Daily Headlines: October 7, 2016

* Colombia: The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in recognition of “his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end”, and underlined that the recent electoral defeat of an accord with the FARC rebels “does not necessarily mean that the peace process is dead”.

* Mexico: The National Human Rights Commission called on officials in the central Mexican state of Morelos to offer an official apology over their botched handling of 119 victims located in mass graves in 2014.

* United States: Polling firm Latino Decisions believes Hillary Clinton will win the Latino vote in next month’s United States presidential election by the widest margin in recorded history.

* Haiti: Authorities in Haiti claimed the death toll from Hurricane Matthew has reached at least 280 lives but worry that there may be more fatalities in communities isolated by the storm.

YouTube Source – Ruptly TV (An estimated 60,000 people in Colombia’s major cities on Wednesday night marched silently in rallies organized by university students calling for an end to the decades-long armed conflict.)

Online Sources – The Indian Express, The Guardian, Business Insider, Nobel Prize

Famed Author Gabriel García Márquez Dies (Updated)

One of Latin America's most famous authors, Gabriel García Márquez, has passed away on Thursday afternoon at the age of 87.

Fernanda Familiar, a spokeswoman for the García Márquez family, tweeted that the Colombian-born Nobel laureate died at his residence in Mexico City:

Muere Gabriel García Márquez. Mercedes y sus hijos, Rodrigo y Gonzalo, me autorizan dar la información. Que tristeza tan profunda...
— Fernanda Familiar (@qtf) April 17, 2014

She wrote "Gabriel García Márquez died.  Mercedes and her sons, Rodrigo and Gonzalo have authorized me to provide the information.  What a profound sadness..."

A statement from the García Márquez family issued on Wednesday mentioned that he was in "very fragile" health following a nine-day hospitalization to treat lung and urinary tract infections.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos alluded to García Márquez' best-known novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, via his Twitter account.

"One thousand years of solitude and sadness over the death of the greatest Colombian of all time," he tweeted.  Santos claimed earlier this week that García Márquez had pneumonia and was in "delicate health which is a reality of his age."
  
Other message of condolences were issued by international leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama and President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico as well as artists from the Americas.

"He gave me the motivation and freedom to launch myself into writing because in his books I found my own family, my country, characters familiar to me, the color and rhythm and abundance of my continent," said Chilean novelist Isabel Allende.  

"A great writer has died.  His works helped spread and provide prestige to Latin American literature...I send my condolences to his family," said came from fellow Nobel laureate and literary great Mario Vargas Llosa.  The Peruvian author along with the likes of García Márquez, Julio Cortázar of Argentina and Mexico's Carlos Fuentes spearheaded a Latin American Boom in literature during the 1960s and 70s.
  
The hashtag #GraciasGabo has become a trending topic on Twitter as people worldwide have taken to social networks to express their appreciation of the renown author and novelist. 

(Update: Our biography of García Márquez can be read below the page break).   

Daily Headlines: February 7, 2014

* Uruguay: Members of Uruguay’s ruling party and a Dutch NGO have nominated President Jose Mujica for the Nobel Peace Prize due to his support of decriminalizing marijuana use.

* Costa Rica: Is the Super Bowl to blame for the low turnout of Costa Rican expat voters to last Sunday’s elections?

* Bolivia: Meteorologists predicted that more rain would continue to hit heavily flooded areas of northern Bolivia where the inclement weather has killed at least thirty-eight people.

* Puerto Rico: Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla criticized Standard & Poor’s decision to lower Puerto Rico’s bond status to “junk” levels despite his claims that officials were “committed to taking correct and sensible actions to rebuild” the commonwealth.

Video Source – AFP via YouTube

Online Sources- LAHT; Reuters; Tico Times; The Latin Americanist; Huffington Post

Daily Headlines: February 27, 2012

* Cuba: Dissident Oswaldo Paya and blogger Yoani Sanchez were among the 231 nominees selected for this year’s edition of the Nobel Peace Prize.

* Honduras: A Supreme Court spokesperson claimed that under Honduran law an inmate praised for saving lives in a recent deadly prison fire cannot receive a presidential pardon.

* Spain: Baltasar Garzon, best known for indicting ex-Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, was cleared of “overstepping his jurisdiction” by investigating possible abuses during the Spanish Civil War.

* Brazil: A "high-impact discovery" that could contain at least 250 million barrels of oil was found about 120 miles off the Brazilian coast.

Image Source – Flickr via ceslava.com (Will Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez win the Nobel Peace Prize?) (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources- ABC Online, Honduras Weekly, The Latin Americanist, The Guardian, CBS News

World Watch: Speculating

* Sweden: Russian human rights figure Svetlana Gannushkina, the Wikileaks website and several “Arab Spring” activists are among the nominees that could win the Nobel Peace Prize that will be announced on Friday.

* World: Greece’s public sector was practically shutdown as a result of a general strike while more people joined demonstrators near Wall Street in New York City.

* U.S.: According to a Pew Research Center study one-third of post-9/11 veterans don’t believe that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were “worth fighting for.”

* Somalia: President Sharif Ahmed declared three days of mourning as a result of a suicide truck bomb that killed seventy-two people in Mogadishu.

Image – Flickr via user openDemocracy (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources- CNN, The Guardian, Monsters & Critics, CBS News, NPR

World Watch: Good night Wangari

* Kenya: Rest in peace Wangari Maathai; the environmental activist and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize recipient died at the age of 71 on Monday.

* Middle East: The U.N. Security Council will start holding meetings on Wednesday to decide on the recognition of Palestinian statehood to the global body.

* Italy: A senior member of the Catholic Church blasted the Italian political class for numerous scandals that have implicated top officials.

* China: A pair of Tibetan monks set themselves on fire in protest against the Chinese government's policies.

Image – The Guardian

Online Sources- CNN, BBC News, New York Times, CBC News

Cuba: Prominent dissidents nominated for Nobel honors

While dissidents in Cuba struggle against a crackdown led by the government, their cause may soon receive a very prestigious honor.

Along with Wikileaks and Middle Eastern democracy activists, Cuban opposition activists are among the record 241 nominations for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Among the dissident figures in the running for the famous honor is Oswaldo Paya, a very influential political activist who founded the Varela Project initiative. Paya, who has been previously nominated on multiple occasions, was reportedly “cited for uniting the opposition to the government in Havana.” Indeed, a 2007 U.S. diplomatic cable uncovered by Wikileaks cited Paya as one of the few dissidents with the “national recognition to mobilize a figure close to one million Cubans.“

Another possible winner is Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a well-known Cuban political prisoner whose Nobel candidacy was presented by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Biscet is one of the so-called “Group of 75” dissidents imprisoned since 2003 and serving sentences of up to 28 years behind bars. While he has campaigned against abortion, Biscet has been an outspoken critic of the Castro regime and was also the founder the nongovernment Lawton Foundation.

Biscet’s nomination has received international support including from a pair of ex-Salvadoran presidents and several Hispanic members of the U.S. Congress. He has also received the backing of another famed dissident, Guillermo Fariñas, according to the El Nuevo Herald’s website:

“(Biscet) is one of the great symbols of rebellion he hopes for democracy for the Cuban people…I believe that he has put the interests of a nation ahead of his personal (views).”

Both Paya and Biscet have received several honors for their human rights efforts. Paya received the 2002 Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament while Biscet was awarded the U.S. Medal of Freedom in 2007.

Image- daylife.com (“Cuban leader of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) and opponent of Fidel Castro, Oswaldo Paya (L), leaves the Cuban National Assembly, in Havana, 18 December 2007.”)
Online Sources- BBC Mundo, Wikipedia, AllAfrica.com, Global Voices Online, El Nuevo Herald, BBC News, USA TODAY, EPA

World Watch: Absent but not forgotten

* China: Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize in absentia though his recognition may help advance the human rights movement in his native country.

* Spain: The non-profit Qatar Foundation will pay $225 million as part of a sponsorship deal with soccer powerhouse F.C. Barcelona.

* Pakistan: A pair of newspapers confessed to being duped by a fake Wikileaks report critical of the Indian military.

* Nigeria: On a related note, a statement from Pfizer rejected a cable uncovered by Wikileaks claiming that the pharmaceutical giant used "dirty tricks” against a former Nigerian attorney general.

Image – AP via NPR (“Nobel Commitee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland sits next to an empty chair with the Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma during a ceremony honoring Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo at city hall in Oslo, Norway Friday Dec. 10, 2010. Liu, a democracy activist, is serving an 11-year prison sentence in China on subversion charges brought after he co-authored a bold call for sweeping changes to Beijing's one-party communist political system.”)
Online Sources- CNN, The Guardian, BBC News

The year that was: The (Peruvian) pen is mightier than the sword

We continue our look at some of the top stories of 2010 with a high honor granted to one of Latin America’s most famous authors.

In October, Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa was named as this year’s Nobel Literature Prize winner. Though oddsmakers named the likes of Philip Roth and Alice Munro as favorites, the Nobel committee cited Vargas Llosa’s “cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat". The 1995 Cervantes Prize winner and former presidential candidate thus became the sixth Latin American to win such a prestigious honor.

As part of his Nobel lecture in Stockholm on Tuesday, Vargas Llosa praised the maturation of democracy in Latin America though he also criticized the “pseudo populist, clownish” governments in parts of the region. Politics aside, he also gave some powerful and inspiring on the importance of literature in our modern world:

"We would be worse than we are without the good books we have read, more conformist, not as restless, more submissive, and the critical spirit, the engine of progress, would not even exist," he argued. "Like writing, reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life. When we look in fiction for what is missing in life, we are saying, with no need to say it or even to know it, that life as it is does not satisfy our thirst for the absolute – the foundation of the human condition – and should be better."

The following video is of a 2007 Al Jazeera interview of Vargas Llosa by British journalist David Frost. He echoed the sentiments expressed in his speech this week including proclaiming that “literature is not only entertainment…writers and intellectuals can have an impact on political life.”

Video Source - YouTube
Online Sources- The Guardian, Times of India, NPR, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: October 12, 2010

* Brazil: Sunday’s TV debate between presidential candidates Dilma Rousseff and Jose Serra got ugly as each exchanged accusations of flip-flopping and lying.

* Cuba: Not everyone in the Americas is happy that Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize in Literature last week.

* Venezuela: The government has ordered the nationalization of a foreign-owned fertilizer plant and also announced a bill that would expropriate certain unused urban lands.

* Honduras: Authorities have ordered residents in low-lying areas to evacuate as Tropical Storm Paula is expected to become a hurricane.

Image – BBC News
Online Sources- NASDAQ, AP, MSNBC, Reuters, The Latin Americanist

World Watch: Recognition

* China: Human rights activists worldwide celebrated the awarding of this year's Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese political dissident Liu Xiaobo.

* Hungary: At least seven people are dead after 184 million gallons of toxic sludge swept through several villages and reached the Danube River.

* Middle East: The Arab League gave its conditional support of stalled peace negotiations between leaders of the Palestinian Authority and Israel.

* Congo: The International Criminal Court will resume its trial against a Congolese militia leader accused of recruiting child soldiers.

Online Sources - The Guardian, MSNBC, BBC News, CNN
Image - BBC News (Protesters have called on the Chinese government to release imprisoned dissident and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Liu Xiaobo).

Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel award

One of Latin America's most renown authors can now add the world's highest accolade in literature to his list of accomplishments.

This morning, Peru's Mario Vargas Llosa was announced as the winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature. According to the Nobel Prize's website the journalist, essayist, and playwright received such a prestigious accolade "for his cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".

Vargas Llosa's win may be seen as an upset to oddsmakers such as
Ladbrokes who placed him as a dark horse choice at 25-1. Bookies aside, however, Vargas Llosa is a worthy winner and a true "all around man of letters" as Bookslut columnist Jesse Tangen-Mills described him. Indeed, he has written over thirty novels, plays and essays and was awarded the Cervantes Prize in 1995.

The Arequipa-born wordsmith thus joins the likes of Octavio Paz and Pablo Neruda to become the sixth Latin American to win the award though the first South American since Gabriel Garcia Marquez way back in 1982. As the L Magazine wrote on Tuesday:

Consensus is that poets, South Americans and Scandinavians have been underrepresented in the selections of recent years (though not as much as black Africans); safe picks for geographical distribution would probably include the perpetual candidates Llosa and (Mexico's Carlos) Fuentes, Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer and Syrian poet Adonis

Vargas Llosa's forays into politics included losing to Alberto Fujimori in a closely contested runoff in the 1990 presidential race. Last month he blasted current president Alan Garcia for suggesting a “barely disguised amnesty” for convicted rights abusers during Peru's armed conflict.

Image - MercoPress
Online Sources -nobelprize.org, Times of India, ABC News, The Millions, LAHT, L Magazine

World Watch: Building blocks

* World: The 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was given to three scientists in recognition of their groundbreaking work on carbon atom binding.

* Afghanistan: Afghani offices denied reports suggesting that the government has engaged in “high-level talks” with the Taliban.

* Indonesia: At least 64 people died and an estimated 3000 were displaced as a result of flash flooding and hard rainfall.

* Congo: Authorities arrested a rebel commander whose troops raped over 300 Congolese villagers approximately two months ago.

Image – Christian Science Monitor (“The winners of the 2010 Nobel Prize for chemistry are announced Wednesday in Stockholm, Sweden: Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi, and Akira Suzuki.”)
Online Sources- MSNBC, CNN, The Guardian, Al Jazeera English

Argentina’s “madres” for Nobel Prize?

Could one of Latin America’s most famous human rights groups be a favorite to win the next Nobel Peace Prize?

The Nobel Prize committee has officially accepted the candidacy of the iconic "Madres de la Plaza Mayo" for the prestigious international prize. “They deserve it for numerous reasons, aside from historical, including fighting against state-sponsored terrorism” said Argentine senator Daniel Filmus in explaining how the group served as a powerful symbol of opposition against Argentina’s “Dirty War” regime. If the campaign were successful then the Madres would join human rights activist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel as the only Argentines to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

The “Madres”- a mostly female humanitarian organization- have accepted the Nobel candidacy but without keeping their eyes off their main goal:

The president of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, considered that the group’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize is a “recognition of our efforts over many years.”

Nonetheless she admitted that just being nominated is an honor in itself and “our Nobel Prize will be the recuperating of our (disappeared) grandchildren.” – [ed. Translated text]

De Carlotto’s remarks came as she listened in to the guilty verdict issued against former military ruler Reynaldo Bignone. A judge sentenced Bignone to 25 years in jail for “Dirty War” human rights abuses including helping run Argentina’s largest torture center.

Image- Russia Today
Online Sources- El Financiero, EPA, BBC News, El Patagonico

Daily Headlines: March 12, 2010

* Ecuador: Ecuadorian officials vowed that their environmental damages case against Chevron will continue despite a U.S. judge ruling yesterday that the oil firm may seek international arbitration.

* U.S.: Whether President Barack Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize is still up for debate but at least part of cash award will go to several worthy charities including the Hispanic Scholarship Fund.

* Argentina: The government has pointed the finger at Royal Dutch Shell and Brazil's Petrobras for allegedly causing a gasoline shortage.

* Panama: While construction continues on an expanded Panama Canal officials expect a “modest rise” in revenue this year.

Image – New York Times (“An open oil pit near La Joya de los Sachas, Ecuador.”)
Online Sources- Reuters, The Latin Americanist, USA TODAY, UPI, Wall Street Journal

Pope to Obama: Drop the Cuban embargo

In his Nobel Peace Prize Award acceptance speech, U.S. President Barack Obama said that the “moral and strategic interest in binding ourselves to certain rules of conduct” led him to order the closure of the jail at Guantanamo. Earlier today, Pope Benedict XVI had his own message on Cuba for Obama:

In addition to calling for improved U.S.-Cuba relations and an end to the embargo against the island, the Pope also called for expanding religious freedoms. The Pope emphasized that he did not wish for the Church to meddle into Cuban politics though he does want to “continue to nourish the ‘extraordinary spiritual and moral heritage that contributed in a decisive way to forging the Cuban soul’."

The pontiff also criticized abortion by calling on Cubans to respect life from conception to its “natural end.” (Most forms of abortions are legal in Cuba except in pregnancies after twelve weeks and for minors without parental consent).

Online Sources- YouTube, AP, Spero News, CNA, IPS, El Espectador

Obama accepts Nobel Peace prize

In a suprising move, U.S. president Barack Obama was named today as the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace prize.

Obama won the award months into his presidency and his bid was one of a record 200+ for the prestigious award. "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," said a statement emitted by the selection committee. Obama accepted the prize but confessed that he didn’t “deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize."

Zimbabwe’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Afghan human rights activist Sima Sama were among the favorites as well as Colombians Piedad Cordoba and Ingrid Betancourt. Ultimately, however, Obama became the third sitting U.S. president to win the award in a decision that one reporter worried was “aspirational (and) not based on accomplishments.”

Despite not being selected, Cordoba extended her congratulations to Obama:

Colombian opposition Senator Piedad Cordoba Friday congratulated U.S. President Barack Obama for being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Cordoba had been tipped as one of the most probable to win the prestigious award.

On her twitter page, Cordoba congratulated Obama and wrote that "with or without the Nobel I will continue to do the same I have done all this time. Work for peace in Colombia."

Obama’s record regarding Latinos and Latin America has been mixed so far. He has been praised for his push towards multilateralism during the Summit of the Americas, desire to close the Guantanamo prison camp, and attempt to breach the political gap with Cuba. But he has also been blasted for waffling on immigration reform, tabling several free trade deals, and (depending on who you believe) either aiding or strongly opposing Honduras’ de facto regime.

Image- ABC News
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Reuters, BBC News, YouTube, Huffington Post, Colombia Reports, Vivirlatino

World Watch: The written word

* World: Romanian-born German author Herta Müller won the Nobel literature award for her depictions of the “landscape of the dispossessed" in her work.

* Afghanistan: At least seventeen people died due to a car bomb that went off outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul.

* Africa: Ugandan police arrested a former intelligence officer accused of involvement in the 1994 massacre of hundreds of thousands of Rwandans.

* Italy: Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi is losing his sanity after Italy’s constitutional court removed his legal immunity.

Image- Times Online
Online Sources- New York Times, BBC News, Guardian UK, Al Jazeera Online

Nobel Prize to Piedad Cordoba?

One of the most controversial figures in Colombia may be an odds-on favorite to win one of the world’s most prestigious awards.

Piedad Cordoba has served as an opposition senator for several years but more importantly has acted as a broker for the liberation of hostages held by Colombia’s FARC rebels. Her work as liaison has also helped distribute videos of hostages still held captive deep in the jungle and has brought hope to dozens of families anxiously awaiting their loved ones.

Cordoba has also received plenty of flack from her critics; she has been looked upon with suspicion over her seemingly close political ties to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. At times she has locked horns with Colombian leader Alvaro Uribe though tensions seem to have simmered down lately. Such is the disdain for her that she was “showered…with insults and threats” by passengers at Bogota’s main airport last year.

Love her or hate her, Cordoba may soon get the ultimate recognition for her efforts:

Colombia Senator Piedad Cordoba and Afghanistan’s Sima Samar, two women promoting peace and human rights in conflict zones, are among the top contenders for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo said…

Cordoba, 54, “is the most likely candidate,” said Kristian Berg Harpviken, head of the
institute which each year lists potential winners. “She has been able to carve out an independent space for herself in a conflict that’s very protracted. Samar certainly has a very strong personality and played a major role in the Afghan context.”

Image- El Pais
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Colombia Reports, New York Times, Bloomberg,

Daily Headlines: October 2, 2008

* U.S.: Could Nobel prize for literature judge Horace Engdahl’s rant against U.S. authors hurt Junot Diaz’ odds of winning the prestigious prize?

* Ecuador: Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht has reached a deal with the Ecuadorian government over the state of a hydroelectric plant.

* Paraguay: President Fernando Lugo talks land reform, foreign policy, and liberation theology in this great interview last week on “Democracy Now!”

* Costa Rica: Costa Rica could join the Central American Free Trade Agreement before the end of the year now that their deadline got extended.

Image- Time Out New York

Sources- Democracy Now, Voice of America, Guardian UK, IHT, The Latin Americanist