that Latino neighborhoods need greater access to healthier food options sold in markets while Latino youth are more likely to be bombarded by ads promoting unhealthy snacks and drinks.

* Cuba: As part of the diplomatic rapprochement between Cuba and the U.S., envoys from both countries discussed competing claims of billions of dollars in owed assets.

* Mexico: Investigators with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said that they found another inconsistency in the Mexican government probe over 43 students from Ayotzinapa missing since September 2014.

YouTube Source – NTDTV (Guatemalan high court judges are expected to resume the genocide and crimes against humanity trial of former strongman Efrain Rios Montt more than two years after the original verdict was overturned).
 
Online Sources – ABC News, The Guardian, USA TODAY, NBC News

Daily Headlines: August 26, 2015

* Guatemala: The Guatemalan Supreme Court gave the green light for impeachment proceedings against President Otto Perez Molina, while another tribunal ordered former dictator Efrain Rios Montt to face a retrial on genocide charges.

* Argentina: Police clashed with protesters in the Argentine province of Tucuman over allegations of ballot burning following last Sunday’s gubernatorial election.

* El Salvador: El Salvador’s Attorney General claimed to have uncovered a plot by street gangs to detonate explosives against his office and other government agencies.

* Puerto Rico: The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, which is in more than $8 billion in debt, cut its ties to Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras as part of a move to save costs.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English (Efrain Rios Montt was found guilty of ordering the massacre of over 1700 indigenous Guatemalans in 1982 but the conviction was overturned in 2013).
 
Online Sources – CNN, Business Insider, Voice of America, ABC News, Yahoo News

Daily Headlines: August 5, 2015

* Chile: Chile is one step closer to modifying its complete ban on abortions as legislators move forward with a bill that would partially legalize the procedure.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro blasted the U.S. government hours after the State Department called on barred opposition figures to be allowed to run in upcoming local elections.

* Ecuador: A U.S. appeals court ordered Ecuador’s government to pay “a $96 million international arbitration award” to Chevron in a case unrelated to an environmental damages lawsuit between both parties.

* Guatemala: A Guatemalan judge ordered ex-dictator Efrain Rios Montt to undergo medical exams in order to see if he’s healthy enough to stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English 

Online Sources – Yahoo News, Reuters, The Hill, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: July 8, 2015

* Ecuador: During his official visit to Ecuador, Pope Francis has called on dialogue to ease domestic political tensions, greater protection of the environment and more opportunities for the world’s youth.

* Guatemala: A medical report concluded believe that former strongman Efrain Rios Montt is mentally incapable of standing trial where he’s accused of genocide during his brief rule in the 1980s.

* Peru: Japanese researchers have found twenty-four new geoglyphs at the famed Nazca Plateau including some about 2400 years old.

* Mexico: Official at Pemex claimed that the state-run energy firm is importing 75,000 gallons of gasoline daily in order to combat shortages in several states.

YouTube Source – AFP
 
Online Sources – Yahoo News, BBC News, Platts, Japan Times

Daily Headlines: January 15, 2015

* Guatemala: The genocide retrial of ex-Guatemalan strongman Efrain Rios Montt was once again suspended after he skipped attending a court hearing this week.

* Venezuela: Former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles called on the Venezuelan opposition to unite and protest against the government amid a worsening economic crisis.

* Mexico: At least twenty Mexican state officials including prosecutors, forensic investigators and state police are being investigated for allegedly helping cover up the extrajudicial killings of suspected gang members in June 2014.

* Colombia: Colombia will become the first Latin American country to use a new cell phone app aimed at providing free internet nationwide and championed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Video Source – YouTube user WochitGeneralNews (The genocide retrial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt was initially suspended last week following the intervention of his lawyers).

Online Sources – BBC News; Bloomberg; ABC News; Voice of America

Prison Sentence for Ex-Guatemalan Soldier Involved in Massacre

A U.S. court on Monday convicted a former Guatemalan soldier who helped carry out one of the bloodiest incidents in that country’s civil war.

Jorge Sosa will have his U.S. citizenship removed and will spend ten years in prison as punishment for lying on his citizenship papers in 2007.  At the time, he claimed to have not been involved in the 1982 Dos Erres massacre, when at least 160 villagers where killed by a Guatemalan military patrol.

Sosa was part of the “Kabiles” military unit behind the Dos Erres massacre yet he left Guatemala in 1985 and had been living in impunity in California as a martial arts instructor.  He moved north to Calgary until Canadian officials arrested him in January 2011 and subsequently deported him to the U.S. where he stood trial for immigration fraud.

“The (U.S.) government is seeking a backdoor way to enforce Guatemalan law,” claimed Sosa’s defense lawyer while Sosa expressed his innocence before being sentenced.  Yet two of Sosa’s former comrades testified at the trial that he was not only present at Dos Erres but also fired his weapon at some of the dying villagers.  Furthermore, one of the few survivors of the massacre took the stand to explain how he viewed soldiers taking his mother away to be killed despite her anguished pleas for mercy.

In recent years, Guatemalan authorities have sought to prosecute those accused of involvement in the Dos Erres massacre such as Pedro Pimentel Rios, a former Kabiles commander who was sentenced to over 6000 years in prison. Thus, it remains to be seen if he will serve his sentence in the U.S. or will be extradited to Guatemala and face war crimes charges.    

Daily Headlines: October 25, 2013

* Puerto Rico: Is Puerto Rico safe and creditworthy for investors in the U.S. or is the commonwealth in risk for “a Greek-style bust”?

* Guatemala: Former dictator Efrain Rios Montt could be granted an amnesty from charges of genocide and crimes against humanity connected to his brief but bloody rule in the middle of Guatemala’s civil war.

* Mexico: Police in Monterrey arrested a man who admitted to killing 45 people and could be behind the murders of an additional 34 individuals.

* Peru: Archeologists discovered a pre-Incan tomb near Lima that is over 1000-years-old and containing two wrapped corpses.

Video Source – YouTube via the Nightly Business Report

Online Sources- Xinhua; GlobalPost; Reuters; CNBC; The Economist

Daily Headlines: August 13, 2013

* Mexico: Foreign investors and members of the political opposition are apparently doubtful over major energy reforms that were proposed yesterday by President Enrique Peña Nieto.

* Guatemala: Three of the judges who convicted ex-dictator Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide will reportedly receive protection from an “intense campaign to discredit and stigmatize them”.

* Colombia: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry gave his strong support for peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC rebels, and referred to Colombia as one of the world’s “very few success stories.”

* U.S.: Some of the Latino inmates who make up about 35% of the federal prison population could benefit from plans by Attorney General Eric Holder to alleviate severe overcrowding of U.S. correctional facilities.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- Reuters; ABC News; The Latin Americanist; Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: June 7, 2013

* Mexico: Approximately 165 kidnap victims – mostly migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras - were freed by Mexican troops in northern Tamaulipas state.

* Guatemala: Ex-dictator Efrain Rios Montt will be retried on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in April 2014, which is nearly a year after his original conviction was overturned.

* Cuba: 125 U.S. soldiers will be sent to serve as guards at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay where over half of the detainees have been on a hunger strike since February.

* Brazil: According to new government data green house gas emissions have decreased by 39% between 2005 and 2010 partly due to a nosedive in deforestation.

Video Source – YouTube via Univision Noticias (Tamaulipas was the same Mexican state where in 2010 the corpses of 72 migrants were found abandoned at a ranch).

Online Sources- Reuters; Hispanically Speaking News; The Latin Americanist; Nature; Military Times

Daily Headlines: May 21, 2013

* Guatemala: In a 3-2 decision the Guatemalan Constitutional Court annulled the recent historic conviction of former strongman Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide.

* U.S.: At least 23 student groups at Harvard University called for an investigation of the doctoral thesis of Jason Richwine, an ex-Heritage Foundation policy analyst who claimed in 2009 that Latino immigrants have lower IQs than white natives.

* Latin America: Alicia Barcena, the head of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, expressed her concerns over weaker exports possibly hurting the region's economic growth.

* Mexico: Venture capitalists are reportedly being attracted to purchasing and refurbishing thousands of homes that were foreclosed and abandoned.

Video Source – YouTube via PBS NewsHour (“Efrain Rios Montt, former dictator of Guatemala, was found guilty (on May 10th) in the massacre of more than 1,700 Mayan Indians in the early 1980s”.)

Online Sources- Fox News Latino; Bloomberg; Reuters; The Latin Americanist; USA TODAY

Daily Headlines: May 14, 2013

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro launched the “Safe Homeland” program where over 3000 soldiers will be deployed in major cities in order to combat rampant street crime.

* Guatemala: One of the judges who convicted ex-dictator Efrain Rios Montt in a historic genocide trial ordered the Guatemalan government to publicly apologize for human rights abuses committed under his rule.

* Cuba: Guillermo Fariñas, a frequent Cuban hunger striker and dissident, travelled to Miami as part of a tour of the U.S. and Europe.

* Mexico: Authorities raised the alert level for the Popocatepetl volcano as residents in nearby towns might soon have to evacuate.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- Businessweek; Miami Herald; NBC News; BBC News; The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: May 13, 2013

* Brazil: An Associated Press analysis concluded that Brazilian-made cars are “dangerous” since they’re made with materials of inferior quality and a lack of safety features.

* Guatemala: Several hundred supporters of ex-dictator Efrain Rios Montt gathered outside a Guatemalan military prison and protested his conviction on Friday on genocide charges.

* U.S.: Sesame Street will add a new Latino, Spanish-speaking character named Armando for the upcoming 44th season of the classic children's TV series.

* Mexico: According to a recently released report the number of homicides related to organized crime dropped 18% during the first five months of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration.

Video Source – YouTube via user autobr

Online Sources- LAHT; New York Daily News; Huffington Post; Boston.com; The Latin Americanist

Eighty Year Prison Sentence for Ex-Guatemalan Dictator (Updated)

Former Guatemalan strongman Efrain Rios Montt was sentenced on Friday to eighty years in prison after a court convicted him of genocide.

The 86-year-old ex-general thus becomes the first former Latin American leader ever found guilty of such a charge.

Rios Montt was convicted of ordering the deaths of 1,771 members of the Ixil Maya ethnic group during his brief time in the presidency between 1982 and 1983.

The historic verdict comes after weeks of harrowing testimony from hundreds of eyewitnesses to the horrors of one of the bloodiest periods in Guatemala's decades-long civil war.

The court's decision will likely be appealed by Rios Montt's attorneys who argued that he was blind to any human rights abuses during his rule.

Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina, who came under fire after he publicly defended Ríos Montt, said earlier today that the government would abide the court's ruling.

The tribunal absolved José Rodríguez, the former Intelligence chief who served under Ríos Montt, of being complicit of human rights abuses.


Update below the page break...

Daily Headlines: May 10, 2013

* Guatemala: Former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt took the witness stand for the first time in his genocide trial yesterday and alleged that he didn’t order the massacre of hundreds of indigenous Ixil.

* Venezuela: U.S. immigration officials were allegedly granted access to Timothy Tracy, a California filmmaker detained last month and accused of conspiring against Venezuelan government.

* Uruguay: Gen. Miguel Dalmao was convicted and sentenced to twenty-eight years in prison for the 1974 murder of professor and political activist Nibia Sabalsagaray.

* Panama: Panama Canal administrators announced a series of water-saving measures as part of energy rationing caused by a drought.

Video Source – YouTube via PBS News Hour

Online Sources- ABC News; The Guardian; Businessweek; The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: April 26, 2013

* Latin America: A new Lancet Oncology report concluded that cancer death rates in Latin America are disproportionately high compared to other regions.

* Argentina: Economy Minister Hernan Lorenzino has come under fire after he cut short a TV interview when he was asked about Argentina’s inflation data.

* Cuba: According to Cuban officials the biotechnology industry is expected to double over the next five years and bring in more than $5 billion in export revenues.

* Guatemala: A group of Nobel Laureates including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rigoberta Menchu urged Guatemalan judges to continue the halted genocide trial of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt.

Video Source – YouTube via user telesurenglish

Online Sources- BBC News; Reuters; Bloomberg; New York Daily News

Daily Headlines: April 24, 2013

* Mexico: President Enrique Peña Nieto’s push for major reform in areas such as banking, telecommunications, and oil production could be in jeopardy partly due to allegations of vote buying by the ruling party.

* Latin America: Over 1800 police officers seeking better working conditions went on strike in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, while hundreds of Puerto Rican cops have supposedly ended their sickout protest.

* Brazil: Finance Minister Guido Mantega announced a series of measures aimed at boosting an ethanol industry hampered by increased production costs despite greater global demand for biofuels.  

* Guatemala: Senior U.N. official Adama Dieng called on Guatemalan judicial authorities to “act responsibly and prevent any attempt at interference, obstruction of justice or manipulation of the law” in light of the annulment of the genocide trial against former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt.

Video Source – YouTube via user telesurenglish

Online Sources- Los Angeles Times; Washington Post; United Nations; ABC News; MercoPress

Daily Headlines: April 19, 2013

* Guatemala: Judge Carol Patricia Flores annulled the genocide trial of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt on the grounds of a technicality though it’s unclear if a higher court will overrule her decision.

* South America: A rematch of last year’s Copa Libertadores final between current titleholders Corinthians of Brazil and Boca Juniors of Argentina is among the matches in the round of 16 in this year’s competition.

* Argentina: Pope Francis sent a message of support to the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an Argentine group that for the past thirty-six years has protested the thousands of disappearances during the Dirty War period.

* U.S.: Sal Castro, a California social studies teacher and activist who played a key role in 1960s Chicano student walkouts, died at the age of 79.

Video Source – YouTube via user telesurenglish (Note that this video was posted shortly before a Guatemalan judge annulled the genocide trial of ex-strongman Efraín Ríos Montt).
 
Online Sources- Huffington Post, Christian Science Monitor, SI.com, Catholic Culture