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: June 27, 2016

* Panama: After months of construction delays, cost overruns and worker strife the expanded Panama Canal reopened on Sunday and is expected to generate $2 billion in annual revenue.

* Chile: Chile’s golden generation of soccer players steered the men’s national team to second consecutive Copa America victory in the span of twelve months.

* Colombia: While Colombia is on the cusp of a historic peace deal with the FARC rebels, the government has offered tax breaks to companies investing in projects located in regions ravaged by armed conflict.

* Paraguay: Fernando Lugo, the former president who was ousted in 2012, said he would run again for Paraguay’s highest political office in 2018.

YouTube Source – Associated Press

Online Sources – USA TODAY, The Huffington Post, Fortune, teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: June 14, 2016 (Updated)

* Argentina: The quarrel between Argentina and Monsanto could soon come to an end with both sides purportedly on the cusp of reaching a deal over inspecting shipments of genetically modified soybeans.

* Paraguay: The speaker of Paraguay’s lower legislative chamber will urge the Attorney General’s Office to commence a probe into the deaths of eleven peasants killed in a 2012 massacre that was used by the opposition to impeach then-President Fernando Lugo.

* Mexico: Mexico's Immigration Institute claimed that human traffickers have adopted using luxury tour buses in order to smuggle migrants from Central and South America.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan officials appealed to the country’s Supreme Court in order to halt a referendum process that could lead to the recall of President Nicolás Maduro.

Update: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry today announced the start of "high-level talks" with Venezuela but also supports having the planned referendum and pushed for the liberation of all political prisoners.

YouTube Source – AFP (From October 2014: “In Cordoba, Argentina, a group of environmentalists decided a year ago to block the construction of a corn processing plant of US seed giant Monsanto, in opposition of its use of genetically modified crops.”)

Online Sources including Update – Reuters, BBC News, ABC News, Latin American Herald Tribune

Daily Headlines: June 3, 2016

* Haiti: The results of Haiti's first-round presidential election held last year should be thrown out and a new vote ought to be held, according to the recommendations issued this week by a special verification panel.

* Brazil: The Brazilian economy is still in recession though the decline in the first quarter of this year was only 0.3% less than the final trimester of 2015.

* Paraguay: More than one hundred people participated in the reconstructing the massacre of seventeen people in 2012, which was an incident cited in the impeachment and ouster of then-President Fernando Lugo.

* El Salvador: The Salvadoran legislature could approve a probe against the country's ambassador to Germany for purportedly selling weapons illegally on the black market.

YouTube Source – AFP (Haiti’s presidential runoff has been postponed multiple times amid accusations of fraud in the first round and heightened political tensions).
 
Online Sources – Latin American Herald Tribune, Reuters, Quartz, CBS News

Daily Headlines: November 14, 2013

* Latin America: Uruguay and Mexico practically secured their spots in next year’s World Cup after routing their respective rivals in the first match of a two-leg playoff qualifying series.

* Dominican Republic: Nearly twenty prominent U.S. Latino civil rights groups signed an open letter to Dominican President Danilo Medina protesting the possible stripping of citizenship to tens of thousands of Dominicans.

* Paraguay: Paraguay is normalizing diplomatic relations with several of its South American neighbors nearly a year and a half after the controversial ouster of President Fernando Lugo.

* Brazil: Brazilian state-run firm Petrobras sold its Peruvian energy division to China’s CNPC for $2.6 billion.

Video Source – YouTube via user oneworldsportstv
 
Online Sources- Bloomberg; Huffington Post; The Latin Americanist; Mercopress; Reuters

Conservative Business Tycoon Wins Paraguayan Presidency

In Mexico last year the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) returned to the presidency after their seventy-one years of continuous rule was halted in 2000.  A similar story developed this weekend several thousand miles south in Paraguay.

Multimillionaire Horacio Cartes of the Colorado Party was declared the winner of Paraguay’s presidential elections with 45.91% of the votes versus 36.84% for Efrain Alegre of the ruling Liberal Party.  Thus, the Colorados return to the presidency after having their sixty-one years in power broken in 2008 by former catholic priest Fernando Lugo.

"My legs trembled at the thought of the enormous and amazing responsibility of being president of all Paraguayans," Cartes said in his victory speech on Sunday night. "I want the people who did not vote for us to know that I'll put all my effort into earning their trust," declared one of Paraguay's richest men who owns over twenty businesses.

The conservative Cartes and the center-right Alegre both reportedly ran campaigns with similar platforms promising to create jobs and improve economic conditions.  According to U.N. estimates over half of all Paraguayans live in poverty while only 1% of residents control 77% of the country’s land.

Both men also engaged in negative campaigning against each other regarding faced corruption charges. Cartes was jailed for nearly a year in 1989 for illegal currency dealings though that conviction was later overturned.  He’s also believed to be involved in money laundering and tax evasion as part of his offshore dealings with the Banco Amambay that he owns.

The two main candidates differed over the issue of gay rights, which was most evident when Cartes recently compared gay people to “monkeys” and threatened to “shoot myself in the testicles” if his son were to seek same-sex marriage.

The ugly campaign may have extended itself to the election itself; for instance, a Colorado party senator was suspended on Saturday after he was filmed allegedly offering cash to rival Liberal party officials in exchange for annulled ballot papers. Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Organization of American States electoral observer Oscar Arias praised the Paraguayan electorate though he did note “grievous electoral irregularities” such as the buying of votes.

Daily Headlines: December 17, 2012

* Venezuela: Defeated opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles was reelected as Merida state governor though the ruling Socialist Party won twenty of twenty-three states.

* Cuba: Will the Cuban government expand its radio and television ban on reggaeton to other genres of music?

* Brazil: Corinthians of Brazil beat England’s Chelsea 1-0 in World Club Cup final and, thus, became the first from South America team to win the competition since 2006.

* Argentina: The International Monetary Fund could expel Argentina from the organization after failing to meet an inflation deadline.

Daily Headlines: September 6, 2012

* Paraguay: Reporters Without Borders denounced the “purge” of twenty-seven employees of a state-run TV station allegedly due to their support of ousted President Fernando Lugo.

* Latin America: “The balance of the political and economic performance of (Latin America and the Caribbean) during the last twelve months in general is positive,” claimed Organization of American States chief Jose Miguel Insulza.

* Argentina: Debate commenced yesterday in the Senate on a government-backed proposal that would lower the voting age from eighteen to sixteen.

* Peru: President Ollanta Humala said that the military killed Comrade Williams, one of the commanders of the Shining Path rebel army.

Video Source – YouTube via user TvPública Paraguay (Former Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo speaking on state-run TV Pública hours after he was ousted last June)

Online Sources- Reporters Without Borders, Bernama, Huffington Post, BBC News

Daily Headlines: July 9, 2012

Note: Unfortunately blogging will be very light today. Therefore, we’re posting an extended edition of our daily headlines from around the Americas.

* Peru: Tensions remain high in the Cajamarca region where five people died during protests against the multi-billion dollar Conga gold mining project.

* Mexico: Despite accusations of vote-buying and electoral fraud Enrique Peña Nieto is expected to soon be officially declared the winner of Mexico’s recent presidential election.

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez and opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles have accused each other’s campaigns of provoking violence.

* Latin America: According to a newly released United Nations report approximately one-third of young people in Latin America and the Caribbean live in poverty.

Daily Headlines: June 29, 2012 (Updated)

* Paraguay: The Mercosur bloc will allegedly suspend Paraguay over the controversial impeachment of President Fernando Lugo but will not push for economic sanctions.

Update: Mercosur did indeed temporarily suspend Paraguay until new presidential elections take place in April 2013.

The suspension thus allowed Venezuela to become a member of Mercosur since the Paraguayan legislature was the only opposition preventing Venezuela's membership.

* Ecuador: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said that he “almost certainly will not” leave the Ecuadorean embassy in London and surrender to local police.

* Venezuela: Rafael Ramirez, Venezuelan oil minister and president of state-run oil firm PDVSA, claimed that the company would start exploratory drilling off the Cuban coast.

* Colombia: Police commanders alleged that the FARC rebels use children as young as fourteen in order to detonate explosives.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources including Update- BBC News, Boston.com, euronews, LAHT, Reuters

Paraguay: Fernando Lugo Ousted from Presidency (Updated)

Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo was forced to leave office after the country's Senate condemned him in an impeachment trial on Friday.

By a vote of 39 in favor and four opposed, the Senate concluded that Lugo was guilty of "poor performance" over several incidents including allegedly mishandling deadly clashes one week ago between peasant farmers and police.

According to the Paraguayan constitution Vice President Federico Franco should be sworn in to office immediatly.

(Update: Franco was sworn in to the presidency on Friday evening.

In an interview with CNN he refuted claims that the ouster of his predecessor was done according to the constitution and was "not a coup."  

"I hope that in future interventions it is recognized that the actions were done within the legal framework of the country," added Franco).

In a speech from the presidential palace Lugo said that he accepted the Senate's ruling and is "willing to respond to my actions" as a former president. Yet he accused his opponents of acting "cowardly" and added that today's decision was a "blow against Paraguayan history (and) democracy."

Daily Headlines: June 22, 2012

* Paraguay: The Paraguayan Senate will hold impeachment hearings today against President Fernando Lugo over alleged “mishandling” of deadly clashes between peasant farmers and police last week.

* Brazil: Finance Minister Guido Mantega said that his country would soon sign a $30 billion currency swap pact with fellow BRICS member China.

* Mexico: Authorities arrested the son of wanted drug capo Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and accused him of working for the same Sinaloa drug gang led by his dad.

* Puerto Rico: An American Civil Liberties Union report urged the U.S. Justice Department to take over a Puerto Rican police force suspected of widespread corruption and abuse.

Video Source – YouTube via TV Publica Argentina (At least sixteen people died in Curuguaty, Paraguay last week after clashes between peasant farmers and police).

Online Sources- Reuters, Bloomberg, BBC News, ABC News

Daily Headlines: June 6, 2012

* Paraguay: President Fernando Lugo, who has been named in four paternity lawsuits, admitted that he fathered a child years ago when he was still a Roman Catholic bishop.

* Latin America: According to a MIT study “95 percent of major cities in Latin America are planning for climate change, compared to only 59 percent of such cities in the United States”.

* Central America: More than 1000 banana plantation workers from Costa Rica and Panama are suing a group of companies including Dole and Dow Chemical over alleged pesticide poisoning.

* El Salvador: A World Bank arbitration panel ruled that Canadian mining firm Pacific Rim can go ahead with their case against the Salvadoran government.

Video Source – YouTube via canalNTN24

Online Sources- Reuters, MIT News Office, Bloomberg, BBC News

Daily Headlines: January 30, 2012

* South America: Funerals where held yesterday in Peru for some of the twenty-seven victims killed in a fire at a drug rehab clinic while the official death toll from last week’s office building collapse in Rio de Janeiro rose to seventeen.

* U.S.: The police chief of East Haven, Connecticut will step down from his post days after four officers where accused of racial profiling and harassing Latino residents.

* Venezuela: According to police kidnappers freed the Mexican ambassador to Venezuela and his wife this morning after they where abducted in Caracas on Sunday night.

* Paraguay: President Fernando Lugo’s medical team said that the cancer that was first diagnosed in August 2010 is now in “complete remission.”

Video Source – euronews via YouTube

Online Sources- LAHT, CNN, USA TODAY, Reuters, Voice of America

Weekend Headlines: July 16-17, 2011

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez traveled to Cuba for chemotherapy treatment but not before delegating some of his powers to vice president Elias Jaua and finance minister Jorge Giordani.

* Uruguay: Former dictator Juan Maria Bordaberry died this morning while under house arrest for human rights abuses during his rule.

* Honduras: A local radio manager who was gunned down on Thursday became the twelfth Honduran journalist to be killed over the past eighteen months.

* South America: Saturday’s Copa America quarterfinals action produced a pair of upsets as Uruguay downed hosts Argentina via penalties while Peru capitalized on Colombia’s mistakes.

* Argentina: The Iranian government said that it would cooperate with an Argentine government probe into a 1994 Buenos Aires bombing allegedly masterminded by Iranian officials.

* Paraguay: The opposition-controlled legislature rejected a proposal that would’ve allowed President Fernando Lugo to run for reelection.

Image – AP via The Guardian (“Hugo Chavez has reassured the Venezuelan people that he is confident he will recover from his cancer.”)
Online Sources- Reuters, Huffington Post, BBC News, Reporters Without Borders, Buenos Aires Herald, UPI, The Guardian, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: September 24, 2010

* Paraguay: Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo could be absolved in the latest paternity suit against him after DNA test results emerged in his favor.

* Guatemala: Missouri’s Supreme Court agreed to look at the case of a Guatemalan mother whose son may have been illegally adopted.

* Mexico: To the victor belong the spoils… except perhaps if you’re Mexican soccer players Carlos Vela and Efrain Juarez.

* Argentina: Not everyone in the Argentine province of Chabut is pleased with a plan to create a group of kiddy cops.

Image – EFE
Online Sources- BBC News, CNN, LAHT, Kansas City Star

Daily Headlines: August 12, 2010

* Latin America: The Argentine campaign to push Iran for the extradition of several suspects behind the 1994 AMIA bombing received a key ally yesterday, while Brazil continues to back granting asylum for an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning.

* Peru: Indigenous leader Alberto Pizango could run for president as part of a newly organized Amerindian political party.

* Bolivia: Residents of the mineral rich Potosi region have reportedly “paralyzed” the country’s mining industry after several days of protests against the government.

* Paraguay: President Fernando Lugo has been ordered to take yet another paternity test.

Image – El Colombiano (86 people died in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA center in Buenos Aires).
Online Sources- AFP, Reuters, BBC News, Sydney Morning Herald, Huffington Post

Weekend Headlines: August 7-8, 2010

* Paraguay: President Fernando Lugo was diagnosed in the early stages of cancer though doctors say, “there is a good chance the illness can be treated successfully.”

* Venezuela: The country’s oil and energy minister said that BP has not offered to sell its Venezuelan assets in order to pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

* Chile: Rescuers are searching for at least 34 miners who are trapped nearly 1500 feet underground.

* Haiti: Pras- former Fugees colleague of Wyclef Jean- isn’t too enthused over Jean’s bid for the Haitian presidency.

Image – Al Jazeera English
Online Sources- MSNBC, BBC News, BusinessWeek, Reuters

Daily Headlines: May 26, 2010

* Guatemala: As part of a planned lifting of a ban on all international adoptions Guatemalan authorities will obligate DNA tests for all prospective adoptees.

* U.S.: First it was the late Salvadoran bishop Oscar Romero. Now its labor rights activist Dolores Huerta who has become the latest Latino non grata for most Texan school officials.

* Paraguay: President Fernando Lugo vowed to continue an armed forces crackdown against the Paraguayan People's Army rebels.

* Venezuela: The country’s economy continues to be in a recession according to government figures released on Tuesday.

Image –Time (2007 image of babies in a Guatemalan orphanage).
Online Sources - MSNBC, BBC News, statesman.com, AP, The Latin Americanist

Paraguay: President given emergency powers

Paraguay’s Congress granted President Fernando Lugo emergency powers as part of a crackdown on leftist guerillas.

The new law suspends public gatherings and the right to due process in five northern provinces during a span of thirty days. "We want to make clear that this measure does not alter the democratic norm in our country," Lugo said after signing the law yesterday.

The move comes days after authorities blamed the Paraguayan People’s Army (PPA) for killing four people in the country’s agrarian area. The PPA reportedly collected ransoms of $700,000 from a pair of kidnappings, has been accused of drug trafficking, and is said to have cooperated with Colombia’s FARC rebels.

Though the new law was approved almost unanimously by the legislature though one opposition senator blasted Lugo for his supposed passivity in combating the PPA. Meanwhile, the use of emergency powers has been seen by some Paraguayans with trepidation:

Lugo's call for extra powers is controversial in Paraguay, because the measure was used frequently during the 35-year dictatorship of General Alfredo Stroessner, which ended in 1989.

Lugo, a left-leaning former Roman Catholic bishop, has struggled to push laws through the opposition-controlled Congress. Some lawmakers on Friday criticized Lugo's security policies and were skeptical of the measures they said could lead to abuse by security forces…

The last time an emergency measure extending government powers was imposed in Paraguay was in 2002, after violent anti-government protests against former President Luis Gonzalez Macchi.

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- Washington Post, Diario ABC Color, CNN, AP