Daily Headlines: February 10, 2016

* Brazil: Brazil’s annual inflation rate rose to 10.7% and, thus, climbed to its highest point in over twelve years.

* Dominican Republic: Much like Pulitzer Prize-wining author Junot Diaz, Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa has come under fire in the Dominican Republic for criticizing the controversial elimination of citizenship to tens of thousands of people with Haitian background.

* Haiti: The World Health Organization warned that at least 1.5 million Haitians could suffer from malnutrition caused by a drought made worse by El Niño.

* Cuba: Analysts believe the number of Cubans migrating to the U.S. is on the rise over worries that the "wet foot, dry foot" immigration policy could soon be scrapped.

YouTube Source – CCTV America
 
Online Sources – MercoPress, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, CNBC

Daily Headlines: January 27, 2016

* Brazil: Brazil suffered the biggest drop in the latest Transparency International corruption perceptions index while most Latin American countries did not rank highly on the list.

* Argentina: Argentina may have one of the world’s largest cattle populations but high inflation may force the country to import its beef.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered oil minister Eulogio del Pino to visit oil-producing countries with the possibly futile aim of “stopping the madness” that is plummeting crude prices.

* Mexico: The Mexican state of Jalisco has become the latest territory in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage.

YouTube Source – AFP (Last August, “hundreds of thousands of protesters demand Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's resignation, blaming her and the leftist Workers' Party for runaway corruption and looming recession in Latin America's biggest country”.)
 
Online Sources – Reuters, ABC News, Financial Times, PRI

Daily Headlines: January 19, 2016

* Latin America: Colombia enacted a law imposing harsher punishments against those convicted of attacking women with acid, while the Dominican opposition accused the government of doing little to combat femicides.

* U.S.: The Supreme Court accepted listening to arguments later this year over the legality of the DACA and DAPA immigration relief programs.

* Chile: Chilean prosecutors will reportedly reopen an investigation into the origins of the late dictator Augusto Pinochet's multimillion dollar fortune.

* Brazil: Another negative sign for Brazil’s economy as economists believe that inflation will rise by 7% this year.

YouTube Source – Thomson Reuters Foundation (Video uploaded on April 2015).
 
Online Sources – BBC News, Dominican Today, Fox News Latino, Bloomberg, NBC News

Daily Headlines: January 8, 2016

* Puerto Rico: Two firms that are insuring Puerto Rico’s bonds filed a lawsuit days after the island’s government missed a $36 million payment on a $70 billion municipal debt.

* U.S.: The Latino unemployment rate dipped last month to 6.3% according to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data published today.

* Brazil: In the latest black eye for the Brazilian economy, the 2015 inflation rate of 10.67% was the highest in thirteen years.

* El Salvador: The Salvadoran government will seek the arrest of seventeen retired soldiers suspected of murdering eight people including six Jesuit priests in 1989.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera America News
 
Online Sources – Reuters, GlobalPost, Fox News Latino, The Tico Times

Daily Headlines: June 13, 2014

Note: As we mentioned yesterday, we will be posting several articles throughout the next month on the World Cup hosted by Brazil.  Thus, our “Daily Headlines” entries over the next few weeks will focus primarily on non-World Cup news.


* Cuba: Forty-four Cuban dissidents including Berta Soler, leader of the Ladies in White protest movement, were briefly detained by the police as part of a suspected crackdown.

* Mexico: A new report published yesterday found that the background of Mexicans is “so rich, so genetically differentiated, you can’t just lump them all in.”

* Venezuela: New data showed that inflation in Venezuela has reached an eighteen-year high while anti-government street protests entered a fourth month.

* Caribbean: Jamaica could become the latest country in Latin America and the Caribbean to decriminalize marijuana for personal use.

Video Source – euronews via YouTube (Video posted in 2011).
 
Online Sources – The Guardian; Los Angeles Times; El Universal; UPI

Daily Headlines: October 17, 2013

* Haiti: According to the Global Slavery Index 2013, Haiti ranks as second among the countries with the highest prevalence of modern slavery.

* Latin America: Russia has reportedly boosted their weapons sales into Latin America including supplying $1.7 billion in weapons this week to Peru and Brazil.

* Brazil: Inflation in Brazil is expected to reach a year low 5.7% this month though it’s expected to rise slightly by the end of 2013.

* El Salvador: World soccer governing body FIFA issued lifetime bans against fourteen Salvadoran players who were under suspension over alleged match fixing.

Video Source – YouTube via The Pulitzer Center

Online Sources- BBC News; UPI; SI.com; Reuters

Daily Headlines: September 18, 2013

* Latin America: Dozens of people have died in Mexico after several tropical storms hit the country while about six hundred people in Uruguay were evacuated from their homes due to heavy rains and flooding.
  
* Central America: A new market study found that despite low levels of inflation in some Central America countries most individuals in the region believe that prices of basic goods are constantly rising.

* Venezuela: Clashes between rival gangs may be to blame for a riot in a Maracaibo prison that ended with at least sixteen inmates dead. 

* Nicaragua: Nicaragua filed a new lawsuit against Colombia with the International Court of Justice in order to settle a long-standing maritime border dispute.

Video Source – YouTube via AFP

Online Sources- LAHT; Reuters; France24.com; CNN; GlobalPost

Daily Headlines: September 11, 2013

* Venezuela: Venezuela's annual inflation rate hit a five-year high of 45.3% in August despite a slower increase in consumer prices.

* Dominican Republic: Authorities confirmed that the parents of at least seven children have formally accused the ex-Vatican envoy to the Dominican Republic of sexual abuse.

* Brazil: According to new preliminary government data the rate of deforestation in the Amazon may have increased by 35% over the past year.

* Mexico: Mexico’s All the Rights of Everybody coalition received the King of Spain Human Rights Prize yesterday.

Video Source – YouTube via AFP
 
Online Sources- LAHT; Reuters; GlobalPost

Daily Headlines: August 21, 2013

* Mexico: No immediate reports of damage or injuries have been reported as a result of a magnitude 6.1 earthquake that shook Mexico City this morning.

* Brazil: The value of Brazil’s currency could continue to fall due to concerns by investors over the growing rate of inflation.

* Chile: The former head of the Chilean army admitted that he stole and illegally put up for adoption the child of two political activists killed after the 1973 military coup.

* Colombia: A representative for Colombia’s FARC guerillas accepted some responsibility for the “cruelty and pain provoked by our forces” caused during the country’s decades-long civil conflict.

Video Source – YouTube via user Cadena3Noticias
 
Online Sources- Reuters; ABC News; Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: April 26, 2013

* Latin America: A new Lancet Oncology report concluded that cancer death rates in Latin America are disproportionately high compared to other regions.

* Argentina: Economy Minister Hernan Lorenzino has come under fire after he cut short a TV interview when he was asked about Argentina’s inflation data.

* Cuba: According to Cuban officials the biotechnology industry is expected to double over the next five years and bring in more than $5 billion in export revenues.

* Guatemala: A group of Nobel Laureates including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rigoberta Menchu urged Guatemalan judges to continue the halted genocide trial of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt.

Video Source – YouTube via user telesurenglish

Online Sources- BBC News; Reuters; Bloomberg; New York Daily News

Daily Headlines: February 5, 2013

* Venezuela: Vice President Nicolas Maduro read a letter purportedly from President Hugo Chavez who has not made a public appearance since undergoing surgery on December 11th.

* Colombia: Representatives for the FARC rebels denied allegations that peace talks with the Colombian government are floundering, while the ELN guerillas reportedly kidnapped two German citizens.

* U.S.: A new survey found that 18% of Latinos are gun owners, which is a smaller percentage compared to blacks (21%) and whites (33%).

* Argentina: Most Argentine supermarkets will freeze the prices of goods for two months in a move aimed at halting rising inflation rates.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- ABC News, LAHT, Terra.com, Huffington Post, Washington Post

Daily Headlines: November 23, 2011

* Venezuela: In order to combat high inflation the government introduced additional price controls on eighteen products.

* Mexico: Troops confiscated over $15 million suspected of belonging to Sinaloa drug gang leader Joaquin Guzman.

* Guatemala: Investigators identified the remains of two people suspected of being kidnapped, tortured and murdered by the military nearly thirty years ago.

* Chile: PolitiFact.com labeled as “False” U.S. presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s claim that Chile has a 72% national savings rate.

Image Source – Via Flickr user blmurch (market stall in Merida, Venezuela), (CC BY 2.0)

Online Sources – Bloomberg, PolitiFact, BBC News, Reuters

Daily Headlines: March 23, 2010

* Haiti: Former U.S. Presidents George W Bush and Bill Clinton visited earthquake-ravaged Haiti while the E.U. approved a $1.36 billion “development aid” plan.

* Brazil: Good news for Brazil’s economy – inflation has slowed down.

* Venezuela: The country’s domestic energy woes are likely to worsen as hydroelectric output is expected to decrease.

* Argentina: The government is one step closer to going through with an exchange of about $20 billion of defaulted bonds.

Image – Christian Science Monitor (“A man looks from inside his tent at a homeless earthquake survivors camp ahead of rainy season in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday.”)
Online Sources- BBC News, BusinessWeek, MSNBC, Bloomberg, UPI

Daily Headlines: June 30, 2008

* Venezuela: According to the British press over half of the cocaine consumed in Great Britain comes from Venezuela.

* Ecuador: The country’s armed forces plans to make a major arms purchase from several countries including Israel and Brazil.

* Chile: Inflation is the greatest "challenge” facing the world’s economy according to Chilean central bank chief Jose de Gregorio.

* Guatemala: Interior Minister Vinicio Gomez is believed to have died in a helicopter crash on Friday.

Image- Daily Mail (Shipment of intercepted cocaine embossed with Union Jack stickers)

Sources- BBC News, Bloomberg, The Telegraph, Xinhua

Daily Headlines: June 27, 2008

* Mexico: More fall out from last week’s deadly nightclub stampede as at least 30 females alleged that police forced them to strip naked and took photos of them.

* Haiti: A report has accused the U.S. government of using political motives to withhold drinking water to Haiti.

* Venezuela: A global diamond trade group has called for a boycott of Venezuelan diamonds over the “blood diamonds” controversy.

* Latin America: The region may be “resilient to the global credit crunch” though that hasn’t stopped many analysts from worrying over rising inflation throughout the continent.

Image- CNN

Sources- The Latin Americanist, Monsters & Critics, MarketWatch, New York Times, Guardian UK

Daily Headlines: June 11, 2008

* Caribbean: Say “goodbye” to the extinct Caribbean monk seal.

* Cuba: Leading dissident Hector Palacios said that he would return from exile and would even be willing to meet with President Raul Castro.

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez denied the allegations of a 31-year-old man claiming to be his illegitimate son.

* Brazil: A bad economic sign – Brazilian inflation has reached a three-year high.

Sources- TIME, Bloomberg, Associated Press, MSNBC

Image- La Plaza