Daily Headlines: September 29, 2016

* Argentina: Nearly one in three residents in Argentina live below the poverty line according to the first data on the subject published by the government since October 2013.

* Colombia: Days after a peace accord was signed with Colombia’s largest guerilla army, the ELN rebels claimed to be ready to officially start peace talks with the government.

* Chile: “I believe that women should have legally the possibility of making their own choices,” said Chilean President Michelle Bachelet over a proposal that would relax the country’s ban on abortion under all circumstances.

* United States: A PricewaterhouseCoopers study concluded that Hispanic television viewers prefer English-language programs over those in Spanish with stronger preference in each subsequent generation for shows in English.

YouTube Source – CCTV America (New data from the Argentinian government seems to confirm the findings of a 2014 World Bank report warning that a third of the population is vulnerable of falling into poverty.)

Online Sources – Voice of America, The Latin Americanist, Deadline, BBC News, ABC News

Daily Headlines: September 23, 2016

* United States: A new report estimated that one million Latinos are expected to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease by 2030, which could lead to a cash crunch for families who “are among the least resourced to deal with the financial demand Alzheimer's places on households and on family caregivers.”

* Brazil: Brazilian officials unveiled a controversial education reform that would ironically drop physical education as an obligatory subject in high school despite the national fervor caused by the recent Olympics and Paralympics competitions in Rio de Janeiro.

* Nicaragua: The Nicaraguan government strongly rejected a proposal being considered by the United States (US) Congress that would prevent the Central American country from receiving international loans unless political reforms are made.

* Cuba: Several Latin American leaders at the United Nations General Assembly including the business-friendly presidents of Mexico and Peru called for the elimination of the US trade embargo. 

YouTube Source – National Council of La Raza

Online Sources – NBC News, Xinhua, Retuers, The Miami Herald

Daily Headlines: August 22, 2016

* Cuba: How are Cubans trying to work around the financial and technological barriers that make it very difficult to access the Internet?

* Chile: Hundreds of thousands of Chileans marched nationwide to call for reforming the private pension system in place since the regime of then-strongman Augusto Pinochet.

* United States: A recent study concluded that Latinos age at a slower rate than other ethnic groups despite having higher cases of chronic diseases as obesity and diabetes.

* Mexico: Bad news for the Mexican economy, which suffered its first quarterly loss in approximately three years.

YouTube Source – Wall Street Journal (From August 2015: “The streets of Cuba are famous for their classic American cars and weathered buildings. Now, they are also increasingly popular with Cubans using the Internet.”)

Online Sources – Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, Quartz, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: July 28, 2016

* Bolivia: Disability rights protesters calling for greater benefits recently entered their fourth month of protest camping out in the streets of La Paz after initially marching roughly 250 miles from Cochabamba.

* Guatemala: Former President Otto Perez Molina, who resigned in 2015 being implicated in the “La Linea” corruption probe, faces new corruption charges over purportedly heading a “criminal network” and accepting some $39 million in bribes.

* United States: A recent survey found nearly one in five Latinos use app-based ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft though they’re used by 53% of residents in “majority-minority” neighborhoods.

* Brazil: Vale SA, the mining firm involved in a deadly dam collapse that killed seventeen people last November, reported a 34% nosedive in its second quarter profits.

YouTube Source – euronews (Special needs demonstrators in La Paz, Bolivia have occasionally clashed with police).

Online Sources – The Huffington Post, Pew Research Center, ABC News, Reuters

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: June 13, 2016

* U.S.: LGBT centers in the area of Orlando, Florida are working to offer Spanish-speaking grief counselors in light of the massacre of at least fifty people during an “Upscale Latin Saturday” party at the Pulse nightclub.

* Puerto Rico: U.S. President Barack Obama in his weekly address urged the Senate to quickly approve a plan that would help alleviate Puerto Rico’s $70 billion debt.

* Brazil: According to “two unpublished academic studies” researchers have detected a “super bacteria” present in the waters of several venues of the upcoming Rio Olympics.

* Guatemala: Three former ministers who served under disgraced ex-President Otto Perez Molina were arrested on corruption charges while around 2000 protesters in Guatemala City rallied in favor of greater political transparency.

YouTube Source – Jornalistas Livres (Vigils were held in several Latin American cities including Sao Paulo in solidarity with the victims of the mass shooting of at least fifty people in Orlando on Saturday).
 
Online Sources – PBS NewsHour, Fox News Latino, Reuters, Deutsche Welle

Daily Headlines: May 19, 2016

* Puerto Rico: Relief may finally arrive for Puerto Rico after House Republicans and the Obam administration agreed to a proposal that would help restructure the commonwealth’s $70 billion debt.

* Argentina: The revelations from the Panama Papers leak may have been an embarrassment for Panama and Argentine President Mauricio Macri but it could help alleviate the South American country’s financial woes.

* U.S.: A Government Accountability Office study released last Tuesday found that U.S. public schools have become more racially segregated including an increase in the percentage of Latino children enrolled in “impoverished K-12 public schools.”

* Mexico: Mexican authorities rescued 271 people, including 112 minors, of an overcrowded drug rehab clinic where patients were reportedly tortured and grossly mistreated.

YouTube Source – PBS NewsHour
 
Online Sources – NBC News, UPI, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: May 11, 2016

* Brazil: The Brazilian Senate later today will likely approve holding an impeachment trial against embattled President Dilma Rousseff where she would be suspended from her post for 180 days.

* Colombia: President Juan Manuel Santos claimed that a peace deal with FARC rebels can be reached “in the very near future” hours after his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, called for a “civil resistance” against such an agreement. 

* Nicaragua: A new study blasted planned construction of an interoceanic canal though Nicaragua, which would be disastrous for a number of endangered wildlife species.

* Peru: Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori, continues to post a slight lead in the polls ahead of next month’s runoff.

* U.S.: At least 875,000 eligible Latino voters could face difficulties voting in the upcoming presidential election according to an analysis by National Association of Elected and Appointed Officials.

* El Salvador: The murder rate for El Salvador in the first four months of this year has reportedly surpassed the rates in other Central American countries for 2015.

YouTube Source – AFP
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino, Colombia Reports, CNN, Reuters, The Tico Times, NBC News

Daily Headlines: April 27, 2016

* Mexico: A few thousand people including some family members of 43 missing Ayotzinapa university students marched in Mexico City yesterday to question the government’s shaky investigation into the case.

* Peru: Peruvian officials will expand a law allowing the military to shoot down civilian planes suspected of drug smuggling to include boats and backpackers.

* Argentina: State-run YPF will export crude oil next month for the first time since 2013 as part of a plan to boost production amid low oil prices.

* U.S.: A new study concluded that the number of Latino children was undercounted in the last Census and this has caused a lack of federal funds to be destined to some communities in need.

YouTube Source – El Universal

Online Sources – Reuters, NBC News, Bloomberg, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: April 4, 2016

* Peru: Poll frontrunner Keiko Fujimori flip-flopped and pledged to not pardon her father, imprisoned former Peruvian leader Alberto Fujimori, if she wins the presidency in elections scheduled for next week.

* Venezuela: A Human Rights Watch report assailed Venezuelan law enforcement for extrajudicial killings of suspected gang members as part of a crackdown against crime.

* Haiti: Several hundred protesters including disabled rights activists and human rights advocates marched in Port-au-Prince last Friday to condemn the murders of three deaf Haitian women.

* U.S.: The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the current “one person, one vote” rule to decide voting districts in a decision that prevented shifting “political power away from fast-growing communities of immigrants”.

YouTube Source – NTDTV (Ex-president Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison in 2009 for human rights abuses during his decade as Peru’s president).
 
Online Sources – Reuters, InSight Crime, CBS News, The Los Angeles Times

Daily Headlines: March 1, 2016

* Venezuela: Defeated presidential candidate Henrique Capriles claimed that an investigation into alleged improprieties when he was Miranda state governor are part of a government plot against a possible referendum seeking the dismissal of President Nicolás Maduro.

* U.S.: A new poll found that 78% of Latino voters believe women should have the right to an abortion if respondents disagree with such an action.

* Argentina: Former Argentine intelligence chief Antonio Stiuso testified as part of the probe into the apparent murder of crusading prosecutor Alberto Nisman in January 2014.

* Colombia: Santiago Uribe, the younger brother of ex-President Alvaro Uribe, was arrested over supposedly creating a paramilitary force known as the “Twelve Apostles.”

YouTube Source – AFP (Henrique Capriles lost in a tight presidential election to current President Nicolás Maduro in 2013).

Online Sources – GlobalPost, NBC News, Yahoo News, Colombia Reports

Daily Headlines: February 23, 2016

* Honduras: An international mission to combat widespread corruption in Honduras began its work though protesters believe the group lacks the strength of a similar investigative panel in nearby Guatemala.

* Peru: NASA scientists are conducting an experiment in Peru using potatoes in order to figure out the viability of growing crops on Mars.

* Nicaragua: Nicaraguan officials paroled 8149 inmates and repatriated nearly 100 foreign convicts as part of a plan to ease severe prison overcrowding.

* U.S.: A new study found that 71% of Latinos believe speaking Spanish is not a prerequisite to being considered as Hispanic though roughly three in four respondents speak the language at home.

YouTube Source – AFP (“Thousands of people (last August) hold a march with torches in the Honduran capital to protest against corruption and demand the resignation of President Juan Orlando Hernandez and a UN probe into impunity”.)

Online Sources – ABC News, Popular Science, Yahoo News, Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: February 19, 2016

* Latin America: According to the World Bank, Latin America could lose approximately $3.5 billion due to the Zika virus outbreak with some tourism-dependent countries losing over 1% of gross domestic product.

* Peru: The Peruvian government declared a water quality emergency after a pair of oil spills contaminated water supplies in the Amazonas and Loreto regions.

* U.S.: An estimated 14,000 gathered at the Wisconsin state Capitol building as part of the “Day Without Latinos” protest against strong anti-immigrant measures.

* Puerto Rico: The untimely death of Supreme Court judge Antonin Scalia might improve the odds of the high court ruling in favor of a debt restructuring program for Puerto Rico.

YouTube Source – CCTV America

Online Sources – Peru This Week, NASDAQ, Fusion, Reuters

Daily Headlines: January 28, 2016

* Brazil: A new spill has been reported at the same mine where a landslide of toxic sludge last November was deemed as the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history.

* Latin America: Should women avoid pregnancy in order to halt the spread of the Zika virus or is such a warning unnecessary?

* U.S.: A new study noted an increase in Latino college enrollment though most head to Hispanic-Serving Institutions found in a limited number of states.

* Mexico: Legislators in Mexico’s Congress began a series of discussions this week that could open the door to legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.

YouTube Source – euronews (At least seventeen people died after the Samarco dam mine in southwest Brazil overflowed last year).

Online Sources – Latin American Herald Tribune, ABC News, Reuters, NBC News, Quartz

Daily Headlines: January 8, 2016

* Puerto Rico: Two firms that are insuring Puerto Rico’s bonds filed a lawsuit days after the island’s government missed a $36 million payment on a $70 billion municipal debt.

* U.S.: The Latino unemployment rate dipped last month to 6.3% according to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data published today.

* Brazil: In the latest black eye for the Brazilian economy, the 2015 inflation rate of 10.67% was the highest in thirteen years.

* El Salvador: The Salvadoran government will seek the arrest of seventeen retired soldiers suspected of murdering eight people including six Jesuit priests in 1989.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera America News
 
Online Sources – Reuters, GlobalPost, Fox News Latino, The Tico Times

Daily Headlines: December 17, 2015

* Colombia: Retired Colombian army coronel Alfonso Plazas Vega might sue the state after the Supreme Court overturned his thirty-year prison sentence related to the 1985 Palace of Justice siege.

* U.S.: New data showed that the Latino high school graduation rate improved by 5.3% over three years to 76.3% for the 2013-2014 period.

* Cuba: Cuba and the U.S. agreed to an air travel deal that will allow commercial airlines to legally run some thirty flights to and from the island.

* Brazil: A Brazilian judge lifted a temporary ban that suspended the use of the WhatsApp social messaging program for twelve hours.

YouTube Source – AFP (Last October, “the remains of three Colombian women who vanished in fighting when leftist rebels briefly captured the Justice Palace in 1985 are identified”).
 
Online Sources – Yahoo News, Latina, ABC News, Quartz

Daily Headlines: December 11, 2015

* Brazil: The International Monetary Fund’s Director of the Western Hemisphere noted that “political crises and corruption scandals” have prevented Brazil from emerging out of its recent economic slowdown.

* U.S.: New Census data showed that while Latinos are generally earning more income since 2010 but wealth inequality has become worse.

* Latin America: Security researchers at Citizen Lab uncovered a “large-scale hacking campaign” targeting journalists, activists and public figures in Latin America over the past seven years.

* El Salvador: David Morales, El Salvador's human rights ombudsman, claimed that security forces are behind 90% of abuses reported to the authorities.

YouTube Source – EIU Media
 
Online Sources – InSight Crime, Fox News Latino, Latin America Herald Tribune, The Register

Daily Headlines: December 9, 2015

* Guatemala: The Guatemalan Constitutional Court tossed out an appeal by the attorneys representing Efrain Rios Montt and stated that the ex-dictator’s genocide trial will go on as scheduled for next month.

* U.S.: A new report found that Latino neighborhoods need greater access to healthier food options sold in markets while Latino youth are more likely to be bombarded by ads promoting unhealthy snacks and drinks.

* Cuba: As part of the diplomatic rapprochement between Cuba and the U.S., envoys from both countries discussed competing claims of billions of dollars in owed assets.

* Mexico: Investigators with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said that they found another inconsistency in the Mexican government probe over 43 students from Ayotzinapa missing since September 2014.

YouTube Source – NTDTV (Guatemalan high court judges are expected to resume the genocide and crimes against humanity trial of former strongman Efrain Rios Montt more than two years after the original verdict was overturned).
 
Online Sources – ABC News, The Guardian, USA TODAY, NBC News

Daily Headlines: October 14, 2015

* Mexico: A recently released report from the Mexican Attorney General ‘s office on the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students has shown numerous contradictions with the results of the official probe.

* Latin America: Three people died and fourteen inmates escaped from a Brazilian prison during a riot, while four suspected gang members died during an uprising in a Salvadoran correctional facility.

* Colombia: U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Kevin Whitaker said that his country will not push for the extradition of FARC rebel commanders though Washington will seek alleged criminals.

* U.S: A new Nielsen study found that Latinos over the age of fifty are growing in numbers, represent a burgeoning consumer base and are healthier than initially believed.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English (Thousands of marchers took to the streets of Mexico city last month on the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students.)
 
Online Sources – Tico Times, oneindia, Fox News Latino, BBC News, Latina Lista

Pope Francis Urges Youth, Migrants to “Dream”

During his speech at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Pope Francis urged political leaders to view migrants in a more benevolent manner and help youth "not to turn their back on our neighbors." Francis continued to speak favorably on immigrants during a visit to a catholic school in New York City earlier today.

The pontiff acknowledged the difficulties recently arrived migrants may have to be in a different country including learning "a new language...a new culture." Yet he praised those who open their arms to migrants and help accommodate them amid new surroundings.

"We find new friends...who open doors for us and show us their care and understanding," he said to an of some 150 refugees helped by Catholic Charities in New York.

"(They) help us not feel like strangers, like foreigners. They make us feel at home though our imagination may sometimes lead us to recall our homeland."

The Pope cited the late Rev. Martin Luther King's iconic "I Have a Dream" speech  and urged the audience at the Lady Queen of Angels in Harlem  to strive for their goals.

"All of you here, big and small, have a right to dream. I’m pleased that you find in your fellow students and teachers the ability to do so".

Francis, who was no stranger to celebrating with children when he served as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was overjoyed as he encouraged a student chorus to sing louder for him. he viewed with an apparent wide-eyed curiosity at other pupils who showed him various school projects. The Pope even joked that he was sorry to take away time from teachers and gave students "homework": "pray for me so I can help spread the joy of Jesus' love."