Daily Headlines: September 19, 2016

* Peru: The San Sebastian Church in Cuzco, which was built in the 16th century, was almost completely destroyed by a fire purportedly caused by a short circuit.

* Latin America: A Mexican boy’s stand at an anti-gay rights demonstration wasn’t the only image at a protest in Latin America that went viral last week.

* Venezuela: President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela said OPEC member states and non-cartel oil producing countries are “close” to agreeing to a plan to stabilize oil prices.

* Argentina: Third time could be the charm for Argentina in the Davis Cup finals after their team knocked out defending champions Great Britain in the semifinals.

YouTube Source – No Comment TV (“The historic San Sebastian church, in Cuzco, Peru has been gutted by fire. Dozens of works of art, including those by celebrated local artist Quispe Tito were destroyed in the flames.”)

Online Sources – The Washington Post, CNN, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, ESPN

Daily Headlines: March 16, 2015

* Cuba: U.S. and Cuban diplomats will meet today in the latest round of discussions to normalize bilateral relations and amid disagreement over relations with Venezuela.

* Venezuela: The federal legislature granted decree powers to President Nicolás Maduro that he requested in light of a diplomatic rift with the U.S. and a growing domestic economic crisis.

* Bolivia: Bolivia's government expressed its support to developing a nuclear power program aimed at diversifying energy sources, increasing farm output and helping cancer researchers.

* Chile: A state of emergency was declared near the Pacific ports of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar due to the threat of a major fire.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews
 
Online Sources – The Huffington Post; Reuters; The Latin Americanist; GlobalPost; Yahoo! News

Daily Headlines: April 18, 2014

* Mexico: A magnitude-7.5 earthquake struck near the resort city of Acapulco this morning and was felt throughout fourteen states in central and southern Mexico.
 
* Brazil: A two-day police strike ended in Brazil’s third-largest city, Salvador, but not before thirty-nine homicides were committed during that period.

* Chile: Officials with Chile’s national forestry agency claimed that firemen have “contained” a massive fire in Valparaiso that killed at least fifteen people and destroyed nearly three thousand homes.

* Cuba: Is Cuba on the verge of an “imminent health crisis” due to a reported shortage of condoms?
 
Video Source– YouTube user elsiglocomve (Residents in Mexico City exited their homes and places of residence Friday morning as a result of a powerful earthquake near Acapulco).

Online Sources – CNN; Reuters; The Guardian; Bernama

Daily Headlines: April 14, 2014

* Chile: More than 10,000 people were evacuated and at least eleven were killed after a massive fire destroyed hundreds of residences in the port city of Valparaiso.
 
* Dominican Republic: A recent report found that “arbitrary” interpretations of a controversial 2013 Dominican high court ruling has led to increased discrimination against children of Haitian background trying to attend school.
 
* Argentina: In the latest chapter of the diplomatic tug-of-war over the Falkland Islands, Argentina’s government blasted Britain for holding military exercises at the disputed archipelago.
 
* Mexico: Thirty-six people died as a result of bus that crashed into a truck yesterday on a highway in Veracruz state.
 
Video Source– ITN via YouTube (The major fire that hit Valparaiso occurred nearly two weeks after an 8.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the northern coast of Chile.)

Online Sources – Voice of America; Reuters; Prensa Latina; The Latin Americanist; The Washington Post

Daily Headlines: January 28, 2014

* Brazil: Few strong safety measures have reportedly been taken in Brazil in order to prevent fires like a deadly nightclub blaze that occurred on January 27, 2013. 

* Venezuela: Thousands of Venezuelans in favor and opposed to the government participated in different protests calling for an end to rampant violence.

* Latin America: The weather phenomena known as El Niño is expected to occur later this year and bring heavy rains to Latin America’s Pacific coast.

* Colombia: A fight among inmates is believed to have been the cause of a Barranquilla prison fire last night that killed at least ten people.

Video Source – Associated Press via YouTube

Online Sources- Christian Science Monitor; The Latin Americanist; AFP; Bloomberg; GlobalPost

Daily Headlines: May 31, 2013

* South America: The Venezuelan government threatened with not meditating in peace talks between Colombian officials and FARC rebels after opposition figure Henrique Capriles met with Colombian leader Juan Manuel Santos in Bogotá.

* Brazil: A judge controversially granted bail to four defendants accused of homicide related to a nightclub fire last January that killed 242 people.

* Mexico: Family members of eleven young adults gone missing and possibly kidnapped from a Mexico City bar blocked traffic along the metropolis’ main boulevard in a sign of protest.

* Chile: President Sebastián Piñera has given the green light to the Pascua Lama mining project, which has been strongly opposed by environmentalists and indigenous groups.

Video Source – YouTube via NTN24 (Last February, then-Vice President Nicolas Maduro blasted Henrique Capriles’ visit to Colombia as part of a “conspiracy” against the Venezuelan government.  Capriles replied by accusing Maduro of being a “mediocre loudmouth.”)
 
Online Sources- GlobalPost; USA TODAY; france24.com; CNN

Brazil: Nightclub Fire Kills 233 People (UPDATED)

At least 232 people were killed as a result of a fire that swept though a nightclub in the southern Brazilian province of Rio Grande do Sul.

The blaze, which also injured over 100 people, occurred in the early morning hours of Sunday at the Kiss nightclub in the city Santa Maria.

Most of the victims, including attendees of a local university’s party, were said to have died from smoke inhalation.  Some of the victims also died of asphyxiation caused by a stampede of club attendees.

"There was so much smoke and fire, it was (a) complete panic and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead," survivor Luana Santos Silva told Brazil’s Globo TV network.

The cause of the fire is unknown though several eyewitnesses said that it might have been caused by a flare lit on stage by the Gurizada Fandangueira band.  The group’s guitarist, Rodrigo Martins, claimed that the blaze “might have happened because of the Sputnik, the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks. It's harmless, we never had any trouble with it”.

Other eyewitness accounts alleged that the club’s security guards blocked the emergency exits since they erroneously believed that the crowds were trying to escape a fight.

“(The guards) blocked a lot for several minutes, I don’t know how many.  But you could’ve been dead or alive within one minute,” said one witness.

Another factor leading to such a high death toll may have been that the nightclub was overcapacity.  As many as 2000 people may have been crammed into the club even though Rio Grande do Sul firefighting chief Colonel Guido Pedroso de Melo said no more than half that should have been inside.

In the meantime, some families of the deceased are trying to make sense of such a terrible tragedy:

Daily Headlines: September 19, 2012

* Colombia: Daniel “El Loco” Barrera, one of Colombia’s most wanted drug traffickers, was captured in neighboring Venezuela.

* Mexico: At least twenty-six people died after an explosion rocked a Pemex gas facility in the northern Mexico city of Reynosa.

* U.S.: Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar was suspended for three games after writing a homophobic slur in Spanish on his eye-black during a recent game.

* Argentina: Argentina could face sanctions from the International Monetary Fund over its allegedly misleading economic data.

Video Source – YouTube via user cablenoticiastv (Daniel “El Loco” Barrera is believed to have led a drug trafficking “banda criminal” (or “criminal group”) with ties to former right-wing paramilitaries as well as FARC guerillas).

Online Sources- CBS News, Reuters, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: May 7, 2012

* Mexico: The top four candidates for president “traded barbs” and accusations during Sunday night’s televised debate.

* Latin America: Has greater political participation of indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples led to policy changes improving these communities?

* Brazil: The future of the Brazilian economy “looks less bright than before,” warned European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht in a speech earlier today.

* Peru: At least fourteen people in a rehab center died after a fire swept through the clinic on Saturday.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- BBC News, Americas Quarterly, BusinessWeek, Voice of America

Today’s Video: Seeking Justice for the ABC Victims

This week the Mexican legislature passed a landmark bill aimed at compensating the victims of drug crimes. Yet it’s another group of victims who continue to seek justice nearly three years after the tragic and sadly preventable ABC Nursery fire.

A citizens group known as the Movement for Justice on June 5 (El Movimiento por la Justicia 5 de Junio) has called on Mexican president Felipe Calderón to push for the implementation of the regulations in the Nursery Law.

"We call all the parents of affected families, to join forces with us and force President Calderon, that he enact regulations that should have been done April, "said Jose Francisco Garcia Quintana, spokesman for the the Movement for Justice on June 5. Quintana added that the lack of implrmentation of the Nursery Law, which was passed last year, has put into danger children that rely on the services of daycare centers throughout Mexico.

The following 2010 video via Al Jazeera English looks at the June 2009 blaze that killed forty-nine children in the state-run nursery:

Daily Headlines: March 30, 2012

* Honduras: At least 13 people are dead after a prison fire and riot in San Pedro Sula, which occurred weeks after over 350 inmates died as a result of a massive blaze in a Comayagua prison.

* Brazil: Is a new law in Bahia state banning public funding of concerts with “offensive music” insulting women and gays necessary or censorship?

* Guatemala: An estimated 10,000 indigenous demonstrators marched into Guatemala City and urged the government to help settle a series of land disputes.

* U.S.: Cuban-American Sen. Marco Rubio denied that he endorsed presidential hopeful Mitt Romney in order to be the former governor’s pick for vice president.

Video Source – YouTube via JoAnaProducciones

Online Sources- Huffington Post, Fox News Latino, BusinessWeek, CNN, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: February 27, 2012

* Cuba: Dissident Oswaldo Paya and blogger Yoani Sanchez were among the 231 nominees selected for this year’s edition of the Nobel Peace Prize.

* Honduras: A Supreme Court spokesperson claimed that under Honduran law an inmate praised for saving lives in a recent deadly prison fire cannot receive a presidential pardon.

* Spain: Baltasar Garzon, best known for indicting ex-Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, was cleared of “overstepping his jurisdiction” by investigating possible abuses during the Spanish Civil War.

* Brazil: A "high-impact discovery" that could contain at least 250 million barrels of oil was found about 120 miles off the Brazilian coast.

Image Source – Flickr via ceslava.com (Will Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez win the Nobel Peace Prize?) (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources- ABC Online, Honduras Weekly, The Latin Americanist, The Guardian, CBS News

Today’s Video: One Street, Two Tragedies

We'll be back over the weekend to look at several news stories from the Americas that took place over the past week.

One of the biggest headlines from the past few days was the train crash in Buenos Aires on Wednesday that killed fifty-one people and injured over 670.

In December 2004 another tragedy took place near the site of Wednesday's accident: the fire at the República Cromañón nightclub. A portion of the Bartolomé Mitre Street was subsequently closed after a makeshift memorial was built in honor of the 194 concertgoers who died in the Cromañón blaze. Yet it was claimed in a few Argentine press articles that closing the one-block stretch impeded the quick access of rescuers and emergency services to the Once train station.

In the aftermath of the accident Buenos Aires authorities announced that they would reopen the closed part of Mitre Street to traffic and relocate the memorial. Some relatives of the victims of the Cromañón fire were not pleased with the decision such as one who asked the local press "Why don't they show some respect and search for those still missing in the crash?"

On Friday afternoon local officials and some of the victims' families of the Cromañón fire reportedly reached a compromise. The temporary monument would remain undisturbed while a new parallel road would be created that would allow for vehicular traffic.

Is the creation of the new road next to Mitre Street a fair and just resolution or a problematic solution? We'll let you judge for yourselves with the help of the following video from Argentina's Noticias C5N:

Video Source - YouTube via c5n

Online Sources - BBC News, The Latin Americanist, Buenos Aires Herald, Todo Noticias, La Razon, Diario Panorama

Daily Headlines: February 21, 2012

* Argentina: Prolific theater, film and TV actress Lydia Lamaison died yesterday in Buenos Aires at the age of 97.

* Honduras: Relatives of some of the 358 inmates who died in a Comayagua prison fire last week continue to camp outside a Tegucigalpa morgue and wait for their loved ones to be properly identified.

* Ecuador: The country’s Supreme Court could hear an appeal by Chevron after a lower court rejected a multibillion-dollar arbitration favoring the U.S. oil firm.

* Chile: Police shutdown a stretch of the Pan-American Highway in Chile near the border with Peru after floodwaters unearthed a pair of landmines.

Video Source – YouTube via TVPublicaArgentina

Online Sources- Buenos Aires Herald, The Latin Americanist, BBC News, Reuters, The Guardian

Today’s Video: Chronicle of a Tragedy Foretold

Funerals have token place over the past several days for some of the over 350 inmates who died in a major prison fire last week in Comayagua, Honduras. Their mourning is mixed with anger and distrust against authorities who may be handing over the incorrect remains of their loved ones.

Though the fire occurred in Honduras, the incident could have easily occurred in a region rife with problems relating to the prison system including overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. Over the weekend alone forty-four people died in a Mexican prison riot that may have served as a cover for a planned escape by thirty inmates. Meanwhile border agents in Chile and Bolivia were placed on high alert after over a dozen convicts escaped from a Peruvian prison yesterday.

The following video is an excerpt from a documentary entitled “Under the Brazilian Sun” that examines the many dilemmas in the Brazilian prison system including extreme overcrowding:

As noted in the latest edition of the BBC World Service’s “World Have You Say” program, the tragedy in Comayagua has led to increased scrutiny of the prison systems in Honduras as well as the Americas. But will this lead to serious and meaningful reforms or will history sadly repeat itself?

What do you think?

Video Source – YouTube via MsReever

Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, The Miami Herald, New York Daily News, La Republica, BBC World Service, Listverse

Daily Headlines: February 17, 2012

* Honduras: Honduran and international human rights groups alleged that the government’s crackdown on gang violence led to overcrowded prisons including the one where over 350 people died in a fire.

* Latin America: According to a new study China has issued $75 billion in loans to Latin America since 2005; thus, topping financing from the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and U.S. Export-Import Bank.

* Brazil: Officials in Rio de Janeiro state reportedly plan to give away over three million condoms during Carnival festivities that begin this week.

* U.S.: A Pew Research Center analysis concluded that Latinos have helped boost the rise in interracial marriages to a record 4.8 million unions.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English (The prison in Comayagua, Honduras where a major fire took place this week housed over 800 inmates, more than double its original capacity.)

Online Sources- Fox News Latino, CNN, Americas Quarterly Blog, Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist

Hundreds killed in Honduras prison fire (Updated)

In what is being reported as “one of the worst prison fires ever in Latin America,” at least 357 people died after a massive blaze swept through a Comayagua prison on Tuesday night.

Officials including one speaking in the below video said that most of the dead were “burnt, carbonized, or asphyxiated” due to the acrid smoke:

The exact cause of the fire in the prison has yet to be determined though prison service head Daniel Orellana claimed that one hypothesis is that a prisoner set fire to the mattress in his cell. Yet Orellana denied rumors that a riot in the prison occurred before the fire.

Today about 300 inmates’ relatives surrounded the Comayagua prison seeking answers over the state of their loved ones who ether died or are disappeared. Police fired tear gas after some relatives attempted in desperation to break through the prison gates.

“We understand the families’ pain but we have to go through with the process according to the law”, said Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla to the Honduran press.

A few of the survivors accused the prison guards of not opening all of the cells to permit inmates to flee the fire. These allegations are unproven though Comayagua firefighters' spokesman Josue Garcia noted, “we couldn't get them out because we didn't have the keys and couldn't find the guards who had them.”

The Comayagua prison housed approximately 850 inmates, more than double its original capacity. Overcrowding is one of the worst problems in Latin American prisons including in Honduras according to a recent U.S. State Department report:

Prisoners "suffered from severe overcrowding, malnutrition, and lack of adequate sanitation," it cited human rights groups as saying.

"Authorities did not provide adequate food or other basic necessities. The ready access of prisoners to weapons and other contraband, impunity for inmate attacks against nonviolent prisoners, inmate escapes, and threats by inmates and their associates outside prisons against prison officials and their families contributed to an unstable and dangerous penitentiary system environment," the department said in its 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.

As we mentioned last week, U.N. human rights representative for South America Amerigo Incalcaterra decried the “alarming pattern of prison violence in the region” due to overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.

Update: According to the Honduran press, the death toll has increased to at least 364 deaths while authorities believe that between eighty and ninety inmates may have escaped amidst the chaos caused by the fire.

In a televised speech this afternoon Honduran president Porfirio Lobo suspended prison officials as part of a "totally transparent" investigation into the fire. Meanwhile, a team from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will be dispatched to Honduras in order to conduct their own probe.

Video Source – YouTube via telegraphtv

Online Sources (including Updates) – Milenio, MSNBC, BBC News, CNN, The Latin Americanist, Los Angeles Times, La Prensa, infoBAE.com, Univision.com

Argentine rockers convicted in nightclub blaze

An Argentine appeals court convicted a local rock band in the infamous “Caso Cromañón” (“Cromañón case.”)

In their decision handed down today, the Criminal Appeals Court found the members of Los Callejeros “criminally responsible” for the deadly 2004 nightclub fire that killed 194 people. All six men were also found guilty of negligence and face sentences of five to eleven years of prison.

The tribunal thus reversed a 2009 verdict that initially absolved the band members and placed the main verdict of guilt on the owner of the Cromañón nightclub, Omar Chaban. Chaban, who originally faced twenty years in prison, could be behind bars for as much as eleven years after the court reduced his charge to negligence.

Other figures, including the group’s current manager and several former local officials, also had their sentences reduced. A separate tribunal will soon decide the definitive sentences for all the defendants.

Tensions were high at the courtroom as police officers clashed with soon of the relatives of the deceased who were barred from entering the main courtroom. Their pain was worsened by the ruling that some of them viewed as “incomplete justice” while others criticized the court’s decision to remove a massive makeshift memorial built in memory of the victims.

Most of the dead from the 2004 blaze were teens and young concertgoers though the tragedy could’ve been averted. According to a Spanish-language article from the AP:

According to eyewitnesses the fire in the nightclub occurred after a flare was lit and hit the ceiling.

Most of the young concertgoers died asphyxiated and trapped while trying to flee the packed disco which had its emergency exit closed shut. Los Callejeros were in charge of security and the entry of concert attendees.

The nightclub was allowed to be open and functional despite not complying with safety regulations. The uproar over the incident cost then-Buenos Aires mayor Aníbal Ibarra to lose his post.

Image- AFP via BBC News (Nearly 200 people died in the República Cromañón nightclub fire in December 2004.)
Online Sources- Buenos Aires Herald, eldiario24.com, Clarin.com, La Nacion, El Nuevo Herald

World Watch: Hot Hot Heat

* Greece: Firefighters claim that a series of rampant wildfires on the Greek islands including near Athens are starring to be under control.

* Middle East: Will Israeli and Palestinian representatives soon return to the negotiating table? State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said that it’s moving in that direction.

* Scotland: Despite vociferous opposition, Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill defended the move to free Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi due to health reasons.

* U.S.: Lt. William Calley- who was convicted for the infamous 1968 My Lai massacre- reportedly gave his first public apology last week.

Image- AFP (“A firefighter works amid a thick smoke in Pikermi, an eastern Athens residential area on August 24, 2009”).
Online Sources- Xinhua, AFP, BBC News, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: June 23, 2009

* Mexico: Police have arrested seven local officials and charged them with negligent homicide in the deadly day care fire that killed 47 children.

* U.S.: Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa decided that he will not run for California governor in 2010.

* Latin America: Is President Barack Obama’s apparent change of heart over free trade pacts with Panama and Colombia a sensible move or an ugly flip-flop?

* Chile: Chilean U.N. ambassador Heraldo Muñoz will head a commission to examine the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- UPI, Christian Science Monitor, Bloomberg, MSNBC