Daily Headlines: March 10, 2016 (Updated)

* Peru: Keiko Fujimori’s path to the Peruvian presidency (and possibly pardoning her imprisoned ex-presidential father, Alberto) became a lot easier after electoral officials disqualified her main rival.

Update: The Organization of American States expressed concern over the ruling against Julio Guzman and will send an observer mission ahead of the April 10th election.

* Cuba: U.S. book publishing industry representatives signed a petition urging the White House to eliminate the Cuba trade embargo for texts and educational materials.

* Puerto Rico: A U.S. District Court judge upheld Puerto Rico’s ban on same-sex marriage and claimed that the 2015 Supreme Court ruling overturning gay marriage prohibition does not apply to the commonwealth.

* El Salvador: Salvadoran officials are considering declaring a “state of exception” in order to combat violence though critics believe such a measure is illegal and an abuse of authority.

YouTube Source – CCTV English

Online Sources including Update – ABC News, Publishers Weekly, NBC News, InSight Crime

Daily Headlines: March 26, 2014

* Mexico: The chief executive and major stakeholder of Mexican oilfield services firm Oceanografia was placed under house arrest over his suspected role in the reported defrauding of about $400 million from Citigroup.

* Panama: What connection does Panama’s independence over a century ago have to do with the Russian invasion and apparent annexation of the Crimea region?

* Cuba: The CARICOM bloc of Caribbean nations once again called for an end to the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. 

* Brazil: Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved a major Internet bill that did not include provisions on net neutrality or that would’ve permitted online data to be locally collected.

Video Source – YouTube user IBTimes UK

Online Sources- GlobalPost; Fox News Latino; USA TODAY; Reuters

Daily Headlines: September 17, 2009

* Haiti: Advocates and community leaders plan to march in Washington this week in order to advocate for temporary protected status for Haitian migrants.

* Cuba: The Castro regime vehemently rejected the White House’s decision to continue the 47-year-long trade embargo on the island.

* Mexico: While millions of Mexicans worldwide celebrated their country’s Independence Day gunmen killed ten at a Ciudad Juarez drug rehab center.

* Brazil: Two ex-policemen were sentenced to nearly 500 years in jail for a 2005 ‘death squad” massacre near Rio de Janeiro.

Image- Haiti Times
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, UPI, BBC News, Al Jazeera English

White House continues Cuba embargo

The Obama administration may have taken small steps to try to improve relations with Cuba yet today they decided to keep the biggest hurdle in place.

"I hereby determine that the continuation for one year of the exercise of those authorities with respect to Cuba is in the national interest of the United States," said Obama in a statement which would extend the blockade on Cuba into a 48th year. The extension has been done by presidents under the Trading with the Enemy Act since the 1970s, and currently Cuba continues to be the only country restricted under that law.

The embargo prohibits U.S. companies from doing direct business with Cuba yet U.S. products like “Wilson baseball caps, Westinghouse light fixtures, Proctor-Silex juicers and GE microwave ovens” can still be found in the island’s markets. These items are generally too expensive for the average Cuban to buy, yet their availability on the island demonstrates one of the problems with the embargo:

Some items — such as food, agricultural goods and medicine — are there legally under exceptions to the embargo. But others are spirited in by entrepreneurs, front companies and independent distributors that worry little about U.S. laws…

"One of the reasons there may be so many American goods in Cuba is due to the nature of the way that region operates," (New Balance Vice President Edward Haddad) said. "A lot of it is cash and carry. They will go into the Colon (Panama) Free Zone, buy products and bring them back."

A poll conducted last month concluded that fewer Cuban exiles are backing the blockade (41% for vs. 40% against).

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- stltoday.com, Miami Herald, Xinhua, Huffington Post, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: September 2, 2009

* Guatemala: In a historic decision, a former Guatemalan paramilitary was sentenced to 150 years in prison for the disappearances of six campesinos during the country’s brutal civil war.

* Dominican Republic: While Muammar al-Gaddafi celebrated his fourth decade in power, Dominican and Libyan representatives agreed to establish diplomatic ties.

* Cuba: Amnesty International urged the Obama administration to drop the “immoral” embargo on Cuba which has deprived Cubans of receiving “vital medicines and medical equipment essential for their health."

* Venezuela: Venezuelan composer and National System of Venezuelan Youth and Children's Orchestras creator Jose Antonio Abreu received Sweden’s top music honor along with musician Peter Gabriel.

Image- BBC News (Investigators continue to dig the presumed graves of dozens of Guatemalans who vanished during the civil war from 1960 to 1996.)
Online Sources- Reuters, BBC News, Guardian UK, Boston Herald, Press Association

US Actors Visit Cuba

In Havana on Thursday, Cuban writers and artists presented an award to actor Benicio del Toro for his work as the title role in the movie "Che". Bill Murray, Robert Duvall and James Caan were also in attendance.

A spokesman stated that all of the actors traveled on a license granted by the United States Treasury. Del Toro was in Cuba to receive his award and the others were there to work on a research project. Their visit is seen as a sign of the thawing relationship between the two countries.

Del Toro remarked that winning the International Tomas Gutierrez Alea Prize "makes me feel small and proud at the same time. It's an honor to win this award." When asked if he or the other actors might make a film in Cuba, del Toro responded, "That depends on the governments, on the American government."

Online sources-Reuters, BBC, Associated Press

Image-AFP

NAM to U.S.: Drop Cuba embargo

Days before the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Egypt, members of the bloc called on the U.S. to drop its decades-long economic embargo on Cuba.

According to a statement issued by the NAM summit secretariat, the embargo is against international law and has caused massive economic damage to the Cuban people. The U.S. must end the blockade and comply with U.N. resolutions, said the statement produced on Monday.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez went further in criticizing not only the U.S. but what he deemed as the hegemony of the West:

"The rich countries of the West continue to bet on the preservation of an international order that is based on the use of force, technology, and economic power against the weakest," he said at the ministerial meeting of the 15th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the Egyptian Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The unfair order "makes an unequal distribution of the wealth and it is based on irrational patterns of consumerism, destroys the environment and jeopardizes life in the planet, thus making it possible for a few to concentrate the economic and political power and make them decide for all of us," said Rodriguez, whose country holds the rotating NAM presidency from 2006 to 2009.

The NAM was founded in 1961 as a bloc neutral of the Cold War superpowers (U.S. and Soviet Union) though it has struggled to find its identity in the post-Cold War era. The 118-member NAM currently strives to maintain political independence from the U.S. while also creating consensus for underdeveloped countries.

Cuba will cede the presidency of the NAM to Egypt during the summit scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

Image- Voice of America (Cuba President Raul Castro spoke at a Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Havana last April)
Online Sources- Deutsche Welle, IPS, Xinhua

Bipartisan backing for dropping Cuba restrictions

Nearly three weeks ago, President Barack Obama signed off on a spending bill backed by Congress that included the easing of travel restrictions to Cuba. Today a bipartisan group of Senators will introduce a proposal which would go further.

The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2009 was presented today at a news conference attended by leading Republican and Democratic senators. "Seems to me when you have a policy that has failed for five decades, you ought to take a look at it again and see if you should modify it," said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) who is one of the initiative’s co-sponsors. Another of the bill’s co-sponsors- Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN)- said last month that the U.S. must deal with the Castro regime "in a way that enhances U.S. interest."

The Senate bill is backed by several business groups looking to tap into the Cuban market such as the American Farm Bureau and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Backers of the proposal claim that they have sufficient support in both the Senate and the House of Representatives where a similar bill is making the rounds.

Cuban-American lawmakers are expected to be adamant in their opposition to the bills and this could lead to some lively debate:

(…) Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., the son of Cuban immigrants, slowed confirmation of several administration officials and passage of a major spending bill because that bill contained the changes in rules on Cuban-American travel.

Cuban-born Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., said he would continue to oppose the legislation. "This is the time to support pro-democracy activists in Cuba, not provide the Castro regime with a resource windfall."

During his successful run to the presidency, Obama pledged to ease travel and remittance restrictions to Cuba yet he didn’t back dropping the U.S. trade embargo to the island. The latter point was reinforced last week by Vice President Joe Biden.

Image- AFP (“A local passes by a portrait of Cuban former President Fidel Castro in Santiago de Cuba”).
Online Sources- BBC News, The Latin Americanist, LAHT, AHN, CNN, AP

Obama, Congress relaxes Cuba restrictions (includes update)

Update

Despite calling it an "imperfect proposal" President Obama signed the spending bill which includes easing certain restrictions to Cuba. (Link via FOX News).

Original Post

Congress passed a $410 million omnibus spending bill that includes relaxing travel and importation restrictions to Cuba.

The bill’s provisions don’t go as far as scrapping the decades-long trade embargo against Cuba. Yet it would allow Cuban-Americans to visit their families on the island once a year; thus, reversing a Bush administration rule limiting travel to once every three years. In addition, the bill would make it easier to import medicine and food to the island.

The proposal had faced stern opposition from a pair of Cuban-American Senators (Mel Martinez and Bob Melendez) representing both of the major parties. Yet their disagreement seemed to have been dissuaded after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner promised that the embargo’s main parts would remain in place. Furthermore, Geithner promised tight oversight of the eased limitations.

The bill is expected to be signed very soon by President Barack Obama. During his presidential run, Obama promised to ease travel restrictions to Cuba with the possibility of improving relations with the island. Yet one Cuban government representative recently considered relaxing the provisions as committing “the same mistake previous administrations have made".

How have Cubans reacted to the news? According to Reuters, it’s a mixed bag among those living in exile and seen as a positive among those living domestically.

Image- CBS News
Online Sources- Reuters, U.S. News and World Report, USA TODAY, AFP, The Latin Americanist, BBC News, Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Cuban Internet expansion soon (but not soon enough)

Cuban communications minister Ramiro Valdes declared that the island’s government will expand Internet access to the country sometime in 2010.

Valdes remarked that he anticipated broadening online access next year after the completion of a 930 mile-long fiber optics line between Cuba and Venezuela. The cable is designed to circumvent the U.S. embargo on Cuba which bars the island from using a nearby line that connects from Florida.

Despite a May 2008 reform permitting the public to purchase desktop computers, the U.N. estimates that only a scant 2% of Cubans have Internet access. Internet use is restricted to government officials and tourists that can afford it while the government has cracked down on Cuban bloggers.

Vice Minister Boris Moreno discarded the possibility of expanding online access this year. Moreno also reiterated government policy that is “to ‘favor collective access’ in such places as universities, scientific institutions and cultural centers.” Opposition on the island has decried such a policy:

Dissidents say the government's true goal is to control access to information…

In July, the head of the US interest section in Havana, Michael Parmly, said that Washington would allow US companies to connect Cuba to their underwater cables.

"The only thing that is missing is for the Cuban government to lift its restrictions, loose its fear and begin to trust its own people," he said.

Image- BBC News (“Cuba's licensed internet terminals are meant only for tourists”.)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, The Inquirer, Reuters, hispanicbusiness.com, AFP

Daily Headlines: February 5, 2009

* Latin America: Scientists have discovered the fossilized remains of a massive snake that lived sixty million years ago, was over forty feet long, and weighed about 2500 pounds.

* Cuba: A poll revealed that most Cuban-Americans prefer keeping the trade embargo and travel restrictions on Cuba.

* Mexico: According to the International Federation of Journalists Mexico is one of the world’s deadliest countries for members of the media.

* Peru: Officials celebrated the first shipping container sent from Peru to the U.S. under the recently passed bilateral free trade pact.

Image- MSNBC (“The extinct giant snake (shown in an artist's reconstruction) would have sent even Hollywood's anacondas slithering away.”)
Online Sources- Marketwatch, BBC News, AP, Living in Peru

Daily Headlines: December 24, 2008

* Mexico: Mexican officials vowed that there “will not be the least concession” to drug gangs after the recent discovery of eight decapitated soldiers.

* Venezuela: Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro rejected reports alleging that Iran has shipped missile parts to Syria via Venezuelan flights.

* Bolivia: "If I were (Barack) Obama, the first day of my presidency I'd lift the economic blockade on Cuba," said Bolivian President Evo Morales who added his hope that U.S. relations with the Americas could soon improve.

* Dominican Republic: Free rides will be offered over the next two weeks on the country’s new costly subway system.

Image- Times Online (“The bodies of 13 men were found with their hands tied this month” (in Mexico).)
Online Sources- Reuters, Canadian Press, AFP

Daily Headlines: December 9, 2008

* Caribbean: During a one-day summit yesterday, the fourteen–nation Caribbean Community called for an end to the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

* Bolivia: Approximately 20,000 families have been hurt by a months-long drought according to Bolivian officials.

* Dominican Republic: A clerk at the Dominican Consulate in New York has been accused of illegally smuggling people into the U.S.

* Peru: Remember the diplomatic spat caused by a Peruvian general’s misguided remarks about Chileans? Gen. Edwin Donayre was replaced as Peru's army chief on Friday.

Image- BBC News (Antigua Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer standing next to Cuban president Raul Castro)
Sources- Reuters, Xinhua, New York Daily Times, IHT, The Latin Americanist

Poll: Most Cuban-Americans favor dropping embargo

A survey showed that most South Floridian Cuban-Americans back dropping the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.

55% of respondents said that they would favor eliminating the blockade according to the poll conducted by Florida International University and the Brookings Institution. The results appear to follow a trend found in similar polls showing waning support for the embargo among people of Cuban background residing in the U.S.

The survey’s results were dismissed by the head of one Cuban exile group who cited the recent reelection of a trio of anti-Castro U.S. congressmen. She has something of a point in that 56% of Cuban-American registered voters preferred to keep the embargo. Nevertheless, the findings also revealed that most of those surveyed would prefer the easing of U.S.-Cuba relations:

Most respondents were Republicans who voted against President-elect Barack Obama, yet 65% or more said the U.S. should drop restrictions on travel and money transfers, re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and establish dialogue about immigration and other critical issues.

One of Obama’s key challenges in Latin America will be whether or not to change policy in Cuba. The poll’s results may be a good indicator in figuring out how to go about modifying policy.

Image- Reuters
Sources- The Latin Americanist, WFLX, miamiherald.com, BBC News

U.N. to U.S.: Lift the embargo on Cuba

The U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) resoundingly voted to end the decades-long U.S. embargo on Cuba. 185 of the body’s 190 nations accepted the resolution presented earlier today by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque against the blockade.

Despite such an ample majority against the embargo, today’s vote was nonbinding and largely symbolic. For that matter, today marks the 17th straight year that the UNGA has overwhelmingly voted against the embargo. It is a fact that has not gone unnoticed by the UNGA’s president- Nicaraguan Miguel D’Escoto:

"The U.S. government simply cannot tolerate the existence of a place like Cuba, which rises up like a heroine of solidarity and a champion of the values that the world needs for the survival of the human species," D’Escoto said….

However, D’Escoto said that "on a number of occasions, I have wondered what the Assembly is good for when votes passed by an overwhelming majority and which reflect the wishes of 95% of the UN’s members are utterly ignored."

U.S. President George W. Bush recently vowed to keep the embargo in place, a move expected to continue with the next president according to some Cuban officials.

Image- daylife.com (“An old car passes next to a billboard that reads "70 percent of Cuban people have been born under the Embargo" in a highway in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2006.”)
Sources- The Latin Americanist, Reuters, Granma, AP

Cuba to protest embargo at U.N.

According to the Cuban press, the country’s foreign minister will formally protest the decades-long U.S. embargo against the island. Felipe Perez Roque is reportedly in New York City where he will present a resolution to the United Nations on Wednesday.

As Cuban daily Granma mentioned in an article on the embargo:

The blockade is the principal obstacle to our country’s economic and social development and a flagrant violation of the human rights of all of Cuba’s people. Cuba will continue to demand that it be lifted and will not cease its efforts until the blockade is eliminated.

U.S. President George W. Bush continued his support of the embargo in remarks he made earlier this month in Miami. Furthermore, Cuban officials are pessimistic that the next president will end the embargo. Yet the hard line on the blockade by both countries may soften with the recent discovery of massive offshore oil fields.

Image- daylife.com (“An old car passes next to a billboard that reads "70 percent of Cuban people have been born under the Embargo" in a highway in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2006.”)
Sources- Time, Reuters Africa, Granma, Prensa Latina, Cuba News, AP

Airline fined for flying over Cuba

A U.S. airline company was fined the hefty sum of $100,000 for paying the Cuban government in order to fly over the country’s airspace. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Spirit Airlines violated the embargo on the island by making the payments to Cuba without obtaining a “special license” from the federal government.

Meanwhile, a group of sixteen Florida-based travel agencies which book trips to Cuba have sued the state. The coalition of travel agencies are upset at a law which is supposed to take effect on Tuesday and designed to increase regulations on businesses:

The measure, sponsored by state Rep. David Rivera as a homeland-security issue, was drafted to apply to all Florida-based vendors selling trips to countries on the U.S. State Department's list of nations that sponsor terrorism -- which includes Cuba.

''It is unfortunate that certain state of Florida legislators have decided to waste taxpayer funds to further their own goal of preventing and hindering Cuban-Americans who desire to visit their families in Cuba,'' said Steven Weinger, one of the lawyers involved in the lawsuit against the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Online site Travelocity was fined $183,000 last year for booking over 1500 trips from the U.S. to Cuba.

Image- wisebread

Sources- The Latin Americanist, miamiherald.com, cbs4.com, nbc6.net, local10.com

Castro blasts, dissidents praise Obama on Cuba

Last Friday’s speech by Barack Obama on Latin America raised distinct reactions in Cuba.

In an article published yesterday in Granma, former president Fidel Castro assailed Obama’s speech which called for increased freedoms in Cuba and continuing trade sanctions against the island. Castro called Obama the “most progressive candidate” for the presidency, yet he strongly rebuked the Illinois senator’s remarks:

Presidential candidate Obama’s speech may be formulated as follows: hunger for the nation, remittances as charitable hand-outs and visits to Cuba as propaganda for consumerism and the unsustainable way of life behind it.

Unlike Castro, a vocal Cuban dissident group backed Obama’s speech. The all-female “Women in White” expressed in an open letter their “great hope” that Obama could help in the “immediate, unconditional liberation” of sick Cuban political prisoners. The letter hesitated to endorse Obama or any other candidate yet urged that the U.S. could “begin an era of political realism toward Cuba” if Obama is elected president.

Sources- Associated Press, Granma, Reuters, International Herald Tribune, The Latin Americanist, BBC News

Image- BBC News

Artists, Dancers, Actors, Writers Call on U.S. for Better Cultural Relationship With Cuba

A few weeks ago, people as varied as Gloria Steinem, Harry Belafonte, Jimmy Bosch, Cristina Garcia, Danny Glover, Sean Penn, Bonnie Rait, Bobby Sanabria, Carlos Santana and others sent a letter to President George W. Bush in support of another letter sent by Alicia Alonso, Prima Ballerina and Director of the Cuban National Ballet, and also Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The letter expressed the signatories' opposition to the administration's policies towards Cuba, saying they prevent cultural interchange between the U.S. and Cuba. The letter demands:

1. open a respectful dialogue with the government and people of Cuba in accord with established protocols supported by the community of nations;
2. end the travel ban that prevents U.S. citizens from visiting Cuba and allow for Cuban artists and scholars to visit the United States, thus eliminating the censorship of art and ideas, and
3. initiate, by working with appropriate members of Congress, a process that can result in the development of normal bilateral relations between our countries.

U.S. and Cuba trade war of words over embargo

U.S. and Cuban officials have increased the rhetoric on the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba in light of a U.N. General Assembly vote on the issue next month.

Cuban Foreign Minster Felipe Perez Roque claimed on Tuesday that the embargo has cost the island $89 billion since the blockade was instituted in 1962. In comments he made to the local media, Perez Roque added that in the past year alone Cuba spent an additional $3 billion in extra trade costs by dealing without the U.S.

On the other hand, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez praised the embargo and called it "an absolute and resounding" success. Gutierrez- who is a Cuban exile- used the Cuban Missile crisis as an example to justify the embargo:

“Think about in 1962 when they had nuclear weapons in Cuba, they wanted to keep that weapon. They wanted to use that weapon if necessary.

So think about what would have happened if that regime would have had more resources. History doesn't credit us for what doesn't happen. You never get credit for what you prevented.”

In the meantime, Democratic presidential hopeful and Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd called for a complete end to the embargo. Dodd’s remarks go farther than those made by Barack Obama several weeks ago; the Illinois lawmaker advocated easing travel and trade restrictions to Cuba.

Sources- People’s Daily Online, Voice of America, Washington Times, Reuters, FOX News, The Latin Americanist

Image- USA TODAY