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: April 21, 2016 (Updated)

* Latin America: The presidents of Mexico and Colombia each called out for reforming global antidrug efforts at the U.N. Drug Policy Summit though they face opposition from other leaders more satisfied with the status quo.

Update: Bolivian President Evo Morales also criticized the contemporary "war on drugs" efforts and urged states to take an approach that "respects human rights and national sovereignty."
 

respects human rights and national sovereignty

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: 
 "http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Bolivias-Evo-Morales-Denounces-War-on-Drugs-at-UN-Summit-20160421-0027.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english

respects human rights and national sovereignty

This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: 
 "http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Bolivias-Evo-Morales-Denounces-War-on-Drugs-at-UN-Summit-20160421-0027.html". If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english

* El Salvador: Salvadoran authorities unveiled a new special unit containing “600 army commandos and 400 specially trained elite police officers” aimed at combating rampant gang violence.

* Puerto Rico: Time is not on Puerto Rico’s side as the U.S. Congress continues to delay discussion on a plan to help restructure a $70 billion debt.

* Mexico: At least thirteen people died and 130 are injured following an explosion at a Pemex facility located in the Mexican state of Veracruz.

YouTube Source – The National

Online Sources including Update – Reuters, The Guardian, NBC News, Voice of America, Fox News Latino, teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: February 24, 2016

* Latin America: The Zika virus outbreak has shined a light on the debate over abortion and birth control to the forefront across the Americas including in Puerto Rico where officials have capped the prices of condoms.

* Cuba: The two Republican presidential candidates of Cuban background – Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz – are vehemently opposed to White House plans to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales conceded defeat following a referendum where a majority of voters opted against a constitutional amendment that would have allowed him to run for a fourth straight term.

* Costa Rica: Costa Rica’s nickname of being the “Switzerland of Central America” may come into question after police reported a record 558 murders in 2015.

YouTube Source – AFP (“The United Nations (earlier this month) urges countries hit by the dangerous Zika virus to let women have access to contraception and abortion.”)
 
Online Sources – NPR, Scientific American, Reuters, The Tico Times, CBS News

Daily Headlines: February 22, 2016

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales said that he would respect the results of a constitutional referendum where most voters reportedly rejected allowing him to run for an unprecedented fourth presidential term.

* Brazil: In the latest chapter of the “Lava Jato” bribery affair Brazilian police ordered the arrest of Joao Santana, a “political marketing expert” who helped the last three presidents win their respective elections.

* Panama: Panamanian immigration officials will allegedly grant travel permits to 145 Cuban migrants seeking to travel northbound to the U.S.

* Latin America: The Copa America Centenario group draw was held amid the “FIFA-gate” corruption scandal involving former regional and national soccer confederation figures from the Americas.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – ESPN FC, Fox News Latino, The New York Times, Yahoo News

Bolivia: The Evo Strikes Back in Viral Video

In Latin American countries, the themes of political campaign ads may vary between the inventive, the edgy and the downright silly. But what type of ads is most effective? It’s a question that comes to mind after watching a recently released spot from Bolivia that has become a viral video.

“Bolivian Wars: El Despertar del Sí” (“Bolivian Wars: The Awakening of Yes”) was done for the campaign in favor of constitution reforms allowing President Evo Morales to run again in 2019. The video shows scenes from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and superimposes Morales’ face on several characters representing the Resistance such as Finn. The Dark Side is depicted by faces of former leaders prior to Morales getting into power in 1998 like ex-president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada as the villainous Emperor. In order to hammer the good versus evil point home, the video shows real life images of deep unrest and violence during the “gas wars” of 2003. The video ends mentioning that its “premier” will be on February 21st, which is the date of the constitutional referendum next year.

Published seven days following the world premiere of the latest “Star Wars” entry, the official video on the Sí Bolivia Facebook account has received at least 139,000 views and has been shared over 3000 times.

Daily Headlines: May 22, 2015

* El Salvador: Salvadoran ombudsman David Morales called for reopening the investigation into the 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the prosecution of “some of the people who participated in the crime.”

* South America: Chile’s ex-intelligence chief during the Pinochet regime, Manuel Contreras, was sentenced to 505 years in prison while thousands of Uruguayans marched to commemorate victims of the former military dictatorship.

* Mexico: The Mexican government cut its economic growth forecast for 2015 even though first quarter growth increased at the rate predicted by financial analysts.

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales is reportedly facing mounting opposition from his own indigenous political base.

YouTube Source – Rome Reports
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino, SBS teleSUR English, Bloomberg, USA TODAY

Daily Headlines: March 31, 2015

* Argentina: Small British energy firms are reportedly still interested in offshore oil exploration near the Falklands despite the plummeting price of crude and heightened diplomatic tensions with Argentina.

* Venezuela: Ex-Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and ex-Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González are the latest former Ibero-American leaders to support imprisoned Venezuelan opposition activists.

* U.S.: Could Marco Rubio soon become the second Latino senator to launch a bid for the U.S. presidency?

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales blamed corruption scandals for his political party suffering losses in this month’s local elections.

YouTube Source – Financial Times (Video uploaded in 2012).
 
Online Sources – MercoPress, The Guardian, Politico, ABC News

Daily Headlines: October 21, 2014

* U.S.: Iconic Dominican-born fashion designer Oscar de la Renta died at the age of 82 reportedly due to cancer.

* Panama: Panamanian Supreme Court judge Alejandro Moncada was arrested and charged with money laundering and illicit enrichment.

* Argentina: An Argentine human rights group claimed that refugee status was given to a gay Russian man violently targeted due to his sexual orientation.

* Bolivia: Bolivia’s top electoral tribunal ratified President Evo Morales' victory in the presidential polls and gave the green light for him to rule for a third straight term.

Video Source – Associated Press via YouTube

Online Sources – JURIST; Variety; Zee News; Reuters

Daily Headlines: October 14, 2014

* South America: An Italian judge ruled that twenty-one officials from former military dictatorships in four South American countries should be put on trial for their alleged role in Operation Condor.

* Bolivia: Newly reelected President Evo Morales promised to not enact anymore major nationalizations and claimed that he will pursue “realistic, practical” economic policies.

* Venezuela: The U.N. Human Rights Council called on Venezuelan authorities to “immediately release” imprisoned opposition politician Leopoldo López.

* Mexico: Two gunmen murdered a Sonoran activist and radio show host while he was presenting his program live on the air.

Video Source – YouTube user JourneymanVOD
 
Online Sources – spyghana.com; Reuters; MercoPress; The Guardian

Daily Headlines: October 13, 2014

* Bolivia: According to exit polls and a quick count Bolivian president Evo Morales won reelection to a third straight term in office with roughly 60% of voters backing him.

* Mexico: The governor of Guerrero claimed that the remains found in recently unearthed graves do not belong to forty-three students missing since September 26th.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro reportedly called for an emergency meeting of O.P.E.C. as the prices of crude oil have hit a four-year low.

* Puerto Rico: Tropical Storm Gonzalo could reach hurricane strength by the time it is expected to hit Puerto Rico tomorrow morning and dump as much as a foot of rain on the island.

Video Source – euronews via YouTube
 
Online Sources – Voice of America; LAHT; The Weather Channel; Bloomberg; The Latin Amercanist

Daily Headlines: October 10, 2014

* Mexico: Federal authorities captured suspected Juarez drug cartel chief Vicente Carrillo Fuentes days after the detention of Hector Beltran Leyva, boss of the Beltran Leyva Cartel. 

* Bolivia: Polls indicated that Bolivian president Evo Morales is expected to easily triumph in Sunday’s general election and will be reelected to a third straight term in office.

* Venezuela: A World Bank arbitration board ruled that the Venezuelan government must pay ExxonMobil around $1.6 billion in compensation for a 2007 nationalization.

* Ecuador: Did the European Union “bully” Ecuador in order to sign on to a free trade agreement?

Video Source  – Noticieros Televisa via YouTube (Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, seen here after he was arrested on Thursday, was one of Mexico's most wanted criminals and he faced a number of charges in the U.S. including drug trafficking and money laundering).

Online Sources – CNN; The Latin Americanist; LAHT; Voice of America; teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: April 21, 2014

* Peru: In the latest case of the growing international problem that is counterfeit drugs, researchers found that 28% of contraceptive medicine in Peru is either counterfeit or ineffective.

* Venezuela: Argentine-born Pope Francis used his Easter homily to call for the “reconciliation and fraternal accord” in Venezuela, a country torn by political unrest though tempers have calmed somewhat after talks between the government and opposition. 
 
* Bolivia: President Evo Morales urged Bolivian peasants and impoverished residents to teach children how to be fluent in foreign languages so they can apply for scholarships to study abroad.
  
* Colombia: A new report found that at least thirty-four Colombian indigenous groups are going through a "humanitarian crisis" and this could lead to their extinction.
 
Video Source– YouTube user VOAvideo (“The World Health Organization estimates that 25 percent of medicines sold in poor countries are counterfeit. Monitoring by the World Bank and others suggests the overall global trade in fake and substandard drugs is now more than 30 billion dollars per year”.)

Online Sources – Vox; The Telegraph; The Guardian; LAHT; Fox News Latino

Bolivian President Renews Push for Coastline

Bolivian President Evo Morales yesterday urged the international community to support his landlocked country’s push for a coastline that it lost to Chile 135 years ago.

“Today, in our America, different winds are blowing. Today, we are a continent of peace. We seek to find peaceful solutions to historical injustices without wars nor confrontations,” said Morales at a public speech to commemorate the local Day of the Sea holiday. 

The remarks by Morales occurred at an event in a La Paz plaza named after Eduardo Abaroa, a Bolivian national hero who lost his life in the War of the Pacific in 1879.  It was during this brutal conflict where Chile annexed tens of thousand of square miles of Bolivian and Peruvian land including some 260 miles of Bolivian coastline.

“Bolivia wants access to the sea before all of the area’s natural resources are exhausted and exploited by the international companies,” he added in apparent reference to billions of dollars Chile earns yearly by exports from copper, silver and minerals extracted from land formerly controlled by Bolivia.

“If a dictator like (former Chilean strongman Augusto) Pinochet proposed access to the ocean for bolivar in the 1970s, then the current socialist and democratic government can make this a reality in the 21st century,” Morales mentioned in a message to recently inaugurated Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.

Since Bachelet retook the presidency on nearly two weeks ago, she has indicated that it will differ from that of her conservative predecessor, Sebastián Piñera, on issues like the treatment of the indigenous Mapuche and the planned HidroAysen hydropower complex.  Moreover, both Bachelet and Morales held bilateral negotiations during her first term in the presidency yet it appears like Bachelet in her second period in office would not sway from Piñera’s stance against the need to redraw boundaries.

Daily Headlines: January 24, 2014

* Chile: A Memorial for Diversity was inaugurated this week and dedicated to the late Daniel Zamudio, a gay Chilean teen who in 2012 was tortured and murdered due to his sexual orientation.

* Argentina: The government announced plans to ease currency controls after the Argentine peso on Thursday devalued by the most since the 2002 economic crisis.

* Bolivia: “Bolivia cannot remain excluded from this technology, which belongs to all humankind,” said President Evo Morales as he declared that his country would construct a nuclear power plant.

* Panama: Can genetically modified mosquitos help ease an outbreak of the dengue fever in Panama?
 
Video Source – CNN Chile via YouTube

Online Sources- I Love Chile News; Bloomberg; Inside Costa Rica; TIME

Daily Headlines: July 16, 2013

* Chile: A Chilean appeals court ruled that construction work on the Pascua-Lama gold mine must be halted and the site’s owners, Canadian firm Barrick Gold, has to repair environmental damage to two rivers.

* Bolivia: The Spanish government formally apologized for an incident weeks ago where the plane of Bolivian President Evo Morales was forced to land in Austria.

* Panama: President Ricardo Martinelli claimed that Panamanian authorities seized a North Korean-flagged ship traveling from Cuba with a shipment of arms and other “undeclared military cargo.”

* U.S.: Cuban-born baseball player Yoenis Cespedes captured the All-Star Home Run Derby crown with thirty-two homers including nine in the final round.

Video Source – YouTube via user telesurenglish

Online Sources- CBC; Reuters; the Latin Americanist; ABC News; NPR

Daily Headlines: July 5, 2013

* Brazil: A Brazilian judge placed under house arrest Rayfran das Neves Sales, the convicted murderer of U.S. nun and environmental activist Dorothy Stang, after serving only eight years in prison.

* Bolivia: “This was an open provocation toward a continent, not just a president,” declared Bolivian President Evo Morales regarding the forced diversion of his presidential plane in Europe this week.
    
* Ecuador: A British security firm denied allegations that they bugged the Ecuadorian embassy in London where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been residing in.

* Argentina: Buenos Aires, Argentina beat out Medellin, Colombia and Glasgow, Scotland to win the chance to host the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.

Video Source – YouTube via user sisterdorothy (Trailer for a documentary on murdered U.S. nun and environmental activist Dorothy Stang).
 
Online Sources- France24; The Latin Americanist; Reuters; Al Jazeera English; SI.com

Latin American Anger Over Bolivian Plane Diversion (Updated)

A diplomatic crisis is apparently developing between several Latin American and European states after a plane carrying Bolivian president Evo Morales made an unexpected layover in Austria.

Morales was returning to his homeland yesterday after attending a conference in Russia but according to Bolivian officials Spain, Italy, Portugal and France prohibited the presidential plane from flying through their respective airspaces. 

"We are told that there were some unfounded suspicions that (U.S. intelligence whistleblower Edward) Snowden was on the plane," Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said.

The aircraft was then forced to make an emergency landing in Vienna where it was refueled but also inspected by Austrian authorities.  After approximately thirteen hours the plane was permitted to depart and it’s currently en route back to Bolivia. 

“I feel that this was an excuse to frighten and intimidate me,” said Morales to the press before leaving Austria.

Bolivian Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra Soto claimed that the U.S. State Department spread the rumor that the former contractor was smuggled onto the Bolivian aircraft.  “It’s a rumor completely based on a lie,” said Saavedra before he and the rest of the Bolivian contingent left Austria. 

Sacha Llorenti, Bolivia’s Ambassador to the U.N., said that his country while a file a complaint with the organization’s human rights body regarding what he deemed as a “diplomatic kidnapping”.

“We have no doubt that it was an order from the White House... For no reason whatsoever should a diplomatic plane with a president [inside] be diverted from its route and forced to land in another country,” he said earlier today.

Daily Headlines: May 22, 2013

* U.S.: The bipartisan "Gang of Eight" immigration reform bill will move to the U.S. Senate for debate after the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the proposal in a 13-5 vote.

* Venezuela: Pro-government TV host Mario Silva said that he would go on sick leave after opposition politicos revealed an alleged recording of him talking to a Cuban intelligence official and criticizing the Maduro regime.

* Brazil: Truth Commission investigator Heloisa Starling believes that former officials protected by a 1979 amnesty law could be tried at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

* Bolivia: The government enacted a law that would permit President Evo Morales to seek a third term in the December 2014 elections.

Video Source – YouTube via user NewsyPolitics (Video uploaded on April 16, 2013.)
 
Online Sources- CNN; ABC News; SFGate.com; LAHT

Daily Headlines: May 1, 2013

* Cuba: President Barack Obama renewed his push to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay amidst a hunger strike by over half of the inmates.

* Vatican: Argentine-born Pope Francis condemned the “slave labor” conditions at a Bangladesh factory that collapsed last week killing over 400 people.

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales announced that he’s expelling the U.S. Agency for International Development for "conspiring" against the Bolivian government.

* U.S.: Gabriel Gomez, a Colombian-American and former Navy SEAL, won the Republican Party’s primary for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by current Secretary of State John Kerry.

Video Source – YouTube via AFP

Online Sources- CBS News; The Guardian; Businessweek; ABC News

Daily Headlines: April 30, 2013

* Peru: President Ollanta Humala indicated that he might pardon Alberto Fujimori, a disgraced former leader who is serving prison sentences for corruption and human rights abuses.

* Venezuela: A political ally of opposition leader Henrique Capriles was charged with promoting post-electoral violence days after U.S. filmmaker Timothy Tracy with conspiracy, falsifying public documents and other crimes.

* Bolivia: The Bolivian constitutional court gave the green light for President Evo Morales to run for a third term in elections scheduled for December 2014.

* Puerto Rico: Several Puerto Rican politicians backed presenting a resolution to the Congress aimed at “achieving the admission of Puerto Rico as a (U.S.) state”.

Video Source – YouTube via Associated Press (In 2009, “a special tribunal convicted former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori of murder and kidnapping on Tuesday and sentenced him to 25 years in prison for death squad activities during his autocratic 10-year rule”.)
 
Online Sources- Businessweek; Huffington Post; Al Jazeera English; The Latin Americanist; AFP