Daily Headlines: July 31, 2014

* Guatemala: The remains of thirty-one indigenous people killed during Guatemala’s brutal civil war thirty-two years ago received a proper burial yesterday.

* Latin America: The Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed its “deep disappointment” at El Salvador, Peru and Chile for withdrawing their respective ambassadors due to the conflict in Gaza.

* Colombia: President Juan Manuel Santos warned the FARC that he could end peace talks as a result of several recent attacks on infrastructure allegedly by the rebels.

* Venezuela: The U.S. State Department announced that it would revoke visas held by Venezuelan officials accused of human rights abuses relating to political violence this year.

Video Source – YouTube user WITNESS (Video made in 2000 and 2001).

Online Sources – Yahoo News; Reuters; LAHT; seattlepi.com

Hillary to OAS: 'You Mad'

A few years back, Harlem rapper Cam'ron appeared on Bill O'Reilly's "The Factor." O'Reilly wanted to know if Cam'ron felt his music was a bad influence on kids. When things got tough, Cam shut down the debate by taunting O'Reilly with a bizarrely effective chant of "you maaaad, you maaaaad."

Between China staying mum on North Korea's attack against a South Korean sub, Iran sanctions despite Brazil's push back, Europe going broke and that huge diplomatic mess that is the Israeli blockade of Gaza, I wouldn't blame Hillary if she wanted to pull a Cam'ron this week when talking with Latin American leaders about Honduras at the OAS meeting.

The Obama admin came to DC with aims to change the Bush-era perception that minus drugs and immigrants, Latin America is a forgotten backwater of America's global reach. With so many pressing problems in the world, Hillary might wonder what's going on at an organization whose members bent over backwards to let in a country that doesn't want to join them and now are working hard to keep out a country whose government would love to get back to normal.

But Hillary and the Obama administration haven't given up. In the year and a half that she's been Secretary of State, Hillary has made 7 trips to the region. Because the region was an afterthought to the Bush admin and because the region has never been treated to full partnership status by any American administration, it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of investment to see dividends.

As you can see in the O'Reilly clip, Bill turns his attention away from the disruptive "Killa Cam" and focuses his attention on the slightly more reasonable Damon Dash.

In the sense of US-Latin American relations over Honduras, I find a parallel in what Christopher Sabatini at Americas Quarterly had to say:

The ALBA countries have no interest in seeing this resolved. But moderate countries should, and objective and skillful diplomacy can get them there; it’s up to the U.S., its Brazilian colleagues and the much-criticized leadership of the OAS.

Now there’s also the matter of why two whole meetings of the region’s foreign ministers and secretaries should be taken up by Cuba and Honduras. But that’s another issue.

The Cam'ron approach, though highly rewarding in the short term, doesn't do much to build bridges and get results over the long term. Sorry Hillary, looks like you're going to have to stick with playing O'Reilly.

Image Source: NahRight

Online Sources: NY Times, Americas Quarterly, YouTube, The O'Reilly Factor, International Herald Tribune, Bloggings by Boz, Business Week, BBC News, Christian Science Monitor

World Watch: The not-so-beautiful game

* Togo: Africa's ruling soccer body banned Togo from the next two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments after the national team withdrew last month when gunmen attacked them.

* Israel: A pair of senior Israeli officers were "disciplined" with regards to the January 2009 military offensive on Gaza.

* U.K.: In a move seen as an attempt to attract conservative Anglicans opposed to opening the Church to gays and women, Pope Benedict XVI will visit Britain later this year.

* Iraq: At least 54 people died near the Iraqi capital of Baghdad after a suicide bomber targeted Shiite pilgrims.

Image – BBC Sport
Online Sources- BBC Sport, The Latin Americanist, Guardian UK, MSNBC, New York Times

World Watch: Wave of mutilation

* Asia: Several hundred people have supposedly died as a tsunami caused by a massive underwater earthquake swept over several South Pacific islands.

* Middle East: The U.N.’s Human Rights Council is debating a report that condemns Israel for its military operation in Gaza earlier this year and criticizes Palestinian militants of targeting innocent civilians.

* Switzerland: Film director Roman Polanski could remain in custody for weeks while officials decide whether or not to extradite him to the U.S. and stand trial for the 1977 rape of a minor.

* U.S.: The Senate Finance Committee defeated an amendment that would’ve included the public option on the panel’s health care reform proposal.

Image- ABC News (“Christopher Moore of NOAA looks at computer graphs at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach, Hawaii, concerning the earthquake and tsunami that hit American Samoa September 29, 2009”)
Online Sources- csmonitor.com, MSNBC, BBC News, Voice of America

Israel expels Venezuelan diplomats

Israeli authorities have given until Friday for Venezuela’s diplomatic staff to return to Caracas.

Venezuela's head of mission in Tel Aviv and his two colleagues “are declared persona non grata in Israel” said Foreign Ministry official Lior Hayat earlier today. Hayat added that the move is in retaliation of Venezuela’s recent severing of diplomatic ties with isreal.

Venezuela’s government had previously decided to expel Israeli diplomatic officials in retaliation for the Israeli offensive on Gaza. The three-week military operation against Hamas was halted by a recent ceasefire but not before costing the lives of nearly 1300 Palestinians.

In the meantime, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro tried to play some damage control in a televised interview:

Relations between Israel and Venezuela were already tense because of President Chavez's friendly relations with Iran, which backs Hamas and has called for Israel's destruction.

In an interview with Venezuelan state television channel VTV, the country's foreign minister Nicolas Maduro denied that the Venezuelan government was anti-Semitic.

Mr. Maduro also denied that his government has relations with Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, the French news agency AFP reports.

Image- AFP (“Palestinians in their damaged apartment building” presumably after the Israeli offensive on Gaza).
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Xinhua, BBC News, Reuters, washingtonpost.com, IHT

Daily Headlines: January 15, 2009

* Venezuela: Venezuela’s government severed diplomatic ties to Israel hours after Bolivian officials did the same thing.

* Cuba: A U.S. judge ordered the release of a detainee held at the Guantanamo Bay prison and who was accused of being a member of al-Qaeda.

* Brazil: The price of coffee could jump as much as 26% in the upcoming weeks according to the head of Brazil’s coffee association.

* Dominican Republic: Police may have engaged in brutality after officers allegedly killed four suspects by being shot in the back.

Image- BBC News (The Bolivian and Venezuelan governments broke diplomatic relations with Israel on Wednesday due to the military offensive on Gaza.)
Online Sources- BBC News, Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, LAHT

Bolivia cuts diplomatic ties with Israel

Bolivia’s government has cut diplomatic relations with Israel as a result of the Middle Eastern country’s attacks on Gaza.

"The crimes committed by the Israeli government affect peace and stability in the world," Bolivian President Evo Morales said in announcing the severing of diplomatic ties to Israel. In his remarks made today, Morales was highly critical of Israel’s actions on Gaza:

Morales told the country's diplomatic corps that the Israeli attack "seriously threatened world peace" and he called for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his Cabinet to face criminal charges.

Morales chided the United Nations' "Insecurity Council" for its "lukewarm" response to the crisis and said the U.N. General Assembly should condemn the invasion.

He also said Israeli President Shimon Peres should be stripped of his Nobel Peace Prize for failing to stop the invasion.

Thus far there has been no official reaction from Israel’s government. The Israeli offensive has gone on for nearly three weeks and has reportedly left over 1000 Palestinians dead.

Morales’ action comes approximately two weeks after Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez expelled Israel’s ambassador from the country.

Image- AP (“Palestinians pray over a dead body during the funerals of four people at the mosque in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009.”)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, BBC News, Bloomberg, Reuters, CNN, AP

Daily Headlines: January 8, 2009

* Colombia: Thin-skinned execs at the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation are planning a multimillion dollar lawsuit against cartoonist Mike Peters for the above comic strip.

* Venezuela: The country’s state-run oil firm PDVSA announced that it would reverse a decision which would’ve halted a program supplying cheap heating oil to underprivileged U.S. neighborhoods.

* Dominican Republic: Officials in Haiti are none too pleased with their neighbors after the deportation of over 500 Haitians seeking refuge in a Dominican church.

* Ecuador: Legislators in Ecuador condemned Israeli attacks on Gaza and called them “crimes against humanity.”

Image- Colombia Reports
Online Sources- Dominican Today, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, Ynetnews, AP

Israel to boot Venezuelan diplomats?

Israel’s Foreign Ministry is reportedly considering expelling Venezuelan diplomats in retaliation to a similar move from the South American country. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said that the government will decide later today whether or not to make the tit-for-tat gesture with Venezuela.

Venezuela’s decision to boot Israeli diplomats was taken hours after Israeli attacks killed over forty people seeking refuge at a Gaza U.N. school. "The Israeli army is cowardly attacking worn-out, innocent people" said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as his country becomes the first to take such actions since the Israeli offensive began in late December. During a visit to a Caracas children hospital, Chavez also added that Israeli military strikes constitute a “Holocaust” against the people in Gaza.

The Israeli army claimed in a statement yesterday that “among the dead in the school were members of the military wing of the Hamas terror organization.” Yet U.N. investigators denied that with one official saying that he was "99.9% certain" there were no Hamas militants in the school.

Several Latin American governments continued to condemn the ongoing violence in the Middle East:

"Mexico condemns the excessive use of force associated with the Israeli army operation in Gaza,” a statement from the Mexican Foreign Ministry said late Tuesday.

It also condemned "the continued launching of mortars into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip"…

The governments of Chile, Nicaragua and Peru have also officially condemned the bombardments.

Image- BBC News (“An Israeli attack on a UN-run school killed more than 40 people who were seeking shelter there from the fighting.”)
Online Sources- BBC News, Bloomberg, CNN, Al Jazeera English, Reuters, PRESS TV