Daily Headlines: October 24, 2016

* Brazil: A new poll found that a plurality of Brazilians back former leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to return to the presidency in the 2018 elections, assuming he does not get jailed over corruption charges related to the “Lava Jato” probe.

* Mexico: Lawyers for imprisoned Sinaloa drug gang leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman might be using his purportedly worsening health in order to prevent his extradition to the United States.

* Uruguay: A supporters group advocating for ex-Guantanamo prison detainee Abu Wa'el Dhiab claimed he ended his 68-day-long hunger strike and will reportedly travel from Uruguay to another country.

* Central America: According to Médecins Sans Frontières, around two out of three Central American migrants journeying through Mexico has been the victim of at least one “violent attack.”

YouTube Source – euronews (From september 2016: “Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is to stand trial for allegedly accepting over one million dollars (800,000 euros) in bribes in connection with the corruption scandal at the state-run oil firm Petrobras.”)
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino, Sputnik International, The Washington Post, Deutsche Welle, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: October 10, 2016

* Haiti: Doctors warned that Haiti could face its second cholera outbreak in recent years following the more than 1000 fatalities and towns still isolated by Hurricane Matthew.

* Argentina: An estimated 70,000 people marched in the Argentine city of Rosario for women’s rights and against all forms of gender violence including femicides.

* Mexico: The Mexican peso has strengthened by 2.3 percent in a reported indication that the market is confident over a Hillary Clinton victory in the United States presidential election.

* Uruguay: Rodolfo Nin Novoa, Uruguay’s Foreign Minister, called on ex-Guantanamo detainee Jihad Diyab to end his two-month-old hunger strike and “continue looking for a better future for him and his family.”

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English (“The death toll has reached 1,000, but rescue teams are still combing through wreckage in the remote southwest of the country. A number of cholera cases have been reported, raising fears of a renewed outbreak of the disease.”)

Online Sources – NBC News, Financial Times, teleSUR English, Reuters

Daily Headlines: September 15, 2016

* Latin America: Former Guantanamo detainee Abu Wa'el Dhiab woke up from a coma following the effects of a hunger strike, while Cuban dissident Guillermo Fariñas said he was duped by a fake website into halting his fast.

* Mexico: Extradition hearings against imprisoned drug capo Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman are expected to start on September 26th though the process could take years to carry out.

* Venezuela: The Vatican confirmed its mediation in the tense and deep political division in Venezuela between the government and the opposition.

* Brazil: Ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva claimed he was a “victim of extremely serious illegalities” after prosecutors charged him with corruption as part of the “Lava Jato” probe.

YouTube Source – Marti Noticias (Guillermo Fariñas halted his latest hunger strike, the twenty-fifth such protest by the Cuban dissident, on Monday after more than two months).

Online Sources – ABC News, Fox News Latino, El Pais, BBC News, CNN

Daily Headlines: September 9, 2016

* Mexico: Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón will purportedly return to Mexico to shoot his first film there since “Y Tu Mamá También” in 2001.

* Brazil: Police in Brazil want to question International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach over a suspected plan to resell Rio Olympics tickets, which may explain why he opted to skip attending the Paralympics opening ceremonies held on Wednesday night.

* United States: Despite the sometimes-toxic rhetoric in the U.S. presidential race regarding immigration, a new study found that the Latino population growth has slowed due lower fertility rates and less migrants coming from Latin America.

* Uruguay: Uruguayan authorities are seeking another country, “especially in the Arab world”, to house ex-Guantanamo detainee Abu Wa'el Dhiab who is going through a hunger strike in order to be reunited with his family.

YouTube Source – Movieclips 

Online Sources – ABC News, BBC News, NBC News, The A.V. Club

Daily Headlines: July 6, 2016

* Mexico: The Mexican government has offered to hold negotiations with representatives of teachers on a strike that has expanded beyond Oaxaca and into Mexico City.

* Ecuador: Ecuadorian Finance Minister Fausto Herrera admitted that officials are looking into creating a framework to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court order to pay Chevron $96 million.

* Brazil: U.S. and Brazilian authorities are looking for a former Guantanamo military prison detainee who resettled in Uruguay nearly two years ago but whose current whereabouts are unknown.

* Spain: A Spanish court sentenced Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi and his father to twenty-one months in prison for tax fraud but both men could escape jail time.

YouTube Source – CCTV America (From July 1, 2016: “The situation in Oaxaca still remains tense after clashes between teachers unions and the police. Blockades remain, while shortages of basic products are affecting the region.”)

Online Sources – teleSUR English, Fox News Latino, Marca, CNN

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: January 11, 2016

* U.S.: Mexicans Gael Garcia Bernal and Alejandro González Iñárritu received individual Golden Globes last night while the Pablo Larraín-directed Chilean movie “The Club” lost in the top foreign film category.

* South America: The Dakar Rally reached its halfway point on a tragic note after a spectator was run over and killed during the seventh stage between Bolivia and Argentina.

* Cuba: White House chief-of-staff Denis McDonough confirmed the Obama administration’s plans to close the U.S. military base at Guantanamo, Cuba.

* El Salvador: Gen. José Guillermo Garcia-Merino, El Salvador’s former defense minister, was deported back to his homeland over his likely role in human rights violations during the civil war era.

YouTube Source – TIFF Trailers

Online Sources – Reuters Africa, Business Standard, NBC News, Latin America Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor

Daily Headlines: November 5, 2015

* Colombia: The Mexican Supreme Court’s ruling on marijuana wasn’t the only key judicial decision made in Latin America yesterday as Colombian magistrates legalized adoptions by same-sex couples.

* U.S.: President Barack Obama will reportedly unveil as soon as this week a new plan to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and transfer inmates to mainland maximum security facilities.

* Latin America: Panamanian authorities claimed to have found a drug trafficking connection between Colombia’s FARC rebels and fugitive Mexican drug capo Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

* Puerto Rico: Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla introduced a plan to restructure the $8 billion debt held by Puerto Rico’s main electricity company.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English
 
Online Sources – NBC News, Reuters, The Los Angeles Times, UPI, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: October 21, 2015

* Cuba: Cuban graffiti artist Danilo “El Sexto” Maldonado was freed from jail following a ten-month detention over an “attempted piece of protest performance art.”

* Uruguay: The repatriation of six former Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Uruguay has allegedly served as an obstacle to the White House’s push to close the military facility in eastern Cuba.

* Brazil: Attorneys have filed a new petition to bring up impeachment charges against President Dilma Rousseff over accusations of doctoring government data.

* Vatican: Vatican officials rejected unconfirmed Italian news reports claiming that Argentine-born Pope Francis was sick and diagnosed with a curable brain tumor.

YouTube Source – Oslo Freedom Forum (“Lia Villares accepts the Václav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent on behalf of imprisoned Cuban artist El Sexto at the 2015 Oslo Freedom Forum.”)

Online Sources – The Guardian, Bloomberg, Reuters, CBS News

Daily Headlines: August 17, 2015 (Update)

* Brazil: Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched throughout in Brazil to call for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff though the odds of her actually quitting are slim to none.

Update: A Brazilian central bank survey of economists published the day after the protests found that the country's economy is expected to contract in 2016.

* Cuba: The Defense Department is allegedly considering moving some inmates from the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba to correctional facilities in the U.S.

* U.S.: A recent study found that TV ads for junk foods like sugary drinks and candy are disproportionately targeted at African-American and Latino youth.

* Venezuela: Representatives with the Pan American Health Organization are worried over shortages of medicines to treat cancer in Venezuela.

YouTube Source – euronews (“Brazil's third "major demonstration"…of the year drew tens of thousands to Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach to call for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.”)

Online Sources including Update – Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Voice of America, The Huffington Post

Daily Headlines: May 20, 2015

 
* Uruguay: Four former Guantanamo detainees relocated to Uruguay agreed to end their almost month-long protest in front of the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo.

* Brazil: Visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff signed numerous deals worth tens of billions of dollars.

* Mexico: U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill they claimed will help prevent a “continental trade war” against Canada and Mexico.

* Chile: A Chilean court ordered reopening the investigation into the mysterious death of Eduardo Frei Montalva, an ex-president and staunch critic of strongman Augusto Pinochet, in 1982.

YouTube Source – AFP

Online Sources – ABC News, CTV, Reuters, news.com.au

Daily Headlines: April 28, 2015

* Uruguay: Six former Guantanamo detainees could have their public assistance withdrawn as a result of a rift between them and the Uruguayan government.

* Peru: A recent report found that more than five million international tourists traveled to the Peruvian capital of Lima in 2014 and this made it the most visited Latin American city last year.

* Colombia: The alleged recruitment of underage girls for the fugitive leader of the Urabeños criminal organization has highlighted the “ongoing child sexual exploitation in Colombia's gang culture.”
 
* Puerto Rico: Puerto Rico’s debt woes continue to worsen, which increases the odds of a government default in a few months time.

YouTube Source – AFP

Online Sources – ABC News, Reuters, Peru this Week, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: March 24, 2015

* U.S.: According to a new study about forty million people in the U.S. speaks the blend of English and Spanish known as “Spanglish.”

* Uruguay: Uruguay will reportedly not take in more former Guantanamo detainees as President Tabaré Vasquez seems to distance himself from the policies of his predecessor, José Mujica.

* Argentina: The recent archeological find of an allegedly secret Nazi hideout in northern Argentina appears to be more a case of fiction rather than fact.

* Mexico: Family members of some of the missing and possibly massacred forty-three Ayotzinapa students continued their U.S. tour by protesting over the past few days in New York, Los Angeles and other cities.

Video Source – YouTube user NCLLP
 
Online Sources – UPI; Dominican Today; The Guardian; KTLA

Daily Headlines: October 2, 2014

* Haiti: Police in Port-au-Prince fired tear gas and water cannons at some of the thousands of demonstrators commemorating the 23rd anniversary of the military coup against then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

* Venezuela: Authorities vowed to thoroughly investigate the murder of Robert Serra, a ruling party legislator who was one of Venezuela’s youngest congressmen, and his partner on Wednesday night.

* Peru: A Spanish researcher was hospitalized after he was rescued from a cave in Peru where he was trapped more than 1200 feet underground for twelve days.
  
* Latin America: Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza urged Latin American countries to take in detainees from the U.S.-run Guantanamo military prison.

Video Source – YouTube user No Comment TV

Online Sources – Al Jazeera; Reuters; Mercopress; euronews

Daily Headlines: September 2, 2014

* Europe: Mexican soccer star Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez left Manchester United to Real Madrid on a season-long loan hours before Colombian striker Radamel Falcao joined the famed Mancunian team via his own season-long loan.

* Peru: Police in Lima displayed a record 7.7 tons of cocaine seized last week that were reportedly destined for Spain and Belgium.

* Uruguay: A senior Uruguayan official claimed that the process of transferring six Guantanamo detainees to the South American country would likely occur after presidential elections next month.

* Cuba: Cuban expats traveling to the island are none too pleased with new government restrictions on items including “hard-to-obtain” consumer goods.

Video Source – Liga BBVA via YouTube

Online Sources – Los Angeles Times; TVNZ; Uruguay; CBS Miami

Daily Headlines: June 4, 2014

* Chile: Scientists have discovered the fossils and rare soft tissue of forty-six “dolphin-like” ichthyosaurs in southern Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park.

* El Salvador: Salvador Sanchez Ceren was sworn in as Salvadoran president and vowed to tackle major problems hurting the country such as corruption and gang violence.

* Uruguay: Uruguay’s foreign minster claimed that his country is ready to possibly receive six Guantanamo detainees and some 120 Syrian child refugees.

* Colombia: Peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels resumed amidst a tense and ugly presidential race between incumbent leader Juan Manuel Santos and rightwing opponent Oscar Ivan Zuluaga.

Video Source – ITN via YouTube

Online Sources – Vatican Radio; Bloomberg; MercoPress; CBC News; Christian Science Monitor

Daily Headlines: April 22, 2014

* Mexico: Could Mexico’s new food labeling rules aimed at reversing an obesity epidemic backfire and lead to an increased consumption of items with sugar?

* Uruguay: Uruguayan President Jose Mujica may have given the green light to a U.S. deal that would allow the repatriation of five Guantanamo detainees but he rejected the possibility of a free trade pact with the U.S.
  
* Argentina: U.S. Supreme Court justices listened to arguments yesterday regarding a lawsuit from creditors seeking payment of Argentina's $82 billion default in 2001.
  
* Peru: A new poll found that two in three Peruvians oppose a proposal that would permit civil unions though most people back specific components of the bill.

Video Source– AFP via YouTube
 
Online Sources – NBC News; Businessweek; Xinhua; GlobalPost; Gayopolis

Daily Headlines: September 27, 2013

* Latin America: The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime found that Peru surpassed Colombia as the world’s top producer of coca, while Guatemalan Otto Perez Molina called for reforming global drug policy during his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.

* Chile: Chilean President Sebastian Piñera ordered the shutdown of a “luxury prison” where ten ex-senior officials who served under the late dictator Augusto Pinochet are serving sentences for human rights violations.

* U.S.: The National Association of Hispanic Journalists denounced a recent Fox News headline referring to U.S. citizens with undocumented parents as “children of the corn.”

* El Salvador: Two members of the Uighur Muslim ethnic minority who were released from the Guantanamo prison in April 2012 to El Salvador have reportedly left the Central American country.

Video Source – YouTube via user JewishNewsOne

Online Sources- Miami Herald; Huffington Post; Reuters; CSMonitor.com; Al Jazeera America

Daily Headlines: July 26, 2013

Note: Posting will be very light today but we hope to return on Monday and examine several recent news events from the Americas. 

* Cuba: Members of a U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee were divided in their views over whether the military prison at Guantanamo, Cuba should be shutdown or continue to be kept open.

* Latin America: During his visit this week in Brazil, Pope Francis criticized the “liberalization of drug use” proposed in parts of Latin America, while a poll found that roughly two in three Mexicans are opposed to marijuana legalization.

* Mexico: Authorities reportedly rescued ninety-four migrants crammed into the back of tractor trailer that was examined at a security checkpoint in the southern Chiapas state.

* U.S.: A Pew Hispanic Center survey found that a growing number of Latino adults are getting their news from English-language sources.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English
 
Online Sources- Fox News Latino; The Guardian; ABC News; Rolling Stone; CNN

Daily Headlines: June 19, 2013

* Cuba: U.S. President Barack Obama claimed today that he would increase efforts to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba while over 150 doctors requested in an open letter permission to treat hunger-striking inmates.

* U.S.: A report by the Congressional Budget Office concluded that comprehensive immigration reform would benefit the U.S. economy and reduce the federal deficit by nearly $200 million in ten years.

* Latin America: Costa Rica and the U.S. edged closer to qualifying for the World Cup after victories on Tuesday night against Panama and Honduras respectively.

* Mexico: Government officials announced the launching next year of a new satellite that will provide expanded broadband service covering several Latin American countries.

Video Source – YouTube via Deutsche Welle 

Online Sources- CNN; Reuters; The Guardian; Fox News Latino; France24