"Vota por Kennedy" Revisted

Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.  Thus, we're posting once again the following video from 1960 of Jackie Kennedy urging Latino voters to support her husband in his bid for the White House.   

This ad along with the work of Viva Kennedy clubs may have pushed the then-senator to victory in a very close presidential election.

On November 21, 1963 President Kennedy and the First Lady attended a League of United Latin American Citizens dinner in Houston reportedly "to show their appreciation for the Mexican-American votes that had helped the young president carry Texas in the 1960 election."  Much like in the above video, Jackie spoke briefly in Spanish to express her joy at attending the dinner.

Less than twenty-four hours later, the thirty-fifth U.S. president was killed by his wife's side in Dallas.

Daily Headlines: June 11, 2013 (Updated)

* Costa Rica: Police have yet to identify any suspects in the murder of Costa Rican conservationist Jairo Mora Sandoval who was killed two weeks ago while protecting turtle nests.

* Latin America: Tourists from Latin America are among those who most visited the U.S. in 2012, while Mexico is using the recent visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to promote tourism from China.

* Venezuela: Authorities arrested nine alleged Colombian paramilitaries accused them of purportedly plotting to assassinate Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

(Update: Leading opposition figure Henrique Capriles responded to the news of the alleged thwarted plot by accusing the government of "putting up a smokescreen" to hide Venezuela's economic and political problems. [Link is in Spanish].)   

* U.S.: The family of Oswaldo Payá, a Cuban dissident who died in a 2012 auto accident, have gone into exile in Miami but will reportedly not seek political asylum.

Video Source – YouTube via user El Periódico cr (Vigils were held throughout Costa Rica last week calling for justice in the death of conservationist Jairo Mora Sandoval).
 
Online Sources including update- Tico Times; Los Angeles Times; Miami Herald; Fox News Latino; RTT News; Terra USA

Daily Headlines: May 23, 2012

* Colombia: Is there a link between the deactivated bomb in a Buenos Aires theater where ex-Colombian leader Alvaro Uribe was supposed to lecture and the failed assassination attempt last week against former interior minister Fernando Londoño?

* Honduras: A new national police chief was sworn in to replace Ricardo Ramirez del Cid who left the post amidst controversy over the murder of journalist Alfredo Villatoro.

* Peru: Fisheries Minister Gladys Triveno claimed that “natural causes,” not oil exploration, led to the deaths of hundreds of dolphins off the Peruvian coastline.

* Guatemala: A judge added a second genocide charge against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt due to his supposed role in 1982’s Dos Erres massacre.

Video Source – YouTube via TVPublicaArgentina

Online Sources- Los Angeles Times, BBC News, Fox News, Huffington Post, Deutsche Welle

World Watch: The Artist

* China: Wang Shu won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in recognition of his designs including “modernist high-rise apartment buildings to a university library that appears to float on the water.”

* Syria: The E.U. placed new sanctions against the Syrian government and central bank, while dissident activists claimed that 135 people were killed across the country today.

* Russia: Authorities uncovered an alleged assassination plot against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin though opposition politicians claimed that it may be a false diversion to distract from mass protests.

* South Korea: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un blasted joint U.S.-South Korea military drills in the region and claimed that his country would be “ready to fight a war with them.”

Video Source– YouTube via Ecodialogue

Online Sources – CBC News, BusinessWeek, Voice of America, CNN, UPI

World Watch: Deadline

* Libya: Rebels gave besieged leader Muammar Gaddafi a deadline of the Saturday to "peacefully surrender."

* Asia: The Food and Agriculture Organization warned of a possible resurgence of the H5N1 avian flu virus in several Asian nations.

* South Africa: Police in Johannesburg clashed with backers of Julius Malema, the head of the African National Congress' youth wing.

* India: A court ordered the postponement of the execution of three people convicted of participating in the 1991 assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Image Source - AP via MSNBC ("Libyan rebel fighters prepare to patrol the village of Heisha on Tuesday.")
Online Source - BBC News, Al Jazeera English, Sydney Morning Herald, CNN

Daily Headlines: July 28, 2011

* U.S.: A Pew Research Center analysis of Census data concluded that the wealth gap between whites and people of color is at its widest point in about 25 years.

* Haiti: Authorities are reportedly searching for a man accused of attacking President Michel Martelly over the weekend.

* Colombia: Ex-Agriculture Minister Andres Felipe Arias was jailed as part of a corruption case where subsidies aimed at helping the poor were instead diverted to wealthy firms.

* Mexico: Police in Ciudad Juarez accused federal officers of firing on them during a prison riot that ended with seventeen people dead.

Image – CSMonitor.com (“A group undergoes computer training on July 12 at STRIVE, a program in Harlem, New York, designed to prepare the unemployed for new jobs. A new study has found that blacks and Hispanics have lost a greater share of their net worth compared to whites in recent years as a result of the troubled economy.”)
Online Sources- Orange County Register, IOL News, Voice of America, BBC News

Chilean assassin gets assassinated

Author Elbert Hubbard allegedly once said “men are not punished for their sins, but by them.” That was certainly the case with assassinated assassin Enrique Arancibia Clavel.

Police in Buenos Aires found the corpse of Arancibia Clavel with at least fifteen stab wounds throughout his lifeless body. Argentine national news agency Telam cited “several sources” that claimed that his death was not recent in part because the blood around his wounds was dry.

At the time of his death, Arancibia Clavel ran a local taxi service but he was also a former Chilean secret agent punished of the murders of Carlos Prats and his wife. Prats, who served as the head of the Chilean army under President Salvador Allende, was killed in a 1974 car bombing while exiled in Argentina. His death came roughly thirteen months since Allende was depose in a coup by Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

In 2004, Arancibia Clavel was sentenced to twelve years in prison over the Prats incident though he had been on conditional release since 2007. The 66-year-old was also convicted that year of torturing a pair of Chilean refugees who fled the Pinochet dictatorship.

At the time of Arancibia Clavel’s conviction in 2000, Prats’ daughters failed in seeking the extradition of the now-deceased Pinochet to Argentina. Last month they filed a $15 million dollar lawsuit against the Chilean government as well as former Pinochet-era spy chief Manuel Contreras who was sentenced last year for his role in the Prats car bombing.

Prats’ family has publicly declined to comment on Arancibia Clavel death aside from stating that they were “impacted” by his murder. Though Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter noted that Arancibia Clavel committed a "shocking crime" he also said that he was "moved" by his death.

One Chilean victims’ rights leader, meanwhile, lamented that he died without serving time in a Chilean prison:

(Lorena Pizarro, president of the Families of the Disappeared group) said that what most impacted her was that Arancibia Clavel “died in impunity” and that “governments…have been negligent and permitted impunity, which is very serious.”

Image- EFE via Pagina 12 (Arancibia Clavel enjoyed conditional freedom despite his dual convictions.”)
Online Sources- Europa Press, El Tiempo, BBC News, ntn24news.com, Terra Chile, La Tercera, quotegarden.com

Daily Headlines: July 1, 2010

* Venezuela: PDVSA officials claimed that several small oil leaks that caused a tar-like slick in Lake Maracaibo are “under control.”

* Mexico: The brother of recently assassinated politico Rodolfo Torre was selected by the PRI to run for Tamaulipas governor.

* Dominican Republic: According to a USAID study Dominican farmers use thousands of highly toxic pesticides that make the food they grow unfit for export.

* Latin America: A leading congressional Democrat- Rep. Steny Hoyer- urged the Obama administration to push for free trade deals with Panama and Colombia.

Image – Businessworld
Online Sources- Reuters, Dominican Today, BusinessWeek, The Latin Americanist, AFP

Jaime Bayly in Hugo Chavez’ crosshairs?

Imagine if Keith Olbermann were running for president and he accused the Mossad of conspiring to assassinate him. Such is the case in Peru where political commentator and possible candidate Jaime Bayly made such a claim on Monday.

In an article in Perú 21 the columnist said that he hired bodyguards and rides in a bulletproof car after he received “precise” information from the “head of Colombia’s secret police.” And who is the mastermind of the alleged complot? One of his favorite targets of criticism:

“The plan will be executed if your candidacy become more popular in the polls except that it will be delayed so that it seems like you were killed by Peruvian terrorists instead of orders from Caracas…(Venezuelan president Hugo) Chavez will not allow you to win the elections,” said the informant to Bayly. – [ed. Translated text].

Dead or alive Bayly will have his work cut out for him in next year's presidential elections. One of the favorites to win is the daughter of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori, Keiko, who claimed that she would grant her dad a presidential pardon if elected.

Image- El Mundo
Online Sources- Americas Quarterly, Peru 21, El Tiempo

World Watch: Why did Mehmet do it?

* Turkey: Mehmet Ali Agca- the man who shot Pope John Paul II in a failed 1981 assassination attempt- was released from prison earlier today.

* Ukraine: Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich won Sunday’s presidential election but will have to face Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a February runoff.

* North Korea: The government said it would refuse to return to stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations until international sanctions are lifted.

* Afghanistan: Taliban gunmen and suicide bombers assaulted Kabul in what one news source described as “the worst attack on the city in nearly a year.”

Image – Guardian UK (“Mehmet Ali Agca waits in a military hospital in Ankara. Photograph: Reuters.”)
Online Sources- Guardian UK, AHN, BBC News, Reuters

Daily Headlines: January 11, 2010

Note: Over the weekend I returned from a family vacation to Colombia and I’m eager to resume regular blogging. Many thanks to my fellow contributors for their help during my three-week absence but also in the past few months. This blog would’ve been much worse off without their efforts. Also thanks to all of you who I hope will keep reading this blog as we strive to report and inform every day. We hope to keep moving forward in 2010!

* Cuba: Promising Cuban pitching prospect Aroldis Chapman has reportedly signed a multimillion-dollar contract with the Cincinnati Reds.

* Honduras: Is there really a Venezuelan-led plot to assassinate interim leader Roberto Micheletti or has he been hallucinating?

* Puerto Rico: Over 2000 public employees received an unwanted Three Kings Day gift from Gov. Luis Fortuño – they were laid off from their posts.

* Paraguay: President Fernando Lugo is recovering in hospital after undergoing prostate surgery on Friday.

Image – CBC
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, UPI, Xinhua, ABC News, CNN

Daily Headlines: May 6, 2009

* Bolivia: Despite denying being involved in a failed assassination plot against President Evo Morales, the government has implicated several key Bolivian opposition figures.

* U.S.: A woman appointed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to a local commission resigned after making ridiculously disparaging remarks about Mexico and the swine flu outbreak.

* Cuba: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus is expected to soon introduce a bill designed to boost U.S. farm exports to Cuba.

* Venezuela: Seventeen people, mostly Venezuelan troops, were killed when a military helicopter crashed near the border with Colombia.

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- WNYC, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, CBS News

Bolivian Opposition Deny Involvement in Murder Plot

Guest contributor Lauren Conover looks at the latest development in the alleged plot to kill Evo Morales.

The opposition in Bolivia has come forward to declare that they were not involved in any way with the foiled attempt to assassinate the President, Evo Morales. Last week three people where shot by Bolivian police in Santa Cruz after they were suspected of trying to kill President Morales. "We deplore the tendentious attitude of government authorities in trying to link Santa Cruz leaders with these acts of violence," said Santa Cruz Gov. Ruben Costas. He continued by saying that government's attempt to attribute the events to the opposition was merely a "show".

One of the men that was killed in the shootout was Irish. The Irish government has now become involved, sending an official from its embassy in Argentina to La Paz. The Irish Foreign Minister quoted as stating, ""The Irish government has a legitimate right to seek the facts of how one of its citizens came to be killed by the security forces of another state, particularly where prima facie evidence is sufficient to raise questions in relation to the description of events released by the Bolivian authorities."

Image- CNN
Online Sources- Reuters, BBC News, Time, The Latin Americanist

Police thwart plot to kill Evo Morales

Bolivian police were involved in a dawn shootout against a gang planning to murder president Evo Morales.

Morales- who is in Venezuela for a summit of the ALBA trade bloc- said that he ordered today’s raid after intelligence reports warned of the plans against him and other senior officials. Morales added that two people were arrested and that three foreign members of the gang were killed.

Bolivia’s police chief would later add that two Hungarians were among those who were gunned down while Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera said that Irish, Croatians, and Bolivians were part of the gang.

Bolivia has gone through several bouts of violence between supporters and detractors of Morales. It should be no coincidence that today’s operation took place in the opposition stronghold of Santa Cruz where one of Morales’ opponents expressed his doubts:

Santa Cruz Governor Ruben Costas, in remarks on La Paz- based Radio Fides, said the operation was a “show” staged by the government so it can eventually blame him and other members of the opposition for threats against Morales.

Image- AFP (“Alvaro Garcia Linera (L) and Evo Morales.”)
Online Sources- BBC News, CNN, Bloomberg, UPI, The Latin Americanist, Reuters

Drug gangs behind Guinea-Bissau assassination?

The assassinations of Guinea-Bissau’s President Joao Bernardo Vieira and his Army chief have highlighted the importance of West Africa to the global drug trade. (The drug “highway” runs from South America and the Caribbean to Western Africa and then into Europe and Russia).

Experts consider the former Portuguese colony as Africa’s first “narco-state” under the late Vieira's rule. "It’s an easy country to actually be active if you're mafia, an organized crime lord", said a senior official with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime to BBC News. The power vacuum in Guinea-Bissau may bring more instability to the country, while nations in the area like Senegal, Sierra Leone and Guinea face potential collapse.

Vieira was gunned down by mutinous soldiers hours after his rival- military commander Gen. Batista Tagme Na Waie- died from a bomb attack. But were Latin American drug gangs the brains behind the dual murders? An article in csmonitor.com brings up that possibility:

In recent years, Colombian drug cartels have begun flying small planes across the Atlantic, landing on tiny islands dotting the Guinean coastline. Since Guinea-Bissau has no navy to patrol its waters, the cartels were free to unload tons of cocaine destined for Europe. The drugs were then distributed to impoverished African migrants, who would carry the drugs north by boat to the shores of France, Italy, and Spain…

"This recent set of killings can be explained [as] the action of the drug traffickers, who would not allow anything to get in the way or to obstruct their links with Europe," says David Zounmenou, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Tshwane, formerly known as Pretoria.

Vieira's killing comes days after authorities arrested the son of Guinea’s late president and accused him of drug trafficking.

Image- CBC (“President Joao Bernardo Vieira of Guinea-Bissau, shown here in 2006, died early Monday morning. (Thierry Charlier/Associated Press).”)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Yéle Haiti, Voice of America, Times Online, The Telegraph, BBC News, csmonitor.com

Bolivia’s Morales target of assassination plot

Bolivian president Evo Morales was the target of an assassination plot according to one of the country’s top officials.

In a press conference this morning, Government Minister Alfredo Rada, Bolivian intelligence was told that members of the “extreme right” masterminded the plot. Rada added that a “peasant or common person” was paid to be the hitman during one of Morales’ trips to Bolivia’s rural regions.

The supposed plot was publicly unveiled on Sunday by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez:

Chavez said the Bolivian president called and told him that authorities in the Andean country had uncovered the plot.

The Venezuelan leader said during a radio broadcast that he wouldn't go into details — leaving that to Bolivian officials — but he said he told Morales to "be careful."

Despite voters choosing to keep Morales in a recall vote in August, deep political divisions in Bolivia have led to several violent uprisings.

Image- PRESS TV
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, AP

Today’s Video: Ha ha ha! He’s dead!

Is there such a thing as bad satire? Are some topics a little too sensitive to make fun of? Can some humor go too far?

Take the following video from 1990s British TV show “TV Offal”; does it make you laugh, cringe, or (in my case) both?

(Video link, possibly NSFW):



Sources- Wikipedia, YouTube