Daily Headlines: April 23, 2015

* Chile: Authorities evacuated more than 5000 people living near the Calbuco volcano that erupted twice after having been dormant since 1972.

* Puerto Rico: “The island's financial state is extremely uncertain,” was the grim warning issued by Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank over a potential local government shutdown.

* U.S.: A defunct movie theater in Texas has sued the AMC megachain over alleged “conduct (that) was anticompetitive, unlawful, and harmful to Houston’s substantial Hispanic and Spanish-speaking community.”

* Argentina: Spanish coach Josep “Pep” Guardiola could be fined for wearing a shirt supporting a campaign for Jorge “El Topo” López, an Argentine journalist killed at last year’s World Cup in Brazil.

YouTube Source – Associated Press

Online Sources – ABC News, The A.V. Club, Al Jazeera, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: November 12, 2013

* Latin America: Mexico and Uruguay are each hoping to avoid shock defeats tomorrow in the first match of a two-leg World Cup playoff series against New Zealand and Jordan, respectively

* Argentina: A spokesman for Argentine president President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who underwent surgery last month, said that she will return to her duties next week.

* Puerto Rico: Could Puerto Rico's financial woes provide a golden opportunity for Wall Street investors?

* Brazil: According to the International Energy Agency, Brazil could become one of the world's top suppliers of oil by 2035.

Online Sources - Reuters; FIFA; Miami Herald; BusinessWeek

Video Source - YouTube via sntv

Common currency, credit, and passport for SICA countries?

Following their lackluster meeting to respond to the financial crisis in October, the presidents of Central America came together yesterday and agreed to a 41 point plan including several major stimulus and stabilization plans.

Among them are agreements in principle for common passports allowing freer traffic between the member countries (4 countries have already signed on to this), a credit fund accessible to member governments, and perhaps most notably, a common currency (El Salvador and Panama are currently dollarized, while the other 6 SICA countries use their own currencies; no agreement was made as to what currency would be adopted, or if a new one altogether would be instituted).

Details on each of these have yet to be laid out, and while the proverbial devil will inevitably be found therein, these agreements should be seen as potentially major shifts in moving towards regional financial integration. While international press coverage has been slim so far, I expect the development (if it happens) to become major news in the coming weeks, and for the comparisons to the EU will abound (if not only by the EU countries themselves, with whom the Central Americans just signed a separate agreement, making the EU the largest development aid donor to the sub-region).

In other news to come out of the meeting, Daniel Ortega assumed the SICA presidency for a 6 month term. In his acceptance speech, the Nicaraguan president didn't miss the chance to stick to the world's capitalists, declaring "Nos vendieron un modelo, nos impusieron un modelo, y ese modelo nos tenía y nos tiene amarrado de manos de pies, y nos ha tenido amordazado," and adding "Hoy más que nunca tenemos que unirnos."


Sources: SICA, Univision, El Nuevo Diario, AFP, Deutcshe-Welle