Daily Headlines: August 19, 2015 (Updated)

* El Salvador: At least 28 people died during a violent 24-hour span in El Salvador according to data from the Attorney General’s office.

* Colombia: Representatives of Colombia’s FARC rebels once again expressed their willingness to meet with Pope Francis during his trip to Cuba in September.

Update: Vatican spokesman Ciro Benedettini on Wednesday said that the pope doesn't have any plans to meet with FARC envoys next month.

* Latin America: The capitals of Argentina and Chile – Buenos Aires and Santiago – were named by the Economist Intelligence Unit as the best Latin American cities to live in.

* Brazil: Former Petrobras executive Nestor Cervero was sentenced to twelve years in prison in relation to one of the corruption scandals that has hurt President Dilma Rousseff’s administration.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English

Online Sources including Update – Catholic News Service, CNN, Latin American Herald Tribune, The Guardian, Colombia Reports

Daily Headlines: March 18, 2015

* Peru: Protesters and police clashed this week during demonstrations in southern Peru against a sharp hike in local electricity fees.

* U.S.: News magazine The Economist has come under fire for using “chili peppers to depict the stripes in the American flag” in its cover image highlighting an article on the Latino community.

* Dominican Republic: At least twenty minors were among the twenty-nine women rescued in a sex trafficking sting in the Dominican town of Sosua.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan government in an open letter published in The New York Times denied that the country is a national security threat to the U.S.

Video Source – YouTube via EFE

Online Sources – Latin American Herald Tribune; Fusion; Fox News Latino; The Guardian

From the Archives: First

The Latin Americanist blog was born on September 3, 2005 as the brainchild of a group of students at New York University’s Center for Latin American Studies. Seven years and over 7300 posts later the blog still continues with the same goal it had when it was conceived: to provide an English-language forum for issues pertaining to Latin America.

Today we will take a look at the first article that was published on this blog.

There is a cliché that states, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” This saying can apply to the first post on this blog, which was the following:

Chavez earns scorn from The Economist

The Venezuelan president incurs the disapproval of the British mag after clamping down on the private sector. article

Since then the renown international affairs magazine has not let up on its criticism of the Venezuelan leader. The publication’s latest article on Venezuela reported on last month’s fire at the Amuay oil refinery as a potential liability for Chavez’ reelection campaign.

Additionally, an article published in April claimed that diplomatic officials worried about urban violence “found Venezuela's security services underwhelming” while a January headline asked if Chavez and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were “brothers in arms?”

Video Source– YouTube via Voz de America (“The Economist” analyst Robert Woods provides his views on Venezuela’s upcoming presidential election in this February 2012 video from Voice of America’s Spanish-language channel).

Online Sources - The Economist, The Latin Americanist

Latinobarometro releases new poll

The new Latinobarometro poll released this week brings to bear some interesting data, and has already made excellent fodder for news analysts and bloggers alike. The poll spans 18 contries of the region through October of this year. There are some interesting findings herein, but rather than rehash, let's give credit where it's due; here are links to some of the better English-language analysis of this poll data out so far:

Yesterday's Economist presents tables and analysis in typical Economist fashion (incisive while tongue in cheek).
Bloggings by Boz offers his take on the most interesting findings.
The AQ Blog offers a concise yet heavily-hyperlinked summary of the poll.
El Universal takes its obligatory jab at Chavez.

 Other conclusions welcome... 

The Economist: Honduran leaders should back compromise

For the most part, The Economist is a conservative-leaning publication and it has been critical of leftist Latin American leaders from Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez to the more moderate Michelle Bachelet of Chile. Yet their occasions when the newsmagazine attacks those who it sees as dangerous to democracy like its criticism of rightist Colombian president Alvaro Uribe’s possible bid for a third term.

The British publication gave its two cents today on the political crisis in Honduras. It blasted elected president Manuel Zelaya for his “many faults” before being deposed and warned that he has “unhelpfully called on his supporters to stage an ‘insurrection’”. The article even took a shot at regional boogeyman Chavez who it claimed was “egging” Zelaya’s desire to “reverse the coup through violence.”

Yet The Economist also ripped claims by Republicans that Zelaya was legally deposed and that it’s best for Honduras to stay in “deadlock” until elections in November. “This argument is short-sighted and wrong...Coups are bad whatever the political color of their victims” according to the article.

The magazine also called for both Zelaya and interim president Roberto Micheletti to accept Costa Rican president Oscar Arias’ latest proposal. Arias’ “proposal is sensible” and the article criticized both leaders (especially Micheletti) for their reluctance to accept the compromise.

The article concluded with a call for the U.S. to either place sanctions on the Micheletti regime or (if it’s accepted) ensure that Arias’ plan is executed. Other countries in the region could also help:

Brazil and others could help too—by pushing Mr. Zelaya to be patient, accept the Arias plan and distance himself from the likes of Mr. Chávez and Cuba’s Raúl Castro, whose commitment to democracy ranges from dubious to non-existent. Mr. Micheletti is right that democracy can be undermined by autocratic presidents. But this caveat should not cloud the central issue: a coup in a region which has shed authoritarianism should not be allowed to stand.

Arias’ latest proposal will not satisfy all of Zelaya’s or Micheletti’s demands but it’s the best alternative so far to plunging Honduras into an avoidable civil war. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and prevent conflict from tearing apart that Central American country.

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- The Economist, Miami Herald, The Latin Americanist

The Economist looks ahead at 2009

The latest edition of The Economist provides its prognostications for the world in 2009. Its forecast for the year ahead touches on numerous global issues like the conflict in Afghanistan and expanding online frontiers. The magazine also mentions Latin America in a variety of ways:

* Eye on elections: Elections throughout Latin America in the year ahead will decide in which way the region will head. Moderate leaders on both the left and right could win the presidency in countries like Chile, Uruguay, and El Salvador. Populist leaders in Bolivia and Ecuador could consolidate their power.

* Guantanamo will close: The U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay will shutdown next year; an estimate that should be expected from the incoming Obama administration. The tricky part, according to the magazine, will be the “moral minefield” of what do with detainees.

* More international cooperation: Increased multilateral cooperation will be vital in the year ahead according to a piece penned by Brazilian president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva. In areas like climate change and international trade “collective action is the only way forward” said Lula.

What are your predictions for the year to come?

(Hat tip: Metafilter).

Image- BBC News
Sources- The Latin Americanist, The Economist, Metafilter