Daily Headlines: August 3, 2016

* Haiti: Observers from the Organization of American States will monitor Haiti’s upcoming elections but warned that more than a dozen reforms are needed for the much maligned and delayed electoral process.

* Latin America: At least six people are dead and four others are missing in the Dominican Republic following Tropical Storm Earl, which is advancing towards the Gulf coast of Mexico and Honduras.

* Guatemala: The daughter of the fifth Guatemalan journalist murdered this year was herself shot and killed though it’s unknown if the motives behind both deaths are linked.

* Venezuela: Jamaica will pay back some of its oil debt under the Petrocaribe alliance with food and medicine to a Venezuelan state mired in an economic crisis.

YouTube Source – AFP (Haiti’s presidential election was initially held nearly ten months ago but the election will be rerun this October amid deep political tension and accusations of voter fraud).

Online Sources – The Miami Herald, The Weather Channel, Bloomberg, Yahoo7 News, The Independent

Daily Headlines: December 14, 2015

* Brazil: Tens of thousands of protesters in scores of Brazilian cities participated yesterday in anti-government marches and called on embattled President Dilma Rousseff to resign.

* Venezuela: Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes rejected the possibility of the U.S. providing oil to Petrocaribe states should Venezuela opt to end the subsidized oil program.

* Ecuador: Ecuadoran officials will allow Swedish investigators to enter the South American country’s embassy in London and question WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

* Chile: Police arrested a Chilean army veteran who admitted in a call-in radio show that he took part in the murder of eighteen political detainees during military rule in the 1970s.

YouTube Source – NTN24

Online Sources – Deutsche Welle, Inside Costa Rica, Reuters, ABC News

Daily Headlines: November 3, 2015

* Dominican Republic: The Dominican government seemingly overreacted by stripping acclaimed author Junot Diaz of national honors over his criticism of the mistreatment of Haitian migrants.

* Venezuela: Venezuela will provide additional crude to nations of the Petrocaribe oil alliance according to remarks by President Nicolás Maduro.

* Latin America: The Day of the Dead may be closely associated with Mexico but nationals residing in Peru and Honduras also observed commemorations.

* Chile: Nine of the thirty-three Chilean miners trapped underground for sixty-nine days in 2010 have sued their lawyers over allegations of fraud.

YouTube Source – Big Think

Online Sources – The Guardian, Yahoo News, The Globe and Mail, teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: September 7, 2015 (Updated)

* Mexico: Families of 43 Ayotzinapa college students missing for nearly a year have called on meeting with Mexico’s president after an independent probe contradicted the official investigation.

Update: President Enrique Peña Nieto said on Monday that he would be willing to meet again with families of the missing students and claimed that the government's investigation into the disappearances remains open.

* U.S.: While some politicians on the campaign trail deride immigrants, a recent study found that “immigrant adolescents are actually less likely than native-born peers in the United States to commit crimes, use drugs or behave violently.”

* Latin America: Representatives from seventeen nations celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Petrocaribe oil alliance that has been shaken by the low price of crude and Venezuela’s economic problems.

* Colombia: FBI agents reportedly placed the late Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez under surveillance including monitoring his ties to then-Cuban president Fidel Castro.

YouTube Source – euronews
 
Online Sources including Update – El Universal, The Latin Americanist, Latina, The Washington Post, Xinhua, Excelsiór (in Spanish)

Daily Headlines: March 19, 2015

* Argentina: On the two month anniversary of the mysterious death of Alberto Nisman, Cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez called the late prosecutor a “scoundrel” and accused him of embezzling funds.

* Uruguay: Former Uruguayan foreign minister Luis Almagro was elected as the next chief of the Organization of American States.

* Latin America: PetroCaribe members Haiti and Nicaragua would be the most hurt if the Venezuelan-led oil initiative were to fail according to the International Monetary Fund.

* Mexico: The producer of the next movie in the James Bond spy film series denied receiving $20 million from Mexican officials in exchange for modifying the script.

Video Source – YouTube user BBC News (“Hundreds of thousands of people in Argentina marched (last month) through Buenos Aires to demand answers over the death of a state prosecutor.”)
 
Online Sources – The Hollywood Reporter; Deutsche Welle; The Latin Americanist; Fox News Latino; ABC News

Daily Headlines: November 5, 2013

* Argentina: The government declassified hundreds of previously secret files including transcripts of all the meetings held by the “Dirty War” military junta and the names of blacklisted artists.
 
* Puerto Rico: A new survey reveled that about one in three Puerto Ricans are seriously considering leaving the island due to the commonwealth’s financial troubles.

* Guatemala: Guatemala withdrew from the Petrocaribe oil alliance due to the inability to reach “favorable rates for purchases and financing.”

* Cuba: Dissident Guillermo Fariñas claimed that he was attacked by a “government-organized mob” on Sunday when he attempted to file a complaint against the detention of several members of the Ladies in White protest group.

Video Source – YouTube via user TV Pública – Argentina
 
Online Sources- BBC News; LAHT; Reuters; Miami Herald

Daily Headlines: July 1, 2013 (Updated)

* Ecuador: President Rafael Correa of Ecuador said yesterday that the fate of U.S. intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden is up to Russia to decide even though Snowden has requested asylum in the South American country.

Update: In an interview with The Guardian on Monday, Correa claimed that Ecuador is not considering Snowden's asylum request unless he were to travel directly to that country.  Correa also admitted that "it was a mistake on our part" to grant the former intel contractor a temporary travel pass that he used to move from Hong Kong to Russia.  

* Chile: Ex-leader Michelle Bachelet easily won Chile’s presidential primary among center-left candidates and is the favorite to win the general election in November.

* Argentina: Prosecutors will open an investigation against former Interior Minister Carlos Vladimir Corach regarding the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.

* Latin America: The summit of the Petrocaribe trade bloc ended last week with representatives of the 19 member states agreeing to create a special economic zone.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews (Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa mentioned on Saturday that he had a “cordial” telephone conversation with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden regarding the Edward Snowden affair).

Online Sources including Update - The Guardian; Reuters; Washington Post; The Guardian; Jerusalem Post

Venezuela: Pro-Chavez LatAm Leaders Sign Solidarity Declaration

Representatives of over twenty Latin American and Caribbean countries signed a declaration supporting ailing President Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelan government.

Signatories to the “Caracas Declaration” promise to reject any attempts to  “destabilize and promote intervention into matters on which the Venezuelan people have clearly expressed their will.”

The text also called on the international community to “respect” Wednesday’s Venezuelan Supreme Court ruling to postpone the inauguration of Chavez that was supposed to take place on Thursday.

Among the countries that signed the declaration are member states of the Petrocaribe oil alliance and the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, both groups that have received strong support from the Chavez regime.

In lieu of Chavez, who is reportedly in Cuba and in “delicate” condition since undergoing cancer surgery one month ago, several Latin American leaders gathered at a rally in his name on Thursday.  The presidents of Bolivia, Nicaragua and Uruguay joined Maduro and other senior Venezuelan government officials on stage at the event in Caracas.

“I am confident that our comrade Hugo is the person most interested in being here, but who says he is not here? He is in every woman, peasant...” proclaimed former Paraguayan president Fernando Lugo at the “symbolic” inauguration that was also attended by tens of thousands of Venezuelans.
   
Venezuelan opposition leaders, meanwhile, announced that they will hold their own rally on January 23rd over what they consider a violation of Venezuela’s constitution.

Zelaya Making Moves

Barely a month after his arrival in the Dominican Republic, former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has sprung back into action.

Zelaya has accepted an invitation from Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to serve in the newly created position of head of the political council of Petrocaribe.

According to Americas Quarterly: "Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolás Maduro said that in his new post, Zelaya would ‘oversee strengthening of political independence and the defense of “popular democracy” in Latin American and the Caribbean’."

In addition to the Petrocaribe gig, Zelaya will also pen his take on the coup that deposed him from power, with the Miami Herald and AP reporting that he's writing a book that could be on the press in as soon as a few months. In the book Zelaya will assert that the coup originated with Honduran business leaders who felt threatened by his policies.

Image Source: Latin American Herald Tribune
Online Sources: Miami Herald, AP, Business Week, BBC, Americas Quarterly, Wikipedia

Daily Headlines: July 15, 2008

* Latin America: The latest summit of Petrocaribe oil alliance ended on Sunday with the loosening of terms between Venezuela and several Caribbean states.

* Uruguay: According to a demographics study, Uruguay has the oldest average population in Latin America.

* Cuba: A group called the Venceremos Brigade protested travel restrictions against Cuba by marching over the Peace Bridge linking the U.S. and Canada.

* Argentina: Could an alleged network of faked passports tarnish Argentine soccer?

Image- radiojamaica.com

Sources- Canadian Press, Goal.com, The Buffalo News, Xinhua

Chavez praised Petrocaribe, met with Castro

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez called for an expansion of the Petrocaribe oil program during a summit of affiliated nations being held in Cuba. “Despite the Yankees, our gas is at the service of Venezuela first, and next to our brothers in the Caribbean,” declared Chavez earlier today as he also called for some countries to use social services to repay the oil exported from Venezuela.

In addition, Chavez met for over two hours with Fidel Castro yesterday. A brief account in Granma said that the leaders discussed several topics including the Petrocaribe plan, political affairs between Cuba and Venezuela, and “the international situation.”

What is Petrocaribe? According to a 2005 BBC News article:

The Petrocaribe initiative aims to reduce the prices Caribbean nations pay for oil imports. Venezuela already gives preferential treatment to communist Cuba and other nations…

Mr. Chavez has pledged highly preferential oil prices, with Caracas picking up 40% of the cost if oil is selling at more than $50 a barrel, as it is now.

He has promised further concessions to the Petrocaribe signatories if prices hit the $100 a barrel mark.

Sources (English)- CNN, Reuters, AFP, BBC News

Sources (Spanish)- Granma

Image- Cuban News Agency