Daily Headlines: October 31, 2016

* Venezuela: Venezuela’s weakened economy is to blame for lowered output at Cuba's joint oil refinery with PDVSA, while government officials and opposition figures from the south American country met in discussions aimed at quelling rising political tensions.

* El Salvador: Ex-President Tony Saca was arrested over the weekend over the alleged embezzlement of an estimated $5 million dollars in public funds and, thus, became the latest former Salvadoran leader to be accused of corruption while in office.

* Mexico: Compatriots Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez did not fare well during the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Mexico held for the second straight year in Mexico City.

* Brazil: Students at more than 1100 high schools and universities occupied their respective educational institutions last week to protest policies under President Michel Temer.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – Xinhua, Al Jazeera English, Newsweek, BBC Sport, Latin American Herald Tribune

Leftists seemingly post big wins in El Salvador

Unofficial results show that El Salvador’s leftist FMLN made significant gains during yesterday’s local elections.

According to preliminary numbers, the right-wing ARENA lost its slim control of the country’s federal Legislative Assembly to the FMLN. Additionally, most local posts nationwide were won by the FMLN candidates though ARENA seemed to salvage a win in the election for San Salvador mayor.

The FMLN would become the favorite to win El Salvador’s presidency in two months assuming that the electoral results hold. Poll results published earlier this month owed that FMLN presidential candidate Mauricio Funes has a 17-point lead over his closest rival. (Current president Tony Saca is allied with ARENA).

What would an FMLN win signal for the U.S. and the rest of the Americas? According to CNN:

"There's another possibility that yet another country will join the pink tide and go leftist," (Council on Hemispheric Affairs director Larry) Birns said. "What Washington worries about is momentum building up behind one election after another for leftist candidates" in Latin America: "institutional" governments, such as Brazil's, that "have made peace with the free market" while still championing social programs, and populist, more radical governments such as Venezuela's...

Heather Berkman, a Latin America analyst with the Eurasia Group, thinks the FMLN would take a pragmatic approach. The nation relies too much on outside investments and remittances from Salvadorans living abroad for the FMLN to adopt too much of a radical approach.

Image- AFP (“FMLN supporters cheer at the close of voting in San Salvador.”)
Online Sources- Angus Reid Consultants, El Faro, Prensa Latina, Bloomberg, CNN

Daily Headlines: December 18, 2008

* Latin America: The Rio Group summit ended with a declaration calling for the end of the U.S. embargo on Cuba and "a change in US policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean".

* U.S: A funeral mass was held in New York for Jose Sucuzhañay, the slain Ecuadorian migrant who was recently killed in a despicable attack.

* El Salvador: Free trade and counternarcotics efforts were two of the main topics discussed during Salvadoran president Tony Saca’s visit to the White House on Tuesday.

* Venezuela: An Uruguayan defendant was sentenced to nearly three years in jail for his role in the “Maletagate” incident.

Image- Voice of America (“Some of the Latin American summit participants at the Costa do Sauipe resort, 16 Dec 2008.”)
Sources- Reuters, The Latin Americanist, AFP, BBC News, NY1, Voice of America, El Universal

Daily Headlines: November 28, 2008

* Peru: President Alan Garcia blamed Mexican drug gangs for fueling violence in Peru including funding the resurgent Shining Path rebels.

* Haiti: A report from human rights group Amnesty International criticized widespread sexual violence against women and the culture of impunity surrounding the justice system.

* El Salvador: President Tony Saca will travel to the U.S. next month and urge migrants to sign on to a temporary visa program.

* Mexico: Even household pets aren’t immune from Mexico’s rising crime.

Image- BBC News (Peruvian villagers purportedly killed by the Shining Path circa 1980s.)
Sources- miamiherald.com, La Plaza, IHT, MSNBC

Central American presidents gather in Honduras

Presidents Oscar Arias, Alvaro Colom, Daniel Ortega, Antonio Saca, and Manuel Zelaya gathered on Saturday in Tegucigalpa, Honduras for a special summit of the Central American Integration System (SICA). Presidential envoys from Panama, Belize and the Dominican Republic attended, as well.

The summit was designed to forge a regional response to pending issues of mutual import, such as fiscal responses to the US economic crisis, integration efforts to increase intra-regional commerce, and new alliances with international actors aside from the economically-shaken US.

The meeting of presidents, which followed a technical meeting of ministers and experts on Friday, resulted in a special declaration, signed by each of the heads of state, which stipulated 7 main agreements:

1) Defend and strengthen intra-regional commerce, which is currently on the rise

2) Seek concrete mechanisms through the SICA and national economic ministries to support continued growth in intra-regional commerce.

3) Urge the SICA's banking entity (BCIE) to extend credit lines of up to $200 million to national central banks, as well as the same amount to private lenders, in order to combat the negative effects of the international economic crisis, as well as the onset food security crisis.

4) Urge the SICA to continue its push for increased regional integration where possible in order to shore up individual / national vulnerabilities.

5) Encourage the SICA's council of ministers to design a regional plan (in the next month) that will help mitigate the effects of the international economic crisis on the region's employment rate, agricultural production, and overall economic productivity.

6) Seek concrete mechanisms for national ministers to stimulate agricultural production and social and public investment in social and economic programs.

7) Encourage the SICA's council of ministers to seek alliances with countries in thee South, Asia, and the Caribbean.

Popular reaction to the meetings was mixed; some officials noted that the summit represented a concerted and solid first step towards a regional response, while others considered the meeting and its resolution devoid of any substantial or action-oriented measure.

Sources: El Heraldo, AFP, Prensa Latina, Xinhua Net, Sica.int

Salvadoran troops to continue in Iraq

Salvadoran president Tony Saca announced that his country will send a new contingency of troops to Iraq. The 11^th Cuscatlán Battalion will be deployed to Iraq in order to replace nearly 300 troops “involved in humanitarian activities and reconstruction work” said Saca in a radio address on Sunday.

Thus, El Salvador will continue to be the lone Latin American country with troops currently in Iraq. Opposition in the country his increased to pull the troops out permanently and five Salvadoran troops have been killed in Iraq thus far. Yet El Salvador’s legislature gave Saca permission to continue deployments until the end of this year and Saca has pledged to keep troops stationed there.

Meanwhile, a group of thirty Salvadorans will soon go to the U.S. to train to become mercenaries in the Middle East. According to a local press report, each person will be paid between $1020 and $1500 to train at the Blackwater-run base with an additional bonus for those that pass and work as private security abroad.

As we noted in 2006, the high pay attracts Latin Americans from countries like El Salvador and Peru though the firms have been criticized for unfair pay and exploitation.

Image- PBS (“In San Salvador on Wednesday, March 29, 2006, El Salvador's President Tony Saca decorated soldiers of contingent five of the Cuscatlán Battalion, who recently returned from Iraq.”)

Sources (English)- PRESS TV, The Latin Americanist, SignOnSanDiego.com, jpost.com

Sources (Spanish)- elsalvador.com, La Prensa Grafica

Daily Headlines: February 7, 2008

* One man’s trash is another man’s treasure…in Nicaragua.

* Growing opposition to Salvadoran soldiers fighting in Iraq may lead to a major troop reduction according to President Tony Saca.

* Over 1450 people have been evacuated from the area around Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano after it exploded yesterday.

* Colombian singer Shakira will auction off over forty pieces of clothing worn during a 2007 tour with proceeds going to her Bare Feet Foundation.

Sources-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Reuters, AFP, The Press Association

Image- ITN

Daily Headlines: October 25, 2007

* Could the price of a barrel of oil surpass the $100 threshold? Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez thinks so.

* The massive wildfires that have ravaged through Southern California may have claimed the lives of four people at a migrant camp near the U.S.-Mexico border.

* Salvadoran president Tony Saca continues backing his country’s deployment of troops in Iraq, according to this insightful interview with Univision’s Jorge Ramos.

* FIFA inspectors have given their stamp of approval for Brazil to host the 2014 soccer World Cup.

* Follow-up: The man accused in a heinous assault of an Ecuadorian girl in the Barcelona metro was released yesterday after being arrested for a second time over the incident.

Sources (English)- The Latin Americanist, International Herald Tribune, Guardian UK, Voice of America

Sources (Spanish)- El Diario/La Prensa

Image- CTV.ca

Salvadoran prez surprises troops in Iraq

Yesterday Salvadoran President Tony Saca made an unexpected visit to troops from El Salvador who are stationed in southern Iraq. Saca praised the soldiers and assured his countrymen that “morale was very high."

El Salvador is the only Latin American country with soldiers stationed in Iraq with nearly 400 Salvadoran troops are over there. Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic withdrew their soldiers from Iraq in 2004.

Image- PBS (President Tony Saca decorating five soldiers who returned from Iraq in 2006)

Sources- International Herald Tribune, Wikipedia