Daily Headlines: February 17, 2014

* Argentina: Emiliano Lasalvia won a World Press Photo award in the Sports category for his image of a polo player falling underneath his horse.

* Latin America: Mexico City could become the latest Latin American area to decriminalize marijuana use while the Colombian government and FARC guerrilla might soon reach an agreement on drug trafficking.

* Haiti: Officials in Haiti will start an investigation into the deaths of human rights activist Daniel Dorsinvil and his wife who were gunned down on February 8th.

* Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff met with Brazilian land rights campaigners and pledged to make a new push for agrarian reform.

Video Source – Vimeo user elasalvia

Online Sources- LAHT; Reuters; Al Jazeera America; thesundaily; World Press Photo

Daily Headlines: April 28, 2011

* Argentina: Alejandro Chaskielberg won the Sony world photographer of the year award for his snapshots depicting islanders living on the Parana River Delta.

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales announced a major find at the Aquio gas field that could boost Bolivia’s gas reserves by nearly one-third.

* Mexico: According to the State Department a record 111 U.S. citizens were killed in Mexico last year, which is triple that of 2007.

* Spain: Lionel Messi 2 – Real Madrid 0.

Image – “Alejandro Chaskielberg, courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2011” via The Guardian (“Alejandro Chaskielberg's The Hunter, one of a portfolio of images that won the Argentinian photographer an award at the Sony World Photography awards. “)
Online Sources- BBC News, CBC, Mercopress, Houston Chronicle

Daily Headlines: April 8, 2011

* Haiti: The debate over ethics in photojournalism was reignited after a photo similar to the above image of a Haitian child shot dead shortly after last year’s earthquake won at the Swedish Picture of the Year Awards.

* Cuba: Thirty-seven former political prisoners from Cuba arrived this morning in the Spanish capital of Madrid.

* Bolivia: Maria Cecilia Chacon was sworn in as the first woman to become Bolivia’s defense minister.

* Ecuador: In a retaliatory move the State Department ordered that Ecuadorian ambassador to the U.S. Luis Gallegos return to Quito.

Image – Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters via The Guardian (Fifteen-year-old Fabienne Cherisma died from a bullet to the head in January 2010 reportedly after taking paintings from a Port-au-Prince shop.)
Online Sources- PetaPixel, The Guardian, Inside Costa Rica, The Latin Americanist, Voice of America

Haiti, Joe Arpaio stories get Pulitzers

The 2009 Pulitzer Prize winners in journalism were announced earlier this week and a pair of stories concerning Haiti and immigration was recognized.

Despite begin laid off in January as part of staff cuts, former East Valley Tribune reporter Paul Giblin won a Pulitzer along with Ryan Gabrielson for covering controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Both reporters were praised for examining the pitfalls of Arpaio employing the much-derided 287(g) program which deputizes local police to serve as immigration agents:

In a five-part series titled ‘Reasonable Doubt,' Gabrielson and former Tribune reporter Paul Giblin examined how Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio focused on combating illegal immigration to the detriment of police protection, resulting in slow emergency response times and lax criminal enforcement.

The Pulitzer Prize committee praised Gabrielson and Giblin for "their adroit use of limited resources to reveal, in print and online, how a popular sheriff's focus on immigration enforcement endangered investigation of violent crime and other aspects of public safety."

Miami Herald photographer Patrick Farrell received a Pulitzer for Breaking News photography for his images of storm-ravaged Haiti. “It is exceptional documentary photography with a purpose” said Luis Rios- the Herald's director of photography. The above image proves Rios’ assertion.

Image- CBS4.com
Online Sources- CBS4.com, miamiherald.com, The Latin Americanist, TheMonitor.com

LatAm photogs earn World Press Photo honors

Several Latin American photographers were among those who received first prize honors in the 2009 World Press Photo contest:

• Brazilian Luiz Vasconcelos won in the General News Singles category for his stirring photo of a Manaus woman desperately trying to avoid being evicted by police (image).
• Lissette Lemus of El Salvador was honored in the Daily Life Singles group for her photo stunning photo of children staring at a dead woman shot in the street.
• Walter Astrada of Argentina won in the Spot News category for his photo of a phalanx of demonstrators during post-election violence in Kenya.
• Chilean Carlos F. Gutierrez won in the Nature Singles category for his awe-inspiring photo of the erupting Chaiten volcano.
• Mexico’s Carlos Cazalis got top honors in the Contemporary Issues Stories division for his stark photo depicting homelessness in Sao Paulo.
  

The winning Latin American shutterbugs represented numerous agencies including Corbis, AFP, and Zuma Press.

Photo of the Year honors were given to Anthony Suau of the U.S. for his haunting snapshot of an Ohio sheriff creeping through a house abandoned after a foreclosure.

Image- AP
Online Sources- World Press Photo, Reuters, AP

Daily Headlines: December 29, 2008

* Haiti: The above photograph of a child walking through a Haitian slum was named as UNICEF’s 2008 “Photo of the Year”.

* Mexico: Organizers of the Queen of Hispanic America pageant stripped the title from Laura Zuniga days after she was arrested in the company of suspected drug traffickers.

* El Salvador: According to government figures 19,701 Salvadorans have been deported this year from the U.S., an increase of almost 5,000 people compared to 2007.

* Venezuela: “We’re preparing a series of measures and initiatives to keep the crisis from whipping us,” said president Hugo Chavez who will continue social spending despite plummeting oil prices.

Image- Spiegel Online
Online Sources- AFP, LAHT, Bloomberg, Global Voices Online, The Latin Americanist

The Weekender: April 11 to 13

The work week is finally done and the weekend has fallen upon us. Do you have any plans for the next few days? If not, then please check out the following items:

• Havana Film Festival NY

The ninth edition of the Havana Film Festival New York starts tonight with the U.S. premiere of “La Noche de los Inocentes”. Yet if you can’t plunk down $100 for the tonight’s opening then check out the schedule where over 40 films from the Americas will be playing for a small price or even for free. (The Havana Film Festival NY lasts until April 18).

• “Torrijos: The Man and the Myth”

A photographic exhibition at the Americas Society comes to a close on Saturday. “Torrijos: The Man and the Myth” looks at snapshots of ex-Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos by Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide. (FYI- The event is free).

• “Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica”

For Sunday, why not check out “Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica”. It’s a multimedia project created by the Pulitzer Center that highlights the impact of HIV in Jamaica. The interactive website contains essays, poems, music, and is done in conjunction with the Center’s “Global Gateway” initiative.

Lastly, we began the week with some glum news regarding Argentine rock group Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. Yet we end the week with news from a commenter that the rockeros are planning a new album and reunion tour. (Yay!)

Let’s celebrate the news with some Quilmes and a sing-a-long to “El Matador”!

Follow-up: Photog’s nude shoot to be at Zócalo

Spencer Tunick- who’s famous for photographing hundreds of nude bodies in different locations around the world- will continue his next project in Mexico after authorities okayed him to shoot at Mexico City’s main square. Despite being barred from using the pyramids at Teotihuacan, Tunick anticipates that the May 6 photo shoot at El Zócalo will be his “largest work ever”.

In case you’re interested in volunteering for Tunick’s shoot, here is an online registration form you can fill out.

Our original post on Tunick (including a NSFW video of his 2002 photo shoot in Chile) can be read here.

Image- El Universal

Links- New Zealand Herald, Guardian UK, Wikipedia, Spencer Tunick – Mexico