Daily Headlines: August 31, 2016

* Cuba: Direct commercial flights from the United States to Cuba will resume on Wednesday for the first time since 1961 and could soon reach as many as 110 per day.

* Haiti: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former Haitian president ousted on two separate occasions, made a rare public appearance to back Maryse Narcisse in the race for the country’s next president.

* Colombia: “Today we have a slogan that ... we will not forget the disappeared during peacetime,” said a human rights campaigner calling attention to the more than 45,000 missing people during Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict.

* Venezuela: Several opposition activists have been detained and three journalists were expelled from Venezuela on the eve of what is expected to be a massive anti-government protest in Caracas on Thursday.

YouTube Source – AFP (“US secretary of transportation Anthony Foxx will travel to Cuba August 31, 2016, on the occasion of the first regular flight between the two countries after more than 50 years of suspension, according to local authorities.”)

Online Sources – ABC News, Fox News Latino, Reuters, CNN

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: August 8, 2016

* Mexico: At least forty people died following several landslides in Puebla and Veracruz states following Tropical Storm Earl though heavy rain is expected to continue and potentially cause “life-threatening flash floods and mudslides.”

* Cuba: Cuban officials blamed the United States for a surge of nationals fleeing from the country including several hundred migrants awaiting deportation from Colombia.

* Ecuador: Maria Duarte, Ecuador's Minister of Urban Development and Housing, claimed to be “optimistic” over the rebuilding of homes destroyed in a major earthquake nearly four months ago.

* Brazil: Several upsets in tennis at the Olympics on Sunday including Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina beating Novak Djokovic, and the Colombian pair of Juan-Sebastián Cabal and Robert Farah surprising the top seed in men’s doubles.

* Bolivia: Bolivian authorities last week seized nearly eight tons of cocaine valued at around $350 million from a cargo truck.

YouTube Source – Associated Press 
 
Online Sources – Reuters, CNN, Business Insider, Houston Chronicle, Al Jazeera English, The Tico Times

Daily Headlines: July 18, 2016

* U.S.: A new poll indicates an overwhelming majority of residents in the U.S.-Mexico border region are opposed to building a wall between both countries and also support a path to U.S. citizenship for undocumented Mexican immigrants.

* Colombia: Jarlinson Pantano of Colombia won his first Tour de France stage on Sunday, while his compatriot and race contender Nairo Quintana’s expected attack this week may not be enough to dethrone Chris Froome from winning his second straight Tour.

* Cuba: The U.S. Congress is gradually easing its opposition to normalizing ties with Cuba despite staunch opposition from Cuban-American legislators.

* Venezuela: At least 100,000 people took advantage of a brief reopening of the Venezuelan border with Colombia mainly to buy basic goods and medicine.

YouTube Source – Wall Street Journal (From February 2016: “Building a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico would be full of daunting challenges, from environmental regulations to private property laws. But that hasn't stopped politicians from pledging to do it”)
 
Online Sources – Dallas Morning News, BBC Sport, Sky Sports, The Hill, Macon Telegraph

Daily Headlines: July 13, 2016

* Paraguay: A Paraguayan court sentenced eleven farmers to a maximum of thirty years in prison for the deaths of policemen during land rights protests that were the catalyst for the ouster of ex-President Fernando Lugo.

* Ecuador: Human rights groups criticized the Ecaudoran government’s decision last week to deport 75 Cuban migrants arrested for protesting outside the Mexican embassy in Quito.

* Puerto Rico: Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla of Puerto Rico warned that the commonwealth still faces major fiscal challenges despite the recent approval of a law providing relief to the $70 billion public debt.

* Latin America: Officials from Mexico and the United States agreed on a plan to improve access to asylum for Central American migrants seeking to escape rampant violence and economic hardship in their respective countries.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English (From March 2014: “Thousands of Paraguayan farmers have gathered outside the country's Congress in Asuncion to vent their frustration at (then) President Horacio Cartes, who they say has failed to deliver on land reform promises.”)
 
Online Sources – BBC News, ABC News, Reuters, The Guardian

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: May 6, 2016

* El Salvador: Salvadoran authorities claimed that homicides declined last April by 15.8% but some analysts worry the government’s “zero tolerance approach” could lead to increased gang violence.

* Venezuela: At an Organization of American States meeting, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez accused the U.S. of orchestrating a campaign of “ongoing and relentless aggression” against her country.

* Colombia: Colombian police arrested Nidal Waked, a man named by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency as “one of the world's most significant drug money launderers and criminal facilitators.”

* Haiti: Several thousand protesters took to the streets of Port-au-Prince to demonstrate over the political crisis stemming from delayed presidential elections.

YouTube Source – CCTV America (“In El Salvador, it's estimated someone is murdered every hour.  It could become the world's most violent country if not already.”)
 
Online Sources – Reuters, The Miami Herald, BBC News, SBS

Daily Headlines: April 15, 2016

* Panama: Panamanian authorities reportedly agreed to follow international tax reporting standards outlined by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development chief Angel Gurria even though they had blasted him for comments made following the Panama Papers leak.

* Brazil: The lower chamber of the Brazilian Congress began three days of debating today over whether President Dilma Rousseff should be impeached over money laundering allegations.

* U.S.: The crisis hitting newspapers in the U.S. might lead to the end of El Diario/La Prensa, the longest-running Spanish-language daily and in circulation for 102 years.

* Puerto Rico: The Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to the surviving Puerto Rican soldiers of a U.S. Army regiment known as the “Borinqueneers” who fought both World Wars and the Korean War.

YouTube Source – BBC News (Video uploaded on April 3, 2016).

Online Sources – Deutsche Welle, the Latin Americanist, USA TODAY, Fox News Latino, CNN

Daily Headlines: March 28, 2016 (Updated)

* El Salvador: “We have ordered all of our people . . . to halt all types of homicides nationwide,” said a masked figure purportedly representing the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 gangs in a video claiming that both groups will renew an anti-murder truce.

Update: El Salvador's police chief and a spokesman for President Salvador Sánchez Cerén each rejected the possibility of negotiating with the gangs.
 
* U.S.: Santiago Erevia, a former U.S. Army sergeant who in 2014 received the Medal of Honor after decades of racial discrimination, passed away last week at the age of 69.

* Cuba: Ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro blasted U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to the island last week even though Obama held multiple talks with current Fidel’s brother and current Cuban President Raul Castro.

* Mexico: Authorities have reportedly arrested a man nicknamed “King Midas” who allegedly laundered up to $400 million yearly for Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel.

YouTube Source – Vice News (Video uploaded on December 2015).
 
Online Sources including Update – The Toronto Star, Fox News Latino, BBC News, CNN, ABC News

Daily Headlines: March 25, 2016

* Brazil: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff once again claimed she would not resign despite an impeachment process against her and a deepening political crisis stemming from the “Lava Jato” corruption probe.

* Vatican: Pope Francis is the world’s most popular leader according to a new survey, while the Argentine-born pontiff washed the feet of twelve refugees as par of a traditional Holy Thursday gesture.

* U.S.: Why is the spike in HIV and AIDS cases in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas “a warning sign for the U.S. healthcare community as well as Latino neighborhoods across” the nation?

* Latin America: Researchers believe the Zika virus that has spread across the Americas arrived in South America sometime in 2013 and not during sporting events held in Brazil two years ago such as the World Cup.

YouTube Source – Ruptly TV (“Anti-government protesters demonstrated through Sao Paulo, (on March 20th), as Brazil’s lower house continues to discuss Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's potential impeachment”.)
 
Online Sources – Xinhua, Catholic Herald, The Huffington Post, BBC News, Latina

Daily Headlines: March 24, 2016

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales of Bolivia claimed his country will file a new lawsuit with   the “appropriate international bodies” over the landlocked state’s desire for access to the ocean.

* South America: World Cup qualifiers resume today in South America with matches including Luis Suárez returning to the Uruguay lineup, and a Copa America finals rematch between Chile and Argentina.

* Mexico: For all the talk on the U.S. presidential campaign race on building a wail along the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities announced yesterday the discovery of the twelfth drug smuggling tunnel between Mexico and California since 2006.

* Venezuela: Five men including thee officials with PDVSA pled guilty in a U.S. federal court over their involvement in a bribery scheme between U.S. energy companies and the Venezuelan state-run oil firm.

YouTube Source – AFP (Footage from May 2015. The International Court of Justice last September rejected a Chilean appeal to drop analyzing Bolivia's decades-long dispute for ocean access.)
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino, ESPN FC, Goal.com, ABC News, Reuters

Daily Headlines: February 16, 2016

* Cuba: The U.S. and Cuba will sign an aviation agreement today that would allow up to 110 commercial flights to fly to nine destinations on the Caribbean island.

* Colombia: While the Colombian government and FARC rebels seem to be close to reaching a peace deal, the country’s second-largest guerrilla army has gone on a violent offensive that has left at least three state security agents dead.

* Peru: Approximately 2000-3000 barrels of oil are estimated to have spilled in the northern Peruvian region of Amazonas and might have contaminated the Chiriaco River.

* Venezuela: Four oil-producing nations including Venezuela conditionally agreed to cap their output at January levels as part of an attempt to raise the price of crude.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – NBC News, Vice News, MercoPress, Latin American Herald Tribune, BBC News

Daily Headlines: January 29, 2016

* Colombia: President Juan Manuel Santos called on the U.S. to remove the FARC from its list of terrorist groups in order to help advance peace talks that could end with a full agreement by March.

* Puerto Rico: While the Zika virus continues to spread across the Americas, Puerto Rican health officials warned that the flu reached epidemic levels on the commonwealth.

* Latin America: Caracas, Venezuela supplanted San Pedro Sula in Honduras as the world’s most violent city according to the Mexico-based Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice. 

* Mexico: Should Canada’s new government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau focus on more on strengthening ties with Mexico than the U.S.?

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – NBC News, Reuters, ABC News, The Telegtaph, The Globe and Mail

Daily Headlines: January 15, 2016

* Brazil: Police charged officials with companies including Vale SA and BHP Billiton over a November 2015 dam collapse that caused major environmental damage in southeast Brazil.

* Mexico: Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez and U.S. Justice Department officials supposedly met on Tuesday in order to advance the possible extradition of reprehended drug capo Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

* Cuba: Cuba allegedly received over 3.5 million tourists last year including a 76% increase in visitors from the U.S.

* Colombia: World Bank President Jim Yong Kim called on the international community to guarantee greater financial assistance to Colombia as it tries to reach a peace deal and end decades of armed conflict.

YouTube Source – ODN

Online Sources – Yahoo News, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, Jamaica Observer

Daily Headlines: January 11, 2016

* U.S.: Mexicans Gael Garcia Bernal and Alejandro González Iñárritu received individual Golden Globes last night while the Pablo Larraín-directed Chilean movie “The Club” lost in the top foreign film category.

* South America: The Dakar Rally reached its halfway point on a tragic note after a spectator was run over and killed during the seventh stage between Bolivia and Argentina.

* Cuba: White House chief-of-staff Denis McDonough confirmed the Obama administration’s plans to close the U.S. military base at Guantanamo, Cuba.

* El Salvador: Gen. José Guillermo Garcia-Merino, El Salvador’s former defense minister, was deported back to his homeland over his likely role in human rights violations during the civil war era.

YouTube Source – TIFF Trailers

Online Sources – Reuters Africa, Business Standard, NBC News, Latin America Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor

Daily Headlines: January 5, 2016

* Cuba: The Cuban Commission on Human Rights claimed that five dissidents pardoned as part of the closer diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Cuba were detained again and “confined in high-security prisons in the second half of 2015.”

* U.S.: Immigrants rights activists blasted recent raids mostly targeting Central American asylum seekers, while Guatemalan foreign minister Carlos Raul Morales warned that mass deportations will not halt migrants seeking to enter the U.S.

* Uruguay: The Uruguayan legislature approved a $620 million bailout to state oil company Ancap in an effort to lower the firm’s debt.

* Brazil: Brazil’s economic woes are expected to worsen according to analysts in a central bank survey who forecast a deeper recession in the upcoming months.

YouTube Source – euronews (Video uploaded on December 11, 2015).
 
Online Sources – Business Standard, The Guardian, Fox News Latino, Reuters, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: December 30, 2015

* Cuba: President Raul Castro said that plummeting earnings from key exports like sugar and nickel led the Cuban government to slash its 2016 economic growth estimate from 4% to 2%.

* Central America: The foreign ministries of Guatemala and El Salvador expressed serious reservations over the rumored plan in January to raid and deport thousands of recently arrived Central American migrants from the U.S.

* Paraguay: The head of the Paraguayan disaster response agency said that water levels of the heavily flooded the Paraguay River should lower in the next two months but could rise again this March.
 
* Venezuela: The opposition could lose its supermajority in the next federal legislature after the ruling PSUV filed legal motions to dispute the election of eight congressmen.

YouTube Source – Vox

Online Sources – Reuters, Independent Online, Vox, BBC News

Daily Headlines: December 23, 2015

* Colombia: Colombia became the latest Latin American country to partially decriminalize marijuana use after President Juan Manuel Santos decreed the production and sale of the plant for medical use.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan legislature approved stacking the Supreme Court with thirteen new judges less than two weeks before the opposition gains control of congress.

* Mexico: The number of undocumented migrants attempting to cross the Mexican border into the U.S. has dropped by 30% in the fiscal year 2015 and by 80% from the peak year in 2000 according to Border Patrol data.

* Guatemala: Guatemala is considering voluntarily taking in several thousand Cuban migrants stuck for the past few weeks in Costa Rica.

YouTube Source – AFP

Online Sources – Washington Post, Yahoo News, Vice News, teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: December 17, 2015

* Colombia: Retired Colombian army coronel Alfonso Plazas Vega might sue the state after the Supreme Court overturned his thirty-year prison sentence related to the 1985 Palace of Justice siege.

* U.S.: New data showed that the Latino high school graduation rate improved by 5.3% over three years to 76.3% for the 2013-2014 period.

* Cuba: Cuba and the U.S. agreed to an air travel deal that will allow commercial airlines to legally run some thirty flights to and from the island.

* Brazil: A Brazilian judge lifted a temporary ban that suspended the use of the WhatsApp social messaging program for twelve hours.

YouTube Source – AFP (Last October, “the remains of three Colombian women who vanished in fighting when leftist rebels briefly captured the Justice Palace in 1985 are identified”).
 
Online Sources – Yahoo News, Latina, ABC News, Quartz

Daily Headlines: December 15, 2015

* Guatemala: Compensation might be provided to families of three of the 1300 victims exposed to venereal diseases as part of a U.S.-led scientific experiment in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948.

* Brazil: Police raided the homes of Eduardo Cunha, the speaker of Brazil's Congress who is leading the impeachment push against President Dilma Rousseff.

* Haiti: Haitian electoral authorities confirmed that the December 27th presidential runoff would be held as scheduled despite strong allegations of fraud in November’s first round.

* Mexico: A Mass along the Mexican-U.S. border and a visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe are some of the events planned for Pope Francis during his trip to Mexico next February.

YouTube Source – Jouneyman Pictures

Online Sources – ABC News, Catholic Herald, Business Insider, GlobalPost