Daily Headlines: October 20, 2016

* Latin America: Latin America has become “one of the most urbanized regions of the world” over the past three decades, according to Development Bank of Latin America executive president Enrique Garcia.

* South America: Former Brazilian lower house chief Eduardo Cunha was arrested yesterday over his alleged role in the “Lava Jato” corruption scandal, while Venezuelan opposition figure Manuel Rosales was transferred from jail to house arrest.

* Mexico: The Mexican peso slipped by around 0.5% following the third United States presidential debate though is has strengthened by some 7% since the first debate on September 7th.

* Honduras: Human rights campaigners condemned the murders of two northern Honduras land rights activists representing farmers in their dispute against multinational firms.

YouTube Source – NYU Stern Urbanization Project (From 2014: “The expansion of built up urban land in São Paulo, 1881 - 2000.”)

Online Sources – Xinhua, Bloomberg, UPI, BBC News, Reuters

Daily Headlines: October 11, 2016

* Latin America: A new report alleges that surveillance laws in twelve Latin American states are outdated and can be easily exploited by authoritarian regimes.

* United States: The Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments today on the secrecy of jury deliberations based on the case of a Latino man convicted after some jurors used ethnic slurs.

* Brazil: New corruption charges were raised against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who along with ten other suspects were believed to have allowed some $9.3 million in kickbacks for a construction projects in Angola.

* Mexico: The World Health Organization called for strict measures against consumption of sugary drinks such as those taken in Mexico where a tax was levied against those types of beverages.

YouTube Source – BBC News (A Brazilian judge last May suspended access to WhatsApp for 72 hours over the messaging service’s owner, Facebook, not handing over information requested in a criminal probe).

Online Sources – The Intercept, Fox News Latino, Latin American Herald Tribune, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: September 28, 2016

* Peru: Vladimiro Montesinos, the shady former Peruvian intelligence chief who was instrumental in the rise and fall of Alberto Fujimori from the presidency, was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison for the kidnapping and burning of three people.

* Panama: Panamanian officials formally sought the extradition from the United States (US) of ex-President Ricardo Martinelli who is accused of using public funds for illegal surveillance.

* Puerto Rico: US Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen warned that Puerto Rico is facing a fiscal crisis and claimed it’s up to Congress or the White House to formulate an adequate solution.

* Latin America: The Pan American Health Organization declared the Americas are free from all endemic cases of measles “after years of intense efforts to vaccinate children under the age of five.”

YouTube Source – Journeyman Pictures (Documentary from December 2003.)

Online Sources – UPI, Reuters, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: September 26, 2016

* United States: The baseball world, and especially players of Cuban background, is mourning the untimely death of rising star Jose Fernandez who died at the age of 24.

* Latin America: Several recent reports concluded that the burgeoning weapons trade in Latin America “serves to both profit illicit groups and to facilitate criminal violence in the region.”

* Mexico: Jose Alfredo Lopez Guillen became the third Mexican priest kidnapped and killed in less than a week.

* South America: A small diplomatic brouhaha has developed between Bolivia and Chile after Bolivian President Evo Morales alleged that the landlocked country was being denied access to Chilean ports.

YouTube Source – Associated Press

Online Sources – InSight Crime, CBS Miami, CBC, Reuters

Daily Headlines: September 14, 2016

* Brazil: Eduardo Cunha, the former Brazilian lower house speaker who helped lead the impeachment process against recently ousted President Dilma Rousseff, was himself expelled from the Chamber of Deputies over corruption allegations.

* Latin America: According to the State Department, seventeen Latin American and Caribbean states are still deemed as “major drug transit or major illicit drug producing countries.”

* United States: A new poll taken in four key battleground states in the upcoming presidential election showed Latino voters overwhelmingly support former senator Hillary Clinton.

* Mexico: Investigators looking into the disappearance and possible massacre of forty-three trainee teachers nearly two years ago have widened their probe to focus on more police officers.

YouTube Source – Transparency International

Online Sources – The Atlantic, InSight Crime, Politico, Reuters

Daily Headlines: September 1, 2016

* Venezuela: Several hundred thousand people are marching at a protest in Caracas against the regime of President Nicolas Maduro and calling for his resignation from office.

* South America: Qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup resume today with matches including the latest battle between neighbors Uruguay and Argentina, and Ecuador looking to continue their historic home field advantage in Quito versus Brazil.

* Costa Rica: Costa Rica has been running its electrical grid using renewable energy sources for at least 121 days and officials are hoping to stretch that out to a full year.

* Latin America: A new report found that operations by special U.S. military forces including Green Berets and the Navy SEALs have tripled in Latin America between 2007 and 2014.

YouTube Source – Agencia EFE 

Online Sources – Reuters, Xinhua, Goal.com, The Independent, Common Dreams

Daily Headlines: August 24, 2016

* Chile: “(Latin America) doesn’t take the issue seriously or dedicate the resources it deserves,” claimed a Chilean AIDS rights activist after the government issued a health alert over 1.2 million faulty Chinese-made condoms distributed via a public health program.

* Latin America: Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is expected to visit six Latin American states this week and sign numerous agreements with countries like Cuba and Bolivia.

* Argentina: Declassified British intelligence documents apparently showed Israel sold weapons to Argentina during the Falklands War in 1982.

* Central America: The presidents of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala pledged to launch a new joint force aimed at curbing drug traffickers and criminal gangs.

Daily Headlines: July 27, 2016

* Latin America: Analysts with the International Monetary Fund and the U.N.  Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean believe the economy of the Latin American region will contract this year by 0.4% and 0.8%, respectively.

* Central America: The White House announced a series of measures aimed at helping refugees from Central America but also attempting to discourage the migrant flow from that area.

* Panama: Operators of the newly expanded Panama Canal claimed bad weather was to blame for a “damaging scrape” caused by a Chinese container ship on the waterway.

* Venezuela: Opposition politicians called on their supporters to march in Caracas today and demand that electoral officials validate efforts to hold a recall referendum against President Nicolas Maduro.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English (This video examines the Argentine economy, which both the International Monetary Fund and the U.N.  Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean believe will weaken this year along with those from Brazil and Venezuela).
 
Online Sources – teleSUR English, Fox News Latino, NPR, The New York Times, Reuters

Daily Headlines: July 11, 2016

* Haiti: The State Department pledged support by the United States to Haiti despite suspending financial help to the Caribbean country’s troublesome election process.

* Latin America: The quality of higher education in Latin America has been unable to meet the growing demand for a university education, according to new research.

* El Salvador: Ten people including five police officers were arrested over allegedly participating in a death squad linked to the deaths of forty suspected gang members in El Salvador.

* Mexico: Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto called the North American Free Trade Agreement a “win-win mechanism” for job creation and economic growth for his country, the United States and Canada.

YouTube Source – AJ+ (From January 20, 2016: “Protesters calling for fresh elections clashed with riot police in Haiti as the presidential run-off vote looms.”)
 
Online Sources – The Washington Post, Fox News Latino, The Hill, Times Higher Education

Daily Headlines: June 20, 2016 (Updated)

* Brazil: Acting President Michel Temer will reportedly urge federal legislators to approve an $850 million emergency payment to help fund the cash-strapped Rio de Janeiro state prior to the Olympics this August.

* U.S.: The semifinals of the Copa America Centenario are set with the hosts U.S. facing pre-tournament favorites Argentina and Chile looking to capitalize off their quarterfinal mauling of Mexico by beating Colombia.

* Latin America: A new study from Global Witness concluded that Latin America remains the most dangerous region for environmental activists with four countries from the region accounting for 100 recorded deaths of environmentalists last year.

Update: On a related note, a former Honduran soldier claimed that slain environmental activist Berta Cáceres was named on a purported hit list of social activists targeted by the military.
 
* Ecuador: Family members of some of the 688 fatalities from a 7.8-magnitude earthquake marched in Portoviejo on the two-month anniversary of the tremor.

YouTube Source – euronews
 
Online Sources including Update – teleSUR English, NPR, Sports Illustrated, BuzzFeed News, Bloomberg, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: June 15, 2016

* Latin America: The U. N. Development Programme warned that 25 million Latin Americas that escaped poverty could soon fall back into serious financial hardship due to a “lengthy economic crisis and social exclusion in the region.”

* U.S.: The Latino community in Orlando, Florida tries to recover from the massacre of forty-nine people at a local nightclub including twenty-three Puerto Ricans as well as victims from Mexico as well as Venezuela.

* Argentina: Argentina’s foreign minister reiterated her county’s sovereignty claims over the Falklands but called on an “open dialogue” and better relations with the U.K.

* Puerto Rico: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the upper house will debate a debt relief bill for Puerto Rico later this month yet very close to a July 1st deadline for the island to pay $1.9 billion.

YouTube Source – DW (English) (From September 2015: “Agriculture is helping Paraguay's economy expand fast. Growth came in at about 5 percent last year. But many people still live in extreme poverty.”)
 
Online Sources – NBC News, ABC News, El Pais, Reuters, MercoPress

Daily Headlines: April 28, 2016

* Venezuela: A study released this week found that Venezuela, which is undergoing an energy crisis, is the country most vulnerable to the low price of crude oil.

* Cuba: The recent increase in the number of Cuban migrants entering the U.S. could lead to a reform of the Cuban Adjustment Act even though White House officials have denied the possibility of enacting changes.

* Mexico: “We want to stay alive” was the theme of a protests held days ago in the State of Mexico to repudiate femicides and violence against women.

* Latin America: The economy for Latin America and the Caribbean is expected to contract for a second straight year in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund.

YouTube Source – PBS NewsHour (Video uploaded in March 2016).
 
Online Sources – GlobalPost, CNBC, Politico, The Guardian, Vox

Daily Headlines: April 19, 2016

* U.S.: The 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama was awarded to Lin-Manuel Miranda in recognition of the popular, critically-acclaimed Broadway musical “Hamilton.”

* Latin America: A new report detailed how the Hacking Team cyber security firm allegedly sold spyware and other tools used by authorities in several Latin American states for surveillance against critics and political opponents.

* Colombia: The Colombian government plans to resume using glyphosate to eradicate coca plants even though the World Health Organization classified it last year as a carcinogen.

* Cuba: Carnival reversed its decision to bar Cuban-Americans from traveling on its upcoming cruises to Cuba though it remains to be seen if they will be accepted back on to the island by immigration officials.

YouTube Source – PBS NewsHour
 
Online Sources – Buzzfeed News, ABC News, The Atlantic, Boing Boing

Daily Headlines: April 13, 2016

* Nicaragua: Nicaragua legislators rejected a “citizens bill” based on a petition with some 28,000 signatories seeking to stop a planned interoceanic canal. 

* Cuba: The Cuban government loosened restrictions on some cooperatives as part of a “cautiously implemented market reform program” but stopped short of granting more flexibility to private restaurants.

* Latin America: The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean believes Latin America’s economy will shrink by 0.6% this year in a report published days after the Inter-American Development Bank revised their outlook to a 0.3% contraction.

* Mexico: Mexico is allegedly preparing a plan to bid for the 2026 soccer World Cup, which could affect the chances of the U.S. hosting the event and might impact the joint invite for the 2030 tournament by Argentina and Uruguay.

YouTube Source – AFP

Online Sources – The Guardian, Reuters, Nearshore Americas, Fox Sports

Daily Headlines: April 11, 2016

* Panama: As part of Panama’s campaign to save face in light of the “Panama Papers” leak, President Juan Carlos Varela in a New York Times op/ed piece tried to shift attention towards tax evasion as a “global problem.”

* Latin America: The Inter-American Development Bank anticipates a 0.3% contraction of the Latin American regional economy in 2016 and weak growth in the next few years.

* Argentina: Former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner might be charged in relation to an investigation into alleged money laundering.

* Puerto Rico: Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla ordered emergency financial measures aimed at preventing a default on a debt payment scheduled for May 1st.

YouTube Source – AFP (Over the weekend “police raided the El Salvador offices of the Panama-based law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers scandal that has revealed how the wealthy in many countries stashed their riches offshore”.)
 
Online Sources – Reuters, MercoPress, The Economic Times, Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: April 1, 2016

* Peru: The archbishop of Arequipa has come under fire after he claimed that presidential candidates Alfredo Barnechea and Veronika Mendoza should be barred from running due to their support of abortion and same-sex marriage.

* Brazil: George Hilton resigned as Brazil’s sports minister roughly four months prior to the Rio Olympics, while Cuban defector Orlando Ortega will be unable to compete at Rio due to residency issues.

* Latin America: According to the Food and Agriculture Organization an average of 348,000 tons of food are wasted each day in Latin America, which could feed some 300 million people.

* U.S.: A recent study found that Latinos in the U.S. including those who are native-born have opted to reside away from states that have enacted harsh anti-immigration measures over the past decade.

YouTube Source – Ruptly TV (Mass protests for and against the right to choose have been held in Peru over the last few months).

Online Sources – phys.org, teleSUR English, PRI, Fox News Latino, SBS

Daily Headlines: March 22, 2016

* Latin America: The U.N. concluded that the poverty rate in Latin America and the Caribbean grew by seven million people in roughly one year, while a report found that the region is very vulnerable to cyber attacks.

* Ecuador: The Ecuadoran government announced the creation of a new marine sanctuary that will protect some 18,000 square miles around the Galapagos Islands.

* Mexico: Some 200,000 residents in Mexico have been displaced as a result of dam construction nationwide according to a new study.

* U.S.: The Latino electorate in Arizona could be key in deciding who will win today's Democratic presidential primary in that state.

YouTube Source – DW

Online Sources – Andina, Nearshore Americas, National Geographic, teleSUR English, The Hill

Daily Headlines: March 11, 2016

* Honduras: Representatives of more than 200 conservation and human rights groups signed a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry calling on the U.S. to back an investigation into the recent death of renown Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres.

* Chile: A Chilean judge halted the sixteen-year probe looking into a U.S. professor missing and possible abducted by state agents, while former “Caravan of Death” Gen. Sergio Arellano Stark died at the age of 94.

* Latin America: The gender pay gap in Latin America has narrowed by 12% from 1990 to 2014 but women still earned 26% less than men according to the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

* Brazil: Some twenty Syrian refugees claimed that they are being hurt by the bureaucratic process in order to obtain local work permits.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English (Honduran human rights activist Berta Cáceres was shot on killed at her home on March 2nd).

Online Sources – The Hill, The New York Times, BBC News, Reuters, Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: March 9, 2016 (Updated)

* Mexico: An editorial in a Mexican Catholic Church publication questioned Pope Francis’ comments during his visit to Mexico last month admonishing some clergy for their opulence and not connecting with their parishioners.

* Brazil: Will convicted former construction tycoon Marcelo Odebrecht collaborate with Brazilian authorities as part of the “Lava Jato” corruption investigation?

Update: Prosecutors are expected to announce on Thursday that money laundering charges will be raised against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

* Latin America: The Ecuadoran government claimed that envoys from Latin American oil producing states will reportedly meet in Quito this Friday to discuss the low price of crude.

* Venezuela: Street protests, a constitutional amendment and a recall vote are part of the Venezuelan opposition’s strategy to oust President Nicolás Maduro before his term is scheduled to end.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources including Update – BBC News, Fortune, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, Catholic News Service

Daily Headlines: March 2, 2016

* Latin America: The Food and Agriculture Organization acknowledged strides throughout Latin America to combat hunger but warned that 34.3 million people in the region lack access to food.

* Cuba: British rock group the Rolling Stones announced that they’ll play a free concert this month in Havana, while U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to attend a Tampa Bay Rays vs. Cuba baseball game during his visit to the island on the 22nd.

* Peru: Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru became the latest prominent Latin American figure to assail Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

* Haiti: A three-judge court in the U.S. began listening to the case of Haitian plaintiffs suing the United Nations regarding a cholera epidemic has killed more than 9,000 people in the Caribbean state.

YouTube Source – AFP (Video uploaded in 2012).
 
Online Sources – Xinhua, NPR, ESPN, The Guardian, The New York Times