Daily Headlines: May 16, 2016

* Venezuela: A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that his country, which has given Venezuela about $50 billion in financing since 2007, views the South American state’s economic crisis as a domestic matter but did not specifically mention if more aid will be provided.

* Argentina: President Mauricio Macri may be seen as “business-friendly” but that hasn’t stopped him from siding with farmers in a dispute that could lead to Monsanto removing its biotech soybean seeds from Argentina.

* Colombia: The Colombian government and FARC took a big step towards a final, full peace deal after the rebels pledged to free all solders under the age of 15 years.

* Dominican Republic: Danilo Medina is expected to easily win a second straight term as president of the Dominican Republic following an election marred by problems with new technology at voting stations.

YouTube Source – euronews (“Opposition protesters have rallied in Caracas. Their calls to remove the Venezuelan president are taking on a more urgent tone.”)
 
Online Sources – New York Daily News, euronews, Buenos Aires Herald, ABC Online, Reuters

World Watch: Lubanga Behind Bars

* Congo: The International Criminal Court sentenced Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga to fourteen years in prison for recruiting child soldiers in his rebel army a decade ago.

* U.S.: A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that President Barack Obama has a six-point lead over likely Republican candidate Mitt Romney while both candidates are tied according to a separate Washington Post-ABC News poll.

* Syria: United Nations special envoy Kofi Annan is seeking global consensus on a peace plan aimed at ending widespread violence in Syria.

* Spain: The European Union backed a “soft bailout” of Spain that could include pushing for pension reform, cuts in public spending and a sales tax increase.

Video Source– YouTube via International Criminal Court

Online Sources – The Guardian, Voice of America, ABC News, Reuters, Christian Science Monitor

Daily Headlines: June 29, 2012 (Updated)

* Paraguay: The Mercosur bloc will allegedly suspend Paraguay over the controversial impeachment of President Fernando Lugo but will not push for economic sanctions.

Update: Mercosur did indeed temporarily suspend Paraguay until new presidential elections take place in April 2013.

The suspension thus allowed Venezuela to become a member of Mercosur since the Paraguayan legislature was the only opposition preventing Venezuela's membership.

* Ecuador: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said that he “almost certainly will not” leave the Ecuadorean embassy in London and surrender to local police.

* Venezuela: Rafael Ramirez, Venezuelan oil minister and president of state-run oil firm PDVSA, claimed that the company would start exploratory drilling off the Cuban coast.

* Colombia: Police commanders alleged that the FARC rebels use children as young as fourteen in order to detonate explosives.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources including Update- BBC News, Boston.com, euronews, LAHT, Reuters

Colombian rebels release hostage videos

In a developing story, Colombia’s FARC guerillas released video of nine hostages held against their will.

The three soldiers and six policemen were kidnapped between 1997 and 1999 by the rebels and little had been known of their condition until today. The information was presented at a news conference currently going on by the head of a local group representing the families of some of the hundreds of those kidnapped and held hostage deep in the Colombian jungle.

The videos of the nine hostages come on the heels of information recently released by the FARC of two other soldiers kidnapped in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Those videos (image) and today’s footage were publicized via opposition Sen. Piedad Cordoba who has previously worked to broker hostage releases by the FARC.

Speaking of the FARC, it’s worth checking out this article in the Huffington Post of a teen who had previously served as a guerilla. The eye-opening interview describes the horrors of war as well as how easily the now-19-year-old former rebel was recruited at the age of eight:

(…) The FARC banks on the fact that many children in the poor rural areas of Colombia dream of the security, adventure and thrill of being in a military force. Schooling is difficult for poor rural children (Maria had to walk three hours to get to school), and food, nurture and comfort hard to come by. Family abuse is also typical: Maria's own father had beat her.

"I wanted to be a guerilla," Maria told me smiling, her hair pulled back neatly in pink barrettes. "I dreamed of holding a gun. Then a FARC guerrilla came to recruit me, offering me an iPod, so I left my father and stepmother."

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, CNN, El Tiempo, Canal RCN, Huffington Post