Weekend Headlines: July 11-12, 2009

* Brazil: Brazilian officials blasted the Group of Eight (G8) compromise to combat climate change by moderately lowering global emissions rates.

* Panama: A European consortium led by a Spanish construction firm won the multibillion dollar bid to expand the Panama Canal.

* U.S.: Texan authorities arrested two men charged with holding 25 immigrants from El Salvador and Honduras hostage as part of a smuggling operation.

* Chile: The Chilean peso fell to its lowest point in three weeks as the country’s economy tries to weather the international financial storm.

* Guatemala: An appeals court dropped conspiracy charges against a man who was accused of using Twitter to create a run on a local bank.

* Haiti: Is the United Nations covering up the violence during the recent funeral of activist and priest Father Gerard Jean-Juste?

Image- AP (“A view of a round table session, at the G8 summit, in L'Aquila, Italy, Friday, July 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, Pool)”)
Online Sources- UPI, Xinhua, BBC News, Bloomberg, Guardian UK, Upside Down World

Daily Headlines: September 29, 2008

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez’ trip abroad continued with a deal for 1 million laptops from Portugal and then chatting with Fidel Castro in Havana.

* Mexico: In response to rampant crime several legislators have suggested restoring the death penalty.

* Nicaragua: The stepdaughter of President Daniel Ortega dropped her case against him accusing him of child abuse and rape.

* Brazil: Could the G8 be expanded to include Brazil? One Italian official hopes so.

Image- Guardian UK (“Hugo Chavez visits Fidel Castro in hospital, August 2006. Photograph: AFP-Getty.”)

Sources- MSNBC, IHT, El Universal, Reuters India, Monsters & Critics

Daily Headlines: July 10, 2008

* Latin America: A historic colonial Cuban town and a Mexican butterfly reserve were two of the 27 sites added to the list of World Heritage Sites by the U.N.

* Brazil: The G-5 group of developing countries- which includes Brazil and Mexico- did not see eye-to-eye with their wealthier counterparts during this week’s Group of Eight (G8) summit.

* Chile: Authorities continue to seek the world’s most wanted Nazi fugitive – Aribert “Dr. Death” Heim- who may be hiding in Chile or Argentina.

* Bolivia: A “special edition” of Che Guevara’s journals with forewords written by Fidel Castro and Evo Morales will soon be issued by the Bolivian government.

Image- Sydney Morning Herald (“A migrating monarch butterfly”)

Sources- Monsters & Critics, MSNBC, World Heritage Center, BBC News,

McCain ups campaign rhetoric on Brazil, Colombia

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has recently increased his rhetoric on Latin America; more specifically, he has made remarks designed to appeal to Brazilians and Colombians.

In an interview with a Brazilian newspaper, McCain said that he would back Brazil’s entry onto the U.N. Security Council as well as an expanded G8. Aside from backing an increased international political and economic role for Brazil, McCain told the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper that he would halt subsidies for U.S. ethanol production. (A possible nod towards Brazil’s burgeoning biofuel industry).

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has yet to make a U.S. presidential endorsement though he did call a possible Barack Obama presidency “a huge step forward.”

Earlier this month, McCain’s campaign announced that he would be visiting Colombia next month and would meet with President Alvaro Uribe. El Tiempo said that McCain would only fly out for a day but would use his time to defend a possible free trade pact between both countries.

Sources (English)- AFP, PRESS TV, Reuters UK, The Latin Americanist,

Sources (Spanish)- El Tiempo

Image- New York Daily News

McCain: Brazil could replace Russia in G8

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain gave a major foreign policy speech last week. Though most of the attention was placed on tensions in the Middle East and U.S. military deployment in Iraq, McCain criticized Russia’s government and threatened them by using Brazil:

But it was his stab at India's old ally Russia, a country with which the Bush administration forged a close partnership in the beginning, that surprised analysts. Warning against the dangers posed by a ''revanchist'' Russia, McCain said the US should ensure that the G8, the group of eight highly industrialized states, becomes again a club of leading market democracies: it should include Brazil and India but exclude Russia, he said.

Perhaps McCain has understood the increased importance of Brazil in global trade like in Doha round negotiations. Then again, maybe he was just nostalgic of a brief tryst he had with a Brazilian model some fifty years ago.

Sources- Wonkette, The Latin Americanist, International Herald Tribune, Times of India, Reuters India

Image- Al Jazeera

Daily Headlines: June 07, 2007

* Brief follow-up #1: Soccer legend Pele and the Organization of American States have expressed their support to the leaders of several South American nations appealing FIFA’s high altitude ban.

* Brief follow-up #2: Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez claimed that Washington was masterminding an “imperialist conspiracy” and denied criticisms against his government (such as those by U.S. president George W. Bush that we mentioned in yesterday’s “Daily Headlines.”)

* The U.S. Senate turned down an amendment to the compromise bill on immigration that would have placed the proposal’s emphasis on reuniting families rather than job skills.

* Brazil’s Foreign Minister said that the group of developing nations invited to the G8 summit in Germany (such as Brazil and Mexico) will be unified and will “agree on a common position”.

* Costa Rica will break its diplomatic ties with Taiwan and reestablish relations with China.

*Colombian president Alvaro Uribe traveled to Washington yesterday in a bid to convince Congressional Democrats not to cut aid to Colombia and to ratify a free trade bill.

* Traffic was blocked briefly yesterday afternoon along the U.S.-Mexico border as demonstrators protested Mexico’s pension reform plan.

* Is Major League Baseball’s steroids investigation unfairly going after Latino players? Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen thinks so.

Sources- Monsters & Critics, International Herald Tribune, CNN, ESPN Soccernet, The Latin Americanist, Guardian UK, FOX Sports

Image- BBC News (Bolivian president Evo Morales plays a pickup futbol game high in the Andes Mountains as part of a campaign versus FIFA’s high altitude ban.)