Today’s Video – Challenging the Champs

The German men’s national team steamrolled past host country Brazil en route to the fourth World Cup title in the squad’s history.  Their next matchup in Brazil might not be against Neymar and company but could be against a side with plenty of heart and determination.

The TECHO Latin American nongovernment organization has organized a social media campaign seeking a match between the World Cup champions and a team from Sao Paulo’s Anita Garibaldi slum.

The goal behind supporting a match between the Anita Fútbol Club and this year's World Cup titleholder is to call attention to the extreme poverty experienced by millions of people throughout Latin America. As a result, the organization has allegedly sent a letter to the head of the German soccer federation inviting Die Mannschaft to play against the Anita favela side.

“(Germany) was the team that played the best in the World Cup and they helped Brazil by building their own training center,” said Anita player and community leader Elvis Vieira.

It’s unknown of Germany will accept the invitation but Vieira and his teammates have undergone extra workouts with the hope that they could perhaps lineup against the likes of Thomas Müller, Manuel Neuer and Philipp Lahm.

“We used to train only on Saturdays and Sundays.  The community has always supported us and now even more so,” added Vieira.

In the following video via TECHO, sixteen-year-old Anita player Lucas observes how soccer serves as a welcome diversion from the difficulties he faces residing in the favela:

Daily Headlines: October 15, 2012

* Brazil: Over 1000 police raided a pair of favelas in Rio de Janeiro that are reportedly notorious for crime and drug-related violence.
 
* Haiti: Several hundred protesters marched in Port-au-Prince and called on President Michel Martelly to resign.
 
* Cuba: The Ladies in White dissident group marched in Havana yesterday on the one-year anniversary of the death of former leader Laura Pollan.

* U.S.: The U.S. Treasury Department officially designated the El Salvador-based MS-13 street gang as a “transnational criminal organization.”

Video Source – YouTube via AFP

Online Sources- IOL news, LAHT, The Telegraph, Christian Science Monitor

Daily Headlines: November 15, 2011

* Brazil: Police officials said that they would target other Rio de Janeiro favelas in actions similar to raids on Sunday in the Rocinha and Vidigal slums.

* Latin America: U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime chief Cesar Guedes claimed that Brazil, Argentina and Chile had become the "most important emerging drug consumer markets in the world" over the past few years.

* Mexico: The Mexican army reportedly found 140 Central American migrants stuffed in a tractor-trailer rig that was undergoing an inspection.

* Cuba: The Cuban government claimed that authorities arrested several individuals accused of setting up illegal Internet connections with alleged “financing” from the U.S.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English (“Elite police units backed by armored military vehicles and helicopters descended upon Rio de Janeiro's largest slum, the Rocinha favela this weekend.”)

Online Sources- The Australian, AFP, MSNBC, Fox News Latino

Brazil: Criticism grows against Olympics slum removals

Brazilian authorities have received plenty of criticism in preparing for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The latest critique has to do with the unfair treatment of residents of Rio’s most impoverished neighborhoods.

International human rights group Amnesty International (AI) expressed concern over evicting favela dwellers in order to accommodate several infrastructure projects for the 2016 games. AI Secretary General Salil Shetty expressed his strong doubts over officials providing fair compensation to slum residents obligated to relocate. "Everybody fully understands that some degree of movement might be inevitable when you're undergoing such a major project, but the issue is whether the fair process is being followed," Shetty said to the press.

Shetty is expected to address his concerns later this week in meetings with favela residents and government officials maybe including President Dilma Rousseff. In the meantime, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing Raquel Rolnik accused authorities of possible violations against the “right to adequate housing” in slum communities. She echoed Shetty’s concerns over unfair compensation and added that “insufficient attention is being given to access to infrastructure, services and means of subsistence in relocation sites.”

So far there have been few evictions but plenty of poor people have been affected. Rolnick noted that for the expansion of Line 5 of the Sao Paulo metro “thousands of families have bee evicted…and another ten thousand face the same fate.”

Latin American soccer columnist Tim Vickery observed in his blog that the World Cup would likely have a hard affect on the “hard-pressed Brazilian tax payer”. While that may probably be the case, Brazil’s poor are carrying a greater burden while preparations continue for the upcoming sports mega-events:

Video Source – Al Jazeera English via YouTube
Online Sources- BBC Sport, El Espectador, Reuters, Democracy Now, U.N. News Center, BBC News

Daily Headlines: April 1, 2009

* Argentina: Rest in peace Raul Alfonsin. Argentina’s first post-“Dirty War” president passed away yesterday at the age of 82.

* U.S.: Immigration officials vowed to change their policy to focus more on employers who hire illegal workers but didn’t pledge to end controversial workplace raids.

* Brazil: Critics claim that the move by Rio de Janiero’s government to build walls around slums is discriminatory and a pitiful attempt to separate the extremely wealthy from the very poor.

* Mexico: Did Hillary Clinton really commit a silly faux pas during her visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe last week?

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- Reuters, Gawker, MSNBC, AHN