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 1, 2016

* Poland: Pope Francis spent several days in Poland that included a visit to the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz and also declaring Panama as the site of the next World Youth Day.

* Puerto Rico: Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla signed into a law a proposal allowing municipalities to share administrative services in order to cut costs at the heavily indebted commonwealth.

* Nicaragua: Nicaraguan electoral officials unseated twenty-eight opposition members of the federal legislature in a move critics view as consolidating the power of President Daniel Ortega.

* Cuba: JetBlue could become the first air carrier to regular schedule commercial flights to Cuba but the move first requires permission from the island’s government.

YouTube Source – France 24 English 
 
Online Sources – Refinery29, NPR, Vatican Radio, Business Insider, Yahoo7 News

Daily Headlines: July 26, 2016

* Brazil: Amid the plethora of negative news on the upcoming Rio Olympics there’s a small glimmer of hope –Brazil’s economy could emerge from a deep recession by the end of this year.

* Mexico: In light of free trade becoming a hot topic in the U.S. presidential race, Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu suggested “modernizing and updating” the North American Free Trade Agreement.

* Latin America: LATAM Airlines, Latin America’s largest air carrier, was fined some $22 million over “violating accounting laws connected to a scheme to bribe Argentine union officials.”

* Argentina: Ex-Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner claimed to be unafraid of going to jail over allegations of corruption and compared her situation to that of suspended Brazilian leader Dilma Rousseff.

* Ecuador: As part of the latest legal tug-of-war between Ecuador and Chevron, the South American country’s central bank paid $112 million as part of an arbitration ruling favoring the U.S. oil firm.

* Chile: The Chilean Supreme Court last week unanimously lengthened the prison sentences against two former military officers convicted in the 1973 deaths of documentary filmmaker Charles Horman and university student Frank Teruggi.

YouTube Source – CCTV News (Brazil’s economy entered its fifth straight quarter at a loss at the beginning of 2016, but could emerge from its crippling recession by the end of this year).

Online Sources – Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, MarketWatch, Reuters, USA TODAY, Al Jazeera English
 

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 26, 2016

* Cuba: The U.S. government announced today new measures to relax regulations against Cuba that include facilitating exports and expanding opportunities to travel to the island.

* Puerto Rico: More Puerto Ricans are reportedly opting to migrate to the Dominican Republic than vice versa in order to flee from the commonwealth’s dire economic state.

* Colombia: In a rare unanimous vote, the U.N. Security Council approved creating a mission of observers to monitor a peace deal between the Colombian government and FARC that may be reached by March 23rd.

* El Salvador: Should El Salvador relax its complete ban on abortion in light of the spreading Zika virus affecting pregnant women and newborn babies?

YouTube Source – Boom Bust

Online Sources – Salon, Bloomberg, CBS News, GlobalPost, CNN

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: September 16, 2015

* Mexico: Mexican foreign minister Claudia Ruiz Massieu traveled to Egypt and met with nationals injured in a deadly military strike against a tourist group, and is expected to later talk with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

* U.S.: U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders claimed that a political action committee backing rival hopeful Hillary Clinton has tried to link him to the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

* Chile: An estimated 70,000 passengers were affected by a 24-hour airport workers strike that grounded hundreds of domestic and international flights.

* Uruguay: The Uruguayan economy shrank for the first time since 2003 though it’s unknown if the country will fall into recession like trading partner Brazil.

YouTube Source – AFP

Online Sources – The Idaho Statesman, Christian Science Monitor, ABC Online, Bloomberg

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: July 29, 2014

* Brazil: “I don't think it's genocide, but I think it's a massacre,” said Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff regarding the conflict in Gaza and days after an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman deemed the South American country as a “diplomatic dwarf.”

* Dominican Republic: Dominican authorities destroyed some 2000 confiscated firearms for use as part of a planned peace memorial.

* Venezuela: Representatives of the International Air Transport Association want to meet with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in order to free up over $4 billion owed to several air carriers.

* Uruguay: A Uruguayan church reportedly dismissed Fr. Carlos Urrutigoity, an Argentine priest who has been accused of sexually abusing young men in the U.S.

Video Source – Reuters via YouTube (Argentine-born “Pope Francis makes an impromptu emotional plea for peace, during his weekly Sunday Angelus prayer at the Vatican.”)

Online Sources – Miami Herald; The Washington Post; ABC News; Reuters; GlobalPost

Daily Headlines: July 8, 2014

* Nicaragua: The Nicaraguan government and officials with Hong Kong-based HKND Group revealed details of a $40 billion, 173 mile interoceanic canal project that might rival the expanded Panama Canal.

* Venezuela: Delta Airlines became the latest air carrier to significantly reduce flights to and from Venezuela as part of a dispute over the grossly overvalued Venezuelan currency.

* Brazil: Some ticket packages for the World Cup semifinal and final matches have been blocked amid an investigation into the possible illegal reselling of tickets on the black market.

* Latin America: At least five people died after a 6.9 magnitude quake struck on Monday in the Mexican southern border area near Guatemala.

Video Source – El Nuevo Diario via YouTube

Online Sources – Fox News Latino; USA TODAY; Bloomberg; El Universal; euronews

Latin American Anger Over Bolivian Plane Diversion (Updated)

A diplomatic crisis is apparently developing between several Latin American and European states after a plane carrying Bolivian president Evo Morales made an unexpected layover in Austria.

Morales was returning to his homeland yesterday after attending a conference in Russia but according to Bolivian officials Spain, Italy, Portugal and France prohibited the presidential plane from flying through their respective airspaces. 

"We are told that there were some unfounded suspicions that (U.S. intelligence whistleblower Edward) Snowden was on the plane," Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said.

The aircraft was then forced to make an emergency landing in Vienna where it was refueled but also inspected by Austrian authorities.  After approximately thirteen hours the plane was permitted to depart and it’s currently en route back to Bolivia. 

“I feel that this was an excuse to frighten and intimidate me,” said Morales to the press before leaving Austria.

Bolivian Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra Soto claimed that the U.S. State Department spread the rumor that the former contractor was smuggled onto the Bolivian aircraft.  “It’s a rumor completely based on a lie,” said Saavedra before he and the rest of the Bolivian contingent left Austria. 

Sacha Llorenti, Bolivia’s Ambassador to the U.N., said that his country while a file a complaint with the organization’s human rights body regarding what he deemed as a “diplomatic kidnapping”.

“We have no doubt that it was an order from the White House... For no reason whatsoever should a diplomatic plane with a president [inside] be diverted from its route and forced to land in another country,” he said earlier today.

Peruvians Improvise Runway Lights to Help Sick Patients

There is an old adage that says, “Necessity is the mother of invention.”  That was certainly the case on Tuesday night in in the Peruvian jungle region.

A 31-year-old woman at the medical clinic in Contamana was going through complications while giving birth while another patient was suffering with symptoms of leptospirosis.  They desperately required medical care at a better-equipped hospital and arrangements were hastily made to fly them out to in nearby Pucalipa. Yet the lone runway at Contamana’s airfield did not have any lighting.  

Faced with the need to transport the infirm patients, a local radio station urged residents to help.  Thirty minutes approximately 300 mototaxis and bikers converged at the airfield and created an impromptu lighting arrangement along the sides of the runway.  As a result of their last-minute heroism, a small plane carrying the three patients was able to take off from Contamana and safely travel to Pucalipa.

As seen in the video below, Melita Murrieta and her newborn baby have been recovering satisfactorily at the Pucalipa hospital:

Reports: Mexican Officials Identify Remains of Jenni Rivera

Authorities in Mexico are said to have positively identified the remains of Mexican-American musician Jenni Rivera.

According to CNN, a spokesman for the Nuevo Laredo state government claimed that Rivera’s remains were handed over to her family.  In addition, positive nitrifications were supposedly made of Rivera's publicist and co-pilot of the charter plane that crashed in the early hours of Sunday.

The Associated Press, meanwhile, reported that Nuevo Leon state security spokesman Jorge Domene said that Rivera’s remains were identified but that DNA tests are still pending.

Rivera’s brother, fellow singer Lupillo Rivera, Tweeted today a picture of a red urn that will supposedly hold Jenni’s ashes.

Mexican transportation officials said that the investigation into the plane accident that killed Rivera and six others is ongoing.  Nevertheless, they detailed that the private jet went into a very sharp dive minutes after taking off from Monterrey. The plane plummeted nose-first and 28,000 feet in thirty seconds, which left the wreckage strewn across a mountainside.

The crash has raised questions about the safety of the 1969 Learjet 25 that Rivera was allegedly interested in purchasing.  The aircraft had failed a takeoff attempt seven years ago that caused one wing to weigh more than another.  The plane’s owner, Christian Eduardo Esquino Nunez, has a criminal record that included a 2005 conviction for falsifying plane maintenance records.

Today’s Video: In Limbo

Last month we looked at a pair of Cuban actors who defected during a layover in Miami and after they starred in a film on immigrating to the U.S. In the latest case of life imitating art, a man has been stuck in a Venezuelan airport similar to the protagonist played by Tom Hanks in “The Terminal.”

Members of the Argentine rock band Los Pericos found a Sri Lankan man who claimed to have been living in Maiquetia International Airport for the past four months. As seen in the following video via the YouTube page of Los Pericos, the man has been unable to return to his homeland due to Sri Lanka’s armed conflict and he has been unable to receive a visa from Venezuelan authorities:

Daily Headlines: April 4, 2012

* Peru: The federal government approved a new law aimed at improving consultation with indigenous communities before the development of mining and oil projects.

* Brazil: A Brazilian federal prosecutor launched a second multibillion-dollar lawsuit against Chevron and Transocean regarding a recent offshore oil leak.

* Guatemala: Police captured Horst Walter Overdick, an suspected drug trafficker accused of working as the Guatemala contact for Mexico’s Zetas drug gang.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan foreign ministry rejected an E.U. safety ban on state-run airline Conviasa.

Image Source – Flickr via destacadoshuancayo (Peruvian indigenous dancers). (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources- Reuters, LAHT, BBC News

Daily Headlines: March 2, 2012

* Guatemala: A court ruled that former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt is not exempt from prosecution on charges of genocide related to his time in power thirty years ago.

* Haiti: Days after rallying on the anniversary of the 2004 coup against ex-president Jean Bertrand Aristide, one of his key supporters said that more anti-government protests will be held next week.

* Argentina: President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner rejected calling for the nationalization of Argentina’s biggest energy firm, which is owned by Spain’s Repsol.

* Brazil: Air accidents in Brazil increased by over forty percent last year according to new figures published by the air force.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews (Video from last January showed ex-Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt in court facing genocide charges).

Online Sources- CNBC.com, Bloomberg, MSNBC, CNN, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: November 3, 2011

* Colombia: Ex-Soviet military officer Viktor Bout faces life in prison after being convicted in a U.S. court for attempting to smuggle weapons to Colombia’s FARC guerillas.

* Cuba: Authorities detained dissident Guillermo Farinas on Wednesday while he was trying to visit a hospitalized political activist.

* Mexico: Is there really a “dispute” among members of the Anonymous hackers group over possibly revealing personal information of alleged Zetas drug gang collaborators?

* South America: The planned merger between Chilean airline LAN with Brazil’s TAM will supposedly be completed early next year.

Video Source – YouTube via Associated Press

Online Sources - MercoPress, The Telegraph, Fox News Latino, Huffington Post

World Watch: Swatting malaria away

* World: According to a report supported by the World Health Organization the number of malaria cases worldwide continue to decrease and could reach near-zero deaths by the end of 2015.

* Egypt: The ruling military council will widen a state of emergency days after a group of protesters attacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo.

* U.S.: President Barack Obama continued pushing for a jobs plan that will soon be presented to Congress.

* Russia: Alexander Galimov, the last surviving member of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv team that died in a plane cash last week, succumbed to his injuries and passed away today.

Image – The Guardian

Online Sources- Reuters, Los Angeles Times, AFP

Daily Headlines: September 5, 2011

* Chile: Two days of national mourning were declared in honor of twenty-one people that are beloved to have died after an air force plane crashed off near the remote Juan Fernandez islands.

* Haiti: Five Uruguayan U.N. peacekeepers were recalled from Haiti over allegations that troops sexually assaulted an eighteen-year-old man.

* Cuba: President Raul Castro is among the thousands of Cubans paying tribute to Defense Minister Julio Casas who died on Saturday at the age of 75.

* Latin America: A “sharp decline” in Peruvian silver mining this year has allowed Mexico to overtake the Andean country to become the world’s top silver producer.

Image – Reuters via BBC News (The Chilean navy search for bodies and aircraft wreckage near the Juan Fernandez Islands. Among those still missing from Saturday's accident is popular television host Felipe Camiroaga.)

Online Sources- Xinhua, The Guardian, MarketWatch, UPI

Daily Headlines: June 10, 2011

* Guatemala: Authorities arrested former police chief Hector Bol de la Cruz who is accused of masterminding the kidnapping and disappearance of a “student union leader” during the Guatemalan civil war.

* Chile: Four imprisoned Mapuche activists protesting Chile’s controversial dictatorship-era, “anti-terrorism” ended their 86-day hunger strike on Thursday.

* Colombia: President Juan Manuel Santos is expected to sign a landmark victims' law days after rights leader Ana Fabricia Cordoba was murdered.

* South America: Over 100 flights throughout Latin America were cancelled as a result of a massive ash cloud from the eruption of Chile’s Puyehue volcano.

Image – AP via BBC News (“More than 200,000 people were killed or disappeared during the Guatemala's 1960-1996 civil war, most at the hands of the security forces.”)
Online Sources- MSNBC, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, Globe and Mail