Daily Headlines: September 7, 2016

* Chile: A Chilean Senate panel approved a controversial proposal to relax a total ban on abortion and allow it under certain cases including when the pregnancy is caused by rape.

* Brazil: Much like his predecessor, interim President Michel Temer faces his own corruption scandal that could taint his rule less than a week after taking office.

* Latin America: While World Cup 2018 qualifiers were held through the Americas, the bigger news may be that FIFA president Gianni Infantino would be open to a possible joint United States-Mexico bid for the 2026 version of the tournament.

* El Salvador: the Nicaraguan government conceded asylum to former Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes who is under investigation in his home country for purportedly not declaring $700,000 of his personal income.

YouTube Source – PBS NewsHour (The 2013 rape and impregnation of an eleven-year-old girl in Chile helped reopen the debate on abortion, which is illegal under all circumstances in that country.)

Online Sources – Deutsche Welle, Reuters, teleSUR English, Vanguard, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: August 30, 2016

* Brazil: A defiant suspended President Dilma Rousseff defended herself during a marathon session of Brazil’s Senate but it may not be enough to prevent her from being ousted as soon as later today.

* Puerto Rico: Monica Puig made made history this month by earning Puerto Rico’s first ever gold medal but the tennis star was shockingly eliminated in the first round of the U.S. Open.

* United States: A federal appeals court upheld an order denying asylum to twenty-eight immigrant mothers and their children who claimed they would face danger if deported to their Latin American countries of origin.

* Mexico: Federal police chief Enrique Galindo was fired from his post over denunciations against officers accused of the extrajudicial killings of twenty-two suspected drug gang members last year.

YouTube Source – euronews (“Brazil's suspended President Dilma Rousseff has accused her critics of using trumped charges against her to trample on the country's democracy.”)

Online Sources – Daily Telegraph, ABC News, Reuters, USA TODAY

Daily Headlines: July 13, 2016

* Paraguay: A Paraguayan court sentenced eleven farmers to a maximum of thirty years in prison for the deaths of policemen during land rights protests that were the catalyst for the ouster of ex-President Fernando Lugo.

* Ecuador: Human rights groups criticized the Ecaudoran government’s decision last week to deport 75 Cuban migrants arrested for protesting outside the Mexican embassy in Quito.

* Puerto Rico: Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla of Puerto Rico warned that the commonwealth still faces major fiscal challenges despite the recent approval of a law providing relief to the $70 billion public debt.

* Latin America: Officials from Mexico and the United States agreed on a plan to improve access to asylum for Central American migrants seeking to escape rampant violence and economic hardship in their respective countries.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English (From March 2014: “Thousands of Paraguayan farmers have gathered outside the country's Congress in Asuncion to vent their frustration at (then) President Horacio Cartes, who they say has failed to deliver on land reform promises.”)
 
Online Sources – BBC News, ABC News, Reuters, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: May 27, 2016

* Mexico: While questions continue in the official investigation of the 43 Ayotzinapa college students missing since September 2014, one of the survivors of the attack against his classmates has sought political asylum in the U.S.

* El Salvador: The Salvadoran legislature approved issuing $152 million in bonds in order to finance proposals to combat rampant gang violence.

* Brazil: Police are searching for at least thirty suspects behind the gang rape of a sixteen-year-old girl in Rio de Janeiro that was recorded and uploaded on Twitter.

* Panama: The Panamanian Supreme Court urged the federal government to seek the extradition of ex-President Ricardo Martinelli from the U.S.

YouTube Source – AJ+ (Video uploaded in September 2015.  Yesterday marked twenty months since the 43 Ayotzinapa students have disappeared and may have been murdered).
 
Online Sources – The Atlantic, Vice News, euronews, CBC, Reuters

Daily Headlines: October 21, 2014

* U.S.: Iconic Dominican-born fashion designer Oscar de la Renta died at the age of 82 reportedly due to cancer.

* Panama: Panamanian Supreme Court judge Alejandro Moncada was arrested and charged with money laundering and illicit enrichment.

* Argentina: An Argentine human rights group claimed that refugee status was given to a gay Russian man violently targeted due to his sexual orientation.

* Bolivia: Bolivia’s top electoral tribunal ratified President Evo Morales' victory in the presidential polls and gave the green light for him to rule for a third straight term.

Video Source – Associated Press via YouTube

Online Sources – JURIST; Variety; Zee News; Reuters

Daily Headlines: June 3, 2014

* Mexico: Representatives of numerous Latin American governments including Mexico’s foreign secretary praised King Juan Carlos I of Spain who announced yesterday that he will abdicated his throne.

* Cuba: Could the exchange of a U.S. soldier held captive in Afghanistan for five Guantanamo detainees serve as a precedent for a possible swap of a U.S. civilian jailed in Havana for three imprisoned Cuban spies?

* Peru: Peru’s government postponed a planned coca eradication program that would’ve been partially funded by the U.S.

* Brazil: The Foreign Minister of Brazil rejected U.S. intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden’s claims that he has formally sought asylum in the South American country.

Video Source – Associated Press via YouTube

Online Sources – USA TODAY; Time.com; LAHT; ABC News; Xinhua

Daily Headlines: August 19, 2013

* Brazil: The Brazilian government criticized as “unjustifiable” the nine-hour detention in Britain of the partner of a journalist who received leaks from ex-U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

* Latin America: The Venezuelan opposition criticized a legislator who used a homophobic slur against ex-presidential candidate Henrique Capriles while human rights groups denounced dozens of recent attacks against gays in Haiti.

* U.S.: According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security the number of “credible fear” asylum requests from migrants along the southwest border with Mexico has more than doubled over the past three years.

* Cuba: The attorney for Alan Gross, a U.S. contractor jailed in Cuba after bringing banned communications equipment to the island, said that his client recently received his first visit by U.S. doctors.

Video Source – YouTube via user BBCWorldNews225
 
Online Sources- Defend Haiti; Fox News Latino; Reuters; CNN

Daily Headlines: July 1, 2013 (Updated)

* Ecuador: President Rafael Correa of Ecuador said yesterday that the fate of U.S. intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden is up to Russia to decide even though Snowden has requested asylum in the South American country.

Update: In an interview with The Guardian on Monday, Correa claimed that Ecuador is not considering Snowden's asylum request unless he were to travel directly to that country.  Correa also admitted that "it was a mistake on our part" to grant the former intel contractor a temporary travel pass that he used to move from Hong Kong to Russia.  

* Chile: Ex-leader Michelle Bachelet easily won Chile’s presidential primary among center-left candidates and is the favorite to win the general election in November.

* Argentina: Prosecutors will open an investigation against former Interior Minister Carlos Vladimir Corach regarding the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people.

* Latin America: The summit of the Petrocaribe trade bloc ended last week with representatives of the 19 member states agreeing to create a special economic zone.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews (Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa mentioned on Saturday that he had a “cordial” telephone conversation with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden regarding the Edward Snowden affair).

Online Sources including Update - The Guardian; Reuters; Washington Post; The Guardian; Jerusalem Post

Ecuador Considering Asylum for Whistleblower Edward Snowden

Will Edward Snowden, the former U.S. intelligence analyst who revealed information over programs to collect telephone and Internet data, make his way to Ecuador and receive asylum?  That could be the case according to senior Ecuadorian officials.

Yesterday Minister of Foreign Affairs Ricardo Patiño mentioned in his Twitter account that Snowden did solicit a request for asylum in Ecuador. Patiño subsequently read Snowden’s appeal for asylum “due to the risk of persecution by the government of the United States and its agents.”

“There are some governments that act more upon their own interests, but we do not," Patiño
said at a Monday morning press conference. "We act upon our principles… We take care of the human rights of the people,” he added in remarks made to reporters in Vietnam.

Patiño’s remarks were followed up by President Rafael Correa who tweeted, “Be assured that we will responsibly look into the Snowden case and we will take with absolute sovereignty the most adequate decision.”

The sheltering of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London for the past twelve months and the possible asylum to Snowden has divided residents of Quito.

“I'm opposed to asylum because the government is always politicizing human rights," said architect Bolivar Lupera, to Reuters while graphic designer Rodolfo Guaman observed, "I'm in agreement because the United States has spied on underdeveloped nations, and this gentleman should not be condemned."

Meanwhile, Wikileaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson defended press freedoms in Ecuador during a “heated exchange” with an Australian journalist:

Daily Headlines: June 20, 2013

* Puerto Rico: The San José Church in Old San Juan was included on a National Trust for Historic Preservation of the most endangered historic places in the U.S.

* Ecuador: Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino claimed that the Ecuadorian government would consider granting asylum to U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden.

* Argentina: Soccer superstar Lio Messi and his father have been reportedly charged with roughly $5.4 million in tax fraud by a Spanish judge today.

* Cuba: According to the State Department the U.S. and Cuba agreed to restart migration talks that have been stalled since 2011.

Video Source – YouTube via user preservationnation
 
Online Sources- Bernama; Reuters; USA Today

Daily Headlines: December 6, 2012

* Cuba: The Cuban foreign ministry rejected U.S. government allegations over the deteriorating health of imprisoned contractor Alan Gross.

* Latin America: Is Syrian President Bashar Assad planning on seeking political asylum in Latin America?

* Guatemala: Wanted software company founder John McAfee was arrested in Guatemala and could be deported to Belize.

* Haiti: The Haitian government introduced a comprehensive plan to overhaul the country’s adoption system.

Video Source – YouTube via user JewishNewsOne

Online Sources- UPI, Huffington Post, CBS News, CNN

Daily Headlines: December 5, 2012

* Brazil: At least sixty-one police officers were arrested in Rio de Janeiro state and accused of taking bribes from drug traffickers in exchange for turning a blind eye to illicit activity.

* Latin America: Venezuela and Haiti are tied as the most corrupt countries in Latin America and the Caribbean according to an analysis by Transparency International.

* Argentina: Attorneys for Spanish oil firm Repsol filed a lawsuit in a U.S. federal court against Chevron regarding that company’s dealings with Argentina's YPF.

* Guatemala: A lawyer for software company founder John McAfee said that his client will seek political asylum in Guatemala despite being wanted on murder charges in the U.S.

Video Source – YouTube via user tvbrasil

Online Sources- CNN, Reuters, Transparency International, Sydney Morning Herald

Asylum Granted to Guatemalan Massacre Survivor

A survivor of one of the worst massacres in Guatemalan history was reportedly granted political asylum in the U.S. 

According to the lawyer for 33-year-old Oscar Ramirez Castañeda, his client won his asylum request after proving that he was one of only two known survivors of the infamous Dos Erres massacre. 

"Oscar is very, very grateful to get asylum, which means he can remain in the United States with his wife and their four children," Scott Greathead said to Reuters yesterday. "And if he hadn't gotten it, his prospects would have been very, very dangerous in Guatemala because he is so implicated in these cases against members of the Guatemalan military”.

Castañeda was only three-years-old in 1982 when a Guatemalan special forces unit searching for rebels murdered 250 villagers.  He was subsequently kidnapped and raised by an army lieutenant, and he’s currently a restaurant manager in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Castañeda’s mother and eight siblings were among the victims of the incident that occurred in the midst of Guatemala’s decades-long civil war.  His father, who for many years believed that his son had perished, reunited with Castañeda after DNA tests proved that they were related.

While Castañeda received excellent news regarding his immigration status the same cannot be said for one of the suspected perpetrators of the Dos Erres massacre.

Daily Headlines: July 20, 2012

* South America: Brazil's oil regulator confirmed that Chevron will have to pay a $24.7 million fine for an offshore oil leak last November, while Chevron will invest an additional $2 billion in a joint venture with Venezuela’s PDVSA.

* U.S.: A U.S. immigration judge granted asylum to a woman who fled her native Guatemala in 2004 after she was “brutally beaten and raped by her common law husband.”

* Argentina: One of the worst droughts to hit the U.S. in recent history could benefit Argentine grain farmers.

* Mexico: The head of the Mexico's National Institute of Indian Languages warned that sixty-four indigenous dialects could soon “die out.”

Video Source – YouTube via Associated Press (Video from November 2011).

Online Sources- Reuters, San Jose Mercury News, Busninessweek, GlobalPost

Daily Headlines: June 27, 2012

* Ecuador: “Thousands of people asking the Ecuadorian government to accord asylum to Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, sent a steady stream of messages saying why they support him,” according to a public statement.

* Bolivia: The government announced that it reached a deal with striking police officers after a week of protests throughout Bolivia.

* Cuba: A U.S. judge issued a temporary injunction against a new Florida law that would ban companies from getting government contracts if they also do business in Cuba or Syria.

* Latin America: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao ended a tour of Latin America by proposing to set up a $10 billion credit line to the region for infrastructural projects.

Video Source – YouTube via Voice of America

Online Sources- The Australian, CBS News, Reuters

World Watch: Chen’s Destiny

* China: U.S. and Chinese officials are reportedly close to reaching a deal that would grant political asylum to escaped Chinese legal activist Chen Guangcheng.

* Burma: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the easing of sanctions against the government while opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said her party will agree to swear the parliamentary oath this week.

* U.S.: According to a new study published online in Nature Neuroscience, the way in which the brain is wired may explain why some people engage in risk-taking behavior such as smoking or experimenting with drugs.

* France: With days to go before the country’s presidential election, President Nicolas Sarkozy said that he will sue a news website that claimed that he received accepted a multi-million euro campaign donation from late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Video Source– YouTube via Associated Press

Online Sources – New York Daily News, Voice of America, The Telegraph, CBS News

Daily Headlines: April 30, 2012

* Dominican Republic: Will the May 20th presidential election be decided by the over 220,000 registered Dominican voters living in the U.S.?

* Cuba: "Una Noche" actors Javier Nuñez Florian and Anailin de la Rua de la Torre reappeared publicly on Friday and told the press in Miami that they would seek political asylum in the U.S.

* Venezuela: The state-run oil companies of Venezuela and China are linking in order to build an oil refinery in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

* Argentina: According to Google, Argentina’s main antitrust agency has opened an investigation into “certain business practices” by the tech giant.

Video Source – YouTube via DaniloMedinaPLD (Official campaign ad for presidential candidate and poll frontrunner Danilo Medina.)

Online Sources- Huffington Post, The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, BBC News, MSNBC

Daily Headlines: February 9, 2012

* Argentina: Legendary Argentine rock musician Luis Alberto Spinetta died at the age of 62 after months of battling lung cancer.

* Venezuela: Possible rivals to president Hugo Chavez wrap up their campaigns ahead of this Sunday’s opposition primary.

* Ecuador: Emilio Palacio, the former El Universo newspaper editor facing prison after losing a libel case against the Ecuadorian president, has sought asylum in the U.S.

* U.S.: An estimated 12.2 million Latinos are expected to vote in this November’s general election according to the Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.

Video Source – YouTube via ghanderhva

Online Sources- Buenos Aires Herald, AS/COA Online, USA TODAY, Boston.com

Daily Headlines: June 22, 2011

* Mexico: Authorities reportedly captured the suspected head of the La Familia drug gang though it remains to be seen if it will have a major impact in a country where an estimated 40,000 Mexicans sought political asylum abroad between 2006 and 2010.

* Argentina: President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner said that she would stand for reelection this October and a recent poll found that she would easily win.

* Central America: The presidents of El Salvador and Mexico agreed to better protect the thousands of undocumented Central American migrants that travel through Mexico.

* U.S.: A pair of Cuban-American senators are not too pleased with the White House’s pick for U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua.

* Bolivia: According to Customs officials at least 76,000 cars stolen or smuggled from countries bordering Bolivia have been presented for legalization as part of a government-backed amnesty program.

* Haiti: In what might be a sign of Haiti’s political divisions the country’s legislature rejected President Michel Martelly's nominee for prime minister.

Image – PRESS TV (“Mexico's 'La Familia cartel boss' Jose de Jesus Mendez Vargas.”)
Online Sources- People’s Daily Online, Mercopress, The Globe and Mail, MiamiHerald.com, The Guardian, CNN, El Universal

Mexican journo seeks asylum in U.S.

A report issued last month by Reporters Without Borders (PWB) concluded that Mexico was one of the world’s most dangerous countries for the press. The “extreme violence” related to illegal drug trafficking has had a “major impact on reporting” in Mexico according to PWB. Indeed, 2010 was a very difficult year for the Mexican press with at least seven journalists slain and one study concluded that regional newspapers altered their coverage in order to avoid retribution.

Some members of the media have been unable to put up with the pressures of constant violence and death threats against them and have sought refuge elsewhere. Such is the case with former Mexican journalist Emilio Gutierrez Soto whose asylum hearing at a U.S. federal court was scheduled for today. He sought asylum since he crossed the border in 2008, a situation that led him to be detained for seven months at a federal immigration center. Gutierrez claimed that he fled with his 15-year-old son after receiving multiple death threats over his reporting on corruption in the Mexican military.

Gutierrez will supposedly have several witnesses in his favor during his asylum hearing including members of the Committee to Protect Journalists and Center for Public Integrity. They will try to strengthen his claims that he faces a credible threat and his life would be in danger if forced to return to Mexico.

As reported in the Texas Tribune, Gutierrez’ case represents “the most difficult route taken by asylum seekers, the defensive process, defined by the government as a request “as a defense against removal from the U.S.” Nonetheless, he hopes to have the same fate as Jorge Luis Aguirre, the former editor of a Ciudad Juarez daily who received asylum last September.

Should Gutierrez receive asylum or be deported to Mexico? Is U.S. immigration policy unfairly stacked against asylum seekers? If Gutierrez wins his case could this lead to an increase in asylum seekers amongst members of the press? These are questions worth pondering while we feature the following video from National Geographic on Gutierrez and his ordeal:

Video Source - YouTube
Online Sources- Reporters Without Borders via BBC News, The Texas Tribune, MSNBC, KTSM, The Latin Americanist, Reuters