Showing posts with label Wal-Mart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wal-Mart. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Daily Headlines: March 29, 2016
* Chile: President Michelle Bachelet of Chile said her government could countersue Bolivia at the International Court of Justice regarding a dispute over water rights from the Silala River located in a border region.
* Latin America: Argentina and Uruguay’s joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup received a boost from the president of FIFA, while the ex-chief of the Honduran soccer federation pled guilty to his role in the “FIFA-gate” corruption scandal.
* Brazil: A group of Brazilian legislators called for relaxing the country’s harsh gun laws even though 60,000 homicides took place in the country in 2014.
* Puerto Rico: A U.S. federal judge sided with Wal-Mart and quashed a law that raised taxes wealthy companies paid “on goods they buy from ‘related parties’” in debt-ridden Puerto Rico.
YouTube Source – CCTV News (“Bolivia argues it owns the Silala River and is not being compensated for Chile's use of the water. Chile argues that the water flows across their shared border and therefore it constitutes as an international river.”)
Online Sources – NPR, Fortune, Sky Sports, euronews, ABC News
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Daily Headlines: January 10, 2013
* Argentina: An Argentine naval ship detained for two and half months in Ghana because of a financial dispute returned to a “triumphant homecoming” on Wednesday.
* Mexico: U.S. legislators Elijah Cummings and Henry Waxman released documents alleging that Wal-Mart’s chief executive was aware of widespread bribery taking place in Mexico.
* Peru: At least two people are dead and three are injured after a Dakar Rally convoy was involved in a multiple vehicle accident.
* Cuba: Dissident and former political prisoner Oscar Elias Biscet announced a new campaign aimed at collecting thousands of signatures for a pro-democracy manifesto.
Video Source – YouTube via user TVPublicaArgentina
Online Sources- LAHT, The Guardian, The Independent, Reuters
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Daily Headlines: April 25, 2012
* Dominican Republic: A delegation from the U.S. Department of Labor will reportedly look into accusations of child labor and abuses of Dominican sugar workers.
* Latin America: A gunned down Brazilian newspaper reporter became the fourth journalist killed in that country this year, while Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli publicly apologized for calling a local reporter a drug addict.
* Mexico: Approximately half of state prosecuting authorities will not investigate allegations of $24 million in bribes paid by Wal-Mart’s Mexican division.
* Paraguay: After years of delays 2005 court decision to return ancestral lands to the indigenous Yakye Axa community is supposedly being implemented.
Image Source – Flickr via ruurmo (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Online Sources- MSNBC, USA TODAY, LAHT, Chicago Tribune, Deutsche Welle
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Daily Headlines: April 24, 2012
* Brazil: The country’s lower house of Congress is expected later today to approval a controversial environmental proposal that critics claim would lead to increased deforestation.
* Latin America: The Universidade de Sao Paulo, the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil are Latin America’s top three universities according to a new study.
* Venezuela: President Hugo Chávez broke his nine-day public silence on Monday night after speaking by phone to Venezuelan state television from Cuba.
* Mexico: Shares of Wal-Mart tumbled by almost 5% yesterday after it was reported over the weekend that execs tried to cover-up an investigation into bribery allegations in Mexico.
Image Source – Flickr via nsub1 (CC BY 2.0)
Online Sources- Fox News Latino, Bernama, The Guardian, CNBC.com
Monday, April 23, 2012
Daily Headlines: April 23, 2012
* Mexico: Officials at Wal-Mart have come under fire after a former executive of the retail giant’s Mexico division alleged that the company paid millions of dollars in bribes to secure permits to build new stores.
* Argentina: A new poll found that 62% of Argentines backed their government’s decision to take over majority control of energy firm YPF from Spain’s Repsol.
* Venezuela: Information Minister Andres Izarra denied rumors that President Hugo Chavez was close to death and accused opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles of being a “political fatality.”
* Peru: President Ollanta Humala said that changes to the Conga mining project have made it safer despite concerns by locals over possible environmental damage.
Image Source – Flickr via Adam_d_ (Interior of a Wal-Mart in Merida, Mexico). (CC BY 2.0)
Online Sources- BBC News, AFP, The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, MSNBC
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Daily Headlines: October 6, 2009
* Latin America: Immigrant "destination countries” should use the recession to “institute a new deal for migrants — one that that will benefit workers at home and abroad while guarding against a protectionist backlash" according to a U.N. study released yesterday.* Mexico: The country’s economy may be in its worse recession since the 1930s but that hasn’t stopped Wal-Mart’s Mexico divisions from posting high profits.
* Guatemala: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized the election of Guatemala’s Supreme Court judges which was rushed and “lacked transparency and objectivity.”
* Chile: Four former army officials were will face jail over covering up a 1992 murder related to an illegal arms deal with Croatia.
Image- CBC (“Mexican workers in Manitoba”)
Online Sources- Bloomberg, Xinhua, MSNBC, The Latin Americanist, AFP
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Daily Headlines: March 17, 2009
* Bolivia: Numerous indigenous communities celebrated the redistribution of thousands of acres of land by the government.* Latin America: Wiseass remark of the week goes to Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell for his reaction to rumors that Russia might use military bases on Venezuela or Cuba.
* Chile: Trade, the environment, and technology are some of the areas to be addressed during President Michelle Bachelet’s five-day visit to India.
* U.S.: Wal-Mart’s expansion plans include revamping two of its Texas superstores into massive “Supermercados de Walmart”.
Image- Guardian UK (2008 image of Bolivian indigenous demonstrators backing President Evo Morales)
Online Sources- Reuters, AFP, csmonitor.com, earthtimes, CNNMoney.com
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Daily Headlines: January 1, 2009
* Mexico: Mexican immigration agents commit a litany of abuses against Central American migrants according to a damning report by the country's National Human Rights Commission.* Chile: Chilean unions vow to boycott the country’s biggest grocer which was recently purchased by Wal-Mart.
* Venezuela: A Venezuelan man is suing U.S. immigration authorities after he claimed that he was illegally deported twice.
* Nicaragua: Could President Daniel Ortega become Latin America’s version of Robert Mugabe or is the author of this op/ed piece exaggerating?
Image- boston.com (“Illegal immigrants travel in a train heading north, on their way to the U.S. in Arriaga, southern Mexico, Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008.”)
Online Sources- Brownsville Herald, Bloomberg, csmonitor.com, MSNBC
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Daily Headlines: October 29, 2008
* Argentina: Could the planned nationalization of Argentine pensions wreck havoc on Brazilian stocks?* Ecuador: "One of the few good things to come out of this crisis is that we don't have to put up with those yuppies of Lehman Brothers, Standard & Poors and JP Morgan," quipped president Rafael Correa yesterday.
* U.S.: Coming in 2009 - Sam’s Club for Latinos.
* Panama: Banks from Japan will lend roughly half the finances needed to cover the Panama Canal expansion.
Image- KNX 1070 News (Protestors in Argentina rail against the government’s planned pension nationalization)
Sources- Reuters, Bloomberg, CNNMoney.com
Monday, September 8, 2008
Daily Headlines: September 8, 2008
* Latin America: Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Michelle Bachelet (image), the presidents of Argentina and Chile, are among the world’s most powerful women according to Forbes magazine.
* Mexico: The country’s highest court ruled that Wal-Mart acted illegally in paying part of workers’ salaries in vouchers redeemable only at Wal-Mart stores.
* Cuba: The U.S. trade embargo against Cuba won’t be dropped just yet said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday.
* U.S.: The Christian Science Monitor examines an afterschool program in Connecticut designed to encourage Latino youth to avoid dropping out of school.
Image- Time
Sources- Reuters India, IHT, Voice of America, Christian Science Monitor
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Puerto Rico: Wal-Mart warned over cheap milk
Wal-Mart may have had its second-quarter profit up by 17% with the help of “people…eating more sandwiches in Puerto Rico”. Yet authorities on the island warned the retailing giant of breaking the law regulating milk prices:Rican regulators say Wal-Mart was offering milk for $1.46 a quart.
That's 36 cents below the price set by the U.S. territory's government to protect its milk industry. Milk regulation agency Director Juan Pedro says Wal-Mart was in violation with the ultra-high-temperature Great Value brand…
Wal-Mart said in a statement Thursday that it is committed to following all local laws and that it corrected the listed price as soon as it was alerted to the situation.
Earlier this week, Wal-Mart officials announced plans for a major expansion in Brazil which would add between 80 and 90 stores to the over 300 already in the country.
Image- BBC News
Sources- BBC News, CNNMoney.com, The Age, Reuters
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Wal-Mart pulls “racist” comic book
Wal-Mart has removed from its shelves a Mexican comic book which some have deemed as racist. "Memin Pinguin" features a dark-skinned protagonist with exaggeratedly thick lips and “bug eyes.” Wal-Mart recently started offering the comic in areas with large populations of Latino customers such as Texas and Miami. Yet one African-American patron was shocked when she found the caricatures:
“They are calling him names. They call him an animal in one section. His mom is spanking his butt and it looks like they are drowning him,” said (Shawnedria) McGinty, who went so far as to buy a Spanish dictionary to better understand the comic books.
As Guanabee observed, this isn’t the first time "Memin Pinguin" has been controversial in the U.S.:
“Memin Pinguin” caused a stir in the States a couple of years back when the Mexican government issued a postal stamp commemorating the character. The comic book was then reissued after not having been published for a number of years. So it’s a wee bit surprising, given the blacklash those stamps received, that Wal-Mart would decide to carry it in its stores. In the United States nonetheless! Now they are feeling the wrath of the African American community.
Image- CNN
Sources- CNN, Dallas Morning News, Reuters, Guanabee
Friday, November 16, 2007
Daily Headlines: November 16, 2007
* Coming soon to a Wal-Mart near you: Pollo Campero.
* Mexican golfer Lorena Ochoa (image) will be honored in a unique manner: she will host her own LPGA tournament starting next year.
* After many months of disagreements and delays, the controversial Botnia paper mill located near the Uruguay-Argentina border began production.
* Brazilian police often kill suspects before trial according to the U.N. special investigator on extrajudicial executions.
* Four multinational construction firms are bidding for the multibillion dollar contract to expand the
Sources- The Latin Americanist, Forbes.com, Reuters, Voice of
Image- MSNBC
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Daily Headlines: November 15, 2007
* “Give the Malvinas back Mr. Blair,” declared Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in support of
* A study from researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health praised Brazilian anti-AIDS efforts including lowering the prices of medicines.
* Wal-Mart Mexico’s bank unit plans to offer more services and expand to approximately 100 branches by next year.
* The latest quarterly profits of telecom giant Telefónica rose by 39% mainly based on sales in
* Follow-up: An Associated Press investigation found that the inhumane disposable of unwanted pets in
Sources- The Latin Americanist,
Image- ADN Boletin Digital (Road sign reading “The Falklands are Argentine”)
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Green light for Wal-Mart’s Mexican banks
Wal-Mart’s Mexican division has been cleared to open banks in that country and will most likely do so starting next month. Wal-Mart said it won approval to run bank branches from the Mexican Banking Commission yesterday and company executives are eagerly looking forward to operating banks: "With Banco Wal-Mart we will be able to complement the services we provide to the segment of the population that currently lacks the benefits of having accessible banking services," said Wal-Mart de Mexico's chief executive Eduardo Solorzano.
Wal-Mart has enjoyed astonishing success in
Image- Foreign Policy Passport
Sources- AFP, BBC News, Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist
Monday, April 30, 2007
Daily Headlines: April 30, 2007
* A belated rest-in-peace to author David Halberstam (image) who died last Monday. Here is a piece he wrote for ESPN.com where he ruminated about American football while vacationing in * Brazilian slum residents view with mixed emotions the use of vigilante groups to provide security.
* Colombia's chief prosecutor plans to emphasize the links between paramilitary groups and U.S companies during his visit to
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* Wal-Mart agreed to settle a dispute with Puerto Rican environmental authorities due to problems with a store in
Links- International Herald
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