Daily Headlines: February 10, 2016

* Brazil: Brazil’s annual inflation rate rose to 10.7% and, thus, climbed to its highest point in over twelve years.

* Dominican Republic: Much like Pulitzer Prize-wining author Junot Diaz, Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa has come under fire in the Dominican Republic for criticizing the controversial elimination of citizenship to tens of thousands of people with Haitian background.

* Haiti: The World Health Organization warned that at least 1.5 million Haitians could suffer from malnutrition caused by a drought made worse by El Niño.

* Cuba: Analysts believe the number of Cubans migrating to the U.S. is on the rise over worries that the "wet foot, dry foot" immigration policy could soon be scrapped.

YouTube Source – CCTV America
 
Online Sources – MercoPress, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, CNBC

Daily Headlines: February 2, 2016

* Dominican Republic: A group of U.S. rabbis who recently visited the Dominican Republic condemned the country’s immigration laws that left “stateless” tens of thousands of residents of Haitian background.

* Puerto Rico: Puerto Rican officials presented a restructuring plan that would cut its debt from $49.2 billion to $26.5 billion, while the debt issue will likely be discussed at a meeting scheduled today between President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

* Venezuela: Problems at Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA are to blame for Pastor Maldonado likely being out of Formula 1 racing.

* Brazil: Child labor in Brazil dropped by 43% over the past decade according to new government statistics.

YouTube Source – AFP (Video uploaded on November 2015).
 
Online Sources – Al Jazeera America, Bloomberg, Reuters, Autoweek

Daily Headlines: November 20, 2015

* Colombia: On the third anniversary of the start of peace talks, the Colombian government and the FARC rebels claimed that they are very close to signing off on a final agreement.

* Caribbean: Amnesty International accused the Dominican Republic of human rights violations by stripping the citizenship of tens of thousands of “stateless” residents with a Haitian background.

* Mexico: According to a Pew Research Center report, 149,000 more Mexicans departed from the U.S. between 2009 and 2014 than those entering the country.

* Venezuela: Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro said that he would review the already fractured relations with the U.S. over allegations of surveillance against PDVSA employees.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English
 
Online Sources – Business Standard, The Guardian, Pew Hispanic Center, UPI

Daily Headlines: June 17, 2015 (Updated)

* Caribbean: Hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the Dominican Republic could end up stateless and be the victims of mass deportations after midnight tonight.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan university students critical of the government have joined imprisoned political dissident Leopoldo Lopez on his four-week long hunger strike.

* U.S.: Comments made by Pope Francis in favor of preserving the environment and warning about climate change have been viewed unfavorably some U.S. presidential hopefuls.

* Chile: Chilean soccer star Arturo Vidal could miss the rest of the Copa America after police detained him last night for driving under the influence.  (Update: Vidal will not be removed from the Chilean squad according to team coach Jorge Sampaoli.)

YouTube Source – Deutsche Welle (Video uploaded in May 2014).
 
Online Sources – The Root, Reuters, The Huffington Post, Goal.com

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: February 5, 2015

* Mexico: Mexican priest Gregorio Lopez Geronimo protested outside of the White House yesterday in order to call attention to the case of forty-three students missing for more than four months.

* Dominican Republic: Activists denounced as a “failure” government efforts to naturalize tens of thousands of Dominican-born people of Haitian descent whose citizenship was stripped in a controversial 2013 court ruling.

* Venezuela: Ex-mayor Enzo Scarano was freed from prison nearly one year after he was convicted for allegedly inciting violence during anti-government protests.

* Panama: Will former President Ricardo Martinelli return to Panama where he’s accused of being a key figure in a growing corruption scandal?

Video Source – YouTube user teleSUR English (“Protests demanding the safe return of the 42 missing Ayotzinapa students were held in 20 US cities (last month) to coincide with the visit to Washington by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto”.)
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino; GlobalPost; El Universal; Stuff.co.nz

Daily Headlines: May 27, 2014

* Dominican Republic: The president of the Dominican Republic signed into law a proposal that would grant citizenship to children of immigrants including tens of thousands of residents of Haiti descent whose status was controversially put into limbo last year.

* Brazil: The Brazilian World Cup team was jeered at by protesters in Rio de Janeiro who were demonstrating against the billions of dollars in public funds that are being spent to prepare for the tournament.

* Mexico: Zapatista guerilla leader Subcomandante Marcos made his first public appearance in over five years to announce that he would step down from the mostly indigenous rebel group.

* Vatican: Argentine-born Pope Francis is back in the Vatican following a brief Middle Eastern trip where he invited Israeli and Palestinian leaders to a “meeting of prayer.”

Video Source – Deutsche Welle via YouTube (“A change to the Dominican Republic's constitution has revoked citizenship from hundreds of thousands of people. Many were born in the Dominican Republic to Haitian parents, and now find themselves stateless. The politics reflect a growing sense of xenophobia in the country.”)

Online Sources – GlobalPost; The Latin Americanist; Bloomberg; LAHT; Voice of America

Daily Headlines: April 14, 2014

* Chile: More than 10,000 people were evacuated and at least eleven were killed after a massive fire destroyed hundreds of residences in the port city of Valparaiso.
 
* Dominican Republic: A recent report found that “arbitrary” interpretations of a controversial 2013 Dominican high court ruling has led to increased discrimination against children of Haitian background trying to attend school.
 
* Argentina: In the latest chapter of the diplomatic tug-of-war over the Falkland Islands, Argentina’s government blasted Britain for holding military exercises at the disputed archipelago.
 
* Mexico: Thirty-six people died as a result of bus that crashed into a truck yesterday on a highway in Veracruz state.
 
Video Source– ITN via YouTube (The major fire that hit Valparaiso occurred nearly two weeks after an 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the northern coast of Chile.)

Online Sources – Voice of America; Reuters; Prensa Latina; The Latin Americanist; The Washington Post

Daily Headlines: February 13, 2014

* Mexico: Members of the media in the Mexican state of Veracruz decried the recent murder of journalist Gregorio Jiménez and expressed doubt that he was killed due to a personal vendetta.

* Haiti: The Haitian government has launched a new program aimed at providing documentation to expats including the tens of thousands whose citizenship was controversially stripped in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

* Honduras: A report from Human Rights Watch blasted Honduran authorities for failing to properly investigate the deaths of scores of people due to land disputes.

* Argentina: Reports of Buenos Aires officials ordering a cruise ship to lower down its British flag has become the latest point of tension in the diplomatic relations between the U.K. and Argentina.

Video Source – YouTube user CadenaTres

Online Sources- Global Voices Online; Washington Post; The Latin Americanist; Los Angeles Times; The Guardian

Daily Headlines: December 11, 2013

* Uruguay: Legislators in Uruguay approved a landmark proposal that would grant the government authority to regulate marijuana production and distribution.

* Dominican Republic: The Dominican government strongly criticized a report from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights opposing a recent court decision that could remove the citizenship of thousands of people.
  
* U.S.: The Spanish-language Obamacare/Affordable Care Act enrollment website commenced running this week after a two-month delay.

* Peru: Gastón Acurio, one of Peru’s best-known celebrity chefs, rejected the possibility that he will run for his country’s presidency in 2016.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources- The Guardian; ABC News; The Latin Americanist; Fox News Latino; Peru This Week

Daily Headlines: November 14, 2013

* Latin America: Uruguay and Mexico practically secured their spots in next year’s World Cup after routing their respective rivals in the first match of a two-leg playoff qualifying series.

* Dominican Republic: Nearly twenty prominent U.S. Latino civil rights groups signed an open letter to Dominican President Danilo Medina protesting the possible stripping of citizenship to tens of thousands of Dominicans.

* Paraguay: Paraguay is normalizing diplomatic relations with several of its South American neighbors nearly a year and a half after the controversial ouster of President Fernando Lugo.

* Brazil: Brazilian state-run firm Petrobras sold its Peruvian energy division to China’s CNPC for $2.6 billion.

Video Source – YouTube via user oneworldsportstv
 
Online Sources- Bloomberg; Huffington Post; The Latin Americanist; Mercopress; Reuters

Dominicans Rally For Controversial Court Ruling

Several hundred Dominicans rallied in support of a recent high court decision that would strip the citizenship of tens of thousands of individuals.

“Get out illegal Haitians,” “Them there and us here”, “We will not negotiate our sovereignty” where just some of the signs reportedly seen by the demonstrators who gathered in Santo Domingo’s Independence Park on Monday. 

Several speakers at the event, which was organized by a group calling themselves The National Sovereignty Defense Network, backed the Dominican government’s crackdown on undocumented Haitians. (For example, the organization called for the construction of a wall along the entire Dominican border with Haiti).

Emil Santana, one of the speakers at the rally, told the crowd that Haitian children have overrun schools in San Juan de la Maguana while residents in the town are allegedly without work due to migrants from the neighboring country.

Other presenters blasted the international response against the September 25th ruling by the Dominican Constitutional Court that voided automatic citizenship to the descendants of migrants who came to work in the country after 1929.

“The Dominican people will not accept that their rights will be squashed in order to resolve the Haitian problem”, declared legislator Pelegrín Castillo.

Meanwhile, journalist Consuelo Despradel blasted renowned Peruvian author and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa for recently comparing the ruling of the high court to the stripping of citizenship of Jews living in Nazi-era Germany.

While the rally took place in the Dominican capita city, a protest against the court’s decision was held in the southern Baoruco province.  Hundreds of demonstrators including members of at least twenty community groups participated in the march that rejected the tribunal’s “arbitrary” actions.

Daily Headlines: October 18, 2013

* Peru: Disgraced ex-President Alberto Fujimori was once again in court and could receive another eight years in prison on top of the 25-year sentence he’s currently serving for human rights abuses during his rule.

* Caribbean: The Caribbean Community gave its “regret” over a recent Dominican court decision that could eliminate the citizenship of thousands of citizens with a Haitian background.

* Chile: With roughly a month to go in Chile’s presidential election, former leader Michelle Bachelet leads the polls but may not be able to avoid a runoff.

* Mexico: Mexican officials admitted that they would likely miss a second deadline to certify hundreds of thousands of police nationwide.

Video Source – YouTube via Univision Noticias 

Online Sources- Los Angeles Times; Reuters; The Latin Americanist; Caribbean Journal; ninemsn

U.N. “Concerned” over Controversial Dominican Citizenship Ruling

The United Nations (UN) is “extremely concerned” over a recent Dominican court decision that could strip the citizenship of thousands of citizens with a Haitian background.

“We are extremely concerned that a ruling of the Dominican Republic Constitutional Court may deprive tens of thousands of people of nationality, virtually all of them of Haitian descent, and have a very negative impact on their other rights,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said on Monday.

Shamdasani added that last week’s court decision could lead to “disastrous” implications for people of Haitian descent residing in the Dominican Republic.  Among the potential consequences are leaving tens of thousands of people stateless and without access to basic services.

Meanwhile, U.N. resident commissioner Lorenzo Jimenez said yesterday that the UN will conduct an "exhaustive study" to see if the court’s ruling violates international agreements. He also mentioned that the findings of such a study would be presented several weeks from now.

The decision, which was handed down on September 25th, was based on Article 11 of the Dominican Constitution that was ratified in 2010 and exempts children of diplomats and people in transit from becoming citizens if they were born on Dominican soil.  The high court judges concluded that migrants who came to work in the Dominican Republic after 1929 were “in transit”; hence, voiding automatic citizenship to their descendants.

Haiti recalled its Ambassador to the Dominican Republic yesterday in response to the measure that could reignite diplomatic tensions between the countries that share the island of Hispaniola. 

The ruling could also lead to the mass deportations of some of the estimated 500,000 migrants born in Haiti now live in the Dominican Republic.  (Approximately 47,700 undocumented Haitian migrants were deported from the Dominican Republic between August 2012 and September 2013 as part of a government crackdown).

The possibility of becoming denationalized has worried some of the thousands of Dominicans citizens with a Haitian background:

Today’s Video: Civics Smarts

A recent study found that over one-third of U.S.-born respondents would fail the civics section of the citizenship exam.

Even though 97% of immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship pass the test, 75% of those surveyed didn't know what the judicial branch did and 63% couldn't name one of the senators from their own state.

Would you be able to pass the U.S. citizenship test? Test your skills along with these university students via The Daily Californian:

Video Source - YouTube via thedailycal

Online Sources - TIME.com, Newser

Daily Headlines: December 23, 2011

* Peru: Defeated presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori admitted that her family is seeking a pardon for her father, disgraced and imprisoned ex-president Alberto Fujimori.

* U.S.: A judge blocked several provisions of South Carolina’s staunch anti-immigration law that had been opposed to be over a dozen Latin American governments.

* Cuba: Over 180,00 Cubans could obtain Spanish citizenship via a “grandchildren’s law” though that number could spike ahead of the December 27th deadline to apply for benefits.

* Brazil: The country’s unemployment rate dropped to 5.2% in November; thus making it the lowest mark since records began in 2002.

* Central America: Citing “security concerns” the U.S. Peace Corps program will pull out of Honduras and have cancelled training classes for El Salvador and Guatemala.

Image Source – Flickr via Pedro Rivas Ugaz (“The headlines of Lima-based newspapers one day after ex-president Alberto Fujimori was sentenced to 25 years in prison” in 2009.) (CC BY 2.0).

Online Sources- MSNBC, Peru this Week, Bloomberg, LAHT, Fox News Latino

Today’s Video: Citizenship

According to U.S. immigration officials (via Fox News Latino) over 24,000 people are expected to become naturalized citizens between June 27 and today. Theses individuals from different parts of the world will surely feel an immense joy and pride that usually culminates a very lengthy and bureaucratic process in order to obtain citizenship.

In the following video from the Missouri-based Explore Homeland project, Argentine-born Carlos Fushimi describes what it feels like to be a U.S. citizen including the doors that have opened for him and his family:

Online Source - Fox News Latino
Video Source - Nine Network via YouTube

World Watch: Another Shinawatra in power?

* Thailand: Yingluck Shinawatra, younger sister of disgraced former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, could be the winner in Thailand’s national elections on Sunday.

* Canada: Residents of 27 countries including Honduras, China and Belarus were sworn in as Canadian citizens on Canada Day.

* U.S.: Bail conditions against former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn were dropped though he still faces charges of an alleged sex assault.

* Morocco: Voters overwhelming backed a series of political reforms designed to limit the power of the monarchy but also prevent that “Arab Spring” protests take place in Morocco.

Image – AFP (“A picture of fugitive former leader Thaksin Shinawatra is displayed at the entrance of a Red Shirt village in Khon Kaen.”)
Online Sources- The Independent, CTV News, Bloomberg, Reuters

Nationality, citizenship, and Hispaniola

Immigration is a complex issue for the dual nations that share the island of Hispaniola: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Both countries have taken distinct measures relating to nationality rights with Haiti choosing to expand them while its neighbor opted to restrict them.

Haitian legislators on Sunday vote to amend the constitution and permit expats the opportunity to have dual nationality. Haitians abroad would thus gain numerous political privileges including the ownership of land as well as the ability to run for certain public offices.

The vote came on the eve of a May 9th deadline for lawmakers to vote on amending Haiti’s 1987 constitution.

The amendment, which is expected to affect an estimated two million Haitians living abroad, reportedly received support from the U.S. government.

The amendment was short of granting Haitians dual citizenship, which would’ve granted those living abroad the right to vote. But for Joseph Bernadel, an expat interviewed by The Miami Herald, the dual nationality measure “gives a clear message to people of Haitian ancestry who have gone to the diaspora that there is a place for them in Haiti, not only in the reconstruction aspect, but in the everyday life in Haiti.’’

In the Dominican Republic, meanwhile, officials have reportedly upped the ante in denying birthright citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants. As written in a GlobalPost article published on Monday, the Dominican Republic since changing their constitution last year has “retroactively applied” a clause affecting offspring born to undocumented parents. The action has affected thousands of residents including those who have lived for decades in the Dominican Republic and others unaware that their parents were undocumented.

“I’ve spent my entire career working for this government and I’m ashamed of it now,” said Carmen Augustine de Santana who was born and raised in the Dominican Republic but was recently informed that she did not qualify for that country’s citizenship since her mother illegally migrated from Haiti.

Dominican immigration officials interviewed by GlobalPost denied that the actions were based on race or specifically targeting Haitian migrants. Yet Haitian expat community leaders in the Dominican Republic alleged that authorities have been unfairly targeting undocumented Haitian migrants over those originally from other countries.

The complexities of the immigration issue between Haiti and the Dominican Republic are similar to the debate over that topic in the U.S. (A debate likley to be reignited with U.S. President Barack Obama'a visit to Texas today). As written in GlobalPost last August:

Both involve a porous border that separates a wealthier country from a poorer neighbor. Migrants leave in search of a job. They send money home. Many end up staying, illegally. And like the anti-immigration sentiment in the U.S., the Dominican argument against Haitians comes down to economics. The Haitians, they say, are a drain on the government. They take jobs. They strain already overcrowded health clinics and hospitals. Dominican authorities deported an average of 20,417 Haitians a year from 2003 to 2008, according to a report from the Universidad Centroamericana.

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- HaitiLibre.com, Americas Quarterly blog, GlobalPost, MSNBC, Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, AFP

Daily Headlines: October 13, 2010

* Latin America: According to a report from the Global Wind Energy Council and Greenpeace Latin American countries are increasing their use of wind power as an energy source.

* El Salvador: President Mauricio Funes apologized to indigenous communities for the "persecution (and) the extermination of which they were victims” since encountering the first European explorers over five centuries ago.

* Colombia: Colombia will join Brazil as the two Latin American and Caribbean countries to hold temporary seats on the U.N. Security Council.

* U.S.: Lastly, the tale of a woman of Mexican background who became a U.S. citizen 101 years after she came to the U.S. as a newborn baby.

Image – The Guardian (“A prototype Hywind floating wind turbine” placed off the British coast).
Online Sources- LAHT, Voice of America, Reuters, Time