Daily Headlines: August 18, 2016

* Haiti: The United Nations admitted to have “played a role” in a cholera outbreak that has killed at least 10,000 people in Haiti but stopped short of admitting peacekeepers caused the epidemic.

* El Salvador: The Salvadoran Supreme Court unanimously ruled to send former Colonel Guillermo Benavides to prison over civil war crimes and refused an extradition request from Spain relating to the 1989 massacre of a group of Jesuit priests.

* Venezuela: “Venezuela will represent a growing supply risk for oil markets in 2017,” concluded a recent report from Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

* Paraguay: Several hundred protesters participated in an anti-government march on the second anniversary of the inauguration of President Horacio Cartes.

YouTube Source – AFP (From January 2015: “Five years since the 2010 earthquake, the cholera epidemic in Haiti is still claiming lives, and there are recriminations over who was responsible for bringing it to the country.”)
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino, Bloomberg, Reuters, The New York Times

Daily Headlines: June 15, 2016

* Latin America: The U. N. Development Programme warned that 25 million Latin Americas that escaped poverty could soon fall back into serious financial hardship due to a “lengthy economic crisis and social exclusion in the region.”

* U.S.: The Latino community in Orlando, Florida tries to recover from the massacre of forty-nine people at a local nightclub including twenty-three Puerto Ricans as well as victims from Mexico as well as Venezuela.

* Argentina: Argentina’s foreign minister reiterated her county’s sovereignty claims over the Falklands but called on an “open dialogue” and better relations with the U.K.

* Puerto Rico: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the upper house will debate a debt relief bill for Puerto Rico later this month yet very close to a July 1st deadline for the island to pay $1.9 billion.

YouTube Source – DW (English) (From September 2015: “Agriculture is helping Paraguay's economy expand fast. Growth came in at about 5 percent last year. But many people still live in extreme poverty.”)
 
Online Sources – NBC News, ABC News, El Pais, Reuters, MercoPress

Daily Headlines: June 14, 2016 (Updated)

* Argentina: The quarrel between Argentina and Monsanto could soon come to an end with both sides purportedly on the cusp of reaching a deal over inspecting shipments of genetically modified soybeans.

* Paraguay: The speaker of Paraguay’s lower legislative chamber will urge the Attorney General’s Office to commence a probe into the deaths of eleven peasants killed in a 2012 massacre that was used by the opposition to impeach then-President Fernando Lugo.

* Mexico: Mexico's Immigration Institute claimed that human traffickers have adopted using luxury tour buses in order to smuggle migrants from Central and South America.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan officials appealed to the country’s Supreme Court in order to halt a referendum process that could lead to the recall of President Nicolás Maduro.

Update: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry today announced the start of "high-level talks" with Venezuela but also supports having the planned referendum and pushed for the liberation of all political prisoners.

YouTube Source – AFP (From October 2014: “In Cordoba, Argentina, a group of environmentalists decided a year ago to block the construction of a corn processing plant of US seed giant Monsanto, in opposition of its use of genetically modified crops.”)

Online Sources including Update – Reuters, BBC News, ABC News, Latin American Herald Tribune

Daily Headlines: June 13, 2016

* U.S.: LGBT centers in the area of Orlando, Florida are working to offer Spanish-speaking grief counselors in light of the massacre of at least fifty people during an “Upscale Latin Saturday” party at the Pulse nightclub.

* Puerto Rico: U.S. President Barack Obama in his weekly address urged the Senate to quickly approve a plan that would help alleviate Puerto Rico’s $70 billion debt.

* Brazil: According to “two unpublished academic studies” researchers have detected a “super bacteria” present in the waters of several venues of the upcoming Rio Olympics.

* Guatemala: Three former ministers who served under disgraced ex-President Otto Perez Molina were arrested on corruption charges while around 2000 protesters in Guatemala City rallied in favor of greater political transparency.

YouTube Source – Jornalistas Livres (Vigils were held in several Latin American cities including Sao Paulo in solidarity with the victims of the mass shooting of at least fifty people in Orlando on Saturday).
 
Online Sources – PBS NewsHour, Fox News Latino, Reuters, Deutsche Welle

Daily Headlines: June 3, 2016

* Haiti: The results of Haiti's first-round presidential election held last year should be thrown out and a new vote ought to be held, according to the recommendations issued this week by a special verification panel.

* Brazil: The Brazilian economy is still in recession though the decline in the first quarter of this year was only 0.3% less than the final trimester of 2015.

* Paraguay: More than one hundred people participated in the reconstructing the massacre of seventeen people in 2012, which was an incident cited in the impeachment and ouster of then-President Fernando Lugo.

* El Salvador: The Salvadoran legislature could approve a probe against the country's ambassador to Germany for purportedly selling weapons illegally on the black market.

YouTube Source – AFP (Haiti’s presidential runoff has been postponed multiple times amid accusations of fraud in the first round and heightened political tensions).
 
Online Sources – Latin American Herald Tribune, Reuters, Quartz, CBS News

Daily Headlines: March 15, 2016

* Venezuela: Authorities in southeastern Venezuela have recovered the bodies of seventeen men missing for over a week and possibly massacred in a case of illegal mining.

* Cuba: Ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s trip next week to Cuba, the Treasury Department announced new relaxing of travel and trade restrictions.

* Canada: A new report concluded that deporting convicts from Canada to Jamaica and Honduras could have a “boomerang effect” on crime in the North American country.

* U.S.: As a new slate of presidential primaries take place today, it’s worth noting that Latinos don't represent a monolithic voting bloc.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English (June 2014 report on the Venezuelan mining industry.)
 
Online Sources – CBC, Fox News Latino, Quartz, MarketWatch

Daily Headlines: February 26, 2016

* Argentina: Argentine investigators believe that the mysterious death of crusading prosecutor Alberto Nisman was a homicide rather than the suicide theory presented last year by the government of then-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

* Brazil: Fifty families of the Villa Autodromo favela in Rio de Janeiro are holding out against eviction for construction and development of Summer Games venues.

* Colombia: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry could meet as soon as next week with Colombian government and FARC rebel negotiators working out a final peace agreement. 

* El Salvador: Several hundred protesters marched in San Salvador against the extradition from Spain of former military members accused of the massacre of six Jesuit priests in 1989.

YouTube Source – CCTV America (“Nisman was a prosecutor who was investigating the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center that killed 85 people, when he was found dead from a gunshot. Alberto Nisman was about to present evidence that then Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner had covered up Iran’s role in the bombing.”)

Online Sources – Business Insider, ABC News, NBC News, The New York Times, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: February 8, 2016 (Updated)

* Haiti: Monday marks the first full day a transitional government rules Haiti after Michel Martelly stepped down as president amid political chaos and instability.

* Mexico: A ninth inning home run by Jorge Vazquez in the final game helped power Mexico to the Caribbean Series title for the third time in four years.

Update: On a related note, Cuba's Gourriel brothers including "star infielder" Yulieski reportedly left the team hotel and plan to defect as part of an attempt to play in the major leagues. 

* Venezuela: Shopping malls in Caracas will cut their hours of service to four hours per day as a result of weather-related energy rationing.

* El Salvador: Human rights advocates and friends of six Jesuit priests massacred in 1989 are pleased with the recent arrest of four ex-military members accused of committing the murders.

YouTube Source – AFP
 
Online Sources including Update – Vice News, The Latin Americanist, BBC News, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, ESPN

Daily Headlines: December 8, 2015

* Mexico: Coca-Cola has come under fire after airing a Christmas-themed ad depicting a “group of young, white Mexicans traveling to an indigenous town…to ‘help‘ wide-eyed locals by giving them bottles of Coke and a giant Christmas tree.”

* Venezuela: Nearly three out of four Venezuelans eligible to vote participated in Sunday’s legislative elections won by the opposition coalition with a potential “supermajority.”

* Colombia: Representatives of the FARC traveled to the Colombian town of Bojaya to ask for forgiveness for the massacre of some eighty residents in 2002.

* Cuba: The Cuban government is reportedly close to reaching a deal with the Paris Club of creditors to restructure a $16 billion debt.

YouTube Source – Diario de Mexico TV (Parody video poking fun at a Mexican Coca-Cola commercial criticized as racially insensitive and offensive against indigenous people).
 
Online Sources – Fusion, Xinhua, Colombia Reports, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: November 9, 2015

* South America: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos apologized the military’s role during the deadly 1985 Palace of Justice siege, while Ecuador will start its first trial for crimes against humanity relating to state actions some three decades ago.

* Peru: Diplomatic tensions have heightened between Peru and Chile over a disputed border area that has a population of approximately 15,000 people.

* Nicaragua: The Nicaraguan government gave permission for an environmental impact assessment on a planned interoceanic canal that critics claim will damage land and displace thousands of people.

* Mexico: Were remains of some of the 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa students missing since September 2014 located in a shallow grave in Guerrero state?

YouTube Source – teleSUR English
 
Online Sources – The Guardian, Fox News Latino, The Yucan Times, BBC News, teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: October 6, 2015

* Latin America: Representatives of the Peruvian, Chilean and Mexican governments expressed their satisfaction over the signing yesterday of the twelve-nation Trans Pacific Partnership free trade pact.

* El Salvador: The number of massacres in El Salvador has spiked so far this year though its unknown if it’s related to rampant gang violence.

* Bolivia: Bolivian authorities reached an agreement with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to ease the granting of special visas to Syrian refugees.

* Chile: Officials in Chile announced the creation of the largest marine reserve in the Americas that covers 115,000 square miles around the Desventuradas Islands.

YouTube Source – CNN

Online Sources – InSight Crime, The Financial Times, National Geographic, Xinhua

Daily Headlines: August 21, 2015 (Updated)

* El Salvador: A U.S. federal court delayed Spain’s extradition request for Col. Inocente Orlando Montano, a retired army officer allegedly involved in the 1989 massacre of five Jesuit priests in El Salvador.

* Guatemala: Former Vice President Roxana Baldetti was arrested today on charges relating to one of the corruption scandals affecting President Otto Pérez Molina’s administration.

Update: Guatemalan prosecutors and investigators on a U.N.-backed panel recommended impeachment proceedings to begin against Pérez Molina over his alleged role in the "La Linea" customs fraud scandal.

* Brazil: Brazilian prosecutors filed charges against ex-President Fernando Collor de Mello and the current Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies related to the Petrobras bribery affair.

* Puerto Rico: The head of Puerto Rico’s Chamber of Commerce claimed that a coalition of twenty private sector firms urged the U.S. Congress to allow the commonwealth to declare bankruptcy.

YouTube Source – AP Archive (“Salvadorans are commemorating the sixth anniversary (in 1995) of a massacre of Jesuit priests by members of the military”.)
 
Online Sources including Update – Inside Costa Rica, BBC News, The Huffington Post, The Latin Americanist, NBC News, INternational Business Times

Daily Headlines: August 6, 2015

* Mexico: Mexican police arrested a suspect in the recent massacre of five people including a photojournalist and a #YoSoy132 activist but that may not be enough to allay fears among members of the press and human rights campaigners.

* Puerto Rico: Could statehood help Puerto Rico overcome their public debt woes or is it an unrealistic solution?

* Uruguay: More than 400,000 workers could protest tools today and participate in the first general strike in Uruguay since 2007.

* El Salvador: Four people were killed in the latest bloody incident involving bus drivers caught amid rampant gang violence.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English
 
Online Sources – Newsweek, The San Luis Obispo Tribune, BBC News, Bloomberg, Yahoo News

Daily Headlines: May 29, 2015

* Mexico: Human Rights Watch has called on Mexican authorities to fully and impartially investigate a May 22nd shootout between security forces and alleged gang members that left 42 people dead.

* South America: Teams from four different Latin American countries including Tigres UANL from Mexico and Argentine side River Plate qualified for the semifinals of the Copa Libertadores.

* Argentina: The discovery of a new offshore oil field near the Falklands could lead to increased drama in the diplomatic battle between the U.K. and Argentina over the disputed archipelago.

* Peru: Bolivian authorities captured Martin Belaunde, the fugitive former adviser to Peru’s president who has been accused of corruption.

YouTube Source – ODN

Online Sources – Al Jazeera America, ESPN FC, SBS, The Telegraph, Reuters

Daily Headlines: April 20, 2015

* Guatemala: Aura Elena Farfán, a Guatemalan human rights advocate who helps locate individuals missing during the country’s 36-year civil war, was one of four Latin Americans named in Time’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people.

* Venezuela: China and Venezuela agreed to strengthen their military ties, and the Asian state reportedly loaned another $5 billion to the South American country.

* Mexico: A Mexican Congressional report found that the 2014 Tlatlaya massacre of 22 civilians by the military was an “illegal, excessive, and a disproportionate use of force”.

* Cuba: A pair of independent candidates failed in their attempt to become the first non-Communist Party representatives in the Cuban legislature.

YouTube Source – WITNESS

Online Sources – Tico Times, International Business Times, Reuters, GlobalPost, Deutsche Welle

Mexico: Investigators ID One of 43 Missing Students

Forensic experts in Argentina have reportedly identified the charred remains of Alexander Mora Venancio, one of forty-three Mexican students missing since September 26th.

According to a post published on December 6th on the Escuela Normal de Ayotzinapa Facebook post, what was left of Mora was found amidst where in a garbage dump where three detained hit men claimed that the young adults where tortured, killed and had their remains burnt.

Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam confirmed the news at a December 7th news conference. He claimed that the remains of the twenty-one-year-old were identified by a team from Austria that compared a bone fragment with the DNA of Venancio's parents.

"Using data from the University of Innsbruck, it was determined that the remains belong to a male with a probability a billion times higher, that’s ‘b’ for billion, of being the biological son of Ezequiel Mora Chavez and the sibling of Omar Mora Venancio and Hugo Mora Venancio than for any other unrelated person,"  asserted Murillo Karam.

He also claimed that the results support his hypothesis presented last month alleging that the students were allegedly kidnapped by police from the town of Iguala and subsequently massacred by a local drug gang.

"This is scientific proof that the remains found at one of the scenes (of the crime) along with the confessions of some of the detained suspects coincide with our investigation," Murillo Karam said.   
Austria team though the result were tipped off to a parent of one of the missing students.

Daily Headlines: November 14, 2014

* Latin America: A new Pew Research Center report found that most Latin Americans identify themselves as Catholic though their proportion has dropped by 25% since 1970.

* Venezuela: A Venezuelan judge refused to free opposition figure Leopoldo López who has been in jail and awaiting trial since giving himself in to authorities last February.

* Brazil: The real fell to weakest level since April 2005 reportedly due to investor worry over who will be appointed as Brazil’s next Finance Minister.

* Mexico: The Supreme Court ruled that three people convicted over the 1997 Acteal massacre should be immediately released due to violations of their rights to due process.

Video Source – Pew Research Center via YouTube

Online Sources – ABC News; The Guardian; Latin American Herald Tribune; Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: October 8, 2014

* Brazil: Aécio Neves' bid to win in the upcoming presidential runoff against current leader Dilma Rousseff received a boost from several allies of defeated candidate Marina Silva.

* El Salvador: A Spanish court ruled that Spain has the jurisdiction to investigate the 1989 Jesuit Massacre of eight people in El Salvador.

* Latin America: A new World Bank report concluded that economic growth for Latin America and the Caribbean this year will be less than initially estimated.  

* Mexico: Ten Mexican states were ranked as the worst places to live in among the thirty-four member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Video Source – euronews via YouTube

Online Sources – JURIST; LAHT; World Bank; The Latin Americanist; BBC News

Daily Headlines: July 31, 2014

* Guatemala: The remains of thirty-one indigenous people killed during Guatemala’s brutal civil war thirty-two years ago received a proper burial yesterday.

* Latin America: The Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed its “deep disappointment” at El Salvador, Peru and Chile for withdrawing their respective ambassadors due to the conflict in Gaza.

* Colombia: President Juan Manuel Santos warned the FARC that he could end peace talks as a result of several recent attacks on infrastructure allegedly by the rebels.

* Venezuela: The U.S. State Department announced that it would revoke visas held by Venezuelan officials accused of human rights abuses relating to political violence this year.

Video Source – YouTube user WITNESS (Video made in 2000 and 2001).

Online Sources – Yahoo News; Reuters; LAHT; seattlepi.com

Daily Headlines: August 29, 2013

Note: Much like on Wednesday blogging will be very light today. We will be back on Friday with a look at news from around the Americas, especially several protests occurring across the region.

* Panama: A U.N. investigation concluded that a shipment of weapons from Cuba to North Korea and was confiscated in Panama last June was in violation of a U.N arms embargo.

* El Salvador: Inocente Orlando Montano, a former El Salvadoran military commander accused of planning the killing of six Jesuit priests in 1989, could soon be extradited to Spain and stand trial for that massacre.

* Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil admitted that her government’s “top priority” is to maintain strong ties to other Latin American countries.

* Colombia: The Colombian constitutional court ratified a law passed this year that provides a legal framework for a potential peace deal with the FARC rebels.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources- Voice of America; Los Angeles Times; Reuters; GlobalPost