Daily Headlines: October 4, 2016

* Honduras: The case file focused on the murder of prominent Honduran human rights activist Berta Cáceres was stolen last week, which will likely impede efforts to identify the masterminds behind her death.

* Latin America: At least three people died on the island of Hispaniola as Hurricane Matthew continued its northward path through the Caribbean, while Bolivia is facing its worst drought in a quarter century.

* Argentina: Researchers in Argentina believe the first people to reach the southern area of the American continent may have occurred thousands of years than initially believed.

* Puerto Rico: A seven-member panel appointed by the United States government began its oversight of Puerto Rico’s public finances in an effort to prevent worsening the estimated $70 billion debt on the commonwealth.

YouTube Source – euronews (Video uploaded in March 2016). 

Online Sources – Fusion, Reuters, Smithsonian, Christian Science Monitor

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: December 7, 2015

* Colombia: The Colombian government claimed to have found the world’s largest sunken treasure, a 300-year-old vessel carrying an estimated $17 billion, though the question of who owns the spoils could become a costly legal battle.

* Mexico: Seven countries including the U.S., Canada and France issued travel warnings to visitors journeying to Mexico after authorities believed that two missing Australian surfers were killed in Sonora.

* Nicaragua: “We do not want to be accomplices to the death, damages and destruction that a 3C or 4C world will represent,” declared Nicaragua’s representative to the COP21 summit after the Central American state became the first to publicly reject a global blueprint to combat climate change.

* Chile: President Michelle Bachelet reportedly signed a decree eliminating marijuana from a list of hard drugs in anticipation of an expected Congressional debate to reform Chile’s narcotics laws.

YouTube Source – euronews (“Colombia claims to have discovered what's been described as the 'holy grail' of shipwrecks of the coast of Cartagena”.)
 
Online Sources – teleSUR English, Financial Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor

Daily Headlines: December 3, 2015

* Brazil: Lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha gave the go-ahead for impeachment proceedings to begin against President Dilma Rousseff for allegedly breaking fiscal laws.

* Central America: Some 4000 Cuban migrants are still in limbo in Central America amid heated diplomatic tensions between neighbors Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

* El Salvador: Human rights group Amnesty International blasted El Salvador’s total ban on abortion for “treat(ing) women as little more than human vessels.”

* Mexico: Archaeologists discovered a passageway at Mexico City's Templo Mayor ruin complex that could lead to the cremated remains of ancient Aztec rulers.

YouTube Source – AFP (“Pro-impeachment demonstrators (last October) set up a giant balloon caricature representing Dilma Rousseff outside the Congress, where a new petition to remove her was submitted.”)

Online Sources – Bloomberg, teleSUR English, JURIST, Business Insider

Daily Headlines: November 12, 2015

* Chile: Groundbreaking commenced yesterday in the construction of the supersized Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile’s northern Andean region.

* Venezuela: President Nicolas Maduro blamed “imperialist ambushes” for the arrest of two nephews of first lady Cilia Flores for allegedly attempting to smuggle drugs into the U.S.

* Puerto Rico: The homicide rate in Puerto Rico has fallen by 15% compared to last year and 40% in relation to 2012 according to Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla.

* Mexico: A new exhibition at a Mexico City museum attempts to link the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre with the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students missing for nearly fourteen months.

YouTube Source – Marca Chile

Online Sources – Reuters, Latin American Herlad Tribune, Endgadget, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: October 26, 2015

* Latin America: Elections were held in four countries of the Americas yesterday including Guatemala where Jimmy Morales became president-elect while a runoff will be needed to see who will replace Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

* Brazil: A recent Human Rights Watch report blasted Brazilian prison authorities for allowing inmates to takeover severely overcrowded Pernambuco prisons.

* Mexico: Six people died in Mexico as a result of accidents related to Hurricane Patricia though damage was minimal and the death toll was lower than anticipated.

* Colombia: Forensics investigators last week positively identified the remains of three women who may have been tortured and killed by security forces during the 1985 Palace of Justice siege.

YouTube Source – euronews (Official results of Haiti’s presidential elections, which involved a whopping fifty-four candidates, are expected to be revealed around November 4th).

Online Sources – Human Rights Watch, Fox News Latino, Colombia Reports, Reuters, CNN

The Lighthouse in the Dark

It was meant to be a beacon in the Dominican Republic, a shining monument to commemorate the voyage of explorer Christopher Columbus to the Caribbean in 1492. Ultimately, the Columbus Lighthouse (“Faro a Colón”) is a financial boondoggle that has been largely overlooked.

Dominican historian Don Antonio del Monte y Tejada in 1852 first suggested building a monument akin to the mythical Colossus of Rhodes though designs weren’t finalized until Scottish architect J.L. Gleave submitted a winning design in 1931. Construction of what would become the 680 foot long concrete crucifix would be delayed due to decades of domestic political instability and a lack of expected donations from other countries. Then-President Joaquín Balaguer in 1986 decided to go ahead with the state footing the bill plans even though the World Bank estimated that 37.3% of Dominicans lived in poverty. The Lighthouse would be completed in 1992 for the five hundredth anniversary of Columbus’ voyage and prior to a visit by the Pope yet with a price tag of $70 million (or roughly 5% of the country’s GDP). 

The monument was meant to be a major tourist attraction that included the regular lighting of 251 strong beams of light into the night sky. In the almost twenty-four years of its existence, however, the beacons have been rarely lit due to high energy costs and constant blackouts. The neighborhood near the structure is riddled with crime and residents derisively refer to the area as an “Apache zone”. Weeds, garbage and tall grass grow on the vast grounds of around the Lighthouse. The mausoleum is said to house the remains of Columbus though it has yet to be definitely proven if the remains belong to the famed explorer. An average of 100 tourists visit the structure daily despite some efforts by the government to improve the site.

Special events were held on Monday at the Lighthouse to commemorate what one local daily called “the 523rd anniversary of the discovery and evangelizing of América.” For critics of Columbus’ impact on the continent, it may seem fitting that such a massive monument in his honor is slowly becoming akin to the sculpture buried beneath the sands of time in the famous Shelley poem Ozymandias.

YouTube Source – Ciudad Digital (Efforts to clean up overgrown vegetation near the Columbus Lighthouse in 2014).

Online Sources (English) – Atlas Obscura, World Bank, Academy of American Poets

Online Sources (Spanish) – KeDificil.com, Listin Diario, Hoy Digital, Diario Digital

Daily Headlines: July 8, 2015

* Ecuador: During his official visit to Ecuador, Pope Francis has called on dialogue to ease domestic political tensions, greater protection of the environment and more opportunities for the world’s youth.

* Guatemala: A medical report concluded believe that former strongman Efrain Rios Montt is mentally incapable of standing trial where he’s accused of genocide during his brief rule in the 1980s.

* Peru: Japanese researchers have found twenty-four new geoglyphs at the famed Nazca Plateau including some about 2400 years old.

* Mexico: Official at Pemex claimed that the state-run energy firm is importing 75,000 gallons of gasoline daily in order to combat shortages in several states.

YouTube Source – AFP
 
Online Sources – Yahoo News, BBC News, Platts, Japan Times

Daily Headlines: March 24, 2015

* U.S.: According to a new study about forty million people in the U.S. speaks the blend of English and Spanish known as “Spanglish.”

* Uruguay: Uruguay will reportedly not take in more former Guantanamo detainees as President Tabaré Vasquez seems to distance himself from the policies of his predecessor, José Mujica.

* Argentina: The recent archeological find of an allegedly secret Nazi hideout in northern Argentina appears to be more a case of fiction rather than fact.

* Mexico: Family members of some of the missing and possibly massacred forty-three Ayotzinapa students continued their U.S. tour by protesting over the past few days in New York, Los Angeles and other cities.

Video Source – YouTube user NCLLP
 
Online Sources – UPI; Dominican Today; The Guardian; KTLA

The First Thanksgiving

The following post was first published in 2013:

Today is the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. and it is generally believed that the first Thanksgiving feast took part between the Pilgrims and Native Americans in Massachusetts in 1621.  But as we first mentioned back in 2007, the first Thanksgiving really occurred in 1565 when Spanish explorers and Timuca natives in St. Augustine, Florida got together and dined on bean soup.

The following brief video via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette delves into the history behind the first Thanksgiving nearly 450 years ago:

Although Thanksgiving is not typically celebrated in Latin America, many Latinos in the U.S. do celebrate the holiday.  Some households modify the holiday and add traditional Latin American details such as feasting on tamales or (in the case of my family) serve yellow rice as one of the side dishes to the Thanksgiving turkey.

Video Source - The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via YouTube

Online Source - The Latin Americanist; Latino Post

Daily Headlines: October 7, 2014

* Ecuador: As many as 2500 “micro-traffickers” of drugs could be freed from prisons in Ecuador as part of a new crime law that took effect in August.

* Argentina: U.S. federal judge Thomas Griesa continues to put pressure on the Argentine government in its legal battle against paying millions of dollars to bondholders.

* Colombia: At least eleven residents of a Colombian indigenous village died due to a lighting strike yesterday.

* Haiti: Researchers examining a shipwreck near Cap-Haitien, Haiti concluded that it did not belong to the Santa Maria, one of the three vessels used by Christopher Columbus in his 1492 voyage to the Americas.

Video Source – The Washington Office on Latin America via YouTube

Online Sources – NBC News; CNN; MercoPress; The Latin Americanist; The Guardian

”Great Scot!” Revisited

With Scotland’s independence referendum taking place today, which may not have taken place where it not for a failed colonization in Panama centuries ago.  The following is text from a post we first published in 2007:
The annals of history serve as a rich tapestry of events that may seem far-fetched but are actually true. Take the case with the push for Scottish independence that was hindered by a disastrous attempt to colonize in Panama.

By the late 1600s, the Scottish economy was doing poorly from constant warfare, lack of a sustainable market outside its borders, and widespread famine. As a solution, the Bank of Scotland established a colonization company, which then decided to create an outpost in Panama. It was a huge gamble in that half of Scotland's liquidity was invested in the project despite the raising of private funds.

What did the colonists find in Panama? Certainly not the welcome wagon:

“The conditions were horrible. It was unsuited for agriculture and the Indians they met were uninterested in the trinkets they brought them. This is probably because they only brought useless things like wigs, combs, and mirrors. During the spring of 1699, torrential rain brought disease to the colony and many died from malaria and yellow fever. About 10 colonists were dying each day and the rest had to live on a pound of nasty, moldy flour per week”.

With the economy in absolute ruin the Scottish government would soon sign the 1707 Acts of Union, which politically incorporated Scotland into the United Kingdom.

Daily Headlines: July 28, 2014

* Chile: A series of “violent attacks” this month in southern Chile have increased tensions between the government and the indigenous Mapuche community.

* Nicaragua: Did a bus driver plan recent deadly attacks against Nicaraguan political activists or is he being used as a “scapegoat”?

* Bolivia: Workers at a construction site in the Bolivian mountain city of Potosi uncovered a mass grave with the remains of some 400 people.

* Mexico: Thirty-two police officers including the former top public safety chief of a town in Michoacán were arrested over alleged ties to drug gangs.

Video Source – YouTube user canaltvu tvu (At least two Chilean police officers were injured during a confrontation with members of the Mapuche community.)

Online Sources – New Zealand Herald; VICE News; NDTV; BBC News

Daily Headlines: July 10, 2014

* Uruguay: President Jose Mujica announced that Uruguay’s plan to legalize the selling and distribution of marijuana would be delayed until 2015 because of “practical difficulties.”

* Cuba: Aero Marti, “an airborne broadcasting platform that sent radio and television signals to Cuba,” was cancelled by U.S. authorities allegedly due to its cost and ineffectiveness.

* Mexico: The Mayan ruins of Calakmul became Mexico’s first site to receive the “mixed” World Heritage status from the U.N.

* Argentina: Vice-President Amado Boudou may be indicted on charges of corruption but that didn’t stop him from presiding over the Argentine government’s official Independence Day celebration.

Video Source – Fusion via YouTube

Online Sources – LAHT; ABC News; The Straits Times; Buenos Aires Herald

Daily Headlines: May 20, 2014

* Mexico: Scientists will reportedly attempt to extract the skeletal remains of a girl who died around 13,000 years ago in Mexico and whose discovery has strengthened “the long-held theory that humans arrived in the Americas by way of a land bridge from Asia”.

* Latin America: The Israeli government approved a foreign aid package "to strengthen its economic ties with at least five Latin American countries," and days after Palestine Authority president Mahmoud Abbas signed an oil deal with Venezuela.

* Cuba: Ex-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, former NATO commander Admiral James Stavridis and several former senior State Department officials were among the over forty signatories to an open letter using the White House to drop the trade embargo on Cuba.

* Colombia: “We couldn't do anything but hold our heads and watch the children burn,” said one of the eyewitnesses of a tragic bus fire that claimed the lives of at least 33 minors in northern Colombia.

Video Source –YouTube user NewsyScience

Online Sources – CBC News; BBC News; The Jerusalem Post; Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Miami Herald

Daily Headlines: May 15, 2014

* Honduras: Military police clashed with supporters of ex-president Manuel Zelaya outside of the Honduran legislative chambers as political tensions related to the controversial 2009 ouster of Zelaya remain high.
    
* Caribbean: Researchers have reportedly located the “looted” remains of the Santa Maria, one of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage to the Americas, off the coast of Haiti.

* Brazil: Cruzeiro’s elimination from the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores meant that for the first time since 1991 no Brazilian teams would be among the final four of South America’s top soccer club tournament.

* U.S.: Is the Eva Longoria-led Latino Victory Project a front for the Democrats or is the Republican National Committee guilty of sour grapes?

Video Source– YouTube user latribunatvhn

Online Sources – ABC News; The Latin Americanist; The Wire; The Huffington Post; Soccrway

Daily Headlines: May 12, 2014

* Britain: Manuel Pellegrini of Chile became the first non-European coach to head a team to an English Premier League title after he helped guide Manchester City to a crown in his rookie season with the club.

* Peru: Scientists recently discovered rock lines in Peru that are believed to be approximately 2300 years old and pre-date the well-known Nazca Lines.

* Brazil: An estimated 7000 people have occupied land near the site of the opening match of the upcoming World Cup as part of a protest to call for affordable housing in Brazil.

* Mexico: The Mexican government began to demobilize vigilante "self-defense" groups in Michoacan and convert them into a rural police force.

Online Sources - Discovery News; Los Angeles Times; The Huffington Post; Sydney Morning Herald

Video Source - YouTube user ChileNews

The Weekender – Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers’ Struggle

“The Weekender” is our new feature where every weekend we hope to highlight a short film, movie or documentary pertaining to the Americas. 
March 31st would have been the 84h birthday of the late civil rights activist and labor leader Cesar Chavez.  His life has received renewed attention with the new release of a Hollywood biopic that was directed by Diego Luna and stars Michael Peña, America Ferrera and Rosario Dawson.

The Mexican-American Chavez devoted his life to improving the conditions of farm workers by campaigning for equal pay and fair working conditions.  He championed nonviolent efforts to promote the rights of farmworkers who generally suffered from abusive labor conditions as well as low pay for their work.  Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the United Farm Workers (UFW), which helped organize strikes and other actions such as a boycott in the 1980s to protest the use of toxic pesticides on grapes.

Chavez’s views on immigration varied; on the one hand, he was opposed to undocumented immigrants who he viewed as “scabs” that would potentially undermine his efforts to campaign for farmworkers.  Yet he also successfully campaigned to end the Bracero guest worker program that he believed had exploited migrant laborers and unfairly displaced domestic farmworkers.

Below the page break is the first part of a documentary depicting the Delano grape strike of the mid-1960s where Chavez and his allies fought for union recognition for farmworkers.  The film includes footage of the poor working conditions faced by laborers, picketing protesters in front of a California supermarket, and an interview with one of the grape owners who admitted to have never met Chavez but still labeled his tactics as “distasteful.”

"Food for Thought" Revisted

The following post was originally published on November 2012:

Today is the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. and it is generally believed that the first Thanksgiving feast took part between the Pilgrims and native Americans in Massachusetts in 1621.  But as we first mentioned back in 2007, the first Thanksgiving really occurred in 1565 when Spanish explorers and Timuca natives in St. Augustine, Florida got together and dined on bean soup.

The following brief video via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette delves into the history behind the first Thanksgiving nearly 450 years ago:

"Vota por Kennedy" Revisted

Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.  Thus, we're posting once again the following video from 1960 of Jackie Kennedy urging Latino voters to support her husband in his bid for the White House.   

This ad along with the work of Viva Kennedy clubs may have pushed the then-senator to victory in a very close presidential election.

On November 21, 1963 President Kennedy and the First Lady attended a League of United Latin American Citizens dinner in Houston reportedly "to show their appreciation for the Mexican-American votes that had helped the young president carry Texas in the 1960 election."  Much like in the above video, Jackie spoke briefly in Spanish to express her joy at attending the dinner.

Less than twenty-four hours later, the thirty-fifth U.S. president was killed by his wife's side in Dallas.