Daily Headlines: October 6, 2016

* Argentina: “We have 40 years of love to give you," said the brother of the 121st person positively identified by the Abuelas de la Plaza de Mayo as having been stolen and illegally adopted during the “Dirty War” era of military rule in Argentina.

* Caribbean: At least sixty-nine people died in the Caribbean and authorities once again postponed Haiti’s presidential election as a result of Hurricane Matthew.

* Chile: The Chilean government announced an overhaul of the country’s Sename child services system following reports of 865 minors dying over the past eleven years in network shelters.

* Brazil: The International Monetary Fund indicated that Brazil’s recession may be worse than expected based on economic indicators such as declining industrial activity and a rising unemployment rate.

YouTube Source – CCTV America (Video uploaded in October 2014).
 
Online Sources – teleSUR English, Reuters, Fox News Latino, CNN Money

Daily Headlines: September 30, 2016

* Brazil: Children's rights groups urged the International Olympic Committee to compensate minors who they claim were victims of police violence during the Rio Olympics and the security crackdown prior to the games held in August.

* Cuba: The campaign of United States (US) presidential candidate Donald Trump is under fire over alleged secret and illicit business dealings with Cuba’s government in 1998, while the Cuban state media blasted “subversive” US-funded programs.

* United States: The OneOrlando Fund commenced distribution this week of donations to some of the families and survivors of the June 12th massacre during a Latino-themed night at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando.

* Venezuela: Representatives of thirty countries led by Paraguay at the Untied Nations Human Rights Council called for a “timely and effective dialogue” in Venezuela and advocated the freeing of all political prisoners.

YouTube Source – ITV News (Uploaded on August 2, 2016: “As battles between security forces and drugs gangs rage ahead of the Rio Olympics, innocent bystanders are getting caught in the crossfire.”)
 
Online Sources – BBC Sport, Newsweek, McClatchy, Latina, Reuters

Mexican Boy Blocks Anti-Gay Rights March

The actions of a child at a protest against gay rights and same sex marriage in Mexico over the weekend has reportedly become viral.

Foto de niño bloqueando protesta anti gay en Guanajuato, #México se vuelve viralhttps://t.co/ihZ8qwYc7f pic.twitter.com/TofksecuCQ

— Noticias Telemundo (@TelemundoNews) September 12, 2016

In the image, the boy stands alone in the middle of the street with his arms outstretched in front of the multitude of protesters. He seemingly halts the demonstration including the police escort ahead of it.

Nationwide marches organized by the Frente Nacional por la Familia organization were held last Saturday across Mexico including the city of Celaya in Guanajuato where local newspaper photographer Manuel Rodriguez took the photo.

The image was not placed online by the publication Rodriguez works for but instead by an online news site via their Facebook page. The snapshot included the caption “I was nauseous by the sight of so much homophobia but I’ll stick with the image of a boy 'stopping' the protesters.”

Since the photo became more widespread via social media, Rodriguez has been accused of doctoring the image for political purposes or career advancement. Both accusations have been steadfastly denied by the photog who explained to Buzzfeed Mexico how he was placed on an elevated pedestrian crossing when the child ran on to the street and the image was taken.

Daily Headlines: June 30, 2016

* Guatemala: An estimated 2.8 million people have been affected by a drought in Guatemala including 900,000 at risk of malnutrition and requiring prompt assistance.

* Mexico: The leaders of the U.S., Canada and Mexico unveiled a plan to boost clean energy throughout North America and also pledged to strengthen economic ties in the region.

* Chile: Officials implemented a new law aimed at lowering Chile’s high child obesity rate by banning ads targeting minors under the age of 14 and prohibiting selling food with a toy prize.

* U.S.: The judge who controversially gave a lenient sentence to convicted rapist Brock Turner has been accused of racial bias for ordering a harsher punishment against a Latino defendant in a similar case of sexual assault.

YouTube Source – CCTV English
 
Online Sources – Al Jazeera, Voice of America, CBC, Fusion

Daily Headlines: June 9, 2016

* Brazil: Hundreds of pairs of underwear were laid on Copacabana beach last Monday as part of a protest calling attention to violence against women including the recent suspected gang rape of a sixteen-year-old girl.

* Panama: Shell companies purportedly used by the Cuban government to circumvent the U.S. trade embargo against the island join Argentina’s president and a Chilean anti-corruption activist as some of the entities mentioned in the “Panama Papers”.

* Haiti: U.S. and European Union officials are none too pleased with the decision to rerun Haiti’s disputed presidential elections twelve months after they were first held.

* Guatemala: A UNICEF study found poverty, sexual abuse and machismo have fueled a “shocking” amount of child sex trafficking in Guatemala.

YouTube Source – AFP

Online Sources – The Huffington Post, The Latin Americanist, Quartz, euronews, The Miami Herald

Daily Headlines: May 12, 2016

* Brazil: In a pair of speeches to the press and followers this morning in Brasilia, a suspended president Dilma Rousseff proclaimed her innocence amid the impeachment process against her and accused political rivals of plotting an illegal “coup”.

* Panama: The Panamanian government has tried to repair the country’s image in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal but fell short by being excluded from an anti-corruption summit hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

* Mexico: A new report claimed that natural disasters and increased violence has led to the internal displacement of some 100,000 people in Mexico last year.

* Haiti: Plans to donate 500 metric tons of peanuts from the U.S. to malnourished Haitian children has backfired and led to an avalanche of criticism from farmers and NGOs.

YouTube Source – CNN (“Brazil's embattled president says there is no reason for her impeachment because she has committed no crime.”)

Online Sources – BBC News, GlobalPost, Bloomberg, Washington Post, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: April 27, 2016

* Mexico: A few thousand people including some family members of 43 missing Ayotzinapa university students marched in Mexico City yesterday to question the government’s shaky investigation into the case.

* Peru: Peruvian officials will expand a law allowing the military to shoot down civilian planes suspected of drug smuggling to include boats and backpackers.

* Argentina: State-run YPF will export crude oil next month for the first time since 2013 as part of a plan to boost production amid low oil prices.

* U.S.: A new study concluded that the number of Latino children was undercounted in the last Census and this has caused a lack of federal funds to be destined to some communities in need.

YouTube Source – El Universal

Online Sources – Reuters, NBC News, Bloomberg, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: March 31, 2016

* Mexico: A new Human Rights Watch report concluded that Mexican immigration officials broke the law as part of their push to deport thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central American states ravaged by violence.

* Brazil: Brazil may be mired in a political crisis and ongoing recession but that hasn’t stopped the Bovespa stock index and national currency to improve by around 19% and 10% this year, respectively.

* Puerto Rico: A proposal by the House Natural Resources Committee to alleviate Puerto Rico’s nearly $70 billion dollar debt has allegedly been assailed by commonwealth politicians and officials.

* Ecuador: Will WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange end his asylum later this year at the Ecuadoran embassy in London where he has been protected since 2012?

YouTube Source – AFP (Video uploaded on June 26, 2015).

Online Sources – ABC Online, CNBC, The Latin Americanist, Vocie of America, NBC News

Progress Made in Americas Against Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV

Today marked the seventeenth annual observance of World AIDS Day, which raises awareness of the pandemic caused by the disease as well as remember those lost over the last few decades.
New data presented on Monday from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and World Health Organization (WHO) has shown that some progress is being made in Latin America and Caribbean to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS.

According to a joint PAHO/WHO study, seventeen counties and territories in the Americas have mostly eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. Among the nations credited in the report are Chile, Puerto Rico and Cuba, the last of which was certified by the WHO as the world's first country to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. (Sixteen other countries including Costa Rica and Uruguay are seeking this validation). New HIV infections in children have dropped by approximately 50% in Latin America and Caribbean as a result of efforts in the entities cited in the study.

The key to reducing transmission of HIV from mother to offspring has been more widespread prenatal check-ups of expectant moms. In 2010, 94% of women in the region received pre-natal care and only 54% were examined for HIV. Four years later, the former increased by 2% but the latter grew by a notable 21% so that three in four pregnant women are tested for HIV.

Latin American and Caribbean governments, civil society and health groups agreed last year on an ambitious “90-90-90” plan to eliminate AIDS in the region by 2030. Yet the PAHO/WHO report noted that approximately 2500 infants in Latin America and Caribbean contracted HIV in 2014. Furthermore, the organizations claims that roughly 30% of the estimated two million people in the region with HIV are unaware that they are infected. These obstacles must be overcome in order to fulfill the pledge made last year:

Daily Headlines: November 26, 2015

* Brazil: The Australian Senate has called on mining firm BHP Biliton to provide compensation for the Brazilian community devastated by a “toxic” mudslide earlier this month.

* Panama: Work on the already beleaguered Panama Canal expansion was delayed over calls for an independent inspection of leaks in some of the locks.

* U.S.: The number of unaccompanied and undocumented child migrants entering via the U.S.-Mexico border spiked last month though it remains to be seen if it reaches the levels seen in mid-2014.

* Venezuela: Venezuela’s opposition claimed that Democratic Action party member Luis Diaz was “assassinated by gunshot” roughly two-and-a-half weeks before legislative elections.

YouTube Source – Wall Street Journal
 
Online Sources – Sky News Australia, JOC.com, The Independent, The Guardian, Reuters

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: October 30, 2015

* Peru: President Ollanta Humala lifted a state of emergency order for regions in southern Peru affected last month by violent clashes between police and protesters opposed to a planned copper mine.

* Venezuela: The U.S. could push for more sanctions against Venezuelan officials despite President Nicolas Maduro’s threats of suing the Obama administration.

* Puerto Rico: Will Puerto Rico run out of money as early as this November and fall into default?

* Costa Rica: The Costa Rica government and children’s rights advocates are planning to expand an online marketing campaign aimed at discouraging child sex tourism.

YouTube Source – AFP (“Demonstrators gather in Lima (weeks ago) to protest against a big Chinese copper mining project in the provinces of Cotabambas and Grau.”)
 
Online Sources – Reuters, GlobalPost, La Prensa, Seeking Alpha, Tico Times

Daily Headlines: August 7, 2015

Note: The below video is Not Safe for Work.


* Guatemala: Five Guatemalan soldiers were detained and accused of abusing their authority and mistreatment of minors after a viral video showed them brutally assaulting two teens.

* U.S.: According to the Labor Department the Latino unemployment rate last month is 6.8%, which represents a 0.2% increase from June but is a 1.1% drop compared to July 2014.

* Puerto Rico: Two major investors in Puerto Rico, OppenheimerFunds and Franklin Advisors, called on the commonwealth to make all of a $58 million debt-service payment that was due on August 3rd.

* El Salvador: Authorities believe that gang members were behind the deaths of four people riding a bus near San Salvador.

YouTube Source – user Criptograma MX

Online Sources – SunHerald.com, Reuters, Labor Department, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: July 31, 2015

* El Salvador: Salvadoran authorities are doing too little to protect thousands of children under threat from gang violence according to “U.S.-based advocacy group” Refugees International.

* Mexico: A Mexican judge approved a request to extradite fugitive drug capo Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the U.S., while 80% of Mexicans in a recent poll doubted the official version of his July 11th escape from prison.

* Venezuela: Soldiers took over the warehouse complex of Venezuela’s largest food distributor, Empresas Polar, amid shortages of basic goods in grocery stores.

* Brazil: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff announced nearly $600 million in extra education spending cuts amid government attempts to turn around a lagging economy.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English (“The transportation strike enforced by street gangs in San Salvador and surrounding areas continues and has become more violent, with a 7th bus driver killed (on July 29th).”)

Online Sources – Houston Chronicle, Reuters, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: July 20, 2015

* Cuba: After fifty-four years the embassies of Cuba and the U.S. reopened in their respective countries and, hence, officially reestablished bilateral diplomatic relations.

* Colombia: On Colombian Independence Day the FARC commenced their latest unilateral ceasefire that could jump start troubled peace negotiations between the rebels and the government.

* U.S.: A report published last week found that immigration authorities did not properly document 93% of deported, unaccompanied migrant children from Canada and Mexico between 2009 and 2014.

* Brazil: Brazilian swimmer Thiago Pereira became the most decorated athlete in Pan American Games history after winning his 23rd medal in Toronto.

YouTube Source – Associated Press (“After fifty years of frosty relations the United States and Cuba restore full diplomatic relations Monday.”)

Online Sources – ABC News, The Guardian, Colombia Reports, Swimming World

Daily Headlines: June 25, 2015

* Argentina: Numerous commemorative events were held in Buenos Aires yesterday on the eightieth anniversary of the death of tango legend Carlos Gardel.

* Paraguay: Doctors in Paraguay allegedly plan to induce into labor a pregnant eleven-year-old girl raped by her stepfather and whose appeal for an abortion was denied by health officials.

* Chile: A late strike from Mauricio Isla was enough for host country Chile to eliminate defending titleholders Uruguay in the quarterfinals of the Copa America.

* Panama: Reactions among Panamanians were reportedly mixed following former strongman Manuel Noriega publicly asking forgiveness to those “offended, affected, injured or humiliated” during his rule.

YouTube Source – user fandegardel
 
Online Sources – The Guardian, Fox News Latino, BBC Sport, The Telegraph, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: June 15, 2015

* Dominican Republic: The Vatican officially indicted Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, the former papal nuncio for the Dominican Republic, on sexual child abuse charges and will stand trail starting in July.

* Brazil: In a bad sign for the Brazilian economy, car sales in the world's fourth-largest auto market is expected to fall by 18% this year.

* Venezuela: A study found that 27% of Venezuelans between 15 and 29-years-old are considering emigrating mainly due to the weakened economy and a perceived lack of opportunity.

* Mexico: “As the purpose of matrimony is not procreation, there is no justified reason that the matrimonial union be heterosexual, nor that it be stated as between only a man and only a woman,” according to a landmark Mexican Supreme Court decree issued earlier this month.

YouTube Source – euronews (Video uploaded in September 2014).

Online Sources – CNN, NBC News, Fox News Latino, UPI

Colombia to Investigate U.S. Military Sex Abuse Allegations

The Colombian government pledged on Tuesday to thoroughly investigate allegations into fifty-four suspected cases of child sex abuse by U.S. military personnel and defense contractors.

“We request through diplomatic channels and bilateral cooperation that U.S. authorities report on the progress of their investigation,” according to a statement from Jorge Armando Otalora of the Ombudsman’s office.  Otalora condemned the rumors that sex acts with minors was videotaped and distributed as pornography.

“Since child pornography is a transnational crime, there exists mechanisms to guarantee justice and prevent impunity regardless of the diplomat immunity of the accused,” emphasized Otalora.

While Otalora called on the prosecution of those behind the suspected abuse, the head of Colombia’s child welfare agency, Cristina Plazas, urged potential victims to come forward.

Furthermore, Plazas also suggested the establishment of special commissions in the Cundinamarca and Tolima provinces where the supposed abuse took place in order to “actively seek girls and teens that were victims of abuse at the hands of soldiers.”

A truth commission seeking details on the decades-long armed conflict in Colombia authorized the “Historic Commission of Conflict and its Victims” study. The section by Renan Vega, a history professor of the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional de Bogotá, describes the fifty-four cases of alleged abuse committed between 2003 and 2007 in a small part of the 809-page study.

“There is abundant evidence of sexual violence and total impunity, thanks to bilateral agreements and diplomatic immunity of U.S. officials…(It is) part of sexist and discriminatory behavior known as ‘sexual imperialism’ similar to what happens in other places where U.S. military forces are stationed,” wrote Vega.

Spokespeople for the U.S. military and defense contractors claimed that there is insufficient evidence to prove Vega’s claims, while an investigation by the Fusion television network concluded that his allegations were “unsubstantiated.” Yet evidence appears to exist of the 2007 case of a 12-year-old girl purportedly raped by a U.S. sergeant and defense contractor:

Daily Headlines: April 29, 2015

* Mexico: A Pew Research Center study found that increased deportations from Mexico and declining homicide rates in Central America could be behind the reported drop in unaccompanied child migrants entering the U.S. since last October.

* Venezuela: Vice President Jorge Arreaza announced that the workday for Venezuelan public employees would be shortened as part of a nationwide electricity-rationing plan.

* Ecuador: Ecuador could soon become the latest Latin American country to recognize same-sex civil unions.

* Panama: New research suggests that the isthmus of Panama was first formed twenty million years ago, not between three and four million years as scientists generally believe.

YouTube Source – Vox (Video uploaded in July 2014).

Online Sources – UPI, BBC News, teleSUR English, Pew Research Center

Daily Headlines: April 17, 2015

* Chile: Tens of thousands of university students marched in Chile yesterday to protest against growing corruption scandals and to call for stronger education reform.

* Brazil: Police in Rio de Janeiro evicted 100 squatters from a building that was supposed to be converted into a luxury hotel for the 2016 Olympics.

* Argentina: Argentine minister Daniel Filmus announced that the government started legal proceedings to prevent British firms from oil drilling near the disputed Falkland Islands.

* Mexico: Approximately 2.5 million children reportedly work in Mexico including nearly one out of every five farmworkers.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – Bloomberg, The Globe and Mail, Latin American Herald Tribune, BBC News