Daily Headlines: November 2, 2016

* Mexico: Mexico’s “sugar tax” on carbonated beverages enacted in 2013 could prevent as many as 500,000 cases of diabetes and save up to $2.5 billion in ten years, according to a new report.

* Colombia: President Juan Manuel Santos indicated that a reworked peace deal with the FARC rebels would be ratified by Congress rather than risk defeat at a second referendum.

* Bolivia: Spanish energy giant Repsol extended its agreement for exploration and operation of Bolivia’s largest oil bloc to 2046.

* Chile: The race for 2018 World Cup qualification in South America became much tighter after a decision to dock points from Bolivia allowed Chile to leapfrog Argentina in the standings.

YouTube Source – Euromonitor International (Video uploaded on November 2013).

Online Sources – Vocaticv, Colombia Reports, Goal.com, Latin American Herald Tribune

Daily Headlines: February 26, 2014

* Mexico: Spanish flamenco guitar master Paco de Lucia died in Cancun, Mexico today at the age of 66.

* Argentina: Repsol’s executive board approved a plan that would permit the Argentine government to pay the Spanish firm $5 billion in compensation for the 2012 nationalization of energy company YPF.

* Chile: Scientists believe that whale fossils in Chile‘s Atacama desert and dating back millions of years might be the first example of repeated mass strandings of marine mammals.

* Brazil: The Brazilian tourism board asked Adidas to stop selling World Cup t-shirts with double entendre phrases and sexualized images on them.

Video Source – YouTube user slowhand44dz
 
Online Sources- Businessweek; LAHT; The Latin Americanist; The Independent; Reuters

Daily Headlines: November 26, 2013

* Nicaragua: The U.S. State Department and the Episcopal Conference of Nicaragua have criticized a proposed constitutional amendment that would remove presidential term limits and could allow President Daniel Ortega to run for reelection.
 
* Mexico: At least forty-two bodies have been uncovered in twenty-two mass graves in an area of western Mexico that “has become the site of a turf war between the Knights Templar and the New Generation cartels.”

* U.S.: The first public memorial honoring Puerto Rican veterans in the continental U.S. was unveiled last week in Boston, Massachusetts.

* Argentina: The Argentine government and Repsol reached a preliminary deal that would compensate the Spanish firm for the 2012 expropriation of the YPF energy company.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews (Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega easily won reelection in 2011 but has yet to say publicly whether he wants to run again in 2016.)

Online Sources- Reuters; Catholic Culture; Miami Herald; Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: December 5, 2012

* Brazil: At least sixty-one police officers were arrested in Rio de Janeiro state and accused of taking bribes from drug traffickers in exchange for turning a blind eye to illicit activity.

* Latin America: Venezuela and Haiti are tied as the most corrupt countries in Latin America and the Caribbean according to an analysis by Transparency International.

* Argentina: Attorneys for Spanish oil firm Repsol filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court against Chevron regarding that company’s dealings with Argentina's YPF.

* Guatemala: A lawyer for software company founder John McAfee said that his client will seek political asylum in Guatemala despite being wanted on murder charges in the U.S.

Video Source – YouTube via user tvbrasil

Online Sources- CNN, Reuters, Transparency International, Sydney Morning Herald

Daily Headlines: May 30, 2012

* Cuba: Spanish firm Repsol will cease looking for oil off the Cuban coast weeks after their first attempt ended up dry.

* Brazil: A coalition of indigenous groups have “blocked roads and occupied government buildings” and called for better healthcare for their communities.

* Venezuela: With five months to go in the race for the Venezuelan presidency a recent poll showed that current leader Hugo Chavez has a five-point lead over rival Henrique Capriles.

* U.S.: According to a WNYC analysis of New York Police Department data 86% of teens stopped by officers last year were either black or Latino.

Video Source – CNNMoney.com (This video report from July 2010 describes how Repsol hoped to successfully drill for oil off the Cuban coast. Alas it was not to be).

Online Sources- WNYC, Miami Herald, LAHT, BBC News

Daily Headlines: May 29, 2012

* Peru: For the second time in the last six months the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency after deadly clashes between police and anti-mining protesters.

* Argentina: Spanish oil firm Repsol will reportedly pressure the Argentine government to purchase the remaining shares of expropriated energy company YPF.

* Colombia: The FARC rebels claimed that they will release French journalist Romeo Langlois to a group of intermediaries that includes the International Red Cross.

* U.S.: According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission black and Latino children should be taught how to swim in order to decrease “racial disparities in drowning rates.”

Video Source – YouTube via IBTimesUK

Online Sources- CBS News, Reuters, euronews, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: May 21, 2012

* Cuba: In a possible setback for future oil exploration off the Cuban coast Spanish firm Repsol claimed that the first well they drilled in Cuban waters came up dry.

* Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff will receive compensation for the human rights abuses she suffered during Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship, while she formally inaugurated a “truth commission” to investigate violations committed during that era.

* Mexico: Police arrested a suspected member of the Zetas drug gang accused of being behind the recent massacre of forty-one people.

* Peru: Did the military secretly execute over a dozen rebels in 1997 during a raid to rescue hostages in the Japanese ambassador's residence?

Video Source – YouTube via Associated Press (From January 2012 – “An oil rig is ready to begin drilling off Cuba's coast. The area is believed to have billions of barrels of oil under the sea floor, and Cuba is hoping that oil will provide an economic boost.”)

Online Sources- BusinessWeek, GlobalPost, Bloomberg, Huffington Post, Time

Mexican President Blasts Argentine Oil Takeover

Mexican President Felipe Calderon expressed his displeasure over the Argentine government’s decision this week to seize 51% of oil company oil firm YPF from Spain’s Repsol.

“No one in their right mind would invest in a country that expropriates investments,” Calderon said yesterday.

“This is absolutely a not very responsible measure,” added Calderon over the decision that will likely affect Mexico’s finances. (Mexico's state oil monopoly Pemex holds a 10% stake in Repsol).

Argentina’s president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced the takeover of YPF on Monday claiming that low production that has forced the country to spend heavily on imported energy.

"We are the only country in Latin America, and I would say in practically the entire world, that doesn't manage its own natural resources," Fernandez said in a national speech.

Aside from Calderon and Peruvian economy minister Luis Miguel Castilla (who called Argentina’s actions “insane politics”), other Latin American leaders were not as critical.

“I’m not pleased with the response from wealthy Europe said Uruguayan president José Mujica who also clamed that Argentina’s 1992 decision to privatize YPF was “an error”. Venezuelan Foreign Affairs minister Nicolas Maduro said that his country’s government “welcomes and supports” the YPF takeover.

Others like Bolivian President Evo Morales distanced himself by noting the decision is “an issue between Argentina and Spain, of Repsol as a company and Argentina”.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “Decisions taken by the different countries are decisions they have to justify and will have to live with them.” But she added, “Models that include competition and market access have been the most successful around the world.”

“I must express my profound unease. It's a negative decision for everyone," Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on a visit to Mexico. His concerns were shared by other Spanish government officials like Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo claiming that Argentina had "shot itself in the foot."

Other European entities have given their diplomatic support to Spain including the European Commission, which “indefinitely postponed” an E.U.- Argentina meeting regarding bilateral trade.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague warned that Argentina’s actions “are damaging to business interests and will undermine Argentina's economy by reducing its attractiveness to international investors.” (Argentina and Britain are engaged in a war-of-words over the Falklands including concerns over offshore oil exploration near the disputed islands).

The president of Repsol claimed, “this battle is not over,” yet shares in the company tumbled by 7.5% in trading on Tuesday.

A Bloomberg article warned that Argentina’s president is “taking a page from (Venezuelan president) Hugo Chavez’s playbook” with the takeover of YPF. Yet one analyst interviewed in that article highlighted that the Argentine and Venezuelan economies are too distinct for the same types of economic policies:

“ (…) differences between the Argentine and Venezuelan economies mean Fernandez wouldn’t be able to expand her government’s role as much as Chavez has in Venezuela, where 90 percent of exports are oil and energy, said Igor Arsenin, head of Latin America strategy at Credit Suisse Group AG in New York.

“Argentina is a much more diversified economy,” Arsenin said. “Much of their foreign exchange revenues are coming from the agricultural sector and clearly you can’t nationalize that.”

“In Venezuela, “they’re able to run the state based on purely oil revenues and let the rest of the economy stagnate,” Arsenin said.

Image Source – Flickr via nestor galina (CC BY 2.0)

Online Sources – El Comercio, MSNBC, BBC News, Bloomberg, Expatica Spain, Reuters, Huffington Post, Mercopress, Bernama, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: December 8, 2010

* Latin America: A report by the United Nations Environment Program and major climate talks in Cancun, Mexico concluded that glaciers in the Southern Cone region of South America are melting at an alarming rate.

* Haiti: Protests continued in Port-au-Prince after Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council declared that Jude Celestin and former first lady Mirlande Manigat will face each other in a runoff for the presidency.

* Argentina: Spanish oil firm Repsol reportedly found several massive fields of natural gas reserves in the Patagonia region.

* Mexico: Is a fourteen-year-old teen accused of being a Mexican drug gang hitman also a U.S. citizen?

Image – topnews.in
Online Sources- AFP, USA TODAY, The Latin Americanist, CNN, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: October 4, 2010

* Peru: Vladimiro Montesinos, former spy chief and aide to disgraced ex-president Alberto Fujimori, was sentenced to at least 25 years in prison over his role in a pair of massacres.

* Ecuador: The government may reconsider a controversial law that led to violent protests against President Rafael Correa last Thursday.

* Cuba: Spain’s Repsol will reportedly drill several oil wells off the northern Cuban coast next year.

* Puerto Rico: Police on the island have come under fire as a result of several recent incidents where cops may have used excessive force.

Image – teleSur
Online Sources- AP, LAHT, Miami Herald, The Guardian, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: July 16, 2010

* Mexico: Political infighting appeared to be the reason behind replacing Fernando Gomez Mont as interior minister with a “little-known pick”.

* El Salvador: U.S. immigration officials extended the temporary protected status deadline for Salvadorans days after it was also extended for Haitians.

* Cuba: Spanish firm Repsol has commenced "the exploration stage" of oil drilling near the Cuban coast, much to the chagrin of some U.S. legislators.

* Latin America: According to OPEC the global need for oil will increase by a million barrels per day next year partly as a result of increased demand from Latin America.

Image – BBC News (“Jose Francisco Blake (left) will be responsible for national security” after being chosen by Mexican President Felipe Calderon to be the next interior minister.)
Online Sources- CNN, The Latin Americanist, BusinessWeek, Reuters, Miami Herald

Venezuela: Foreign firms win Orinoco bids

Venezuela’s government awarded two blocks available in the oil-rich Orinoco Belt to a pair of foreign firms.

Spain’s Repsol and U.S. company Chevron led a pair of separate consortiums in order to get permission to seek and drill oil in parts of the Orinoco area. The bids- which both totaled over $30 billion- grants Chevron and Repsol a 40% stake in the oil fields while state-run PVDSA holds 60%.

According to Reuters, oil firms aim to reap high rewards from the Orinoco belt though the risks are also great:

Companies are keen on low exploratory risk and manageable production costs offered by the three projects, which will produce 1.2 million barrels per day and hold total estimated 128 billion barrels of oil in place.

But developers also must build major infrastructure in isolated rural areas. Partners must provide nearly all financing for the $10 billion to $20 billion projects. And the government has mandated the fields must produce at more than double the rate of existing Orinoco belt projects.

"Convincing companies that these projects are viable has not been easy," acknowledged Baldo Sanso, an oil ministry advisor running the bidding, before receiving bids.

The auction was the biggest in eleven years and it attracted the attention of major international oil companies. One more Orinoco block remains open and it’s expected to fetch a steep price once the Venezuelan government decides to allow bidding on it.

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- MaarketWatch, Reuters, Business Week, Wall Street Journal

Daily Headlines: August 11, 2008

* Haiti: Haitian police officials denounced United Nations troops for allegedly assaulting two policemen.

* U.S.: “So this one time in mariachi camp…”

* South America: Spanish oil firm Repsol agreed to negotiate for a new contract with Ecuador’s government, while Brazil’s Petrobras plans to buy ExxonMobil’s assets in Esso Chile.

* Puerto Rico: Was “friendly fire” the real reason why a Puerto Rican policeman was killed by the FBI over the weekend?

Image- New York Times (“Hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers raided Haiti's largest slum (in February 2007) to arrest gang members.”)

Sources- Reuters, Canadian Press, Star-Telegram.com, Dominican Today