Daily Headlines: June 15, 2015

* Dominican Republic: The Vatican officially indicted Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, the former papal nuncio for the Dominican Republic, on sexual child abuse charges and will stand trail starting in July.

* Brazil: In a bad sign for the Brazilian economy, car sales in the world's fourth-largest auto market is expected to fall by 18% this year.

* Venezuela: A study found that 27% of Venezuelans between 15 and 29-years-old are considering emigrating mainly due to the weakened economy and a perceived lack of opportunity.

* Mexico: “As the purpose of matrimony is not procreation, there is no justified reason that the matrimonial union be heterosexual, nor that it be stated as between only a man and only a woman,” according to a landmark Mexican Supreme Court decree issued earlier this month.

YouTube Source – euronews (Video uploaded in September 2014).

Online Sources – CNN, NBC News, Fox News Latino, UPI

Daily Headlines: August 30, 2013

* Guatemala: According to new Guatemalan government data at least 62 children under the age of 5 have died thus far this year due to malnutrition while some 9800 kids have been diagnosed with chronic malnutrition.

* Latin America: Latin American and Caribbean members of the U.N. such as Argentina and Brazil are advocating that military intervention in Syria should only occur with approval from the Security Council.

* Brazil: The population in Brazil is expected to pass the 200 million mark for the first time by the end of this year instead of 2015 as was originally estimated.

* Dominican Republic: The country’s first legal non-Catholic marriage took place was held on Wednesday when an evangelical couple tied the knot.

Video Source – YouTube via The Pulitzer Center (Video uploaded in 2009).

Online Sources- Bloomberg; Washington Post; GlobalPost; Miami Herald

Uruguayan Congress Approves Gay Marriage Bill

Uruguayan legislators overwhelmingly backed a proposal legalizing same-sex marriages and, as a result, may soon become the second Latin American country to permit such a practice.

The proposal was backed by 71 of 92 members of the lower house of Congress on Wednesday in a vote held days after the Senate approved the bill by a 23-8 vote.  It is expected to be signed into law within two weeks by President Jose Mujica.

"I agree that family is the basis of society but I also believe that love is the basis of family. And love is neither homosexual nor heterosexual," said opposition lawmaker Fernando Amado of the center-right Colorado Party according to Reuters.

Aside from permitting gay marriages, the Marriage Equality Law grants rights to same-sex couples that had formerly given exclusively to heterosexuals.   Under the proposal gay couples have the chance to choose the order of the surnames of the children they adopt and also permits those in same-sex relationships to undergo in-vitro fertilization procedures.

The plan further updates the 101-year-old law on divorce and increases the age of consent for sexual relations to 16 from the current 12 years old for girls and 14 for boys.

The plan was opposed by conservative elements including a few opposition legislators who voted against the proposal. Uruguay's Roman Catholic Church reportedly claimed that marriage equality is "not justice but an inconsistent assimilation that will only further weaken marriage."

Brazil's Supreme Court voted last year in favor of allowing same-sex couples the same legal rights as married heterosexuals.  It is in that country where a key lawmaker has come under fire for his homophobic remarks:

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

Today’s Video: That's amore

There is a cliche that says that "love conquers all." In the case of one of the Chilean miners trapped below ground for nearly four weeks, the love he has for his girlfriend of over 25 years may help him survive until he possibly gets rescued in December:

Online Source - CNN

Weekend Headlines: June 5-6, 2010

* Costa Rica: The government has forced the shutdown of the country’s largest stem cell treatment clinic after claiming that such therapy doesn’t work.

* U.S.: According to a Pew Research Center report mixed marriages in the U.S. have reached an all-time high partly due to immigration from Latin America.

* Brazil: After being separated for nearly three years a gay Brazilian man reunited with his husband in Massachusetts.

* Panama: Judicial authorities have requested that France extradite ex-ruler Manuel Noriega to Panama where he awaits trial.

Image – The Guardian
Online Sources – AFP, AP, New York Times, MSNBC

Daily Headlines: May 13, 2010

* Latin America: Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow is a persona non grata to Paraguayan and Argentine officials due to the subject of her next film.

* Chile: Authorities arrested a Pakistani man who visited the U.S. embassy and was found with “trace amounts” of explosive materials.

* Dominican Republic: Major League Baseball announced numerous drug testing and registration procedures for Dominican prospects.

* Mexico: At a court hearing actress Fernanda Romero rejected accusations of her wrongly marrying a pizza deliveryman in order to obtain a resident visa.

Image – Guardian UK
Online Sources- Al Jazeera English, Los Angeles Times, LAHT, AFP

Abimael Guzman starves for matrimony

Cuban prisoner Guillermo Farinas is close to death after being on a hunger strike for nearly two months. His fasting has been done in order to call attention to 26 very ill political prisoners who he feels deserve to be liberated.

Former Peruvian guerilla leader Abimael Guzman started his own hunger strike on Tuesday. Rather than an unselfish cause like Farinas is doing, the imprisoned Shining Path founder has a more personal reason for his protest:

The jailed leaders of Peru's brutal Shining Path insurgency, Abimael Guzman and his fiancée, started a hunger strike on Tuesday to demand the government let them hold a wedding ceremony.

Guzman, 75, wants to marry his partner of the past two decades, Elena Yparraguirre. Both are serving life terms at different prisons near Peru's capital, having been convicted of commanding one of Latin America's most violent guerrilla movements.

"Abimael Guzman and I went on a hunger strike at midnight," Yparraguirre said on RPP radio. "The government must stop putting up obstacles to prevent us from marrying -- it doesn't let us go to the public registry, to the notary, to get medical exams for the wedding, nothing."

The couple registered to marry lat year but apparently bureaucratic red tape has held up the planned nuptials. Despite being labeled by BBC News as “the most reviled couple in Peru” President Alan Garcia said months ago that the couple has the right to wed.

According to Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission the Shining Path was responsible for nearly half of the country’s 70,000 murders during a bloody struggle against the state between 1980 and 2000.

Image- CPN Radio
Online Sources- EPA, Guardian UK, The Latin Americanist, Reuters AlertNet, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, BBC News

Will Monserrate, Espada affect NY gay marriage bill?

On Monday, New York State Senators Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada, Jr. defected to the GOP and ousted Democratic control of the chamber. It’s unknown as to how exactly the new Republican control of the NYS Senate will affect several issues like gay marriage.

Espada became the new acting state Senate President as a result of his defection and in the past he has supported the gay marriage initiative. Espada recently said that he would allow the Senate to vote on the gay marriage proposal even though he was unsure if there are sufficient legislators to approve the bill.

Joining Espada on the gay marriage issue is Joe Bruno- the Republican former Senate leader who still has plenty of influence in Albany. "It's time. Now. For the government to back off, let people make their own life decisions...." said Bruno in a sudden about-face from his past views on the issue.

But could the proposal be doomed due to the Senate coup? Espada’s predecessor- Sen. Malcolm Smith- had put the vote on hold citing insufficient support and he has been unwilling to handover the reins to Espada. Both Monserrate and Espada are mired in controversy; the former for awaits trial for supposedly beating-up his girlfriend and the latter for allegedly using a nonprofit health-care as his personal piggy bank. One of the top Latino politicos in the state senate- Rubén Díaz Sr.- is an evangelical preacher who is vehemently against the bill.

In the meantime, the Senate has been literally deadlocked while they continue with their political power struggle. Hopefully they’ll figure something out soon (ha!) and get on with the business of leading the state.

Image- New York Daily News
Online Sources- Towleroad, New York Daily News, AP, NPR, Reuters, newsday.com, Gothamist

Lula and Bachelet sitting in a tree…

Latin America will soon have a new power couple after Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Chilean counterpart Michelle Bachelet announced plans to get married.

Citizens from Santiago to Sao Paulo are stunned after last night’s press conference from the Chilean resort city of Viña del Mar where both leaders appeared jointly and hand-in-hand. “I just love twirling my fingers through his beard” cooed Bachelet as Lula chuckled heartily. The soon-to-be newlyweds declared their amorous intentions shortly before Lula left for the G20 summit in Britain.

The Brazilian leader was effusive in his praise of the woman who will soon be his third wife:

“What can I say? My Achilles heel has always been bright women in positions of power. Besides, she has the cutest little smile which brings out a quaint twinkle in her eyes… I’ve never been happier!”

Bachelet is currently a separated mother of three and her divorce is expected to be relatively swift. Lula’s divorce will likely be a more tempestuous affair after his wife was seen throwing his clothes out of the presidential residence in Brasilia. “I wonder of Evo is single?” she was heard muttering in reference to Bolivia’s president.

Image- daylife.com (Lula can’t help but gaze adoringly at Michelle Bachelet as she talked politics during the 2008 UNASUR summit).
Online Sources- Wikipedia, Bloomberg

Gay marriage debated in Mexico City

The Latino electorate in three states has received plenty of blame for backing ballot proposals banning gay marriage. (The reality, of course, is not that simple and straightforward).

South of the border, meanwhile, legislators in Mexico’s capital are debating opposing bills centering on gay marriage. One proposal from councilwoman Leticia Quezada calls for expanding the law to allow homosexuals to wed, adopt, and receive social security benefits. A competing bill by conservative legislator Maria de la Paz Quiñónez demands that marriage be defined as a union between “two biologically distinct persons.”

Mexico City has permitted civil unions among gays since 2007, a measure that has drawn fire from the Catholic Church and Mexico’s federal government. Marcelo Ebard- Mexico City’s leftist mayor- has publicly backed Quezada’s bill:

“The Law of Societies in Coexistence was already approved and I do not see why other instruments in the same direction are not due to approve. Which do these tools try to do? Allow that people can live freely with their sexuality and have relations with the pair that choose.” – [ed. personal translation]

Image- MSNBC (“Antonio Medina, right, and Jorge Cerpa kiss each other after signing their civil contract, the first in Mexico that offers same-sex couples the same rights as marriage.”)
Sources (English)- The Latin Americanist, Guanabee, dailynews.com
Sources (Spanish)- La Cronica de Hoy, Milenio

Court rules against gays in Costa Rica

Gay inmates do not have the right to conjugal visits like heterosexual couples do according to a verdict handed down by Costa Rica’s highest court. The decision by prison officials to stop the weekly conjugal visits of a former convict “falls within the scope of their rights, duties and powers” said the country’s Constitutional Tribunal.

When all is said and done, however, the court’s ruling may be rendered moot:

The court, however, is still debating another appeal in a similar case that challenges prison rules restricting conjugal visits to heterosexual couples as violating the basic right to sexual freedom of all inmates, including homosexuals.

The high court's ruling could also be affected if Congress votes and passes a bill currently under debate that would legalize gay marriage.

Approximately 20,000 Costa Ricans marched last month in a protest organized by religious leaders against homosexual marriage. However, there is a “substantial level” of gay tourism in Costa Rica, according to one source, which could be affected over the gay marriage issue.

Image- BBC News

Sources (English)- The Australian, AFP, Pink News, Topix

Sources (Spanish)- Terra España

Daily Headlines: February 17, 2008

* Follow-up: Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez seemed to have backed down on his earlier threat to halt all oil exports to the U.S.

* Next stop for the One Laptop Per Child project – Haiti.

* Could “organized crime” be behind a bombing last Friday in Mexico City?

* Over 200 British and Canadian couples may have been duped in a Dominican marriage scam.

* Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited Antarctica as part of a possible expansion of operations there.

Sources- Xinhua, The Latin Americanist, Washington Post, MSNBC, International Herald Tribune

Image- earthtimes.org

Cubana Bigamist Points to Flaws in Immigration System

You know what they say about Latina women, right? Well the fact that one Cubana stands accused of marrying 10 to 23 undocumented men has nothing to do with that. In what is a growing underground industry, Eunice Lopez allegedly married undocumented men for money and if they didn't pay she would threaten to expose them and their status.

Such things are actually pretty common in the Latino community with citizens often being asked and offered money to marry an undocumented friend of a friend or citizens selling marriage vows for thousands upon thousands of dollars and then falling off the face of the Earth. Eugenia got caught is the difference.

But a completely different analysis brought up by a fellow blogger really hits the nail on the societal head. Bint Alshamsa writes:

I understand that bigamy is a crime and we can go back and forth about whether that should even be the case, but what about if Lopez had only married one guy at a time, after legally divorcing the husband she was with before? Why should it be a crime for one person to marry someone in exchange for money?
When Catharine Zeta Jones married Michael Douglas it was rumored that their pre-nup stipulated that she would receive 3.2 million dollars for every year that they remained married. Now, tell me, if that's allowable under the law, why is it illegal for someone to marry someone if the main reason for doing so is to secure citizenship? Why is government in the business of deciding whose reasons for marrying should be valid?

Things that make you go hmmmm. I'm sure race has nothing to do with this whatsoever.

Sources : The National Ledger and My Private Casbah