Daily Headlines: January 16, 2013

* Chile: Members of the indigenous Rapa Nui community may reportedly seek to declare independence for Easter Island from Chile.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan Official Gazette published a decree signed by President Hugo Chavez hours after Vice President Nicolas Maduro alleged that the ailing leader was “making progress” in his recovery. 
     
* Cuba: Authorities in Cuba claimed to have “contained” a cholera outbreak that has infected at least fifty-one people.

* U.S.: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar became the second Latino member of the Obama cabinet to resign over the past several days.

Video Source – YouTube via UNESCO

Online Sources- euronews, The Latin Americanist, The Guardian, Bloomberg, ABC News

Daily Headlines: April 15, 2011

* Cuba: U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar admitted that planned offshore oil drilling by Cuba was an “issue of concern” being “monitored carefully” by U.S. officials.

* Chile: Senator Isabel Allende, daughter of late Chilean President Salvador Allende, requested that his remains be exhumed as part of an investigation into his death in 1973.

* Mexico: Attorney General Marisela Morales announced the arrests of sixteen police officers allegedly working in conjunction with the Zetas drug gang to cover up a series of mass graves.

* Brazil: A government report found that major improvement planned at Brazil’s main airports would not be ready in time for the 2014 soccer World Cup.

Image – France24 (“View of an oil pump in Havana.”)
Online Sources- BBC News, Reuters, Voice of America, CNN, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: January 16, 2009

* U.S.: "I want to clean up the mess that exists in the Department of Interior," said Senator Nominee Ken Salazar during Interior Secretary confirmation hearings yesterday.

* Colombia: On the one hand, the country’s FARC guerillas released ten people held hostage for nearly a month. On the other hand, the FARC have been accused of killing three children in a shootout with police.

* Brazil: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to “see Latin American countries as democratic partners rather than problems.”

* Cuba: The country’s Commission on Human Rights reported that 207 Cubans are being held as political prisoners by the Castro regime.

Image- AP (“In this Jan. 6, 2009 file photo, Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., is greeted by members at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute ceremony to honor the Hispanic-American members of the 111th Congress in Washington.”)
Online Sources- Xinhua, LAHT, Los Angeles Times, Reuters