Daily Headlines: June 26, 2014

* South America: According to the U.N., the growing of coca is stable in Colombia and has decreased in Bolivia and Peru though cocaine production is not expected to diminish.

* Uruguay: FIFA suspended star striker Luis Suárez for nine games and fined him about $112,000 for biting an Italian player during a World Cup match this week.

* Costa Rica: President Luis Guillermo Solís has barred his name from public work projects and his image in government offices since “the worship of the image of the president is over.”

* Cuba: Six Cuban baseball players were taken off the national team due to “attempts to leave the country illegally.”

Video Source – NTDTV via YouTube

Online Sources – BBC News; USA TODAY; The Latin Americanist; Tico Times; ABC News

Daily Headlines: May 9, 2014

* Costa Rica: Luis Guillermo Solis pledged to “resolve the deficit within the next two years, maximum, as it is perhaps the biggest challenge we face” during his presidential inauguration speech on Thursday.

* Brazil: In the latest troubles affecting preparations for the World Cup, Rio de Janeiro public bus employees went on strike while a worker at the construction site of a soccer stadium died in an accident. 

* Mexico: No reports of major damage or serious injuries were reported following a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in southern Mexico yesterday.

* Puerto Rico: Puerto Rico’s government revealed details of an economic recovery plan aimed at improving the massive public debt of the commonwealth.

Video Source – teleSUR via YouTube

Online Sources – The Huffington Post; CNN; The Guardian; Miami Herald; Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: April 7, 2014

* Costa Rica: Historian and outside candidate Luis Guillermo Solís validated his first round victory in February by easily becoming Costa Rican president-elect after winning in a virtual one-man runoff yesterday.

* Cuba: The recent revelation that U.S. government helped create a “Cuban Twitter” network could hinder the efforts of opposition activists and independent bloggers on the island.

* Argentina: Umma Azul became the first child of a lesbian couple to be baptized by the Catholic Church in Argentina in a ceremony held in the Cathedral of Cordoba.

* Mexico: Renown author Gabriel García Marquez could leave a Mexico city hospital tomorrow and over a week since the Nobel laureate was treated by doctors for a lung and urinary infection.

Video Source– teleSUR via YouTube (Nearly 1.3 million voters opted for Costa Rican president-elect Luis Guillermo Solís in Sunday’s runoff election despite a high abstention rate).

Online Sources – The Guardian; Reuters; Prensa Latina; The Latin Americanist; Tico Times
 

Runoffs to Decide Next Salvadoran, Costa Rican Presidents

A second round of presidential elections will likely be held in El Salvador and Costa Rica after none of the candidates received sufficient support from the electorate on Sunday.

Salvador Sanchez of the ruling FMLN gained a plurality of 48.93% of the vote in El Salvador and fell short of the majority required to win yesterday’s election.  With 99.3% of the vote counted, the former leftist guerilla turned vice president earned nearly 10% more support than San Salvador’s conservative mayor and second round opponent Norman Quijano.

“If we got the win in the first round, we will triumph in the second,” declared a confident Sanchez in front of a multitude of supporters yesterday.  Quijano, meanwhile, declared that his campaign fought a “historic battle” where  “a monster wanted to crush us but could not.”

Even though Sanchez and Quijano easily beat out a trio of other candidates, the key to victory in the March 9th runoff could come in the form of Antonio Saca who received 11.4% of the vote in the first round.  The former president broke away from Quijano’s ARENA party in 2009 yet it’s unclear which of the two remaining candidates pro-Saca backers will opt for.  (Saca in his concession speech didn't provide any hints regarding whom he might support).

In Costa Rica, meanwhile, Luis Guillermo Solís of the center-left Citizen Action Party earned first place with 30.95% of the vote though he was unable to obtain the minimum 40% needed to prevent a runoff on May 8th. Nevertheless, his victory was reportedly a surprise after ruling party candidate Johnny Araya was seen as the favorite and had actually led in early exit polls.

“We will govern for Costa Rica. Not one step backward, only forward,” declared the historian who polls prior to the election indicated that he would end in third or fourth place.  “We’re going to win, because we are a people who decided to change,” added the 55-year-old who left the ruling National Liberation Party in 2005.