Daily Headlines: October 6, 2016

* Argentina: “We have 40 years of love to give you," said the brother of the 121st person positively identified by the Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo as having been stolen and illegally adopted during the “Dirty War” era of military rule in Argentina.

* Caribbean: At least sixty-nine people died in the Caribbean and authorities once again postponed Haiti’s presidential election as a result of Hurricane Matthew.

* Chile: The Chilean government announced an overhaul of the country’s Sename child services system following reports of 865 minors dying over the past eleven years in network shelters.

* Brazil: The International Monetary Fund indicated that Brazil’s recession may be worse than expected based on economic indicators such as declining industrial activity and a rising unemployment rate.

YouTube Source – CCTV America (Video uploaded in October 2014).
 
Online Sources – teleSUR English, Reuters, Fox News Latino, CNN Money

Daily Headlines: December 2, 2015

* Colombia: Colombia’s traditional vallenato music was selected by UNESCO as a “Cultural Patrimony for Mankind” but the agency warned that the genre is in danger of disappearing.

* Cuba: Cuban authorities have reinstated restrictions against medical professionals seeking to work in foreign countries in order to halt a “brain drain” of doctors leaving the island.

* Puerto Rico: Puerto Rico paid $354 million on its debt to prevent defaulting but officials warned that they might not be able to pay $1 billion due on New Year’s Day.

* Argentina: A former Argentine political prisoner was reunited with his son that was the 119th offspring identified by the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo as having been illegally adopted during military rule from 1973 to 1990.

YouTube Source – Discos Fuentes Edimusica

Online Sources – USA TODAY, BBC News, Fusion, teleSUR English 

Daily Headlines: November 10, 2015

* Argentina: “This is a result of our struggle, which we will continue until the other hundreds that are missing are found,” said Delia Giovanola de Califano after her grandson was positively identified as a victim of forced adoption during Argentine military rule.

* Mexico: In light of a Mexican Supreme Court ruling last week, President Enrique Peña Nieto expressed his willingness to open a “national debate” on drug use but is opposed to marijuana legalization.

* Uruguay: French firm Total and Exxon Mobil of the U.S. will collaborate to drill Uruguay's first offshore oil well that is located some 250 miles near Montevideo.

* U.S.: A new poll showed that Latino voters in fourteen battleground states prefer Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton as their presidential nominees for the Republicans and Democrats, respectively.

YouTube Source – Agencia EFE

Online Sources – Buenos Aires Herald, The Guardian, The Latin Americanist, Fox News Latino, Reuters

Daily Headlines: September 2, 2015

* Argentina: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo helped positively identify the 117th child stolen and illegally adopted during military rule from 1976 to 1983.

* Puerto Rico: The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority reportedly reached a deal with one of their main bondholders to provide some relief to its $9 billion debt and potentially prevent bankruptcy.

* El Salvador: The 907 murders in August made it the deadliest month in El Salvador since the country’s civil war in the 1980s.

* Chile: Chilean President Michelle Bachelet’s approval rating hit a record low of 24% though it’s greater than the 15% support given by poll respondents to the opposition Alianza coalition.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English

Online Sources – UPI, CNBC, NBC News, Reuters

The Weekender – Once Was Lost, But Now Am Found

“The Weekender” is our new feature where every weekend we hope to highlight a short film, movie or documentary pertaining to the Americas. We’re running this feature today since it’s a holiday weekend here in the U.S.
August 31st was the annual observance of the International Day of the Disappeared, which is an occasion used to commemorate the millions of victims gone missing often as a result of war, violence and human rights abuses.  Sadly, this problem has plagued numerous Latin American countries such as a Colombia plagued by decides of armed conflict and drug-rated violence in Mexico.

One of the most infamous examples of disappearances in Latin America has been the estimated 30,000 individuals missing during the dark “Dirty War” period in Argentina from 1976 to 1983.  While numerous former Argentine military commanders and officers have faced justice in recent years for their roles during the brutal “Dirty War” era, numerous organizations and activists have campaigned to reunite missing individuals with their families.

One of the best known of these groups is the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which for nearly four decades has worked to identify babies born to political dissidents and put up illegally for adoption.  Thus far the “Abuelas” have identified 115 missing individuals including two in August alone.  One of these was Guido Montoya Carlotto, the grandson of Grandmothers founder Estela de Carlotto who was born in June 1978 to parents detained and later executed by state security forces.

The video below the page break is a documentary detailing the seemingly tireless efforts by “Abuelas” activists and others to shed light on the illegal adoptions during the “Dirty War”.  The 2010 film produced by Australian TV network SBS includes revealing interviews with several individuals identified by the Grandmothers and the children of a media magnate who rejected any efforts to see if they may have been adopted illegally. 

Daily Headlines: April 25, 2013

* Argentina: Pope Francis told that the president of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo that he's "at the disposal" of the group that helps find hundreds of Argentines missing during the "Dirty War" period.

* Uruguay: Troubled striker Luis Suarez has been banned for ten games by English soccer officials after biting a rival player on the arm.

* Mexico: No, U.S. legislator Louie Gohmert, Al Qaeda has not established "terrorist camps" in Mexico.

* U.S.: The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit alleging that some 20,000 students in California who need to learn English are receiving inadequate language instruction.

Video Source - YouTube via romereports.com

Online Sources - Huffington Post; SI.com; GlobalPost; PolitiFact.com

Daily Headlines: September 19, 2011

* Ecuador: A U.S. appeals court could reject Chevron's request to avoid paying $18 billion to Ecuadorian plaintiffs in an environmental damages case.

* Argentina: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo received a human rights award from the UNSECO several weeks after the group identified the 105th "stolen child" during the Dirty War dictatorship.

* Colombia: The army located nearly 2000 landmines allegedly placed by the guerillas in a province along the border with Ecuador and Peru.

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez rejected a recent decision from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights permitting the ex-mayor of a Caracas suburb to run for the presidency.

Image – CNNMoney.com

Online Sources- BusinessWeek, Latin American News Dispatch, Times of India, LAHT, Reuters

A Woman’s Worth: Argentina's activist "abuelas"

We will feature a series of video posts this week in honor of International Women's Day. This year marks the centennial celebration of the date that began “as an offshoot of increased labor unrest in the early 20th century.” Over the past hundred years the role of women and their contributions have changed and we hope to honor that throughout the week.

As we mentioned briefly on Saturday, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) gave a notable award to Argentina’s Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo (“Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo” in Spanish). The Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize was bestowed upon the Argentine human rights activists in honor of their “tireless battle for human rights and peace by standing up to oppression, injustice and impunity.”

The “Abuelas” were founded in 1977 with the aim of finding babies stolen during the “Dirty War” period. In the 34 years since their creation, the group has reportedly identified over 100 children whose biological parents where either killed or “disappeared” under the brutal military regime.

Their tireless work has been crucial in the trial of former junta presidents Jorge Videla and Reynaldo Bignone, who stand accused of masterminding the kidnapping of 34 children for illegal adoption. Through meticulous research the “Abuelas” hope to bring some measure of justice to those whose lives have been forever changed:

"The most real proof that there was a system in the thefts is the living proof, the children who regained their identities," said Agustin Chit, a lawyer for the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who are among the plaintiffs. "It's all the documents that the grandmothers in these 33 years were able to collect. There is no perfect crime and there wasn't in this case in relation to the systematic plan. Even the bureaucracy of the state apparatus left behind many documents."

Last September a 32-year-old attorney became the 102nd case of recuperated identity by the “Abuelas”. After undergoing DNA tests it was revealed that his mother gave birth to him while she was being held by the authorities at the infamous ESMA facility. Both of the man’s biological parents “disappeared” and were presumably killed while they were detained by the military.

Online Sources- EFE, The Telegraph, CNN, The Latin Americanist
Video Source – C5N via YouTube