Daily Headlines: September 9, 2015 (Updated)

* Brazil: Financial analysts surveyed by Brazil’s central bank believe the country this year will face its worst economic performance since 1990 and predicted that the economy will keep shrinking in 2016.

Update: More bad news for the economy as Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday downgraded the Brazilian government’s sovereign debt rating to junk status.

* Ecuador: Canada’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of proceeding with an environmental damages lawsuit against Chevron though the tribunal did not “endorse the underlying Ecuadorian legal case.”

* Latin America: A new study found that digital use in Latin America grew between April 2014 and April 2015 including increases of 147% and 351% in activity for Facebook and Twitter, respectively.

* Cuba: Some 140 Cuban dissidents including twenty members of the Ladies in White were reportedly arrested yesterday while on their way to a Catholic mass.

YouTube Source – CNNMoney (“Brazil is struggling with high unemployment, rising inflation and a currency trading at 12-year lows.”)
 
Online Sources including Update – MercoPress, The Latin Americanist, Financial Post, Billboard, Latin American Herald Tribune, The Guardian

Obama to Venezuelan Gov’t: Free Leopoldo López

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Venezuelan authorities to liberate imprisoned opposition leader Leopoldo López as soon as possible.

“From Russia to China to Venezuela, you are seeing relentless crackdowns vilifying legitimate dissent as subversive…we stand in solidarity with those detained at this very moment.  In Venezuela, Leopoldo López,” said Obama during a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative on Tuesday night. 

Aside from López, Obama mentioned other jailed activists from countries like Vietnam, Burundi and Russia who “deserve to be freed.  They should be freed.”

López has been detained for the past seven months, and charged with inciting vandalism and violence during anti-government demonstrations in February. Shortly after López turned himself in to authorities, Obama denounced the “unacceptable violence” in Venezuela and criticized officials for not “focusing on the legitimate demands of the Venezuelan people.”

Detractors of the Popular Will Party leader claimed that he must be punished for instigating politically charged violence that eventually cost the lives of more than forty people.  Last month, President Nicolás Maduro referred to López as a “pawn of the gringos” who “has to pay and he will pay,” for his alleged crimes.

Yet supporters of López believe the charges against the ex-mayor of the Chacao district of Caracas were politically motivated by a government seeking to quash dissent.

“Leopoldo is a prisoner of conscience and is in jail because Maduro is scared,” said López’ wife, Lillian Tintori, last week during a visit to the U.N.

Daily Headlines: July 15, 2014

* Cuba: Cuban authorities arrested at least ninety members of the Ladies in White protest movement over the weekend who were commemorating the deaths of thirty-seven migrants who died a sea in 1994.
 
* U.S.: Germany’s World Cup final win over Argentina was the most watched soccer match in U.S. television history with an estimated 26.5 million people viewing ABC and Univision.

* Mexico: President Enrique Peña Nieto signed into law a major telecommunications reform that he claimed, “will promote greater competition, more and better conditions, better coverage and service quality, as well as lower prices and costs.”

* Argentina: Argentine companies and provinces are reportedly hopeful that an agreement can be reached between debtors and the government before the end of the month.

Video Source – Reuters via YouTube (Cuba’s Ladies in White protesters participating in a 2010 march).

Online Sources – UPI; Fox News Latino; The Latin Americanist; Businessweek; Reuters

Daily Headlines: July 11, 2014

* Cuba: Cuban lawyer Ernesto Vera claimed that he worked for the state security agency and pretended to be an opposition activist in order to “discredit the dissidents.”

* Uruguay: Luis Suárez may be serving a harsh suspension for biting an Italian player at a World Cup match but that hasn’t stopped the Uruguayan from reportedly being transferred from to F.C. Barcelona as part of a $129 million deal.
  
* Latin America: A new U.N. report found that Mexico City and Sao Paulo, Brazil are in the top five of the world’s most populated cities though their ranking is expected to fall by 2030.

* Chile: President Michelle Bachelet of Chile criticized landlocked Bolivia’s appeal to the International Court of Justice seeking access to the sea.

Video Source – AFP via YouTube (Ernesto Vera alleged that he infiltrated the Ladies in White protest movement, seen here during a 2010 march, as part of his work as a Cuban state security agent).
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino; Bernama; The Latin Americanist; The Guardian

Daily Headlines: October 15, 2013

* Cuba: Ladies in White leader Berta Soler claimed that a “mob paid by the (Cuban) government” disrupted a commemoration of the death of the group’s founder while three dissident journalists were arrested within a 24-hour span in Havana last week.

* Honduras: A new militarized police force that is expected to reach as many as 5000 officers started their first patrols on Monday.

* Mexico: Agustin Carstens, Mexico’s central bank governor, claimed that his country is “prepared to confront” a possible U.S. debt default but observed that the “problem is so serious because the obstacle is political in nature, not financial nor economic.”

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan military released a “U.S.-chartered oil exploration ship” and its 36-member crew five days after it was seized in disputed waters claimed by both Venezuela and Guyana.

Video Source – YouTube via egberto angel escobedomorales (Members of Cuban dissident group the Ladies in White on Sunday commemorated the death of their founder, Laura Pollan).

Online Sources- Miami Herald; Reuters; Al Jazeera English; GlobalPost

Daily Headlines: August 15, 2013

* Ecuador: Edwin Johnson, Ecuador’s ambassador to Egypt, was recalled back to his homeland as a wave of political violence throughout the Northern African country has left at least 525 people dead.

* Guatemala: An international delegation of labor union members warned that Guatemala could lose its preferential trade status with the U.S. and E.U. due to violence against workers’ rights activists.

* Bolivia: Is Bolivian goat herder Carmelo Flores really 123-years-old and, therefore, the world’s oldest person?

* Cuba: Immigration officials reportedly refused to allow entry into Cuba of Blanca Reyes, the European representative of the political dissident group the Ladies in White.

Video Source – YouTube via Associated Press

Online Sources- Bernama; Reuters; GlobalPost; Irish Times; The Guardian

Daily Headlines: May 9, 2013

* Chile: Thousands of students and teachers marched in Santiago, Valparaiso and other major cities resumed their protests in favor of free, high-quality education.

* U.S.: The co-author of a Heritage Foundation report criticizing immigration reform has come under fire for allegedly arguing that Hispanics have lower IQs than the "native white population."

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro visited Uruguay and Argentina as part of his “petro-diplomacy” tour of Latin America while Venezuelan opposition politicos sought support in countries like Peru and Paraguay.

* Vatican: Argentine-born Pope Francis reportedly blessed leading Cuban dissident Berta Soler during a brief meeting at the Vatican on Wednesday. 

Video Source – YouTube via EFE

Online Sources- Miami Herald; USA TODAY, BBC News; ABC News

Daily Headlines: October 15, 2012

* Brazil: Over 1000 police raided a pair of favelas in Rio de Janeiro that are reportedly notorious for crime and drug-related violence.
 
* Haiti: Several hundred protesters marched in Port-au-Prince and called on President Michel Martelly to resign.
 
* Cuba: The Ladies in White dissident group marched in Havana yesterday on the one-year anniversary of the death of former leader Laura Pollan.

* U.S.: The U.S. Treasury Department officially designated the El Salvador-based MS-13 street gang as a “transnational criminal organization.”

Video Source – YouTube via AFP

Online Sources- IOL news, LAHT, The Telegraph, Christian Science Monitor

Daily Headlines: September 25, 2012

* Cuba: The Ladies in White opposition group accused Cuban authorities of “repression” by preventing them from holding a vigil in Havana for political prisoners.

* U.S.: The Food and Drug Administration urged consumers to avoid using an over-the-counter medicine manufactured in El Salvador known as Intestinomicina.

* Ecuador: The foreign ministers of Ecuador and Britain might meet this week in order to discuss the fate of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
 
* Mexico: The Mexican government will reportedly review a labor union's complaint against Alabama's crackdown on undocumented immigrants. 

Video Source – YouTube via AFP (Video uploaded in May 2012).

Online Sources- LAHT, VOXXI, MSNBC, Marketwatch

Weekend Headlines: May 26-27, 2012

* Honduras: Several thousand people took to the streets around the country to call for justice in the murders of over twenty journalists in the past three years.

* Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff used her line-item veto powers to reject portions of a controversial forestry law.

* Panama: An organization representing most of the world’s ship owners urged the Panama Canal Authority to delay a proposed toll hike.

* Costa Rica: Anti-whaling activist Paul Watson could be extradited to Costa Rica on charges from a 2002 incident involving a Costa Rican fishing vessel.

Daily Headlines: March 19, 2012 (Updated)

* Cuba: Police detained dozens of dissident activists over the weekend, including Ladies in White leader Berta Soler, ahead of next week’s visit from Pope Benedict XVI. (Update: Police reportedly released seventy members of the Ladies in White detained on Sunday. Meanwhile, a White House statement urged the Cuban government to "abandon their tactics of intimidation and harassment to stifle peaceful dissent.")

* Puerto Rico: Mitt Romney easily won over his GOP rivals in the Puerto Rico primary that included the participation of less than six percent of the commonwealth’s electorate.

* Venezuela: Twelve police officials were detained over the killing of Karen Berendique, the daughter of Chilean Honorary Consul Fernando Berendique, in Maracaibo.

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales warned that he would close the U.S. embassy in La Paz if diplomatic officials “continued bothering Bolivia.”

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources (including Updates) - Comision Estatal de Elecciones de Puerto Rico, Reuters, CNN, AFP, The Guardian, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: January 23, 2012

* U.S.: The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a lower court decision that would’ve allowed for the redrawing of Texas Congressional districts based on the state’s growing Latino population.

* Cuba: Berta Soler, the head of the Ladies in White dissident group, accused the government of “murdering” prisoner Wilman Villar Mendoza who died last week after going on a hunger strike.

* Brazil: Authorities allowed families in Sao Paulo’s Pinheiros favela to return and pick up their belongings after police raided the “sprawling settlement of landless workers” yesterday.

* Chile: In a unanimous decision the Chilean Supreme Court convicted a pair of retired military generals of illegally selling weapons to Croatia in 1992.

Image Source – Flickr via jasleen_kaur (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources – Reuters, Al Jazeera English, ABC News, Chicago Tribune

Today’s Video: Ladies in Black

The Ladies in White are a female group of Cuban government dissenters who have called for the freeing of their relatives who have been imprisoned since 2003. The ladies dressed in black in the video below are an estimated one thousand women in Montevideo, Uruguay who participated in a silent protest on November 25th:

Similar protests where held last Friday throughout Latin America and the Caribbean in order to commemorate the International Day Against Gender-Based Violence.

Video Source - YouTube via AFP

Online Sources - Milenio, Voice of America

Weekend Headlines: October 15-16, 2011

* Cuba: Rest in peace Laura Pollan. The founder of Cuba’s Ladies in White dissident group died on Friday at the age of 63.

* Mexico: The Pan American Games in Guadalajara commenced with the opening ceremonies last night but the first day of competition was marred by two athletes expelled due to doping.

* South America: Will Ecuador be the biggest beneficiary of a U.S.-Colombia free trade pact that was passed by Congress days ago?

* El Salvador: At least 36 people have died as a result of flooding and mudslides caused by heavy rainfall.

Video Source – Via YouTube user euronews (Footage from an August Ladies in White protest including alleged harassment from pro-government supporters).

Online Sources- UPI, Xinhua, Reuters, CSMonitor.com, CBS News

Daily Headlines: September 26, 2011

* Cuba: Hundreds of “government supporters” harassed members of the Ladies in White dissident group before a planned march on Saturday.

* Latin America: Nicaraguan newspaper reporter Silvia Gonzalez allegedly fled to the U.S. while Nuevo Laredo, Mexico newspaper editor Maria Elizabeth Macias may’ve been killed due to her social networking messages.

* Bolivia: The country’s Foreign Minister was reportedly briefly detained by indigenous demonstrators protesting government plans to construct a highway through a nature preserve.

* Venezuela: Opposition politician Leopoldo Lopez officially launched his campaign to challenge President Hugo Chavez in elections next year.

Video Source – euronews via YouTube

Online Sources- euronews, AP, Forbes.com, The Telegraph, BBC News

Weekend Headlines: August 20-21, 2011

* Central America: Officials in Honduras and Guatemala are closely monitoring the progress of Tropical Storm Harvey, which reached the coast of Belize earlier today.

* Latin America: The Venezuelan and Cuban governments blasted a U.S. State Department placing them on a blacklist of state-sponsored terrorism.

* Chile: The government officially recognized 9800 more victims of the dictatorship of the late strongman Augusto Pinochet.

* Nicaragua: The country’s Roman Catholic archdiocese is butting heads with President Daniel Ortega’s use of spiritual rhetoric during his reelection campaign.

* Argentina: As part of a new and “ambitious” antidrug program the state is expected to increase spending on defense.

* Cuba: A spokesperson for the Ladies in White dissident group claimed that government supporters recently harassed and assaulted them in Havana.

Image – AP via CBC News (“This NOAA satellite image taken Saturday shows clouds near Honduras associated with Tropical Storm Harvey as it moves steadily toward Belize.”)
Online Sources- MiamiHerald.com, UPI, AP, MSNBC, Voice of America, PRESS TV, Reuters

Daily Headlines: April 22, 2011

* U.S.: According to a University of Central Florida study the percentage of Latino players in the major leagues dropped slightly to 27% though it’s at its lowest point since 1999.

* Cuba: The Ladies in White dissident group received the State Department’s Human Rights Defender Award yesterday.

* Honduras: Will exiled former president Manuel Zelaya return to Honduras next month?


* Argentina: An upcoming book alleges that the Israeli government sent weapons to Argentina during 1982’s Falklands War with Britain.

Image - SI.com (St. Louis Cardinals star Albert Pujols is one of the top ballplayers in the game today).
Online Sources- boston.com, AFP, Dominican Today, The Telegraph

Cuba: Castro pledges political, economic reforms

This weekend marked the fiftieth anniversary of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and it was commemorated with a military parade in Havana. The future was also a very important theme this weekend among Cuban leaders, however, as president Raul Castro introduced reforms including ten-year term limits for the country’s politicos:

Castro’s term-limits were one of over 300 proposals introduced by the 79-year-old president during the Communist Party conference. He suggested the elimination of the island’s ubiquitous rationing books, which he deemed “a disincentive for work.” He also proposed introducing supply and demand to some areas of the economy and also claimed that the government is analyzing whether to legalize the sale of cars and homes.

In his lengthy speech at the summit Castro said that he stopped short of backing some changes including the concentration of property in private hands. He emphasized that "there will never be room for shock therapy" in Cuba.

Castro’s proposed reforms, which are expected to be backed by 1000 delegates at the congress, have received mixed reactions from Cubans. “What they are doing is this -- winning time to stay in power. This is a cancer that is now in its final stages,” said Laura Pollan, leader of the Ladies in White dissidents group, to Reuters.

Video Source – euronews via YouTube
Online Sources- Ahora.cu, The Guardian, Reuters, USA TODAY

Obama backs Cuban dissidents, protesters

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Cuba’s government to enact “meaningful actions” in order to expand the freedom of residents on the island.

In remarks made yesterday during his visit to Chile, Obama claimed that the Cuban people “deserve” the same freedoms “as everyone else in this hemisphere.” He acknowledged the efforts of Cuba’s opposition movement including the Ladies in White who have faced constant harassment by pro-government supporters.

Additionally, Obama emphasized relaxing travel and remittance restrictions as examples of the U.S. trying to improve ties with Cuba. Relations between both countries have been strained over the past several weeks, especially with the conviction of aid worker Alan Gross for allegedly aiding Cuban dissidents. Obama did not mention the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, a decades-long measure that served as a sore point between the U.S. and Cuban governments.

The Cuban government has yet to respond to Obama’s words though state television aired a film critical of the island’s dissidents. The documentary accused the U.S. of launching a “new kind of counterrevolution” against Cuba by using “cyber-mercenary” bloggers such as Yoani Sanchez. Sanchez replied by posting a video on her blog of a symposium with other anti-Castro activists. According to AFP:

In a blog video in response to the latest charges, Sanchez and five other opponents accuse the government of "demonizing" the Internet after revolutions led by online activists brought down longstanding regimes in Egypt and Tunisia.

"It is nervous because social networks like Twitter and Facebook can play the same role in Cuba they did in Egypt and Tunisia," it said.

Image- Reuters via BBC News (The Ladies in White where confronted by government supporters in this photo taken last month).
Online Sources- CNN, AP, AFP, Generation Y, The Latin Americanist, Sydney Morning Herald

Cuba: Dissidents caught in crackdown

The Cuban government allegedly agreed to free eight additional political prisoners aside from a group of 52 who have slowly been released since last year. Dissidents on the island, however, have accused authorities of targeting them as part of a crackdown.

Roughly 100 dissidents were either arrested or put under house arrest in the same week that activists commemorated the one-year anniversary of the death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata. The most notable of these detentions was the brief arrest of former hunger striker Guillermo Farinas who “shouted anti-government slogans” from the rooftop of his house. “I believe that the best tribute we can give to Zapata was for the government to be forced to mobilize its repressors,” Farinas said to the press after his 27-hour arrest.

The tense atmosphere continued over the weekend when state television showed a documentary critical of the Ladies in White dissident group. The film accused them of receiving funds from the U.S. government to fund their activities. Hence, it should come as no surprise that pro-government demonstrators confronted the Ladies in White as they marched through Havana yesterday.

U.S. President Barack Obama said last week that the February 2010 death of Zapata after a lengthy hunger strike brought attention to "the ongoing mistreatment of those unjustly held by Cuban authorities". Cuban state newspaper Granma would subsequently bash Obama by claiming he was being manipulated by Cuban-American exile organizations.

Human rights groups tried to bring additional attention to the crackdown on the Cuban opposition. Amnesty International denounced the harassment of Zapata’s relatives including “preventing his family from properly celebrating his life.” According to Human Rights Watch:

"A year after Zapata's tragic death, this latest wave of arrests shows the Cuban government continues to deny its citizens the basic freedoms of assembly and speech," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch…

"Through arbitrary detentions, physical abuse, and threats, the Cuban government has once again shown its willingness to repress its citizens who participate in the most basic civic activities," Vivanco said.

Image- AP via BBC News (“Pro- and anti-government protesters clashed in Havana on the anniversary of Mr. Zapata's death.”)
Online Sources- BBC News, ABC News, LAHT, AFP, Gulf Times, CBS News, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch