Daily Headlines: November 6, 2015 (Updated)

* Brazil: At least one person is dead and fifteen others are missing after a dam holding mine waste burst in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state.

Update (October 8): Minas Gerais Gov. Fernando Pimentel claimed that the 28 people missing after the dam burst are unlikely to be found alive.

* Central America: A program introduced last December to curtail the influx of unaccompanied Central American children in 2014 has yet to accept a single minor according to a report originally published in The New York Times.

* Puerto Rico: Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of San Juan to demonstrate against U.S. government cuts to federal health programs.

* Chile: The Chilean government called that it was “possible and highly probable” that acclaimed poet Pablo Neruda was killed days after a 1973 military coup.

YouTube Source – ODN

Online Sources including Update – Business Insider, ABC News, Latin American Herald Tribune, Flavorwire

Daily Headlines: June 17, 2015 (Updated)

* Caribbean: Hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic could end up stateless and be the victims of mass deportations after midnight tonight.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan university students critical of the government have joined imprisoned political dissident Leopoldo Lopez on his four-week long hunger strike.

* U.S.: Comments made by Pope Francis in favor of preserving the environment and warning about climate change have been viewed unfavorably some U.S. presidential hopefuls.

* Chile: Chilean soccer star Arturo Vidal could miss the rest of the Copa America after police detained him last night for driving under the influence.  (Update: Vidal will not be removed from the Chilean squad according to team coach Jorge Sampaoli.)

YouTube Source – Deutsche Welle (Video uploaded in May 2014).
 
Online Sources – The Root, Reuters, The Huffington Post, Goal.com

Daily Headlines: March 25, 2015 (Updated)

* El Salvador: Commemorative masses were held in honor of the late Archbishop Oscar Romero on the 35th anniversary of assassination and in anticipation of his beatification this May.

* Dominican Republic: As many as 110,000 people of Haitian background could be deported from the Dominican Republic starting in June despite denunciations from human rights groups and Dominican business leaders.

* Latin America: Two Colombian students and a Mexican national are believed to be among the 150 fatalities of yesterday's Germanwings plane crash in the French Alps. 

Update: At least six people from four Latin American countries (Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela) are believed to be among the victims of the accident.

* Cuba: The Treasury Department reportedly removed sanctions on 45 Cuban entities whose assets were blocked and had been barred from doing business with people in the U.S.

Video Source – YouTube via Catholic News Service
 
Online Sources including Update – The Guardian; Bloomberg; The Latin Americanist; USA TODAY; Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: March 20, 2015

* Colombia: “Look at the irony of life, all my life I spent in the military fighting terrorism…and now in a place totally remote from Colombia it takes my wife and son,” said a retired Colombian army general whose relatives were killed in a museum attack in Tunisia.

* South America: At least ten people were killed in a plane crash in Uruguay while Argentine officials earlier this week identified the remains of a deadly helicopter collision on March 9th.

* Dominican Republic: A Catholic priest identified only as Wojciech G. offered to serve seven years in prison over charges of sexually abusing minors in Poland and the Dominican Republic.

* Ecuador: Thousands of Ecuadorans took to the streets on Thursday in order to march in opposition to a plan that would end term limits for the presidency including current leader Rafael Correa.

Video Source – YouTube via Zip News
 
Online Sources – ABC Online; Deutsche Welle; ABC News; SBS; NBC News

Daily Headlines: October 27, 2014

* Dominican Republic: Top St. Louis Cardinals prospect Oscar Taveras and his 18-year-old girlfriend died in a car crash yesterday near the ballplayer’s hometown in the Dominican Republic.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan government backed down from plans to sell Citgo, which is valued at approximately $10 billion.

* Ecuador: A 22-year-old Ecudoran woman became the second person to die from an attack last Wednesday in the Israeli capital city of Jerusalem.

* Colombia: A U.S. federal judge last week sentenced a FARC commander to 27 years in prison for his role in the 2003 kidnapping of three U.S. citizens in Colombia.

Video Source – MLB via YouTube (Oscar Taveras followed his first rookie season in the majors by going 3-for-7 in the postseason including hitting a game-tying home run in the National League Championship Series).

Online Sources – SI.com; Bloomberg; NDTV; LAHT

Daily Headlines: September 10, 2014

* Guatemala: The Guatemalan Constitutional Court recently suspended the “Monsanto Law,” which would have forced farmers to obtain permission from firms like Monsanto, DuPont or Bayer in order to grow certain crops.

* Chile: President Michelle Bachelet announced a series of legal reforms including strengthening a Pinochet-era anti-terrorism law in response to a bombing in Santiago, Chile on Monday.

* Peru: Four indigenous environmental activists were murdered in a remote area of Peru allegedly at the hands of illegal loggers.

* Haiti: At least twenty-three people died and thirty-two were injured when a bus fell into a ravine in southern Haiti yesterday.

Video Source – teleSUR English via YouTube

Online Sources –VOXXI; Fox News Latino; The Latin Americanist; Voice of America; Reuters

Daily Headlines: August 19, 2014

* Mexico: Environmental officials filed a criminal complaint against a company responsible for spilling ten million gallons of acids from a copper mine into two rivers.

* Uruguay: “I say to all the fans: don’t worry, I won’t do that again,” said Luis Suarez as he pledged not to repeat actions such as his infamous biting of an opponent at this year’s World Cup.

* Argentina: A Vatican spokesman said that Pope Francis was “deeply pained” over the deaths of three of the pontiff’s relatives in a car crash in Argentina.

* Colombia: A group of victims of Colombia’s armed conflict met with government representatives and FARC guerrilla envoys, and gave their full support to peace talks being held in Cuba.

Video Source – AFP via YouTube

Online Sources – ABC News; The Guardian; The Latin Americanist; Al Jazeera; GlobalPost

Brazil: Presidential Hopeful Dies in Plane Crash

Eduardo Campos, a former Brazilian governor and candidate looking to unseat President Dilma Rousseff in October’s election, died today in a plane crash.

The plane Campos had been traveling in reportedly crashed in bad weather as it prepared to land in Sao Paulo state.  According to local authorities, all seven people aboard the Cessna 560XL aircraft passed away including Campos and “several campaign officials”.

“I was getting ready to open the school when I heard a loud noise of a jet approaching,” said eyewitness Vinicius Lopes.  “Then the plane hit the building.  It looked like a war scene.”

Donizete Maguila, Jr., another eyewitness who was returning back from work in the port city of Santos where the accident occurred, recalled when he found the corpse of Campos.

“I saw his clear eyes and tried to clean his face.  At the time I couldn’t believe…I saw the candidate,” he said.

The Recife-born Campos served as a federal legislator on three occasions and was the Science and Technology Minister under then-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.  With the support of Lula, Campos won election as Governor of Pernambuco and held that post for two terms.  In his seven years as governor, Campos oversaw a drop in the rates of violence, improvements in education standards and pushing for major infrastructure projects.  Yet it was Pernambuco’s strong economic growth that has been his main political strong point against Rousseff who has been criticized for Brazil’s shaky economy.

Recent polls placed the centrist hopeful from the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) in a distant third place behind the leftist Rousseff and moderate conservative candidate Aecio Neves.  Yet Campos could’ve played a key role in a potential Rousseff-Neves runoff by providing an official endorsement and support to one of the two frontrunners. (Neves said he was “immensely saddened” by news of the crash while Rousseff announced that she would suspend campaigning for the next three days).

Daily Headlines: July 25, 2014

* Mexico: Thousands of peasants and indigenous Mexicans marched in a protest against energy reforms that critics claim would lead to greater economic inequality and environmental damage to farmland.

* Central America: “If we don’t talk about the underlying causes, crises will continue to occur,” said Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina who proposed a greater emphasis on combating the drug trade and boosting economic growth in order to stem the influx of Central American migrants to the U.S.

* Colombia: A U.S. appeals court dismissed all lawsuits against Chiquita that were related to the deaths of Colombian banana plantation workers and activists by right-wing paramilitaries hired by the company.

* Cuba: Mariela Castro, the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro and a prominent gay rights activist on the island, denied rumors that she died in a plane crash yesterday in Mali.

Video Source – CCTV America via YouTube

Online Sources – LAHT; Businessweek; Reuters; CBS News

Daily Headlines: July 7, 2014

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales is expected to sign into law a bill that would legalize child labor for kids as young as ten-years-old even though it may be against international treaties Bolivia has agreed to.

* Argentina: Some Argentine victims of sexual abuse by priests are “pained” that Pope Francis will meet with six European victims of abuse but not with any from his country of birth.

* Cuba: A Cuban opposition group claimed that nearly one thousand arrests were made “for political reasons” on the island in June including weekly detentions of Guillermo Fariñas and “physical aggression” against the Ladies in White.

* Honduras: Officials believe that the odds of survival for eight miners trapped in a collapse gold mine in Honduras are slim and “only a miracle would let us rescue them alive.”

Video Source – Vice News via YouTube

Online Sources – NBC News; Huffington Post; GlobalPost; SBS

Brazil: Deadly Overpass Collapse in Belo Horizonte

At least two fatalities have resulted from the collapse of an overpass in Belo Horizonte, a Brazilian city that has hosted several World Cup matches:

Images have shown the front of a yellow bus trapped beneath the motorway while local fire department officials claimed that there is at least one person stuck inside a vehicle pinned down underneath the structure.  Nineteen people are said to be injured due to the incident that occurred on Thursday afternoon.

"When I saw the overpass falling down, I feared the worst would happen, that the bridge would turn on top of our bus," said Renata Soares, a passenger allegedly sitting at the back of the yellow bus, to Brazilian TV. 

“The ground shook violently. I heard a very loud bang,” noted Daniel Magalhaes, another eyewitness to the accident. 

According to the Brazilian press, one of the deceased is said to be twenty-five-year-old Hana Cristina Santos who was the driver of the partially crushed bus.  Her ex-husband claimed that their five-year-old daughter was riding on the bus but escaped death and is being treated in a local hospital.

Colombia: Twitter Twit Nearly Lynched

In 2007, the term “¿Por qué no te callas?” (“Why don’t you shut up?”) entered the Spanish-language lexicon when King Juan Carlos of Spain ordered then-Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to be quiet during a summit.  The saying could be applied to a Colombian man who could be imprisoned for his Twitter comments on a recent tragedy that claimed the lives of thirty-two children returning from a church event.

In light of Saturday’s deadly bus fire in the town of Fundación, Jorge Alejandro Pérez made remarks via his Twitter account that at best can be described as a failed attempt at dark humor and at worse the heartless ramblings of a sociopath.

“With the high price of gasoline and for it to be wasted on 32 costeñitos? That’s stupid,” said the law school student. (Costeñitos refers to residents in Colombia’s coastal communities).

Pérez mentioned, “Lets gather funds and buy a gallon of gasoline to get rid of the costeños” along with the hashtag #MePrendoComoNiñoEnBus (roughly translated as #ICatchOnFireLikeAChildOnABus).

He also referred to the death of a homeless Bogota man nicknamed “Calidoso” who was attacked and set ablaze by unknown assailants earlier this month.

“The 32 kids went to feed Calidoso…and they ended up burning in hell,” Pérez said.

The reaction from social media included criticizing his remarks along with the hashtag #RepudioContraJorgeAlejandroPerez (#RepudiationAgainstJorgeAlejandroPerez). Pérez was quickly identified since his Twitter account didn’t mention his name but did include his photo.  As a result, several hundred people Wednesday night gathered at the campus where he goes to school with the reported intent of lynching him.  A police SWAT team prevented that from happening and he was escorted to a local precinct for the rest of the evening. A police spokesman claimed that he had left his home city of Ibague but did not specify exactly where.

“I recognize that I made a mistake and I offended all Colombians with my thoughtless comments,” said Pérez in a letter purportedly written by him.  In an interview with local TV, he also asked “the Colombian people and the residents of Fundación to forgive him.”

It’s unknown if he’ll return to Ibague to his family’s residence that has been under police protection due to online threats to burn it down.  What is certain, however, is that he won't be returning to the university where he studied since administrators on Wednesday announced that he will be expelled.

Daily Headlines: May 20, 2014

* Mexico: Scientists will reportedly attempt to extract the skeletal remains of a girl who died around 13,000 years ago in Mexico and whose discovery has strengthened “the long-held theory that humans arrived in the Americas by way of a land bridge from Asia”.

* Latin America: The Israeli government approved a foreign aid package "to strengthen its economic ties with at least five Latin American countries," and days after Palestine Authority president Mahmoud Abbas signed an oil deal with Venezuela.

* Cuba: Ex-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, former NATO commander Admiral James Stavridis and several former senior State Department officials were among the over forty signatories to an open letter using the White House to drop the trade embargo on Cuba.

* Colombia: “We couldn't do anything but hold our heads and watch the children burn,” said one of the eyewitnesses of a tragic bus fire that claimed the lives of at least 33 minors in northern Colombia.

Video Source –YouTube user NewsyScience

Online Sources – CBC News; BBC News; The Jerusalem Post; Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Miami Herald

Daily Headlines: April 14, 2014

* Chile: More than 10,000 people were evacuated and at least eleven were killed after a massive fire destroyed hundreds of residences in the port city of Valparaiso.
 
* Dominican Republic: A recent report found that “arbitrary” interpretations of a controversial 2013 Dominican high court ruling has led to increased discrimination against children of Haitian background trying to attend school.
 
* Argentina: In the latest chapter of the diplomatic tug-of-war over the Falkland Islands, Argentina’s government blasted Britain for holding military exercises at the disputed archipelago.
 
* Mexico: Thirty-six people died as a result of bus that crashed into a truck yesterday on a highway in Veracruz state.
 
Video Source– ITN via YouTube (The major fire that hit Valparaiso occurred nearly two weeks after an 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the northern coast of Chile.)

Online Sources – Voice of America; Reuters; Prensa Latina; The Latin Americanist; The Washington Post

Daily Headlines: March 3, 2014

* Brazil: In the latest black eye to preparations for the upcoming soccer World Cup, pieces of metal fell from the roof of the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte.

* Bolivia: At least four people died and sixty were injured when a footbridge collapsed during a Carnival parade in the Bolivian city of Oruro.

* Guatemala: Residents near Guatemala’s Pacaya volcano could soon be evacuated after the volcano shot plumes of hot ash and vapor over two miles high.

* Puerto Rico: Several dozen teachers protested at Puerto Rico's largest mall against pension changes that they claim would “impoverish educators.”

Video Source – YouTube user tvbrasil

Online Sources- The Guardian; CBC News; Washington Post; Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: October 14, 2013

* Brazil: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said that her government is creating a secure email system “to prevent possible espionage” such as actions allegedly committed by the U.S. and Canada. 

* Peru: At least fifty-one people died in the southeastern Cusco region of Peru when a bus plunged off a cliff.

* Venezuela: The seizure of a “U.S.-chartered oil exploration ship” has lead to increased tensions between the neighboring countries of Venezuela and Guyana.

* Colombia: As the latest round of peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC guerillas came to a close, the rebels launched a female-oriented website.

Video Source – YouTube via user CBCTheNational (“Allegations Canada has been spying on Brazil's mining and energy industry have many wondering what Canada would be after.”)

Online Sources- CNN; france24.com; The Latin Americanist; boston.com; BBC News

Daily Headlines: October 7, 2013 (Updated)

* Argentina: Doctors for Argentine President Cristina Fernandez have ordered her to take a month off after she was diagnosed with a brain hematoma.

Update: According to the Favaloro Foundation clinic in Buenos Aires where Fernandez is being treated, the sixty-year-old will undergo an emergency surgery on Tuesday to remove an accumulation of blood in her skull. 

* Latin America: At least eight people died in Mexico when a monster truck lost control and careened into the stands while about nineteen people died in a bus crash in Peru.

* Guatemala: A U.S. court last week found ex-Guatemalan solider Jorge Sosa guilty of lying on his citizenship application regarding the role he played in the Dos Erres massacre of 1982.

* Cuba: A study from rights group Freedom House concluded that Cuba “has long ranked as one of the world’s most repressive environments for information and communication technologies.”

Video Source – YouTube via user BBCWorldNewsWatch

Online Sources including Update - The Guardian; Miami Herald; Huffington Post; GlobalPost; 3News NZ, Businessweek

Daily Headlines: September 10, 2013

* Peru: A new study found that illegal mining operations in Peru have led to the toxic poisoning of indigenous communities and a “very serious public health crisis”.

* Guatemala: At least 43 people died in a bus accident that took place roughly two days after eleven people were killed in a series of gang-related attacks.

* Ecuador: Ecuador’s first satellite has officially become a piece of space junk after it was hit by a Russian rocket about a month after it was launched.

* Venezuela: Amnesty International blasted the Venezuelan government’s decision to withdraw from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as putting “future generations of Venezuelans at risk.”

Video Source – YouTube via PBS NewsHour

Online Sources- The Guardian; Time; Al Jazeera English; GlobalPost; Mercopress

Latin Americans Among Dead in Spanish Train Disaster

At least four people from three Latin American countries were among the dozens of fatalities from Spain’s worst transportation accident in decades.

The Colombian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Thursday that two nationals from that country were among the passengers of a high-speed train that derailed on a curve Wednesday night in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia.

The name of one of the deceased has yet to be published while her family gets contacted but the other Colombian fatality was reportedly identified as Sara Camila Vélez Fuenmayor. 

The 36-yer-old was allegedly riding on the train in order to pick up her eleven-year-old daughter who was vacationing with her Spanish-born father.  Vélez Fuenmayor, who had dual Colombian and Spanish citizenship, worked as a gym instructor and her own jewelry-making business.  She had been residing in Madrid for the past fifteen years and was also a mother to a three-year-old boy.

Yolanda Delfín Ortega of Mexico was also mentioned on Thursday as one of the deceased. The university student majored in law at the Universidad Anáhuac of Xalapa in her native Veracruz but had traveled to Spain as part of an academic exchange program.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy admitted, “It’s a major challenge to identify the people who have died.” Yet forensic experts were able to positively identify Delfín Ortega based on photographs published on the Internet by her family and boyfriend.  (Some of these images can be seen in the video at the top of this post).

“She sent me a message on Facebook saying that she was about to arrive at Santiago de Compostela and that we would get in touch once she got home,” Delfín Ortega’s boyfriend, Luis Ledesma said in a radio interview before her body was identified.

Thousands of messages of support have been sent to Ledesma and Delfín Ortega’s family via the social media hashtag #YolandaDelfínOrtega.  Among those expressing condolences to her family was Veracruz state governor Javier Duarte who also expressed his “solidarity” with the Spanish people.

Daily Headlines: June 27, 2013

* Latin America: More than 100,000 people participated in a march calling for educational reform in Chile, while ongoing street protests continued yesterday in several Brazilian cities.

* Peru: Prosecutors have reportedly revealed a scheme alleging that $240,000 in illicit payments were made to then-President Alan Garcia's administration in exchange for the pardoning of imprisoned drug traffickers.

* U.S.: A new State Department report concluded that Iranian influence in Latin America is declining due to several factors including “a strong sanctions policy, and Iran’s poor management of its foreign relations.”

* Dominican Republic: With a fatality rate of 41.7 per hundred thousand people, the World Health Organization found that the Dominican Republic is the world’s worst country for drivers.

Video Source – YouTube via user NTDTV

Online Sources- The Guardian; GlobalPost; Peru this Week; Bloomberg; Fox News Latino