Daily Headlines: August 22, 2016

* Cuba: How are Cubans trying to work around the financial and technological barriers that make it very difficult to access the Internet?

* Chile: Hundreds of thousands of Chileans marched nationwide to call for reforming the private pension system in place since the regime of then-strongman Augusto Pinochet.

* United States: A recent study concluded that Latinos age at a slower rate than other ethnic groups despite having higher cases of chronic diseases as obesity and diabetes.

* Mexico: Bad news for the Mexican economy, which suffered its first quarterly loss in approximately three years.

YouTube Source – Wall Street Journal (From August 2015: “The streets of Cuba are famous for their classic American cars and weathered buildings. Now, they are also increasingly popular with Cubans using the Internet.”)

Online Sources – Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, Quartz, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: August 17, 2016

* Bolivia: Landlocked Bolivia took a big step towards being the world’s largest exporter of lithium following its first shipment of the metal to China.

* Brazil: Suspended President Dilma Rousseff proposed early elections though that may not be enough to prevent her from possibly being removed from office by the Brazilian Senate later this month.

* Puerto Rico: At least 500 passengers were evacuated from a ferry that caught fire off the Puerto Rican coast this morning.

* Nicaragua: Opposition parties have called for a boycott of Nicaragua’s upcoming presidential elections that critics claim are rigged to create a “dynastic dictatorship” for current leader Daniel Ortega.

* Mexico: Is the kidnapping of six people including the son of imprisoned capo Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman a sign of increased violence between Mexican drug gangs?

Daily Headlines: September 4, 2015

* Cuba: A Florida International University study found that the push towards normalized relations would help U.S. tourism to Cuba though the embargo against the island serves as a major obstacle.

* Latin America: The number of Internet users in Latin America has nearly doubled from 2006 to 2013 according to a new report yet “local (Web-based) services and applications have not grown at the same rate as connectivity.”

* Brazil: The government rejected rumors alleging that Finance Minister Joaquim Levy was resigning over planned austerity measures backed by President Dilma Rousseff.

* Mexico: A U.S. appeals court ruled against deporting an undocumented transgender woman back to Mexico where she was under threat of being sexually abused again.

YouTube Source – AFP 

Online Sources – Latin American Herald Tribune, Fox News Latino, Voice of America, SFGate.com

Daily Headlines: January 15, 2015

* Guatemala: The genocide retrial of ex-Guatemalan strongman Efrain Rios Montt was once again suspended after he skipped attending a court hearing this week.

* Venezuela: Former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles called on the Venezuelan opposition to unite and protest against the government amid a worsening economic crisis.

* Mexico: At least twenty Mexican state officials including prosecutors, forensic investigators and state police are being investigated for allegedly helping cover up the extrajudicial killings of suspected gang members in June 2014.

* Colombia: Colombia will become the first Latin American country to use a new cell phone app aimed at providing free internet nationwide and championed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Video Source – YouTube user WochitGeneralNews (The genocide retrial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt was initially suspended last week following the intervention of his lawyers).

Online Sources – BBC News; Bloomberg; ABC News; Voice of America

Daily Headlines: March 26, 2014

* Mexico: The chief executive and major stakeholder of Mexican oilfield services firm Oceanografia was placed under house arrest over his suspected role in the reported defrauding of about $400 million from Citigroup.

* Panama: What connection does Panama’s independence over a century ago have to do with the Russian invasion and apparent annexation of the Crimea region?

* Cuba: The CARICOM bloc of Caribbean nations once again called for an end to the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. 

* Brazil: Brazil’s lower house of Congress approved a major Internet bill that did not include provisions on net neutrality or that would’ve permitted online data to be locally collected.

Video Source – YouTube user IBTimes UK

Online Sources- GlobalPost; Fox News Latino; USA TODAY; Reuters

Daily Headlines: March 20, 2014

* U.S.: Officials in Texas found 109 migrants mostly from Central America and Mexico crammed into a dilapidated house and who may have been victims of a human smuggling operation.

* South America: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos gave final approval to the dismissal of Bogotá mayor Gustavo Petro while Venezuelan authorities arrested San Cristobal Mayor Daniel Ceballos and charged him with inciting “civil rebellion.”

* Argentina: Argentine President Cristina Fernandez blasted last week’s referendum in Crimea as “worthless” and compared it to a March 2013 vote where most residents of the disputed Falklands Islands opted to remain under British rule.

* Brazil: Lawmakers dropped a controversial provision from a major Internet bill that would’ve permitted online data to be locally collected in order to bypass U.S. intelligence surveillance.

Video Source – Associated Press via YouTube

Online Sources- The Guardian; Reuters; ZDNet; Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: October 7, 2013 (Updated)

* Argentina: Doctors for Argentine President Cristina Fernandez have ordered her to take a month off after she was diagnosed with a brain hematoma.

Update: According to the Favaloro Foundation clinic in Buenos Aires where Fernandez is being treated, the sixty-year-old will undergo an emergency surgery on Tuesday to remove an accumulation of blood in her skull. 

* Latin America: At least eight people died in Mexico when a monster truck lost control and careened into the stands while about nineteen people died in a bus crash in Peru.

* Guatemala: A U.S. court last week found ex-Guatemalan solider Jorge Sosa guilty of lying on his citizenship application regarding the role he played in the Dos Erres massacre of 1982.

* Cuba: A study from rights group Freedom House concluded that Cuba “has long ranked as one of the world’s most repressive environments for information and communication technologies.”

Video Source – YouTube via user BBCWorldNewsWatch

Online Sources including Update - The Guardian; Miami Herald; Huffington Post; GlobalPost; 3News NZ, Businessweek

Daily Headlines: May 29, 2013

* Honduras: Leaders of the dangerous Mara Salavatrucha and 18th Street gangs declared a truce similar to a pact in El Salvador that has helped decrease homicide rates.

* Mexico: A hurricane warning was issued this morning for areas along Mexico’s Pacific coast as Tropical Storm Barbara gains strength on its way towards land.

* Cuba: Starting next week, the government will expand internet access to over one hundred extra outlets though no internet provided directly to private homes and most Cubans cannot afford going online.

* Costa Rica: U.S. law enforcement authorities shut down Liberty Reserve, a Costa Rican-based company specializing in online payments, over allegations of money laundering.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- ABC News; CBS News; Voice of America; Reuters

Daily Headlines: January 25, 2013

* Mexico: Florence Cassez returned to her native France hours after being freed by Mexico’s top court and described her seven-year imprisonment as an “injustice”.

* Cuba: Officials in Cuba confirmed that an underwater fiber optic Internet cable connected to Venezuela was activated this month.

* Colombia: Peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels reportedly “advance in a climate of respect and of broad dialogue.”

* U.S.: A new report released this week found that the Latino on-time high school graduation rate increased by 10% between 2006 and 2010.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources- NBC Latino, Hispanically Speaking News, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, LAHT

Daily Headlines: March 14, 2012

* Mexico: The members of Los Tigres Del Norte were declared persona non grata by officials in the capital of Chihuahua state due to their narcocorrido songs.

* Cuba: Reporters Without Borders named Cuba one of its “Enemies of the Internet” for several reasons including police harassment of bloggers and limited access to online resources.

* Haiti: A Pakistani military court sentenced two U.N. troops to one year in prison for the rape of a Haitian boy.

* Latin America: A Costa Rican man accused of masterminding the 2011 attack that killed Argentine singer Facundo Cabral was deported last night to Guatemala.

Video Source – YouTube via LosTigresNorteVEVO

Online Sources- CBC News, Voice of America, BBC News, NPR

World Watch: From the Music Stage to the Political Stage

* Senegal: Will Youssou N'Dour follow the lead of Haiti’s Michel Martelly and become the next musician turned president?

* Europe: The Spanish government recently launched a set of anti-piracy laws opposed to by “bloggers, journalists and tech professionals” while Internet users in Belarus will soon face stiff fines if they access foreign-based websites not using the country’s .by domain name.

* Egypt: Prosecutors in the Hosni Mubarak trial claimed that the ex-president and his closest aides are responsible for the deaths of about 850 protesters by the military last year.

* Iran: The E.U. agreed to implement an embargo on Iranian oil imports even though the bloc is “one of Iran's biggest markets for oil.”

Image Source – Flickr via erinc salor (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources – news24, UPI, BBC News, Reuters, Voice of America

Weekend World Watch: Holiday Spirit

* Israel: Over 120,000 pilgrims and tourists are estimated to have gathered in Bethlehem in order to celebrate Christmas.

* Libya: For the first time since 1969 Libya will publicly celebrate its day of independence, which was sixty years ago on this date.

* Russia: Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in several Russian cities calling for new parliamentary elections and the resignation of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

* North Korea: Kim Jong Un was named as the "supreme leader of the revolutionary armed forces" days after the death of his father, former ruler Kim Jong Il.

* India: A court ordered that 22 Internet companies, including Google and Facebook, remove “objectionable content” from their websites.

* Nigeria: At least 68 people were killed as a result of clashes between police and “Islamic militant group Boko Haram.”

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources – Voice of America, BBC News, ABC Online, USA TODAY, PC World, The Guardian

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

Daily Headlines: December 10, 2010

* Cuba: While marching in Havana yesterday members of the dissident group the Ladies in White were reportedly jeered by a crowd who accused them of being “sellouts” and “opportunists”.

* Venezuela: A diplomatic cable made public through Wikilieaks said that officials at Venezuelan-state-owned oil firm PDVSA “had quicker access to U.S. visas” after they allegedly claimed to falsifying data on oil exports.

* Argentina: Avellaneda-based side Independiente won their first regional title in fifteen years after defeating Brazil’s Goias in the final of the Copa Sudamericana.

* Colombia: At a conference of the Internet Commitment for Social Responsibility in Cartagena the group called for the creation of a “.xxx” domain name for adult websites.

Image – Javier Galeano/AP via MSNBC (“Members of the Cuban dissident group Ladies in White demonstrate during their weekly march in Havana, Cuba on” last month.)
Online Sources- Reuters, AFP, ESPN

The Latin American Tech Bust

For all of the hubbub about exploding growth in Latin America this year, the region remains a challenging place for knowledge companies to do business.

The uncertain legal climate faced by internet companies is highlighted in cases that Yahoo! and Google are battling in Argentina. An Argentina entertainer, Virginia Da Cunha, sued Google because searches of her name turned up links to third-party pornography sites. Da Cunha had sued Google claiming that they were responsible for the third-party content that came up in Google's search results.

Naturally, Google feels they aren't - after all, Google simply indexes information on the web and displays it based on their search algorithms without any claim to police or monitor it preemptively. To do so would be a form of censorship. And because the internet is, well, the internet, it's also pretty impossible. Google and Yahoo! recently won an appeal overturning an original ruling that held them liable for controlling such content.

Yahoo!, also sued in the case, had a novel solution when faced with a similar lawsuit from Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Yesica Toscanini: since they say it's impossible to filter out what Toscanini doesn't want her name associated with, they simply blocked virtually all results to searches and deliver a link to the judicial order.

In a sign of the challenges facing tech firms in the region, the NY Times reports that "Google currently faces at least 600 lawsuits in Brazil."

As the Times rightly points out, this type of legal environment makes it very difficult for firms to innovate. The big guys have the cash to fight off every legal challenge - petty and legit - but small start-up firms (like Google, Yahoo! and Twitter were once) struggle to take risks and innovate in such an environment.

New firms are still sprouting up in the region, but as Sarah Lacey at TechCrunch chronicled here and here, the success stories tend to come from a very creative adaptation to the environment rather as a result of it (this despite the fact that in the 1990s Argentina ranked fifth in the world in registered web domains).

Another TechCrunch contributor, business professor Vivek Wadwa, recently pointed out that emerging markets can take advantage of a legal loophole to re-purpose technology that's patented in the US and other Western countries but not emerging ones. That and moving towards "fair use" laws that make every news aggregator (from Huffington Post to Drudge to THIS SITE) possible could do wonders to making Latin America as open as it should be to fostering web-based businesses.

Image Source: eldelosmonos.blogspot.com

Online Sources: New York Times, Sports Illustrated, TechCrunch

Daily Headlines: March 16, 2010

* Latin America: China’s interest in Latin America for resources to power its growing economy continued when Chinese oil firm CNOOC purchased a stake in Argentina's Bridas Holdings.
* Mexico: Ranchera singer Paquita la del Barrio has come under fire after declaring days after Mexico City’s first gay marriage that she would “rather see a kid die” than be adopted by a same-sex couple.

* Bolivia: It may not be a coastline proper yet Bolivia gained access to the Atlantic Ocean via Uruguay for the exportation of natural gas.

* Venezuela: Officials denied that President Hugo Chavez’ plans to regulate the Internet would signify censoring online information.

Image – The Telegraph (“A PetroChina petrol station in Hong Kong, China.”)
Online Sources- National Post, NBC Los Angeles, Reuters, CNN, insidecostarica.com

Craigslist-esque "Commotion" in Cuba

Looking to marry a Cuban? Got a TV you want to sell in Havana?

Check out Revolico.com (Spanish for Commotion)

The NY Times reports today on this Cuban internet marketplace - started by two Cuban exiles living in Spain - that now draws more than two million page views per month.

The Times story mentions that one revolico buyer found a copy of Windows 7 for $5 (including setup!). Could it be that Cuba is Mac territory?

Online Sources: NY Times, revolico.com
Image Source: MSNBC

World Watch: What’s in a name?

* World: The tilde, Greek characters, and other non-Latin languages could be coming soon to Internet domain names.

* Iran: Negotiations over the future of Iran’s nuclear program have hit a snag after Tehran rejected a proposal brokered by several Western countries.

* U.S.: President Barack Obama said that a 22-year-old travel ban barring people with HIV and AIDS from entering the U.S. will be removed in January.

* Europe: Stocks in Europe tumbled on Friday after several regional firms like Alcatel-Lucent and Siemens AG posted losses.

Image- Guardian UK (“A Chinese internet user. Soon '.com' will not have to be added in English to a Chinese web domain.”)
Online Sources- Bloomberg, BBC News, Wired.com, The Telegraph

Weekend Headlines: July 19, 2009

* U.S.: Univision won its federal court case over Mexican media conglomerate Televisa regarding Internet rights to broadcasts.

* Peru: During his corruption trial, ex-President Alberto Fujimori said that he did pay off $15 million to former right-hand man Vladimiro Montesinos but only to avoid being ousted in a possible military coup.

* Nicaragua: Speaking of coups, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega claimed that the U.S. is cooking up a scheme to overthrow him.

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez is none too pleased at a State Department report that claims that Venezuela could turn into a “narcostate.”

Image- New York Times
Online Sources- AP, LAHT, Reuters, Bloomberg

Cuban Internet expansion soon (but not soon enough)

Cuban communications minister Ramiro Valdes declared that the island’s government will expand Internet access to the country sometime in 2010.

Valdes remarked that he anticipated broadening online access next year after the completion of a 930 mile-long fiber optics line between Cuba and Venezuela. The cable is designed to circumvent the U.S. embargo on Cuba which bars the island from using a nearby line that connects from Florida.

Despite a May 2008 reform permitting the public to purchase desktop computers, the U.N. estimates that only a scant 2% of Cubans have Internet access. Internet use is restricted to government officials and tourists that can afford it while the government has cracked down on Cuban bloggers.

Vice Minister Boris Moreno discarded the possibility of expanding online access this year. Moreno also reiterated government policy that is “to ‘favor collective access’ in such places as universities, scientific institutions and cultural centers.” Opposition on the island has decried such a policy:

Dissidents say the government's true goal is to control access to information…

In July, the head of the US interest section in Havana, Michael Parmly, said that Washington would allow US companies to connect Cuba to their underwater cables.

"The only thing that is missing is for the Cuban government to lift its restrictions, loose its fear and begin to trust its own people," he said.

Image- BBC News (“Cuba's licensed internet terminals are meant only for tourists”.)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, The Inquirer, Reuters, hispanicbusiness.com, AFP