Daily Headlines: November 7, 2016

* Nicaragua: President Daniel Ortega easily won a third straight term during an election marred by the lack of international observers and accusations of fraud by the opposition.

* Puerto Rico: Ricardo Rossello, the odds-on favorite to become Puerto Rico’s next governor, has pushed for statehood in order to pull the commonwealth out of its economic crisis and “finally finish the 500-year debacle that has been colonialism.”

* Bolivia: The presidents of Bolivia and Peru agreed on a comprehensive plan that would provide landlocked Bolivia access to the ocean.

* Ecuador: Diplomatic authorities gave Swedish investigators permission to question Wikilieaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London next week.

YouTube Source – France 24 English (“Former Marxist guerrilla leader Daniel Ortega is expected to easily clinch a third consecutive term as president of Nicaragua on Sunday, buoyed by steady economic growth that has trumped fears he is trying to install autocratic family rule.”)

Online Sources – Los Angeles Times, Fox News Latino, UPI, Mashable

Daily Headlines: October 19, 2016

* Venezuela: Tensions between the Venezuelan government and political opposition have once again flared up after electoral authorities postponed gubernatorial elections to the middle of next year, and the Supreme Court tightened the rules on a recall referendum against President Nicolas Maduro.

* Ecuador: Ecuadoran officials severely restricted Internet access to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has taken exile in the country’s London embassy since 2012.

* Cuba: “I fully intend to maintain our embargo on Cuba,” declared US House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan in a statement days after the White House further relaxed trade and travel restrictions.

* Peru: Scientists are looking into what caused the deaths of thousands of critically endangered water frogs along the shoreline of the increasingly polluted Lake Titicaca.

YouTube Source – euronews 

Online Sources – Reuters, NBC News, Sky News, UPI

Daily Headlines: September 28, 2016

* Peru: Vladimiro Montesinos, the shady former Peruvian intelligence chief who was instrumental in the rise and fall of Alberto Fujimori from the presidency, was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison for the kidnapping and burning of three people.

* Panama: Panamanian officials formally sought the extradition from the United States (US) of ex-President Ricardo Martinelli who is accused of using public funds for illegal surveillance.

* Puerto Rico: US Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen warned that Puerto Rico is facing a fiscal crisis and claimed it’s up to Congress or the White House to formulate an adequate solution.

* Latin America: The Pan American Health Organization declared the Americas are free from all endemic cases of measles “after years of intense efforts to vaccinate children under the age of five.”

YouTube Source – Journeyman Pictures (Documentary from December 2003.)

Online Sources – UPI, Reuters, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: September 21, 2016 (Updated)

* Brazil: A Brazilian judge determined ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will need to stand trial over allegedly accepting some $1.1 in bribes in connection to the Lava Jato corruption scandal.

Update (September 22nd): Guido Mantega, the former Finance Minister under Lula, was detained for several hours and then released on Thursday as part of the Lava Jato probe.  

* Latin America: Outgoing United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he felt “tremendous regret” over a cholera outbreak that hit Haiti, while the Venezuelan government is upset with critical remarks made by Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski at the UN General Assembly.

* United States: A new study found that the number of undocumented migrants from Mexico to the United States has dropped from a high of 6.9 million in 2007 to 5.8 million in 2014, and those from Central America have sharply increased in recent years.

* Honduras: Authorities began the transfer of thirty-seven “high-risk prisoners” including former gang leaders to a new maximum-security facility as part of planned reforms to the corrections system.

YouTube Source – AFP 

Online Sources including Update – ABC News, The Miami Herald, Reuters, InSight Crime, BBC News, Reuters

Daily Headlines: September 19, 2016

* Peru: The San Sebastian Church in Cuzco, which was built in the 16th century, was almost completely destroyed by a fire purportedly caused by a short circuit.

* Latin America: A Mexican boy’s stand at an anti-gay rights demonstration wasn’t the only image at a protest in Latin America that went viral last week.

* Venezuela: President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela said OPEC member states and non-cartel oil producing countries are “close” to agreeing to a plan to stabilize oil prices.

* Argentina: Third time could be the charm for Argentina in the Davis Cup finals after their team knocked out defending champions Great Britain in the semifinals.

YouTube Source – No Comment TV (“The historic San Sebastian church, in Cuzco, Peru has been gutted by fire. Dozens of works of art, including those by celebrated local artist Quispe Tito were destroyed in the flames.”)

Online Sources – The Washington Post, CNN, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, ESPN

Daily Headlines: September 16, 2016

* Colombia: A Colombian court found the state responsible for the murder in 1999 of Jaime Garzón, one of the country’s most acclaimed satirists in the 1990s, who was killed purportedly at the behest of paramilitary commanders.

* Peru: Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski deemed his visit to China as “a success” but his government doesn’t seem to be too pleased over the $60 billion price tag placed by Chinese officials on a proposed railway crossing South America.

* Brazil: Television actor Domingos Montagner will be buried in his native city of Sao Paulo on Saturday after he drowned while filming a scene for Brazil’s most popular telenovela.

* Mexico: “We don't have a reason to shout 'viva Mexico' ... There are thousands of injustices,” said one of the many hundreds of protestors in Mexico City who called on President Enrique Peña Nieto to resign from office.

YouTube Source – Señal Colombia 

Online Sources – Reuters, Colombia Reports, Forbes, BBC News, Peru this Week

Daily Headlines: August 25, 2016

* Ecuador: President Rafael Correa of Ecuador and visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif discussed methods both countries can attempt to boost lagging oil prices.

* Venezuela: Organization of American States chief Luis Almagro claimed Venezuelans are a "victim of bullying" from the government the same week President Nicolas Maduro threatened with firing public workers who signed a petition backing a recall referendum.

* Peru: Peruvian investigators officially launched a probe against eighteen police officers accused of participating in the extrajudicial killings of at least twenty people since 2012.

* United States: A group of mothers originally from Latin America and detained in an immigration center ended their two-week long hunger strike purportedly due to “threats from immigration officials.”

YouTube Source – Ruptly TV

Online Sources – Yahoo News, BBC News, UPI, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: August 11, 2016

* Guatemala: United States (US) immigration authorities deported Santos Lopez Alonzo, a former Guatemalan solider believed to have participated in the Dos Erres massacre of at least 160 villagers in 1982. 

* Argentina: Argentinian Foreign minister Susana Malcorra admitted that her government and British diplomats plan to hold talks over oil exploration off the shore of the disputed Falkland Islands.

* Peru: A 687-mile pipeline in the Peruvian Amazon leaked for the fourth time this year and has spilled an unpublished quantity of crude oil.

* Ecuador: Ecuador will allow Swedish investigators to question Wikileaks founder Julian Assange who has been exiled at the South American country’s embassy in London since 2012.

YouTube Source – AP Archive (“In Guatemala 162 bodies discovered in a mass grave were buried Sunday in the northern region of Peten. Among the bodies, are those of 91 women and children massacred in 1982 during the dictatorship of general Efrain Rios Montt.”)
 
Online Sources – UPI, Reuters, MercoPress, CBS News

Daily Headlines: August 9, 2016

* Nicaragua: President Daniel Ortega and First Lady Rosario Murillo are the odds-on favorites of winning in November’s elections according to a survey of 2000 likely voters.

* Ecuador: A United States court upheld a lower tribunal ruling barring the payment of an $8.6 billion environmental damages fine against Chevron to plaintiffs in Ecuador.

* Peru: Interior Minister Carlos Basombrio said prosecutors are looking into allegations of police officers running “death squads” from 2011 to 2015.

* United States: A poll of Millennials found that 89% of Latino respondents are concerned over “terrorism committed by U.S. residents inspired by group like ISIS,” while 55% are “very concerned about terrorism committed by White American citizens.”

YouTube Source – CCTV News (Earlier this month “Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega picked his wife, Rosario Murillo, as his running mate for November's election”.)
 
Online Sources – Yahoo News, The Washington Post, NBC News, Reuters

Daily Headlines: July 20, 2016 (Updated)

* Peru: President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski rejected the possibility of pardoning Alberto Fujimori, the former leader imprisoned over crimes against humanity and embezzlement during his decade in power.

* Brazil: Does an group of Brazilian extremists with alleged ties to the Islamic State really exist or is it instead “the work of an ISIS social media activist”?

Update (07/21/16): Brazilian police arrested ten extremists though authorities underlined that the suspects never traveled to meet with anyone connected to ISIS or detailed any specific targets of attack.    

* U.S.: A quick poll of Latino registered voters taken after the first night of the Republican National Convention found that nearly four out of five respondents have an unfavorable view of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

* Latin America: Jose Miguel Insulza, the former Organization of American States chief and Chile's representative before the International Court of Justice, blasted the foreign minister of Bolivia for visiting Chile.

YouTube Source – Associated Press (From April 2009: “A special tribunal convicted former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori of murder and kidnapping on Tuesday and sentenced him to 25 years in prison for death squad activities during his autocratic 10-year rule.”)

Online Sources including Update – Xinhua, NBC News, Fox News Latino, ABC News, CBS News

Daily Headlines: July 19, 2016

* Guatemala: Byron Lima, a former military officer convicted of assassinating outspoken Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi, was killed by a few of his fellow inmates during a prison riot.

* Peru: An arbitration panel ruled in favor of the Peruvian state in its environmental damages case against Renco Group.

* Argentina: On the twenty-second anniversary of the AMIA center bombing, family members of some of the 85 dead called for justice and stronger government support for the investigation into the attack.

* Mexico: President Enrique Peña Nieto unveiled a series of measures to combat corruption and also publicly apologized for allegations of wrongdoing linked to the purchase of a luxury home by his wife, Angelica Rivera.

YouTube Source – AP Archive (Guatemalan Roman Catholic bishop Juan Jose Gerardi was a strong human rights defender who was murdered in 1998 after he published a report on abuses by the army during the country’s civil war).

Online Sources – UPI, MercoPress, BBC News, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: July 15, 2016

* El Salvador: El Salvador’s Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional an amnesty law protecting individuals suspected of committing crimes linked to the civil war from 1980 to 1992.

* Brazil: The recession battering Brazil has worsened with May showing the worst level of economic activity in more than six years.

* Mexico: The Mexican government announced changes to a teacher evaluation program following protests by educators arguing that the exams adversely affect rural communities with few resources.

* Peru: Environmentalists and opposition lawmakers will likely push back against President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s plan to lower air quality standards in order to boost investment in mining.

YouTube Source – Catholic News Service (The 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero could be one of the cases reopened after a top court declared a civil war crimes amnesty as unconstitutional).

Online Sources – Fox News Latino, Xinhua, Latin American Herald Tribune, Reuters

Daily Headlines: June 29, 2016

* Cuba: A U.S. federal judge ruled that a group of Cuban migrants who climbed a lighthouse off the Florida Keys must be returned to their homeland as part of the “wet foot, dry foot” policy.

* U.S.: Non-citizen Latinos may be barred from voting in federal elections but a new report found that they are a politically active group and could play an important role in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

* Peru: President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski claimed a “social revolution” is needed to reduce inequality, particularly for the most impoverished regions of Peru.

* Mexico: Canada and Mexico reached key immigration and trade agreements prior to the start of the “Three Amigos” summit today of the leaders of both nations plus the U.S..

YouTube Source – Associated Press (From June 2015: “The US-Cuba relationship is changing, but the U.S. Coast Guard continues to interdict thousands of Cuban migrants risking their lives to take advantage of the controversial 'wet foot dry foot' policy.”)

Online Sources – NBC NEWS, CNN, The Atlantic, Xinhua

Daily Headlines: June 8, 2016

* Brazil: A Brazilian Supreme Court justice could allow for the arrest of four members of interim President Michel Temer’s political party over their alleged obstruction in the “Lava Jato” corruption probe.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan electoral officials approved a petition with 1.3 million signatures seeking a referendum for the possible removal of President Nicolás Maduro, while police and National Guard troops fired tear gas at anti-government protesters yesterday.

* Mexico: A new report by the Open Society Justice Initiative and Mexican human rights groups admitted that an “immense majority of violent crimes have been committed by criminal organizations” but accused government security forces of purportedly committing crimes against humanity.

* Peru: Pedro Pablo Kuczynski leads with tens of thousands of votes ahead of Keiko Fujimori in the presidential runoff that continues to be much too close to call.

YouTube Source – France 24 English

Online Sources – BBC News, Al Jazeera English, Voice of America, ABC News, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: June 6, 2016

* Peru: As hinted it by several exit polls, the presidential runoff in Peru is much too close to call as Pedro Pablo Kuczynski holds a less than 1% advantage over Keiko Fujimori with at least 90% of votes officially counted.

* Haiti: Haitian interim president Jocelerme Privert claimed that the country’s presidential elections will be rerun this October, which is nearly one year since the apparently fraudulent first round was held.

* Venezuela: Spain’s foreign minister called on the Venezuelan government and opposition to engage in dialogue one day after it was reported that ex-President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met with jailed dissident leader Leopoldo Lopez.

* Mexico: Mexico’s ruling political party is expected to lose in seven of the twelve gubernatorial elections held yesterday including traditional strongholds Veracruz, Tamaulipas, and Quintana Roo.

YouTube Source – CCTV News

Online Sources – euronews, Fox News Latino, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, teleSUR English

Exit Polls Show Dead Heat in Peru’s Presidential Election

Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and Keiko Fujimori are locked in a neck-and-neck battle to decide who will be Peru’s next president according to exit polls taken during today’s runoff election.

Two of the three exit polls revealed a slight lead but within the margin of error for the ex-economics minister ahead of the daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori. GfK gave Kuczynski a 51.2% to 48.8% advantage, while Ipsos Perú reveled a tighter margin of 50.4% versus 49.6%. In contrast, pollster CPI claimed that Keiko would be ahead by a slim 2.3% margin with 51.1% support against 48.8% for Kuczynski.

Keiko easily won the first round of elections on April 10th with nearly double the percentage of the second-place Kuczynski. Neither candidate established a significant advantage in the polls in the nearly two months of additional campaigning. Although a CPI survey carried out on May 23rd and 24th gave her 7.1% lead, polls taken over the past week showed a virtual draw between the two. 

In the run up to today’s runoff, Keiko has been the target of accusations alleging her campaign and Fuerza Popular political party has been tainted by corruption. For example, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allegedly investigated Fuerza Popular chairman Joaquin Ramirez for purportedly laundering $15 million and for possible ties to suspected drug trafficker Miguel Arévalo Ramírez. Keiko defended Ramirez and accused her detractors of mounting a “dirty war” against him, which may not have been seen so favorably by Peruvians wary of corruption.

Daily Headlines: May 26, 2016

* Peru: A sixty-day state of emergency was declared for the Madre de Dios region following the spread of mercury poisoning due to illegal mining operations.

* Brazil: Prosecutors looking into the “Lava Jato” corruption scandal reportedly are examining possible financial wrongdoing related to “all the venues and services financed with federal funds” for the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

* Puerto Rico: The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote within the next few days on a bipartisan congressional plan to restructure Puerto Rico’s roughly $70 billion public debt.

* South America: Ecuadoran minnows Independiente del Valle join former Copa Libertadores champions Atletico Nacional, Boca Juniors, and Sao Paulo in the final four of this year’s edition of the top South American soccer club tournament.

YouTube Source – DW (English)

Online Sources – Popular Science, Reuters, ESPN FC

Daily Headlines: May 24, 2016

* Guatemala: Guatemalan prosecutors are considering a inaugurating a new office specializing in dealing with femicides in response to the 222 gender-based murders of women in the first four months of 2016.

* Puerto Rico: Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders railed against a bipartisan congressional plan backed by the White House to help restructure Puerto Rico’s $70 billion public debt.

* Peru: Polls indicate that Keiko Fujimori has widened her lead ahead of the June 5th presidential runoff despite corruption allegations within her campaign and concerns over the relation to her imprisoned father, ex-president Alberto Fujimori.

* Venezuela: Brazil’s acting foreign minister said his country and Argentina reportedly agreed to help mediate in Venezuela’s worsening political crisis.

YouTube Source – DW (English)
 
Online Sources – teleSUR English, Politico, Reuters, ABC News

Daily Headlines: May 17, 2016

* Peru: Presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori has come under fire roughly three weeks prior to a runoff over allegations that a close ally of hers is under investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

* Brazil: Beleaguered Brazilian state-run oil giant Petrobras, which last week reported a first quarter loss of $358 million, has dropped from having been a “major player” in the floating production systems market.

* Haiti: The African Union next month will admit Haiti as the bloc’s first non-African member in a move expected to boost the economy of the Caribbean nation.

* Mexico: A second Mexican judge approved the extradition request from U.S. prosecutors to possibly extradite imprisoned drug cartel chief Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

YouTube Source – CCTV America (Video uploaded last April).
 
Online Sources – teleSUR English, MercoPress, The Latin Americanist, GlobalPost, The Guardian

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