Daily Headlines: October 20, 2014

* Nicaragua: At least 24 people are dead and more than 33,000 are homeless as a result of heavy rain and flooding in areas of Nicaragua.

* Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff has apparently reversed a downturn in recent polls and is currently in a statistical dead heat with challenger Aécio Neves ahead of Sunday’s Brazilian presidential runoff election.

* Mexico: The World Trade Organization criticized the U.S. for not complying with a 2012 ruling to change meat labeling rules that were deemed discriminatory against Mexico and Canada.

* Uruguay: Will former president and current ruling party candidate Tabaré Vázquez earn an outright win in the October 26th general election or be forced into a second round next month?

Video Source – teleSUR English (Video uploaded on October 11, 2014).

Online Sources – NTDTV; NBC News; The Latin Americanist; Reuters; Buenos Aires Herald

Daily Headlines: April 16, 2014

Note: The following video contains graphic images and is Not Safe for Work (NSFW).

* Caribbean: Cuba and the Dominican Republic joined three other nations including Honduras in their World Trade Organization dispute against Australia’s strong anti-tobacco laws.

* Bolivia: Bolivian President Evo Morales personally handed over documents to the International Court of Justice as part of the landlocked country’s case seeking to regain a coastline from Chile.
  
* Argentina: The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear a case next Monday regarding unpaid debts from the Argentine government’s massive $82 billion default in 2001.

* Haiti: According to Amnesty International, “leading human rights activist” Pierre Esperance received a threat implying that he “won’t escape” the next assassination attempt against him.
    
Video Source– AFP via YouTube

Online Sources – GlobalPost; Reuters; The Latin Americanist; USA TODAY; The Washington Post

Daily Headlines: September 17, 2013

Note: This video might Not Be Safe for Work

* Honduras: The Honduran government filed a dispute at the World Trade Organization against Australia’s anti-tobacco laws that include selling cigarettes in plain packaging.

* Venezuela: Officials in Venezuela strongly rejected a recent White House report claiming that the Latin American country had "failed demonstrably" to combat the illegal drug trade for a fifth consecutive year.
 
* Haiti: Forty-one recruits will be working alongside Ecuadorean military engineers and could possibly become the first members of a potential new Haitian army.

* Mexico: The death toll from inclement weather caused by two converging tropical storms has increased to a minimum of forty-one fatalities.

Video Source – YouTube via Associated Press (Video uploaded in August 2012).

Online Sources- news.com.au; ABC News; The Guardian; NBC News

Daily Headlines: May 8, 2013

* Brazil: Brazilian career diplomat Roberto Azevedo was selected as the first Latin American and resident of a BRIC country to be named as head of the World Trade Organization.

* Mexico: At least twenty-two people died after a natural gas tanker crashed and exploded in in the Mexico City suburb of Ecatepec yesterday.

* Guatemala: Guatemalan officials will reportedly ask U.S. immigration authorities to investigate the recent deaths of two nationals under custody in Arizona.
 
* U.S.: “Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America” by chef Maricel Presilla won a James Beard award for cookbook of the year.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources- Huffington Post; ABC News; GlobalPost; New York Daily News

Daily Headlines: April 15, 2013

* Cuba: In op-ed piece published in the New York Times, Guantanamo inmate Samir Naji al-Hasan Moqbel claimed that he has been detained without trial since 2001 and described his participation in a hunger strike at the U.S.-run military prison. 

* Mexico: Europol warned last week that Mexican drug gangs are allegedly trying to become “key players in the European drugs market.”

* Argentina: Golfer Angel Cabrera fell short of winning his second Masters tournament and ended as runner-up to Adam Scott of Australia.

* Latin America: Guatemala filed a dispute at the World Trade Organization against Peru regarding import duties on several foods.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews
 
Online Sources- The Atlantic, Bloomberg, ESPN, LAHT

Daily Headlines: August 31, 2012 (Updated)

* Mexico: The judges of the Mexican Federal Electoral Tribunal unanimously rejected a legal challenge alleging voter fraud and corruption by the campaign of apparent president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto.

Update: Mexican electoral authorities on Friday declared Enrique Peña Nieto as the winner of July's presidential elections.

Prior to that, defeated candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador claimed that he would not recognize an "illegitimate administration" and urged followers to participate in a protest on September 9th.

* Colombia: Three out of five Colombians support negotiations with the FARC rebels according to a poll conducted in the same week that the government agreed to hold peace talks with the guerillas.

* U.S.: Family and supporters of Jason Puracal, a U.S. citizen convicted of drug trafficking in Nicaragua, held a vigil this week and called for his prompt release.

* Argentina: Argentina filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization against U.S. restrictions on meat imports days after Japan and the U.S. lodged a dispute blasting Argentine trade rules.

Video Source – YouTube via teleSUR English

Online Sources (including Update) - BBC News, Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, KOMO News, France 24

Daily Headlines: August 28, 2012

* Nicaragua: Investigators believe that eighteen people arrested and posing as fake Mexican journalists may be part of a ‘vast network of drug criminals”.

* U.S.: Will the Republican National Convention help the GOP make serious inroads into a Latino electorate that seem to mostly support President Barack Obama?

* Argentina: Mexico filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization against Argentina’s economic “protectionist measures.”

* Caribbean: According to Bahamian officials sixteen Haitian migrants who disappeared when their boat capsized are presumed to be dead.

Video Source – YouTube via Milenio

Online Sources- The Guardian, Fox News Latino, Politico.com, Reuters, MSNBC

Daily Headlines: July 19, 2012

* Colombia: The federal government and indigenous protesters in southern Colombia started a dialogue aimed at lowering tensions in the war-torn Cauca province.

* Mexico: Andrés Manuel López Obrador continued his legal challenge against Mexico’s recent presidential election and accused the campaign of apparent president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto of money laundering.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan foreign ministry condemned the attack yesterday that killed three senior Syrian military officials and called for global powers to “avoid any armed intervention.”

* Dominican Republic: The Dominican Republic joined Honduras and the Ukraine and filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization against Australia's cigarette package laws.

Daily Headlines: July 11, 2012

* Paraguay: Organization of American States chief Jose Miguel Insulza said that Paraguay should not be suspended as a member due to the recent ouster of Fernando Lugo.

* Ecuador: Gustavo Cortez, editor of Ecuador’s El Universo newspaper, alleged that recent criticism from President Rafael Correa was “a (verbal) attack in violation of his rights”.

* U.S.: Dominican outfielder Melky Cabrera was named All-Star Game MVP after hitting a home run that helped the National League win 8-0 over the American League.

* Argentina: The Argentine government filed a compliant with the World Trade Organization over U.S. and Japanese restrictions on some food imports.

Video Source – YouTube via teleSUR

Online Sources- Bernama, SI.com, Huffington Post, Mercopress

Daily Headlines: April 6, 2012

* U.S.: Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for attempting to sell weapons to Colombia’s FARC rebels, while a separate U.S. court sentenced a “top Juarez cartel figure” to life behind bars.

* Argentina: At least fourteen people were killed after as a result of a “severe storm” that swept through the Buenos Aires area on Thursday.

* Venezuela: At a pre-Easter Mass in Barinas an emotional President Hugo Chavez called on Jesus to “give me life” and “do not take me yet.”

* Honduras: Honduran officials filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against Australian anti-tobacco regulations including a ban on displaying logos on cigarette packs.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- The Guardian, Boston.com, CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: February 1, 2012

* Peru: Authorities are trying to avoid the growing encroachment against natives like the Maschco-Piro tribe who reside in remote areas of the Amazon.

* Latin America: Drought conditions in have led to a reported drop in the planting of marijuana in Mexico and a decrease in the corn yields of several South American countries.

* Argentina: Canadian mining firm Osisko suspended a gold mining project in the La Rioja province after weeks of protests by locals and environmental groups.

* Dominican Republic: The World Trade Organization backed a claim by several Central American countries against import tariffs by the Dominican Republic.

Video Source – YouTube via ITN News

Online Sources- National Geographic, Fox News Latino, UPI, BBC News, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: May 27, 2011

* U.S.: Venezuelan oil exports to the U.S. may not be seriously affected after the U.S. sanctioned state-run oil firm PDVSA for selling oil to Iran.

* South America: Uruguayan side Penarol’s attempt at their first Copa Libertadores crown since 1987 received a boost after winning 1-0 in their semifinals first leg over Argentina’s Velez Sarsfield.

* Mexico: According to Reuters, the World Trade Organization ruled that U.S. meat labeling rules discriminated against Canadian and Mexican companies.

* Brazil: French investigators revealed the difficulties that the pilots of Air France flight 447 faced before the airplane crashed off the Brazilian coast in 2009.

Image – Reuters via BBC News
Online Sources- The Globe and Mail, Reuters, The Guardian

U.S., Brazil reach deal in trade dispute (Updated)

Update:

Via the New York Times:

The United States and Brazil have reached an agreement aimed at settling a long-standing trade dispute over American subsidies to cotton growers, officials in both countries said Tuesday...

Under the preliminary deal, Brazil would hold off on retaliation in exchange for American concessions that include the modification of an export loan program and the establishment of a temporary assistance fund for the Brazilian cotton industry. The broader issues in contention would be deferred until Congress takes up the next farm bill, most likely in 2012.

Original Post:

A possible trade war between allies in the U.S. and Brazil may’ve been permanently aborted.

Last month Brazilian officials announced that they would subject import tariffs on over 100 U.S. goods as well as restrictions on a list of U.S. patents. The trade sanctions would’ve cost at least $830 million and were to be retaliatory after a 2009 World Trade Organization ruling against U.S. cotton subsidies. But Brazil decided to grant a temporary reprieve, thus opening the door for talks and hopefully a negotiated settlement:

Brazil postponed the higher tariffs until at least April 22 after the U.S. signaled it may revise cotton subsidies, ease requirements for meat imports and establish a $147 million fund to promote Brazilian cotton producers, Carlos Cosendey, head of the Foreign Ministry’s economic department, told reporters yesterday in Brasilia.

“Now we have a serious negotiating process,” Cosendey said, adding that implementation of the sanctions could be delayed another 60 days. “Given these signs, Brazil agreed to postpone the retaliation.”

The move seemed to have affected Brazilian investors with the benchmark Bovespa index rising in trading yesterday.

Image- Huffington Post
Online Sources- Washington Post, BusinessWeek, Reuters

Daily Headlines: November 5, 2009

* Chile: Chilean author Roberto Bolaño has become a posthumous literary darling but as Horacio Castellanos Moya wrote in Guernica Bolaño would’ve hated the attention.

* Nicaragua: Authorities are on the lookout for possible mudslides and flooding to be triggered by Tropical Storm Ida.

* Peru: Were drug traffickers behind the weekend attack of a controversial copper mine in northern Peru?

* Mexico: Along with the U.S. and E.U., Mexico has asked the W.T.O. to look into China’s restrictive trade practices.

Image – Guardian UK
Online Sources- Guernica, MSNBC, Bloomberg, Reuters, The Latin Americanist

World Watch: Hunger pangs

* U.S.: Rest in peace Norman Borlaug; the Nobel Prize-winning scientist and father of the "green revolution" in agriculture died Saturday at the age of 95.

* Pakistan: On a slightly related note, at least fourteen people died in a stampede while trying to obtain giveaways of free flour.

* China: China filed a case with the World Trade Organization against U.S. trade penalties on Chinese tires.

* Zimbabwe: The European Union will continue sanctions against Zimbabwe due to human rights violations and a lack of political progress.

Image- The Telegraph (“Borlaug, then visiting professor at Texas A&M University looking over some sorghum tests, Oct. 30, 1996, in one of A&M's teaching greenhouses, in College Station, Texas.”)
Online Sources- Guardian UK, BBC News, MSNBC, CNN

Weekend Headlines: July 4-5, 2009

* Venezuela: To all our Venezuelan readers we wish them a very happy Independence Day today.

* Mexico: Argentine President Cristina Kirchner was the big loser in last Sunday’s local elections. Will the same be the case today for Mexico’s Felipe Calderon?

* Nicaragua: A small diplomatic tiff was averted when Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega apologized for missing a banquet held in honor of the visiting Taiwanese president.

* Bolivia: Could parts of Bolivia’s’ energy and rail industries soon be nationalized by President Evo Morales?

* Latin America: The biggest upset after two days of the Gold Cup soccer tourney is El Salvador’s 2-1 win over Costa Rica.

* Brazil: Brazil may file a World Trade Organization complaint against neighboring Argentina.

Image- flags.com
Online Sources- Wikipedia, BBC News, Taipei Times, AFP, Guardian UK, The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg

Lula warns against global protectionism

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva issued a stern warning against countries considering economic protectionism.

Last month, Lula considered appealing to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over so-called “Buy American” clauses in the Obama administration’s $787 billion stimulus bill. Yesterday, Lula went further in critiquing protectionist measures:

"If the United States, Europe, Brazil close themselves, the crisis could become much bigger and produce chaos instead of a solution," Lula told industry leaders in Sao Paulo during a visit by Jan Peter Balkenende, the prime minister of the Netherlands…

Lula also intends to speak against global protectionism and for the completion of the WTO's Doha round at the Group of 20 meeting of leading economies in London next month.

"The Doha round was almost finished but we had elections in the United States and then India and politics dominated. Now, nothing stands in the way," said Lula. "The Doha round is more of a political than a financial decision."

Lula’s comments came on the same day as the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) identified Brazil as one of the “key emerging markets of the world.” Yet the USTR’s annual report also issued its own warning that the Doha round will not be renewed unless other countries are more open to U.S. goods.

The USTR report was the first issued under Barack Obama's presidency and also examined free trade. The USTR advised Congress to go ahead and approve a free trade pact with Panama as well as to work out disagreements to soon ratify a bilateral agreement with Colombia. NAFTA shouldn’t be scraped altogether, said the USTR, but suggested that Mexico and Canada revise several provisions in order to aid U.S. workers.

Image- TopNews.in
Online Sources- Bloomberg, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, easybourse.com, Economic Times, Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Banana rift continue between E.U. and LatAm

The European Union (EU) and several Latin American countries continue to be at odds over tariffs levied on bananas.

In April 2008 the World Trade Organization (WTO) upheld a complaint by Ecuador that argued EU taxes on banana importers in the Americas were “excessive and discriminatory”. Since then, the EU has tried to sidestep the WTO’s decision by arguing that no agreement was reached on banana taxes due to the collapse of the Doha round of trade talks.

On Monday the EU added more wood to the fire by proposing to lower its taxes on banana imports from 176 to 114 Euros per ton by 2019, instead of 2016. The reaction from Latin America has been of justified indignation and anger:

"We will not accept the introduction of new elements and renegotiations to arrive at something that is completely different and disadvantageous compared to the balanced agreement concluded on July 27, 2008," Guatemala's ambassador Eduardo Sperisen-Yurt told AFP.

The world's largest banana exporters, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela, have all rejected the EU's argument and have threatened sanctions against the bloc.

The deal will not affect former European colonies in the Caribbean who are part of the so-called “ACP countries.” Nations like Belize, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti don’t pay banana tariffs.

Image- AFP
Online Sources- Radio Netherlands, AFP, The Latin Americanist

Brazil unhappy with U.S. stimulus plan

Yesterday U.S. President Barack Obama signed a $787 billion economic stimulus bill and remarked that it represented “the beginning of the end” for the country’s economic woes. One hopes that his words ring true and that the stimulus is the first step in pulling the U.S. out of its economic quagmire.

Other countries around the world do not share Obama’s rosy outlook, however. An editorial by China's official Xinhua news agency blasted protectionist clauses incorporated into the stimulus plan. Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean criticized the “Buy American” provisions though observed that they did not violate international trade norms.

Brazil’s government may go a step further than just complaining; Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Monday that he may appeal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to challenge the legality of the "Buy American" clauses. As Reuters reported:

"It's a complex legal analysis, but we're doing it," Amorim said. "(Going to the WTO) is a real option," he told the state television channel TV Brasil in a program to be aired later this week…

Amorim said the U.S. move was counterproductive, likening it to a pain-killer that heals the symptoms of disease but not its cause. He said the Doha round was not dead but would be hard to revive.

“It's a bad sign. ... It's not positive at a moment when the world economy is trying to revive," Amorim said.

Despite the warnings of Amorim and others, some analysts believe that the protectionist clauses will not hurt the U.S. too much. "They have managed to contain the damage…It now looks like the 'Buy American' clause shouldn't be seen as a major concern of our trade partners" said, Inter-American Dialogue head Peter Hakim in remarks to columnist Andres Oppenheimer.

Image- AP (“Vice President Joe Biden looks on as President Barack Obama signs the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009, during a ceremony at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Denver. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert).”)
Online Sources- Reuters, CNN, bernama.com, The Modesto Bee, Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Daily Headlines: December 20, 2008

* Ecuador: The body of Jose Sucuzhanay was returned to his native Ecuador from New York nearly two weeks after he was targeted in an anti-Latino, homophobic attack.

* Mexico: Mexico joined Canada in an official World Trade Organization complaint against the U.S.

* Cuba: Pentagon officials said that they are pursuing the death penalty against an accused defendant of the USS Cole bombing who is detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison.

* Haiti: First lady of France Carla Bruni-Sarkozy will donate about $330,000 in sales of her latest album to Haitian children's charities.

Image- AFP (“Airport workers unload a box containing the body of slain Jose Osvaldo Sucuzhanay which arrived from New York at the Mariscal Sucre airport in Quito, Friday, Dec. 19, 2008.”)
Online Sources- miamiherald.com, washingtonpost.com, AFP, AP, The Latin Americanist