Daily Headlines: June 28, 2016

* Brazil: Rio 2016 Committee CEO Sidney Levy tried to downplay worries over the Zika virus and economic problems in Brazil as top ranked men’s golfer Jason Day became the latest high-profile athlete to skip the upcoming Olympics.

* Chile: Former Chilean military soldier Pedro Barrientos could be extradited to his homeland and face a criminal trial after a U.S. court found him liable for the torture and death of folk singer Victor Jara in 1973.

* Puerto Rico: Time is running short for the U.S. Congress to approve a debt relief package for Puerto Rico before a July 1st deadline to pay $2 billion of its $70 billion debt.

* Venezuela: The opposition coalition claimed to have sufficient signatures to commence a recall referendum process against President Nicolás Maduro.

YouTube Source – CCTV News (From May 31, 2016: “Despite scientists' calls for the Games to be moved or postponed over fears of the Zika virus, the World Health Organization insists that the Olympics and Paralympics ‘will take place during Brazil's wintertime when there are fewer active mosquitoes and the risk of being bitten is lower.’”)
 
Online Sources – ABC News, Reuters, BBC News, Latin American Herald Tribune, The Age

Daily Headlines: June 15, 2016

* Latin America: The U. N. Development Programme warned that 25 million Latin Americas that escaped poverty could soon fall back into serious financial hardship due to a “lengthy economic crisis and social exclusion in the region.”

* U.S.: The Latino community in Orlando, Florida tries to recover from the massacre of forty-nine people at a local nightclub including twenty-three Puerto Ricans as well as victims from Mexico as well as Venezuela.

* Argentina: Argentina’s foreign minister reiterated her county’s sovereignty claims over the Falklands but called on an “open dialogue” and better relations with the U.K.

* Puerto Rico: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the upper house will debate a debt relief bill for Puerto Rico later this month yet very close to a July 1st deadline for the island to pay $1.9 billion.

YouTube Source – DW (English) (From September 2015: “Agriculture is helping Paraguay's economy expand fast. Growth came in at about 5 percent last year. But many people still live in extreme poverty.”)
 
Online Sources – NBC News, ABC News, El Pais, Reuters, MercoPress

Daily Headlines: June 13, 2016

* U.S.: LGBT centers in the area of Orlando, Florida are working to offer Spanish-speaking grief counselors in light of the massacre of at least fifty people during an “Upscale Latin Saturday” party at the Pulse nightclub.

* Puerto Rico: U.S. President Barack Obama in his weekly address urged the Senate to quickly approve a plan that would help alleviate Puerto Rico’s $70 billion debt.

* Brazil: According to “two unpublished academic studies” researchers have detected a “super bacteria” present in the waters of several venues of the upcoming Rio Olympics.

* Guatemala: Three former ministers who served under disgraced ex-President Otto Perez Molina were arrested on corruption charges while around 2000 protesters in Guatemala City rallied in favor of greater political transparency.

YouTube Source – Jornalistas Livres (Vigils were held in several Latin American cities including Sao Paulo in solidarity with the victims of the mass shooting of at least fifty people in Orlando on Saturday).
 
Online Sources – PBS NewsHour, Fox News Latino, Reuters, Deutsche Welle

Daily Headlines: June 7, 2016

* Panama: Suez Canal operators are offering discounts to container lines in an attempt to stem an expected increase of traffic on the soon to be reopened and expanded Panama Canal.

* Puerto Rico: A bill to provide relief for Puerto Rico’s $70 billion public debt moves gradually through the U.S. House of Representatives but that didn’t stop Boricuas from selecting an opponent of the proposal as the gubernatorial candidate representing the pro-statehood party.

* South America: In the latest chapter of the decades-long dispute between Chile and Bolivia over coastal access, the former sued the landlocked state over rights to the Silala River.

* Ecuador: The U.S. Supreme Court rejected hearing an appeal by the Ecuadoran government to avoid paying $96 million in arbitration to Chevron.

YouTube Source – Financial Times (Video uploaded in March 2015).
 
Online Sources – GlobalPost, The Street, Reuters, JOC.com, NBC News

Daily Headlines: May 26, 2016

* Peru: A sixty-day state of emergency was declared for the Madre de Dios region following the spread of mercury poisoning due to illegal mining operations.

* Brazil: Prosecutors looking into the “Lava Jato” corruption scandal reportedly are examining possible financial wrongdoing related to “all the venues and services financed with federal funds” for the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

* Puerto Rico: The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote within the next few days on a bipartisan congressional plan to restructure Puerto Rico’s roughly $70 billion public debt.

* South America: Ecuadoran minnows Independiente del Valle join former Copa Libertadores champions Atletico Nacional, Boca Juniors, and Sao Paulo in the final four of this year’s edition of the top South American soccer club tournament.

YouTube Source – DW (English)

Online Sources – Popular Science, Reuters, ESPN FC

Daily Headlines: April 14, 2016 (Updated)

* Cuba: Cruse ship giant Carnival has come under fire in the Cuban-American community after it emerged that the firm complied with a law in Cuba barring those who were born on the island to return there by sea.

Update: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry entered the fray and criticized the "discriminatory policy" by the Cuban government.
 
* Argentina: A tribunal gave the green light for Argentina to move ahead with its first international bond sale in more than a decade as the country hopes to end to a legal battle over repaying debt from its $100 million default in 2001.

* Puerto Rico: Delays have hit a proposal in the U.S. Congress that could alleviate the Puerto Rican debt crisis and prevent an economic catastrophe on the commonwealth but that some legislators criticize as a bailout.

* Mexico: Is President Enrique Peña Nieto “putting his head in the sand”, as one critic claimed, by skipping a special U.N. General Assembly session on drug policy next week?

YouTube Source – Miami Herald (“A small group of protesters including Ramón Saúl Sánchez, president of the Democracy Movement, demonstrate outside the Carnival Corp. in protest of the ban by the Cuban government of Cubans and Cuban-Americans traveling to Cuba by sea.”)
 
Online Sources including Update – USA TODAY, ABC News, Reuters, Vice News, Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: April 1, 2013

* Venezuela: Interim leader Nicolás Maduro and opposition rival Henrique Capriles used spiritual imagery and religious rhetoric during the Holy Week as both attempt to win the April 14 presidential election.
 
* Argentina: A U.S. appeals court is expected to soon issue a decision that could force the Argentine government to pay $1.4 billion of its defaulted debt to creditors.

* Peru: Defense officials announced the purchase of twenty-four Russian military helicopters at a cost of $407 million.

* Britain: Colombian-born Oskar Zorrilla helped guide Oxford’s rowing team to victory over rivals Cambridge at the annual university Boat Race on Sunday.

Video Source – YouTube via AFP (“Video animation shows Venezuelan late president Hugo Chavez reaching heaven and received by many late Latin American leaders including Simón Bolívar and Che Guevara.”)

Online Sources- Times of Oman, Bloomberg, Bernama, CBC.ca

Daily Headlines: November 16, 2010

* U.S.: The presidents of Mexico and Colombia were vocal in their opposition against California’s defeated Prop 19 yet they’ve yet to comment on an Arizona voter initiate that approved medical marijuana.

* Argentina: The Paris Club group of creditor nations agreed to negotiate the repayment of Argentina’s debt without IMF supervision.

* Dominican Republic: Reliever Neftali Feliz won the American League’s Rookie of the Year as a result of an All-star season that included recording forty saves.

* Mexico: A seven-month-old baby was among the ten migrant hostages freed by the Mexican navy on Monday.

Image – CNN (“Arizona joins 14 other states that permit medical marijuana. The store in the photo is in California.”)
Online Sources- MLB.com, Christian Science Monitor, The Telegraph, Reuters, Canadian Press

Venezuela cancels Haiti debt

With earthquake-ravaged Haiti needing all the help it can get the Venezuelan government cancelled its estimated $167 million foreign debt with that Caribbean nation.

Citing Venezuela’s “historic debt” with Haiti, President Hugo Chavez announced the move after an emergency meeting of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA, in Spanish) bloc. Furthermore, Chavez said that the ALBA group- which includes Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua and others- started a $100 million “special fund” for Haitian recovery efforts.

As part of an estimated lengthy reconstruction, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has urged the cancellation of Haiti’s massive debt to entities like the U.S. and Inter-American Development Bank. Yet there has been very little action taken towards debt relief and this has alarmed some aid groups:

Haiti was already the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and groups including Oxfam and The World Council of Churches called on ministers to immediately cancel its full $890 million (£550 million) international debt.

They also asked for delivery on the IMF's previous pledge to turn a $100 million (£62 million) interest-free loan to into a grant.

Oxfam International executive director Jeremy Hobbs said: "Expecting Haiti to repay billions of dollars as the country struggles to overcome one of the worst natural disasters in recent memory would be both cruel and unnecessary." Britain has already cancelled all debts owed to it by Haiti and called on all remaining creditors to do the same.

As part of his strong criticism of the U.S. relief efforts in Haiti, Chavez recently advised Barack Obama that “every soldier that you send there should carry a medical kit instead of hand grenades and machine guns." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would later respond to the increased global criticism and said that the Haitian “people (are) glad to see us."

Image- AFP (“A boy carries rubbish in a wheelbarrow at a makeshift camp in Port-au-Prince.”)
Online Sources- Wall Street Journal, LAHT, ITAR-TASS, financial Times, The Telegraph, Reuters, AFP

Daily Headlines: September 16, 2009

* U.S.: After spending several days in space, Mexican-American astronaut José Hernandez said that the “American economy needs” illegal immigrants and advocated the legalization of their status.

* Puerto Rico: Nine employees at Puerto Rico’s main airport were arrested and accused of participating in a drug smuggling ring.

* Bolivia: Aside for rallying for immigrants’ rights during his visit to Spain, Bolivian president Evo Morales was able to get the European country to cancel over $77 million in debt.

* Cuba: Thousands of marchers demonstrated in Havana and called for the liberation of five alleged Cuban spies jailed in the U.S.

Image- KRON
Online Sources- AP, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Guardian UK

Daily Headlines: July 1, 2009

* Venezuela: According to the U.S. Department of Energy oil shipments from Venezuela fell in April to what’s estimated as the lowest level since 1991.

* Haiti: The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund will forgive approximately $1.2 billion in debts from Haiti.

* Argentina: The White House announced yesterday that it will cut certain trade benefits to six countries including Argentina.

* Peru: Over 100 people were arrested due to violence during a transportation strike.

Image- Los Angeles Times
Online Sources- PRESS TV, Xinhua, Reuters, LAHT

Latin America’s economy still a mixed bag

-Contributed by Alison Bowen

Everyone has something to say about the economic state of Latin America. A few examples:

Latin America’s economic growth rose overall by 4.8 percent this year, according to the United Nation’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Reuters reports that more retailers are interested in the region after a boom in consumer spending. Chilean retailers lead the wave of expansion, and although they want to keep foreign retailers out, British and French businesses are looking for ways to get in the Latin American retail market.

Meanwhile, the Inter-American Development Bank cancelled $4.4 billion worth of debt March 29, according to the Free Market News Network. Bolivia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua will benefit from the reprieve, led by Honduras’ $1.4 billion and Bolivia’s $1 billion owned. Nicaragua owed $984 million, followed by $525 million from Haiti and $467 from Guyana. The cancellation, along with providing funding to Ecuador, Paraguay and El Salvador, is part of IDB’s plan to cut poverty levels to 50 percent by 2015.

Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge had some recommendations for Latin America’s monetary woes, The Globe and Mail reported March 29.

After explaining that the International Monetary Fund is not the right organization to fix Latin America’s fiscal problems, Dodge recommended creating an alternative organization that could work with the various nations to promote free trade and liberal markets.

Speaking to the Americas Society and the Council of the Americas in New York, he pinpointed Argentina as the most fiscally irresponsible nation in the region.

“Argentina has consistently failed to live up to its potential, and bad policy choices are largely to blame,” Dodge said, citing high inflation as a major problem.

Dodge said Chile, Mexico and Brazil have all improved on controlling inflation.

Canada helped Argentina with its monetary problems in 2001, and Dodge is a frequent visitor to Latin America with a daughter in Brazil, according to the article.

Links- The Globe and Mail, Free Market News Network, Reuters

Image- PC World