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 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* Brazil: According to “two unpublished academic studies” researchers have detected a “super bacteria” present in the waters of several venues of the upcoming Rio Olympics.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: September 23, 2015

* Brazil: Twelve former Volkswagen workers in Brazil claimed that they were detained and tortured at one of the automaker’s factories during military rule from 1964 to 1985.

* South America: Venezuela may have reached a preliminary deal to try to quell a migratory crisis with western neighbor Colombia, yet the president of fellow bordering country Guyana blasted the “persistence of aggressive behavior” from the Maduro regime.

* Guatemala: Authorities detained three judges and seized the property of former President Otto Perez Molina as part of an investigation into widespread corruption and bribery.

* Puerto Rico: The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority reached a tentative agreement that could ease repayment of the company’s $700 million debt.

YouTube Source – AFP (A Brazilian Truth Commission last December found that 434 either died or went missing during the twenty-one year military dictatorship).
 
Online Sources – ABC News, The Latin Americanist, BBC News, Time, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: August 28, 2015

* Guatemala: Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in Guatemala City on Thursday and businesses closed shop in order to call for the resignation of scandal-hit President Otto Perez Molina.

* Puerto Rico: Tropical Storm Erika hit Puerto Rico this morning as the commonwealth faces one of its worst droughts in more than a century.

* Ecuador: President Rafael Correa claimed that Ecuador’s economy, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar, has caused oil production to outpace earnings from sales of crude.

* Brazil: Brazil’s largest telecommunications firms are reportedly campaigning to place more regulations against popular messaging tool WhatsApp.

YouTube Source – EFE
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino, Reuters, USA TODAY, NBC News, ZDNet

Daily Headlines: August 26, 2015

* Guatemala: The Guatemalan Supreme Court gave the green light for impeachment proceedings against President Otto Perez Molina, while another tribunal ordered former dictator Efrain Rios Montt to face a retrial on genocide charges.

* Argentina: Police clashed with protesters in the Argentine province of Tucuman over allegations of ballot burning following last Sunday’s gubernatorial election.

* El Salvador: El Salvador’s Attorney General claimed to have uncovered a plot by street gangs to detonate explosives against his office and other government agencies.

* Puerto Rico: The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, which is in more than $8 billion in debt, cut its ties to Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras as part of a move to save costs.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English (Efrain Rios Montt was found guilty of ordering the massacre of over 1700 indigenous Guatemalans in 1982 but the conviction was overturned in 2013).
 
Online Sources – CNN, Business Insider, Voice of America, ABC News, Yahoo News

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: August 21, 2015 (Updated)

* El Salvador: A U.S. federal court delayed Spain’s extradition request for Col. Inocente Orlando Montano, a retired army officer allegedly involved in the 1989 massacre of five Jesuit priests in El Salvador.

* Guatemala: Former Vice President Roxana Baldetti was arrested today on charges relating to one of the corruption scandals affecting President Otto Pérez Molina’s administration.

Update: Guatemalan prosecutors and investigators on a U.N.-backed panel recommended impeachment proceedings to begin against Pérez Molina over his alleged role in the "La Linea" customs fraud scandal.

* Brazil: Brazilian prosecutors filed charges against ex-President Fernando Collor de Mello and the current Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies related to the Petrobras bribery affair.

* Puerto Rico: The head of Puerto Rico’s Chamber of Commerce claimed that a coalition of twenty private sector firms urged the U.S. Congress to allow the commonwealth to declare bankruptcy.

YouTube Source – AP Archive (“Salvadorans are commemorating the sixth anniversary (in 1995) of a massacre of Jesuit priests by members of the military”.)
 
Online Sources including Update – Inside Costa Rica, BBC News, The Huffington Post, The Latin Americanist, NBC News, INternational Business Times

Guatemalan Women Go on Anti-Government Hunger Strike

The hunger strike is sometimes used as a form of protest in Latin America oftentimes to denounce government policies and actions. This year alone, former Chilean dissidents imprisoned during the Pinochet military regime went on a forty-one day hunger strike while Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez ended a 30-day fast last June. Guatemala has been no exception to this trend as two women commenced their own opposition hunger strike on August 14th.

Human rights activists Bárbara Hernández and Gabriela Flores have gone at least four days fasting to call for the resignation of scandal-plagued President Otto Pérez Molina as well as the postponement of the general election scheduled for September 6th.

“We act in solidarity with the grandfathers who have had to go with their kin to the morgue and identify their grandchildren who died in the midst of this violence caused by systemic corruption,” declared Hernández to the press last Friday as they began their protest from a tent in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Guatemala City.

“We overflowed with anger...and we are seeking the immediate resignation of the president who symbolizes impunity,” admitted Hernández who is a member of the local Unidad de Protección a Defensoras y Defensores de Derechos Humanos de Guatemala. (Flores, meanwhile, is a representative of the Asociación de Jóvenes para el Desarrollo y Rescate Social).

Both protesters also claimed to have “strong evidence” linking the former army commander turned president to “crimes of corruption and crimes against humanity.”
They suggested that any followers or sympathizers at home and abroad should campaign human rights groups and NGOs in their respective countries to ensure the safety of the strikers.

In an interview Hernández admitted that she and her colleague decided to go on a hunger strike after the Guatemalan Congress last week refused to strip Pérez of his presidential immunity. As we mentioned last June, Pérez is facing plenty of pressure over the corruption controversies against him and his cohorts:

Daily Headlines: June 29, 2015

* Latin America: A recent study found a shift in migration flow between 2007 and 2012 with more Europeans leaving their countries for Latin America rather than vice versa.

* Guatemala: Several hundred protesters gathered once again in Guatemala City and called for the resignation of scandal-plagued President Otto Perez Molina.

* Chile: Copa America host nation Chile will face Peru tonight in the semifinals amid controversy over the suspended Gonzalo Jara, while Paraguay will hope to shock Argentina in the other match on Tuesday .

* Cuba: Cuban scientists claimed to have successfully developed a new oral vaccine against cholera, a bacterial disease that is the cause of death for 100,000 to 120,000 people globally according to the World Health Organization.

YouTube Source – euronews (Video uploaded in June 2014).

Online Sources – Global Voices Online, The Latin Americanist, Fox News Latino, Yahoo Sports, Xinhua

Guatemalan Poll Respondents Urge President to Quit

A recently released poll indicated the mounting pressure against embattled Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina to resign from his office.

According to Guatemala's Prensa Libre daily on June 20th, 84% of poll respondents replied “yes” to the question “Do you believe Otto Pérez Molina supports a corrupt system and should resign?”  Only 6% answered in the negative while 10% admitted, “I don’t know.”

In addition, 86% of those surveyed believed that the legislature couldn’t be trusted to enact reforms regarding political parties and upcoming elections.

The poll was carried out on June 16th by members of the #HagámonosElParo youth movement who asked questions to car drivers waiting at intersections in Guatemala City.

Only 1397 people were polled despite plans to inquire 15,000 respondents, which is a small sample size. Nevertheless, mass protests have been held every weekend throughout Guatemala for the past nine weeks against Pérez Molina who has been battling a growing corruption scandal involving members of his government.

On May 16th, for instance, thousands of Guatemalans marched in street protests in thirteen cities nationwide organized via social media networks. Tens of thousands of Guatemalans purportedly from different social, economic and political classes rallied near the National Palace earlier this month.

“The protests are like a democratic spring where the people have taken to the streets to demand many things,” affirmed one of the marchers, Pedro Cruz.  “I have seen the people awaken.”

A smaller rally took place this past Saturday in Guatemala City though one of the participants was Oswaldo Ochoa, a 62-year-old who trekked 125 miles in six days while also undergoing a hunger strike.

Daily Headlines: April 30, 2015

* Puerto Rico: Puerto Rican legislators rejected a $2.9 billion tax plan that supporters claimed would have helped ease the commonwealth’s debt crises.

* Brazil: “No, I'm not going to be executed, I'm going to Brazil in a year's time,” was allegedly said by death row convict and possible schizophrenic Rodrigo Gularte shortly before he was killed by a firing squad in Indonesia on Tuesday.
 
* Argentina: Families of the 85 victims of the controversial AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires twenty-one years ago could soon receive a “one-time” financial compensation.

* Guatemala: An estimated 15,000 protesters recently called on the resignations of Guatemala’s president and vice president amid a growing corruption scandal potentially involving senior members of government.

YouTube Source – TIME (Video uploaded in March 2014).
 
Online Sources – Bloomberg, BBC News, The Guardian, The Latin Americanist, Global Voices Online

Daily Headlines: July 25, 2014

* Mexico: Thousands of peasants and indigenous Mexicans marched in a protest against energy reforms that critics claim would lead to greater economic inequality and environmental damage to farmland.

* Central America: “If we don’t talk about the underlying causes, crises will continue to occur,” said Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina who proposed a greater emphasis on combating the drug trade and boosting economic growth in order to stem the influx of Central American migrants to the U.S.

* Colombia: A U.S. appeals court dismissed all lawsuits against Chiquita that were related to the deaths of Colombian banana plantation workers and activists by right-wing paramilitaries hired by the company.

* Cuba: Mariela Castro, the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro and a prominent gay rights activist on the island, denied rumors that she died in a plane crash yesterday in Mali.

Video Source – CCTV America via YouTube

Online Sources – LAHT; Businessweek; Reuters; CBS News

Daily Headlines: September 27, 2013

* Latin America: The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime found that Peru surpassed Colombia as the world’s top producer of coca, while Guatemalan Otto Perez Molina called for reforming global drug policy during his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.

* Chile: Chilean President Sebastian Piñera ordered the shutdown of a “luxury prison” where ten ex-senior officials who served under the late dictator Augusto Pinochet are serving sentences for human rights violations.

* U.S.: The National Association of Hispanic Journalists denounced a recent Fox News headline referring to U.S. citizens with undocumented parents as “children of the corn.”

* El Salvador: Two members of the Uighur Muslim ethnic minority who were released from the Guantanamo prison in April 2012 to El Salvador have reportedly left the Central American country.

Video Source – YouTube via user JewishNewsOne

Online Sources- Miami Herald; Huffington Post; Reuters; CSMonitor.com; Al Jazeera America

Eighty Year Prison Sentence for Ex-Guatemalan Dictator (Updated)

Former Guatemalan strongman Efrain Rios Montt was sentenced on Friday to eighty years in prison after a court convicted him of genocide.

The 86-year-old ex-general thus becomes the first former Latin American leader ever found guilty of such a charge.

Rios Montt was convicted of ordering the deaths of 1,771 members of the Ixil Maya ethnic group during his brief time in the presidency between 1982 and 1983.

The historic verdict comes after weeks of harrowing testimony from hundreds of eyewitnesses to the horrors of one of the bloodiest periods in Guatemala's decades-long civil war.

The court's decision will likely be appealed by Rios Montt's attorneys who argued that he was blind to any human rights abuses during his rule.

Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina, who came under fire after he publicly defended Ríos Montt, said earlier today that the government would abide the court's ruling.

The tribunal absolved José Rodríguez, the former Intelligence chief who served under Ríos Montt, of being complicit of human rights abuses.


Update below the page break...

Daily Headlines: January 15, 2013 (UPDATED)

* Puerto Rico: Protests by social media groups may’ve led to the resignation last week of the voice behind controversially outspoken Puerto Rican TV puppet La Comay.

Update: Has the uproar against recent homophobic remarks by La Comay caused legislators to reconsider an anti-discrimination bill that had been dormant for years?   

* Chile: Chile became the world’s first country to prohibit bottom trawling, a fishing practice that causes damage to ocean life.

* Guatemala: The mayor of the town of Jutiapa was killed on the same day that President Otto Perez Molina said there had been "a historic decline" in Guatemalan violence during his first year in office.

* Latin America: Vale (Brazil), Cemex (Mexico) and Tenaris (Argentina) are some of the firms were named in a report of the top 100 companies from developing nations that are pushing global growth.

Video Source – YouTube via user 40viajero (Puerto Rican celebrities joined in the uproar against La Comay who made homophobic comments about the brutal murder of a gay publicist last month).

Online Sources- New American Media, National Geographic, New York Times, BBC News

Obama on Drug Legalization: Just Say No

U.S. President Barack Obama vehemently opposed any possibility of narcotics legalization, according to remarks he made before the inauguration of the Summit of the Americas on Saturday.

“My personal view and my administration’s position is that drug legalization is not the answer,” said Obama during a business forum with his Brazilian and Colombian counterparts.

Though Obama admitted that he is willing to discuss whether current drug laws are “doing more harm than good,” he warned that widespread legalization would lead to "consequences that are worse than what we’re going through at this moment.”

Drug Legalization Debate Heats Up in Central America

Should certain types of narcotics be legalized in order to lessen violence by drug gangs or should the “war on drugs” continue as is? This is the question being considered by numerous Central American presidents in a region hurt by crime and violence related to the illegal drug trade.

During his visit to Mexico earlier this week, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden strongly opposed the possibility of drug legalization. “It's totally legitimate for this to be raised, and the reason it warrants a discussion is, that on examination, you realize that there are more problems with legalization than non-legalization," mentioned Biden to the Mexican press.

Biden also observed that illegal drugs have “unquestioned negative health effects” and that their consumption would certainly rise if they were made legal. “You can go out and decapitate an organization and it's like the hydra-headed monster, it'll grow another head. But you go and follow the money and the monster withers,” he added.

Biden’s remarks in Mexico echoes comments made last month by that country’s Exterior Minister. Patricia Espinosa warned that only focusing on one section of the “diverse” business of organized crime in the narcotics trade will “not permit us to solve the problem (of illegal drugs)”.

Biden refrained from discussing legalization yesterday during his visit to Honduras, the country with the highest per capita homicide rate in the world according to the U.N. “We understand the threat of narcotrafficking and gangs against the region…My country is committed to continue working with Honduras in order to win the battle against drug traffickers,” said Biden at a news conference yesterday where he appeared with Honduran President Porfirio Lobo.

The vow to help Central America combat the narcotics trade came as several leaders have urged increased aid from the U.S. "We've not found that the concern of the international community is enough to translate into a commitment to ensure that Central America, which is a victim of drug production and consumption, can confront this scourge," said Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

In recent weeks the push for discussion on drug legalization has come from two of Central America’s conservative presidents: Otto Perez of Guatemala and Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica. In an interview last month Chinchilla claimed that “if we keep doing what we have been when the results today are worse than 10 years ago, we’ll never get anywhere and could wind up like Mexico or Colombia.” Meanwhile, Perez said yesterday that he would soon present to Biden “our plan seeking alternatives” to combat the narcotics trade.

The leaders of other Central American states such as El Salvador and Panama do not agree with the notion of decriminalizing narcotics though they have expressed their willingness to discuss the issue. That chance may occur on the 24th of this month at a meeting of Central American heads of state in Guatemala. Furthermore, the issue will likely be discussed at next month’s Summit of the Americas in Colombia.

Image Source – Flickr via Knight Foundation (“A police investigator looks for evidence following a drug-related hit in Hermosillo, Mexico.”) (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Online Sources – U.S. State Department, La Tribuna, La Prensa, Vanguardia, Bloomberg, UPI, BBC News, AFP

Daily Headlines: February 16, 2012

* Honduras: According to “an internal Honduran government report obtained by The Associated Press” most of the inmates in a Comayagua prison where a major fire took place on Tuesday hadn’t been convicted of any crime.

* Central America: Guatemala’s conservative president, Otto Perez, and El Salvador’s leftist president, Mauricio Funes said that they would consider some form of drug legalization.

* Mexico: Police captured a suspected methamphetamine producer who is also a fugitive in the U.S.

* Cuba: Cuba’s Foreign Minister said that his country would be willing to attend the upcoming Summit of the Americas but rejected the idea of rejoining the Organization of American States.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews (“Body after body has been brought out of the raised Comayagua jail in Honduras after what is now recognized as the world's worst prison fire.”)

Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, CBS News, USA TODAY, BBC News, CNN

Daily Headlines: January 19, 2012

* Latin America: According to a Guttmacher Institute report 95% of abortions in Latin America are considered “unsafe” and the region has one of the world’s highest abortion rates.

* Guatemala: Despite promising an "iron fist" against traffickers, recently inaugurated president Otto Perez Molina suggested that drug decriminalization should be debated "as soon as possible."

* Paraguay: President Fernando Lugo signed a decree declaring a ninety-day “food emergency” due to a drought that has affected the country for nearly two months.

* Panama: Work on expanding the Panama Canal was halted after employees seeking higher wages went on strike.

Video Source – YouTube via teleSUR English (Last month the Uruguayan Senate passed a bill designed to decriminalize some forms of abortion. Most Latin American countries have laws that ban either a majority or all forms of abortion.)

Online Sources – UPI, Hispanically Speaking News, InSight Crime, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: January 16, 2012

* Guatemala: Former general Otto Perez Molina, who was sworn-in as president on Saturday, ordered the army to combat drug cartels and "neutralize organized crime".

* Venezuela: The foreign ministry confirmed the closing of the Venezuelan consulate in Miami days after the U.S. expelled the office’s consul general due to allegations of a “possible cyber-attack”.

* Chile: Will student protest leader Camila Vallejo run for the Chilean congress next year?

* U.S.: Daimler AG issued an apology over the use of an image of Ernesto “Che” Guevara to promote Mercedes-Benz autos.

Video Source – YouTube via Associated Press (Gunmen killed congressman Oscar Valentin Leal Caal on the eve of the presidential inauguration of Otto Perez Molina).

Online Sources- Reuters, CBS News, Toronto Star, Mercopress