Daily Headlines: July 8, 2011

* Mexico: A sixteen-year cross-border trucking dispute between the U.S. and Mexico could soon be resolved unless the U.S. Congress rejects a bilateral deal.

* Paraguay: A planned expedition spearheaded by Britain’s National History Museum was cancelled partly due to possible health risks when coming into contact with indigenous Paraguayan tribes.

* Peru: Official celebrations began yesterday to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the discovery of Machu Picchu by Hiram Bingham.

* Brazil: Transport Minister Alfredo Nascimento resigned from his post over allegations of corruption in the awarding of contracts.

Image – John Nordell / The Christian Science Monitor via CSMonitor.com (“Trucks barrel down Interstate 95 during the morning rush hour in this 2002 file photo. A new agreement, signed Wednesday by representatives of the US and Mexican governments, will allow cross-border trucking for the first time in 15 years – if Congress signs off.”)
Online Sources- Bloomberg, Reuters, LAHT, The Telegraph

Daily Headlines: June 24, 2011

* Peru: Machu Picchu will be removed from UNESCO’s list of endangered world heritage sites though conservation programs by the U.N. will continue.

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez Tweeted several messages after not appearing in public for nearly two weeks while recuperating from surgery in Cuba.

* Colombia: Are female Colombian guerillas fighting as “mercenaries” against rebels in Libya?

* Brazil: At least eight people were killed during a police raid at a Rio de Janeiro favela on Wednesday night.

Image – Getty Images via The Guardian
Online Sources- BBC News, Voice of Russia, Reuters, Magharebia.com

Daily Headlines: April 1, 2011

* Argentina: An ex-army general and three former intelligence officers were sentenced to varying prison sentences for running a secret “Dirty War” detention center in Buenos Aires.

* Peru: Approximately 46,000 pieces of Inca-era artifacts taken over a century ago from Machu Picchu were finally returned to Peru.

* Guatemala: A joint operation between U.S. and Guatemalan authorities led to the capture of the Central American country’s most wanted suspected drug capo.

* Brazil: The group representing Brazilian sugarcane producers predicted that biofuel exports will decrease and that demand in the growing domestic market is outpacing supply.

Image – AP via MSNBC (“Former army intelligence operative Raul Guglielminetti, center, and former agent of Argentina's intelligence agency SIDE, Honorio Ruiz, sit in court before their sentencing in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday March 31, 2011. Guglielminetti was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while Ruiz was sentenced to 25 years in prison, as they were charged for the illegal imprisonment and torture of 65 prisoners during the Dirty war in the Orletti garage, a tactical operations center for Operation Condor, a coordinated effort by South America's dictatorships to eliminate dissidents who sought refuge in neighboring countries.”)
Online Sources- BBC News, LAHT, CSMonitor.com, The Independent

Daily Headlines: November 23, 2010

* U.S.: Approximately 5000 people protested outside the gates of Fort Benning last weekend against the military training center formerly known as the School of the Americas.

* Bolivia: "Democracy, peace and security can only be guaranteed without interventionism, without hegemony," Bolivian President Evo Morales said at a defense conference attended by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

* Venezuela: The owner of “pro-opposition” TV station Globovision, Guillermo Zuloaga, denied government accusations that he’s behind an assassination plot against President Hugo Chavez.

* Cuba: Did Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen quash a “recent diplomatic opening” between Cuba and Israel?

* Haiti: Gunmen reportedly attacked the convoy of leading presidential candidate Jude Celestin on Monday night.

* Peru: The Peruvian government reached a tentative agreement with Yale University for the return of thousands of Incan artifacts taken from Machu Picchu.

Image – Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times via the New York Times (“The crosses placed at the fence represent people who are missing or who are believed to have been killed by death squads.”)
Online Sources- Reuters, Democracy Now, JTA, CNN, Independent

Daily Headlines: November 6, 2010

* Cuba: All 68 people on a plane en route to Havana died after the twin turboprop crashed in a mountainous area of Cuba.

* Peru: President Alan Garcia asked the White House to help Peru recover thousands of artifacts taken from Machu Picchu nearly a century ago.

* Central America: Organization of American States chief Jose Miguel Insulza will visit Costa Rica and Nicaragua in order to try to calm tensions between both countries.

* Mexico: U.S. and Mexican police discovered a 600-yead long drug smuggling tunnel between Tijuana and San Diego.

Image – MSNBC (“Cuban government media posted this picture of where the AeroCaribbean plane went down Thursday with 68 aboard in Guasimal, Cuba”.)
Online Sources- CTV, AFP, CNN, Sydney Morning Herald

Daily Headlines: January 29, 2010

* Ecuador: Farmers in central Ecuador may lose their crops due to the plumes of ash spewed by Tungurahua volcano.

* Cuba: According to government figures there was an increase in visitors to Cuba last year though they spent less than in 2008.

* Peru: At least 800 tourists remain stranded in Machu Picchu as a result of heavy rains and flooding.

* Brazil: Robinho will return to play club soccer in his homeland after working out a six-month loan from Manchester City to Santos.

Image – PBS (Towns surrounding the Tungurahua volcano were evacuated in 2000 after it became active).
Online Sources- UPI, LAHT, BBC News, Xinhua

Daily Headlines: January 26, 2010

* Argentina: Political tensions are high due to the ugly spat between President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and central bank president Martin Redrado over how to pay back Argentina’s debts.

* Guatemala: Ex-President Alfonso Portillo was indicted in a U.S. federal court yesterday and accused of laundering at least $1.5 million in public funds.

* Peru: Nearly 2000 tourists were evacuated from Machu Picchu after the area was hit with its heaviest rains in fifteen years.

* Ecuador: Ecuador’s foreign debt fell by 19% between November 2008 and November 2009 yet still accounts for over a quarter of the country’s GDP.

Image – Al Jazeera English (Argentine central bank president Martin Redrado refused to step down from his post despite a court order forcing him to do so).
Online Sources- Reuters, New York Times, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal

Daily Headlines: January 13, 2010

* Guatemala: A UN investigator cleared president Alvaro Colom in the unusual murder case of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg and claimed that Rosenberg himself ordered his own assassination.

* Ecuador: Was the disagreement with president Rafael Correa over an Amazon rain forest protection project the reason behind Foreign Minister Fander Falconi’s abrupt resignation?

* Cuba: Spanish officials claimed that they worked out a deal in order to receive a pair of Guantanamo detainees.

* Peru: Yale University wants to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of stealing thousands of artifacts from Machu Picchu.

Image – CNN (“Rodrigo Rosenberg left a video blaming Guatemala's president after his death last year.”)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, BBC News, Voice of America, Xinhua, Science Magazine

Daily Headlines: December 12, 2008

* Peru: “Yale has no right to demand certain things in order to return” objects it doesn’t own, said Peru's foreign minister regarding artifacts taken from Machu Picchu over a century ago.

* Ecuador: Authorities set a $50,000 bail for a visiting Ecuadorian priest accused of sex abuse in New York.

* Guatemala: Police are “missing” over 2000 firearms including AK-47 rifles and Uzis.

* Chile: European astronomers in Chile have discovered that there’s a black hole in the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Image- Brisbane Times
Sources- Times Online, Latin American Herald Tribune, newsday.com, AP

Daily Headlines: November 10, 2008

* Peru: According to the country’s press, the government will sue Yale University over artifacts taken nearly a century ago from Machu Picchu.

* Colombia: The incoming Obama administration will reject a White House plan to tie an economic stimulus proposal and a free trade deal with Colombia, said Rahm Emanuel.

* Bolivia: Could the key to the development of the electric car industry lie in Bolivia’s mines?

* Uruguay: Government officials including President Tabare Vazquez have strengthened their commitment against a bill that would legalize abortion.

Image- Brisbane Times
Sources- TheHill.com, MSNBC, BBC News, Catholic News Agency

Who really “found” Machu Picchu?

The ruin of Machu Picchu is one of the greatest testaments to pre-Columbian civilization and a symbol of the importance of the once thriving Inca Empire. It was honored last year as one of the new “Wonders of the World” and it had been recognized that Hiram Bingham found the site in 1911 hundreds of years after the Incas were vanquished.

Yet a group of researchers believe that Bingham was not the one who “rediscovered” Machu Picchu:

Paolo Greer, a retired Alaska oil pipeline foreman, says otherwise. Thirty years of digging through files in the United States and Peru led him to maps and documents showing that a German businessman named Augusto R. Berns got there first.

Berns purchased land across from Machu Picchu in 1867, and an 1887 document even shows he set up a company to plunder the site, Greer told The Associated Press.

Greer’s assessment was presented publicly yesterday in conjunction with a French archeologist and British historian. Their claim is that Burns was a greedy adventurer who set up shop in the area of Machu Picchu and plundered Incan artifacts for sale to European museums.

Peruvian officials have recently tried to reclaim thousands of pieces originally from Machu Picchu that were pilfered by Bingham and are currently owned by Yale University.

Sources- MSNBC, AFP, BBC News, The Latin Americanist, Reuters

Image- The Telegraph (“An 1874 map showing Machu Picchu”)

Daily Headlines: April 15, 2008

* U.S.: With Pope Benedict XVI expecting to arrive in Washington, DC this afternoon, BBC News examines the role of Latinos and the Catholic Church.

* Latin America: Liar, liar pants on fire for a former Lonely Planet travel writer who confessed to not visiting several Latin American countries he wrote about.

* Peru: Over 40,000 artifacts were taken from Machu Picchu by Yale University almost a century ago and should be returned, according to Peruvian officials.

* Chile: Chilean and Chinese officials called for stronger bilateral economic and trade links as President Michelle Bachelet visited Beijing.

Sources- BBC News, Associated Press, Guardian UK, Reuters, Xinhua

Image- tampabay.com (“Rufina Hernandez of Clearwater prays…during a charismatic prayer group at Incarnation Catholic Church.”)

Daily Headlines: August 15, 2007

* Was 1992 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Rigoberta Menchu discriminated against by Cancun hotel personnel?

* Yale University promised to give back artifacts from Peru’s Machu Picchu that were taken by U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham nearly a century ago.

* Amazon rainforest deforestation has gone down by 25% according to figures from the Brazilian government.

* Colombian ambassador to the U.S. Carolina Barco claimed that the U.S. will cut aid to the Andean country by about 10%.

* The Cuban-born daughter of “Che” Guevara became a nationalized Argentine citizen over the weekend.

* Follow-up: Actor Mel Gibson dined with Guatemalan president Oscar Berger approximately one month after meeting with Costa Rica’s head of state.

Sources- Monsters & Critics, Newsday, ABC Online, People’s Daily Online, Melbourne Herald Sun, TIME, The Latin Americanist

Image- Cambio Sonora

Daily Headlines: July 11, 2007

Hooray! It's our 2000th post!!!

* Follow-up: Now that Peru’s Machu Picchu (image) is one of the world’s new "seven wonders", tourism officials will increase the fees to visit the site.

* Want to have a pro-immigration rally in Bridgeton, New Jersey? Try paying $1500.

* Venezuela’s government will create a special anti-drug police force.

* Guatemala’s only train service will shutdown in September due to problems with the government.

* A U.S. federal judge sentenced a sports agent to five years in jail for smuggling baseball players out of Cuba.

Sources (English)- The Latin Americanist, International Herald Tribune, Forbes, MSNBC

Sources (Spanish)- Clarin, El Diario/La Prensa

Image- NASA

Peruvian, Mexican, Brazilian locales amongst world’s new "wonders"

The winners of an online poll to select a new version of the Seven Wonders of the World was revealed on Saturday and three of them can be found in Latin America. They are:

• The Incan ruins at Machu Picchu, Peru
• The Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking Rio de Janeiro (image)
• The remains of the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza in Mexico

Over 100 million votes were submitted via text messaging and the internet according to organizers of the poll. Yet spokesmen for UNESCO criticized the list as limited and “sending a negative message” to countries whose sites were not picked such as the Timbuktu, the Eiffel Tower, and the statues on Easter Island.

Sources- Wikipedia, Canada.com, Telegraoh.co.uk, the Australian

Image- New 7 Wonders

Daily Headlines: July 03, 2007

* Congrats to 105-year-old Jose Temprana (image), a Cuban exile who became a nationalized U.S. citizen last week.

* Could Peru’s Machu Picchu be one of the new Severn Wonders of the World?

* The residents of a Guatemalan village rioted over the supposed kidnapping of two children.

* The European Union and several Central American states will begin free trade negotiations this fall.

* Follow-up: Pope Benedict XVI condemned the deaths of eleven Colombian legislators held captive by leftist rebels.

Sources- Globe and Mail, Living in Peru, Yahoo! News, The Latin Americanist, International Herald Tribune

Image- USA TODAY