Daily Headlines: February 3, 2016

* Haiti: In an unusual twist in Haiti’s electoral crisis, musician turned president Michel Martelly released a song criticizing his political rivals that includes “sexually suggestive lyrics” against “an award-winning female journalist.”

* Argentina: The Argentine Congress is expected to approve a deal to pay $1.35 billion to Italian creditors holding unpaid debt related to a record $100 billion default in 2002.

* U.S.: Approximately 10,500 Latinos are believed to have voted in the Iowa presidential caucuses last Monday, which far outnumbers the 1000 from four years ago and triple the participation in 2008.

* El Salvador: Is San Salvador truly the world’s most violent city instead of Caracas, Venezuela?

YouTube Source – TRT World 

Online Sources – InSight Crime, Voice of America, Buzzfeed, Reuters

Daily Headlines: January 25, 2016

* Haiti: “We are ready for war…we will divide the country,” declared former coup plotter and suspected drug smuggler Guy Philippe over the chaos resulting from the latest delay in the Haitian presidential elections.

* Ecuador: Chevron welcomed a judicial ruling at The Hague against Ecuador in relation to a years-long environmental damages lawsuit.

* El Salvador: Former Salvadoran President Francisco Flores is hospitalized under a coma and reportedly in critical condition after he was found unconscious in his home last night.

* U.S.: Latino rights groups such as LULAC are trying to push Iowa’s growing Hispanic population to participate in the February 1st presidential caucuses.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – Al Jazeera America, The Latin Americanist, Fox News Latino, NPR, teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: January 20, 2016

* Honduras: The Honduran government and the Organization of American States agreed to create an international body aimed at combating political and judicial corruption.

* Latin America: The International Monetary Fund believes that the economy of the Latin America and Caribbean region will contract for the second straight year and shrink by 0.3% in 2016.

* U.S.: A new Pew Research Center study found that the Latino electorate has grown mainly thanks to more millennials and naturalized citizens.

* Colombia: Colombian officials and the FARC rebels requested U.N. monitoring of their bilateral ceasefire roughly two months prior to a self-imposed deadline to reach a final peace deal.

YouTube Source – AJ+ (Video uploaded on July 2015).
 
Online Sources – The Guardian, Financial Times, Pew Hispanic Center, BBC News

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: August 24, 2015

* Guatemala: During a televised speech on Sunday night, a defiant President Otto Pérez Molina refused to step down from his post despite being implicated by investigators in a growing customs fraud scandal.

* Peru: President Ollanta Humala is expected to sign into law a proposal allowing the Peruvian military to shoot down suspected aircraft attempting to smuggle drugs.

* El Salvador: “An internal dispute involving the feared Barrio 18 gang” is believed to have been the cause of a prison riot that left at least fourteen people dead.

* U.S.: A recent survey found that the environment is a topic that has gained importance among potential Latino voters.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English (“Thousands of demonstrators demanded the ouster of Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina on Saturday following the arrest of Vice President Roxana Baldetti in a graft scandal that has rocked the country.”)

Online Sources – Bloomberg, The Indpendent, RTE, NPR

Daily Headlines: November 5, 2014

* U.S.: The Election Protection Coalition reported receiving at least 14,000 phone complaints of problems during yesterday’s midterm elections including “reports of poll workers treating Latino voters rudely or failing to help” in Kentucky.

* Colombia: The head of the European Council announced that the E.U. will back the Colombian government’s peace talks with the FARC rebels.

* Mexico: The Mexican National Human Rights Commission will investigate the recent deaths of four people including three U.S. citizens and that may have been involved the Matamoros police.

* Venezuela: Operations at Venezuela’s largest oil refinery were suspended on Tuesday due to a blackout.

Video Source – AFP via YouTube
 
Online Sources – U-T San Diego; Reuters; teleSUR English; Los Angeles Times

Daily Headlines: October 30, 2014

* U.S.: According to a new Pew Research Center poll, Latino voter support of the Democratic Party has diminished slightly while more respondents believe that there is no difference between the Democrats and the rival Republican Party.

* Brazil: The Brazilian central bank rose interest rates as a possible sign that President Dilma Rousseff is seeking too woo investors spooked by her recent reelection.

* Dominican Republic: At least one person was killed during protests where demonstrators called for improvements to social services.

* Chile: 850 marijuana seeds were planted as part of a pilot program in a Santiago municipality to grow medical marijuana for cancer patients.

Video Source – AFP via YouTube 

Online Sources – Pew Hispanic Center; ABC News; BBC News; GlobalPost; The Latin Amercanist

Daily Headlines: October 6, 2014

* Mexico: Investigators in southern Mexico are examining a mass grave that could contain the remains of some of the forty-three student protesters missing since police reportedly attacked them last month.

* Brazil: Defeated presidential candidate Marina Silva said that she will not publicly back Dilma Rousseff or Aécio Neves in an upcoming runoff to decide Brazil’s next president.

* U.S.: Will President Barack Obama’s pledge last week to push for immigration reform attract potential Latino voters to next month’s midterm elections?

* Cuba: “I’m happy I made it alive, but it was something no one should have to go through,” said one of the fifteen Cuban migrants who survived for three weeks without food or water while adrift in the Caribbean.

Video Source – euronews via YouTube

Online Sources – NBC News; Xinhua; The Latin Americanist; The Guardian; CNN

Daily Headlines: September 16, 2014

* Mexico: A Mexican politician has come under fire after posting a Facebook message referring to Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho as an “ape.”

* Brazil: The warden of a Brazilian prison where an inmate was recently beheaded was arrested and charged with helping prisoners escape.

* U.S.: A coalition of fifty groups commenced a campaign yesterday aimed at boosting the number of Latino voters participating in the November midterm elections.

* Puerto Rico: Approximately $900 million in tax and revenue anticipation notes is expected to be sold in order to raise revenues on the cash-strapped commonwealth.

Video Source – AFP via YouTube
 
Online Sources – The Guardian; The Latin Americanist; Fox News Latino; The Huffington Post; Reuters

Daily Headlines: August 12, 2014 (Updated)

* Haiti: Officials vowed to capture more than 300 inmates who recently broke out of a Haitian prison including convicted kidnapping ring leader Clifford Brandt.

Update: Police recaptured Brandt near the Haiti-Dominican Republic border but most of the escaped inmates are still fugitives.
 
* Honduras: At least eight people died in a shootout on Saturday night reportedly caused by gang violence between the Mara 18 and the Mara Salvatrucha groups.

* U.S.: A three-judge federal panel started hearing legal arguments yesterday over the possible gerrymandering of Congressional districts that hurt Latino voters in Texas.

* Ecuador: The Ecuadorian capital city of Quito was named as “South America's Leading Destination” at an event deemed as the “Academy Awards of the tourism industry.”

Video Source – euronews via YouTube
 
Online Sources including Update – ABC News; Miami Herald; Latina; LAHT; Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: November 7, 2013

* Vatican: Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles asked Pope Francis to help mediate in the politically fractured country, while several photos were released showing the Argentine-born pontiff embracing a severely disfigured man. 

* Nicaragua: President Daniel Ortega is pushing a proposal through the Nicaraguan legislature that would eliminate term limits for presidents.

* Ecuador: A former judge behind a $19 billion environment damages ruling against Chevron rejected allegations of fraud against him and claimed that another magistrate did not ghostwrite his decision.

* U.S.: Latino voters played a key role in several elections on Tuesday including reportedly backing Terry McAuliffe by a 2-to-1 margin in a close Virginian gubernatorial race.

Video Source – YouTube via Rome Reports

Online Sources- The Huffington Post; Reuters; Al Jazeera English

Daily Headlines: February 19, 2013

* Cuba: A group of seven U.S. congressmen arrived in Cuba yesterday in order to lobby on behalf of imprisoned contractor Alan Gross who has been behind bars for about three years.

* Caribbean: Representatives of the Caribbean Community trading bloc urged U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to push for greater arms control.
 
* U.S.: The Tea Party Express is reportedly planning a Latino outreach campaign aimed at improving the political group’s image within the Hispanic community.

* Bolivia: Spain’s foreign minister warned that diplomatic relations with Bolivia could be hurt after President Evo Morales announced the nationalization of the Andean country’s airports operator.

Video Source – YouTube via user JewishNewsOne

Online Sources- Reuters, The Guardian, Miami Herald, Fox News Latino

Polls Show Latino Problem Spots for Obama and Romney

Heading into the homestretch of the neck-and-neck race for the White House, President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney are both seeking any advantage they can get.  While the Latino electorate could be decisive on November 6th, a pair of recently released polls showed that both candidates have some serious problems to overcome if they wish to capture the so-called “Latino vote.”

A poll from the Pew Hispanic Center published last Thursday found that most Latinos with religious affiliations back the president over the former Massachusetts governor.

The poll found that 50% of Latino evangelicals support Obama compared to 39% for Romney. For Latinos who identify themselves as Protestants 55% back Obama while 33% favor Romney. The gap between both candidates is noticeably larger among Catholic Latinos (73% Obama vs. 19% Romney) and religiously unaffiliated Latinos (82% Obama vs. 7% Romney).

Numerous evangelical organizations and prominent activists such as Ralph Reed have mobilized “massive” registration and get-out-the-vote efforts in favor of the Romney campaign.  Furthermore, the Pew poll showed that Latino evangelicals share the position of most evangelicals opposed to same sex marriage.  Yet it appears as if the GOP’s stance on immigration (especially during the presidential primaries) have discouraged some evangelical Latinos.

According to a May article from The Economist:

Pew Report Highlights Latino Voter Growth

There has been plenty of media hype focused on Wednesday’s U.S. presidential debate between incumbent Barack Obama and rival Mitt Romney.  Tonight’s discussion might appeal to members of several vital voting blocs that could tip the balance in favor of either Obama or Romney.  One of these is Latino voters, which, based on a new study, could play a key role in November’s election.

A Pew Hispanic Center report released this week concluded that the number of eligible Latino voters has reached a record of 23.7 million people this year. Compared to four years year ago the figure represents a 22% increase; thus, Latinos make up about one out of every ten voters in the U.S.

"Among Latino eligible voters, 58% are of Mexican origin, 14% are of Puerto Rican origin, 6% are of Cuban origin and 22% are of Central American, South American or other Hispanic origin," mentioned the report.

However not all was good news according to the Center’s analysis.  Voter registration and participation has lagged in comparison to other racial groups.  One of the possible reasons for this may be that Latinos moving to different states could have affected over registration. The young Latino population has grown but they are “less likely to hold citizenship than other groups.“

Another element that could affect Latino voter involvement are voter ID laws that have been approved in several states over the past few years.  One of these states with the toughest voter ID laws is Pennsylvania though yesterday a local judge halted a measure that opponents alleged would disenfranchise Latino voters.

Daily Headlines: March 13, 2012

* U.S.: The Justice Department on Monday blocked enforcement of a Texas voter identification law due to the potential disenfranchisement of Latino voters.

* Latin America: Colombian police nabbed the suspected mastermind behind the murder of Argentine singer and composer Facundo Cabral in Guatemala last year.

* Bolivia: At a United Nations anti-drugs meeting in Vienna, President Evo Morales defended coca chewing as an “ancestral right” for Bolivians.

* Brazil: Corruption allegations may’ve finally got the better of Ricardo Teixeira who resigned as the head of Brazil's soccer federation and the 2014 World Cup organizing committee.

Image Source – Flickr via Vox Efx (CC BY 2.0)

Online Sources- Fort Worth Star-Telegram, CNN, Reuters, BBC News

Daily Headlines: March 6, 2012

* Brazil: Official figures released today showed that the Brazilian economic boom continued last year though the 2.7% growth rate was slightly less than originally predicted.

* Peru: Approximately 5000 people in Amazon province of Madre de Dios protested against government plans to crack down on illegal mining operations.

* Dominican Republic: Famous television producer, presenter and philanthropist Rafael Corporán died on Monday at the age of 71.

* U.S.: According to a new poll a majority of Latino voters would support President Barack Obama in a head-to-head matchup with any of the Republican presidential hopefuls.

Image Source – Flickr via Andre Deak (The nighttime skyline of Sao Paulo, Brazil.) (CC BY 2.0).

Online Sources- BBC News, AFP, Dominican Today, Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: February 9, 2012

* Argentina: Legendary Argentine rock musician Luis Alberto Spinetta died at the age of 62 after months of battling lung cancer.

* Venezuela: Possible rivals to president Hugo Chavez wrap up their campaigns ahead of this Sunday’s opposition primary.

* Ecuador: Emilio Palacio, the former El Universo newspaper editor facing prison after losing a libel case against the Ecuadorian president, has sought asylum in the U.S.

* U.S.: An estimated 12.2 million Latinos are expected to vote in this November’s general election according to the Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.

Video Source – YouTube via ghanderhva

Online Sources- Buenos Aires Herald, AS/COA Online, USA TODAY, Boston.com

The Elusive Latino Swing Voter - Found!

Last week I pondered the impact (or lack thereof) that Latino voters might have in 2010.

There's always a million ways to read an election, but it is very interesting to see that the majority of polls showed Harry Reid trailing Sharron Angle by several points going into election day, but in the end he pulled out a strong win.

Political Scientist and pollster Matthew Baretto believes the Latino vote - and the failure of pollsters to poll in Spanish - explains the miss.

Nate Silver followed up quickly with the following analysis:

As a back-of-the-envelope test of Mr. Barreto’s theory, I compiled results from the eight states with the largest share of Latinos in their population: these are Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Texas. There were 15 gubernatorial and Senate races last night between these states....In 10 of the 15 races, the polling average underestimated the Democrat’s margin by at least 2.5 points.

Now the questions turn to what politicians will actually do to meet the needs of this increasingly growing constituency.

Image Source: The Fourth Branch

Online Sources: NPR, NY Times/Fivethirtyeight, The Hill, Politico

Daily Headlines: March 15, 2010

* Chile: Parts of Chile continue to be without electricity after a massive blackout on Sunday night plunged most of the country into darkness. (Update: Electricity is expected to be restored to all of Chile by today. Yet as the video above shows, Chileans had their nerves tested by the blackout that occurred weeks after a deadly major tremor).

* U.S.: If the Republican Party wants to appeal to Latino voters then they should lay off the staunch anti-immigration rhetoric such as “(reviving) the thrust of Proposition 187” in California.

* Venezuela: Officials claimed that police seized over two tons of cocaine originally bound for Europe.

* Argentina: Did the Vatican help the late Nazi Adolf Eichmann flee Germany for Argentina?

Image – Reuters (“A man rides his bike along a street during a blackout in Santiago, March 14, 2010.”)
Online Sources- UPI, MSNBC, The Latin Americanist, San Francisco Gate, The Telegraph

One step forward, three steps back

A recent Miami Herald article noted that Latino disappointment at the Obama administration could be taken advantage of by Republicans eager to make inroads in the Latino vote. "’There's a great sense of frustration, there's a great sense of anger and there's a big letdown’ that will drive more Latinos to the Republican Party” California State Senate Republican Caucus consultant Hector Barajas was quoted as saying.

There is plenty of justifiable disillusionment by Latinos against the White House on a range of issues. Yet the GOP must also be careful not to give the impression of offering “just a bunch of empty promises” (to use Barajas’ words against the Democrats). Proposals like the one outlined below will not earn the Republicans many Brownie points in the Latino community:

Republican lawmakers in Congress are sponsoring a bill that seeks to abolish birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to illegal immigrant parents…

"You have many people coming to this country illegally," said Rep. Gary Miller…"They come to this country and have babies. The children are citizens. The children are eligible to go to school. They receive food stamps and social programs. The American taxpayers are paying for it"…

Adrian Pantoja, associate professor of political studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, said the legislation is "largely symbolic" and unlikely to pass.

The other symbolism of the bill is that it demonstrates that the GOP will have their work cut out for them to make significant inroads in the Latino vote. Even though the Democrats are not doing themselves too many favors (i.e. lack of comprehensive immigration reform), a massive swing in Latino support to the GOP is far from guaranteed.

Online Sources- Miami Herald, Whittier Daily News
Image- TIME (Picture of the teleprompter at a 2007 Republican presidential debate “on Univision, the party's first on a Spanish-language network.”)