Daily Headlines: June 2, 2016

* Mexico: Many Mexican states are reportedly hurrying to implement judicial reforms including “increasing transparency and better guaranteeing access to fair and timely trials” before a June 18 deadline.

* Honduras: Members of the Honduran indigenous rights group that included assassinated activist Berta Caceres warned of the return of alleged "death squads" that roamed the country during the 1980s.

* Cuba: Jose Daniel Ferrer, a Cuban dissident allowed to travel to the U.S., called on his fellow political opponents on the island to unite and create a shared strategy in light of the rapprochement between the Obama and Castro regimes.

* Colombia: The U.N. agency representing refugees urged Canada to renew an expiring agreement to help resettle Colombians displaced by armed conflict.

YouTube Source – CCTV Americas Now (Judicial reforms in Mexico were started in 2008 but most states have yet to fully implement new measures).
 
Online Sources –The Christian Science Monitor, The Hamilton Spectator, Latin American Herald Tribune, teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: April 5, 2016

* Brazil: Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff declared that none of her cabinet would be reshuffled prior to an upcoming impeachment vote that she has referred to as a “coup.”

* U.S.: Care to guess which U.S. presidential hopeful proposed preventing all remittances to Mexico in exchange for paying for the boondoggle that is a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexico border?

* Cuba: According to the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, 1416 arbitrary arrests took place last month in Cuba with roughly one-third of them occurring during U.S. President Barack Obama’s historic trip to the island.

* Puerto Rico: The Puerto Rican Senate approved a “sweeping” moratorium that would allow the government to prevent making payments on the island’s massive debt until January 2017.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – Reuters, Fox News Latino, BBC News, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: March 21, 2016

* Cuba: Cuban authorities reportedly began releasing this morning some of the approximately sixty dissidents arrested on Sunday hours prior to U.S. President Barack Obama’s arrival to the island.

* Peru: Peru’s electoral body, which has already barred two presidential candidates, opened an investigation against poll frontrunner Keiko Fujimori over allegations of distributing cash to supporters.

* Haiti: In the latest chapter of Haiti’s political crisis, legislators rejected Interim President Jocelerme Priver’s choice for prime minister.

* U.S.: “It’s like wearing a condom to protect against head lice,” said comedian John Oliver on the latest edition of “Last Week Tonight” as he assailed the notion of erecting a barrier along the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

YouTube Source – Associated Press

Online Sources – Fox News Latino, The Independent, Bloomberg, ABC News

Daily Headlines: February 25, 2016 (Updated)

* Brazil: Police have sought the arrest of six executives of a mining firm run by Vale and BHP Billiton over the collapse of a dam that killed seventeen people in Minas Gerais last November.

* U.S.: Could Brian Sandoval, the Latino Republican governor of Colorado, be chosen as the Supreme Court successor to recently deceased judge Antonin Scalia? (Update: Nope).

* Guatemala: The brother of former Vice President Roxana Baldetti is the latest figure to be detained as part of a probe into widespread corruption in Guatemala.

* Cuba: The Cuban government gave permission for seven “high profile” dissidents to travel abroad in a move that comes about one month prior to U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to to the island.

YouTube Source – CCTV (Last November, the U.N. found that “Brazil's Doce River contains high levels of heavy metals and other toxic chemicals following the country's worst-ever environmental disaster.”)
 
Online Sources including Update– Sydney Morning Herald, CBS News, BBC News, The Tico Times, CNN

Daily Headlines: September 9, 2015 (Updated)

* Brazil: Financial analysts surveyed by Brazil’s central bank believe the country this year will face its worst economic performance since 1990 and predicted that the economy will keep shrinking in 2016.

Update: More bad news for the economy as Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday downgraded the Brazilian government’s sovereign debt rating to junk status.

* Ecuador: Canada’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of proceeding with an environmental damages lawsuit against Chevron though the tribunal did not “endorse the underlying Ecuadorian legal case.”

* Latin America: A new study found that digital use in Latin America grew between April 2014 and April 2015 including increases of 147% and 351% in activity for Facebook and Twitter, respectively.

* Cuba: Some 140 Cuban dissidents including twenty members of the Ladies in White were reportedly arrested yesterday while on their way to a Catholic mass.

YouTube Source – CNNMoney (“Brazil is struggling with high unemployment, rising inflation and a currency trading at 12-year lows.”)
 
Online Sources including Update – MercoPress, The Latin Americanist, Financial Post, Billboard, Latin American Herald Tribune, The Guardian

Obama to Venezuelan Gov’t: Free Leopoldo López

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Venezuelan authorities to liberate imprisoned opposition leader Leopoldo López as soon as possible.

“From Russia to China to Venezuela, you are seeing relentless crackdowns vilifying legitimate dissent as subversive…we stand in solidarity with those detained at this very moment.  In Venezuela, Leopoldo López,” said Obama during a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative on Tuesday night. 

Aside from López, Obama mentioned other jailed activists from countries like Vietnam, Burundi and Russia who “deserve to be freed.  They should be freed.”

López has been detained for the past seven months, and charged with inciting vandalism and violence during anti-government demonstrations in February. Shortly after López turned himself in to authorities, Obama denounced the “unacceptable violence” in Venezuela and criticized officials for not “focusing on the legitimate demands of the Venezuelan people.”

Detractors of the Popular Will Party leader claimed that he must be punished for instigating politically charged violence that eventually cost the lives of more than forty people.  Last month, President Nicolás Maduro referred to López as a “pawn of the gringos” who “has to pay and he will pay,” for his alleged crimes.

Yet supporters of López believe the charges against the ex-mayor of the Chacao district of Caracas were politically motivated by a government seeking to quash dissent.

“Leopoldo is a prisoner of conscience and is in jail because Maduro is scared,” said López’ wife, Lillian Tintori, last week during a visit to the U.N.

Daily Headlines: July 11, 2014

* Cuba: Cuban lawyer Ernesto Vera claimed that he worked for the state security agency and pretended to be an opposition activist in order to “discredit the dissidents.”

* Uruguay: Luis Suárez may be serving a harsh suspension for biting an Italian player at a World Cup match but that hasn’t stopped the Uruguayan from reportedly being transferred from to F.C. Barcelona as part of a $129 million deal.
  
* Latin America: A new U.N. report found that Mexico City and Sao Paulo, Brazil are in the top five of the world’s most populated cities though their ranking is expected to fall by 2030.

* Chile: President Michelle Bachelet of Chile criticized landlocked Bolivia’s appeal to the International Court of Justice seeking access to the sea.

Video Source – AFP via YouTube (Ernesto Vera alleged that he infiltrated the Ladies in White protest movement, seen here during a 2010 march, as part of his work as a Cuban state security agent).
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino; Bernama; The Latin Americanist; The Guardian

Daily Headlines: July 7, 2014

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales is expected to sign into law a bill that would legalize child labor for kids as young as ten-years-old even though it may be against international treaties Bolivia has agreed to.

* Argentina: Some Argentine victims of sexual abuse by priests are “pained” that Pope Francis will meet with six European victims of abuse but not with any from his country of birth.

* Cuba: A Cuban opposition group claimed that nearly one thousand arrests were made “for political reasons” on the island in June including weekly detentions of Guillermo Fariñas and “physical aggression” against the Ladies in White.

* Honduras: Officials believe that the odds of survival for eight miners trapped in a collapse gold mine in Honduras are slim and “only a miracle would let us rescue them alive.”

Video Source – Vice News via YouTube

Online Sources – NBC News; Huffington Post; GlobalPost; SBS

Daily Headlines: June 13, 2014

Note: As we mentioned yesterday, we will be posting several articles throughout the next month on the World Cup hosted by Brazil.  Thus, our “Daily Headlines” entries over the next few weeks will focus primarily on non-World Cup news.


* Cuba: Forty-four Cuban dissidents including Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White protest movement, were briefly detained by the police as part of a suspected crackdown.

* Mexico: A new report published yesterday found that the background of Mexicans is “so rich, so genetically differentiated, you can’t just lump them all in.”

* Venezuela: New data showed that inflation in Venezuela has reached an eighteen-year high while anti-government street protests entered a fourth month.

* Caribbean: Jamaica could become the latest country in Latin America and the Caribbean to decriminalize marijuana for personal use.

Video Source – euronews via YouTube (Video posted in 2011).
 
Online Sources – The Guardian; Los Angeles Times; El Universal; UPI

Weekend Headlines: December 1-2, 2012

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* Mexico: Police clashed with protesters opposed to Enrique Peña Nieto while he was being inaugurated on Saturday as president of Mexico.

* Latin America: The presidents of Colombia and Nicaragua agreed to use dialogue to resolve a territorial dispute while the Peruvian and Chilean presidents said that they would respect an upcoming international court ruling on maritime boundaries.

* Paraguay: At least 69 people have died this year in Paraguay as a result of the dengue fever that has also killed over 400 people throughout Latin America.

* Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff vetoed portions of a controversial bill that would redistribute oil royalties amongst Brazilian states.

Daily Headlines: April 5, 2012

* Chile: Congress approved a new anti-discrimination law that had regained momentum after the murder of gay teen Daniel Zamudio.

* Cuba: At least forty-three dissidents, most of whom belong in the opposition group Patriotic Union of Cuba, have reportedly been arrested in areas near where Pope Benedict XVI visited last week.

* Brazil: Amnesty International denounced a Supreme Court ruling acquitting a suspected child rapist whose lawyers claimed that the three girl victims were “sex workers.”

* Haiti: According to the U.N. the number of cholera cases have spiked in March after several months of steady decline.

Image Source – Flickr via DILO.cl (Young Chileans taking part in a vigil last month in memory of Daniel Zamudio). (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources- Huffington Post, Amnesty International, The Latin Americanist, France24, The Washington Post

Pope Calls for Change During Havana Mass

During an outdoor mass held in Havana this morning Pope Benedict XVI emphasized the need for change worldwide as well greater religious freedom in Cuba.

“The right to freedom of religion, both in its private and in its public dimension, manifests the unity of the human person, who is at once a citizen and a believer,” the pope said in his homily. He added that while the Cuban government has granted greater liberties to the Catholic Church, the pontiff called on “authorities to strengthen what has already been achieved and advance along this path of genuine service to the true good of Cuban society as a whole”.

Pope Arrives in Cuba for Three Day Visit (Updates Below Page Break)

Pope Benedict XVI just arrived in Cuba where expectations are high as to what the Pope will say regarding politics and the role of the Church on the island.

“As people who are marginalized, the oppressed, we too have a right to at least one minute with His Holiness,” said Bertha Soler, the head of the Ladies in White dissident group. Soler also remarked that she wants to give the Pope a list of political prisoners “in case there’s a possibility of pardon” much like in the visit of Pope John Paul II to Cuba in 1998.

Daily Headlines: March 19, 2012 (Updated)

* Cuba: Police detained dozens of dissident activists over the weekend, including Ladies in White leader Berta Soler, ahead of next week’s visit from Pope Benedict XVI. (Update: Police reportedly released seventy members of the Ladies in White detained on Sunday. Meanwhile, a White House statement urged the Cuban government to "abandon their tactics of intimidation and harassment to stifle peaceful dissent.")

* Puerto Rico: Mitt Romney easily won over his GOP rivals in the Puerto Rico primary that included the participation of less than six percent of the commonwealth’s electorate.

* Venezuela: Twelve police officials were detained over the killing of Karen Berendique, the daughter of Chilean Honorary Consul Fernando Berendique, in Maracaibo.

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales warned that he would close the U.S. embassy in La Paz if diplomatic officials “continued bothering Bolivia.”

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources (including Updates) - Comision Estatal de Elecciones de Puerto Rico, Reuters, CNN, AFP, The Guardian, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: December 12, 2011

* Panama: Former dictator Manuel Noriega was extradited to Panama and is expected to start serving a twenty-year prison sentence for crimes committed during his rule.

* El Salvador: The government issued a formal apology for the over 1000 people killed at the El Mozote massacre of 1981.

* Mexico: At least two people were killed after a 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck in the state of Guerrero.

* Cuba: Dissidents claimed that “some 200 detentions for political motives” were made by police in the days leading up to Human Rights Day this past Saturday.

Video Source – YouTube via BBC News

Online Sources – Voice of America, Reuters, The Guardian, BBC News

Cuba: Dissidents caught in crackdown

The Cuban government allegedly agreed to free eight additional political prisoners aside from a group of 52 who have slowly been released since last year. Dissidents on the island, however, have accused authorities of targeting them as part of a crackdown.

Roughly 100 dissidents were either arrested or put under house arrest in the same week that activists commemorated the one-year anniversary of the death of political prisoner Orlando Zapata. The most notable of these detentions was the brief arrest of former hunger striker Guillermo Farinas who “shouted anti-government slogans” from the rooftop of his house. “I believe that the best tribute we can give to Zapata was for the government to be forced to mobilize its repressors,” Farinas said to the press after his 27-hour arrest.

The tense atmosphere continued over the weekend when state television showed a documentary critical of the Ladies in White dissident group. The film accused them of receiving funds from the U.S. government to fund their activities. Hence, it should come as no surprise that pro-government demonstrators confronted the Ladies in White as they marched through Havana yesterday.

U.S. President Barack Obama said last week that the February 2010 death of Zapata after a lengthy hunger strike brought attention to "the ongoing mistreatment of those unjustly held by Cuban authorities". Cuban state newspaper Granma would subsequently bash Obama by claiming he was being manipulated by Cuban-American exile organizations.

Human rights groups tried to bring additional attention to the crackdown on the Cuban opposition. Amnesty International denounced the harassment of Zapata’s relatives including “preventing his family from properly celebrating his life.” According to Human Rights Watch:

"A year after Zapata's tragic death, this latest wave of arrests shows the Cuban government continues to deny its citizens the basic freedoms of assembly and speech," said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch…

"Through arbitrary detentions, physical abuse, and threats, the Cuban government has once again shown its willingness to repress its citizens who participate in the most basic civic activities," Vivanco said.

Image- AP via BBC News (“Pro- and anti-government protesters clashed in Havana on the anniversary of Mr. Zapata's death.”)
Online Sources- BBC News, ABC News, LAHT, AFP, Gulf Times, CBS News, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch

Cuba: Freed dissidents arrive in Spain

As we mentioned last night Cuba’s former dictator Fidel Castro appeared in an interview on state TV. While he focused on international affairs such as Western nuclear tensions with Iran and North Korea he remained mum on the planned release of over fifty jailed dissidents.

Earlier today the first group of liberated activists arrived in Madrid from Havana. The seven men- most of who were described by the AP as "independent journalists"- expressed their gratitude with the Cuban Catholic Church and Spanish authorities that helped negotiate their release. “Change begins with freedom, not only ours and our companions, but all Cuban citizens,” Ricardo Gonzalez said while one of his compatriots, Julio Cesar Galvez, added his “that those [prisoners] who remain in Cuba will enjoy the same freedom as we do."

According to Cuban church officials another thirteen jailed activists will be freed in the upcoming days after being imprisoned since 2003. Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation head Elizardo Sánchez reportedly said that three prisoners had requested to stay in Cuba in case they were to be freed.

International political pressure may have led to the deal reached with the Castro regime to free up to 52 prisoners over the next few months. Economic matters may have also had a vital role such as the possibility of easing U.S. agricultural restrictions on Cuba. As was noted on the AS/COA Online:

The releases should also be viewed “against Cuba’s truly grim economic backdrop,” writes John Paul Rathbone in the Financial Times. This year’s sugar harvest ranks as the island’s worst since 1905 and Raúl Castro described mending Cuba’s “complex economic problems” as an urgent priority during a speech at the end of May. By boosting its image through a prisoner release, Havana could make economic gains by winning support to weaken sanctions.

Image- AFP
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, CNN, AP, BBC News, The Guardian, AS/COA Online, Reuters

Daily Headlines: July 7, 2008

We’ve been busy the past few days reporting on the liberation of fifteen hostages in Colombia and some news stories from the Americas have fallen under the cracks. To makeup for it here’s an extended edition of Daily Headlines.

* Latin America: John McCain ended his mini-tour of Latin America last week where he emphasized his disagreement with Barack Obama over free trade and praised the center-right governments of Mexico and Colombia. Yet according to BBC News, the differences between the two presidential hopeful on Latin America is minimal.

* Chile: Could a “fruit-bearing cactus” be the key to easing Chile’s energy problems?

* Peru: Mine workers ended a week-long national strike late last night according to government officials.

* U.S.: Conservative stalwart/ultra bigot (depending on your opinion) Jesse Helms died last week; he co-authored a law strengthening the embargo of Cuba and backed Argentina in the Falklands War.

* El Salvador: Heavy rains and flash floods have claimed the lives of at least 15 people.

* Cuba: A “top rights activist” claimed that the island’s government cracked down on over 30 dissidents in anticipation alleged protests.

* Ecuador: Lastly, congrats to LDU Quito who won the Copa Libertadores soccer tourney after a thrilling match against Brazil’s Fluminense:

Sources- BBC News, Boston.com, Reuters UK, Bloomberg, Star-Telegram.com, AFP, cbc.ca, Time, YouTube, The Offside

Daily Headlines: June 11, 2008

* Caribbean: Say “goodbye” to the extinct Caribbean monk seal.

* Cuba: Leading dissident Hector Palacios said that he would return from exile and would even be willing to meet with President Raul Castro.

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez denied the allegations of a 31-year-old man claiming to be his illegitimate son.

* Brazil: A bad economic sign – Brazilian inflation has reached a three-year high.

Sources- TIME, Bloomberg, Associated Press, MSNBC

Image- La Plaza

Daily Headlines: May 19, 2008

* Latin America: The Andean Community and the European Union reached agreements over trade negotiations as a Latin America- E.U. summit ended on Saturday.

* U.S.: A Haitian woman who accused her adoptive family of “repeated beatings…and compelling her to perform forced labor” won her case in federal court.

* Colombia: Army officials have denied Venezuela’s accusations that Colombian troops illegally crossed the border.

* Cuba: Cuban officials claim to have documents proving that the U.S. government is secretly funding dissident groups on the island.

Sources- MSNBC, SignOnSanDiego.com, New York Times, Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist

Image- Al Jazeera English