Daily Headlines: August 1, 2012

* Venezuela: Will Venezuela’s official entry yesterday as a full member of the Mercosur bloc help or hurt the country’s economy?

* Latin America: Spanish imports of oil from Latin America have doubled this year partly due to a European Union ban on Iranian oil that started exactly one month ago.

* Costa Rica: Fired Deputy Minister for Youth Karina Bolanos apologized but defended herself after a racy personal video made in 2007 was stolen and released on YouTube.

* Nicaragua: The criminal gang linked to the murder last year of Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral has been accused of laundering over $1 billion.

Video Source – YouTube via Cosa Rosada (In this video from the Argentine government the leaders of Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay and Argentina posed for a photo at the Mercosur conference yesterday).

Online Sources- Bloomberg, Reuters, InSight Crime, CNN

Daily Headlines: February 10, 2009

* Mexico: A new law published yesterday calls for the creation of a national phone registry that includes capturing fingerprints of suspected criminals.

* Latin America: China may be upping its investments in Latin America yet Morgan Stanley warms that the economic slump in Asia may cause “aftershocks” in the Americas.

* Central America: Countries in the region are worried that U.S. immigration raids are dumping thousands of criminals into already crime-infested areas.

* Venezuela: Police have arrested eleven suspects- including a policeman who served as a bodyguard for a local rabbi- for the recent attack on a Caracas synagogue.

Image- abc.net.au
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Reuters, Bloomberg, chicagotribune.com, Xinhua, MSNBC

Wikileaks to auction Chavez’ e-mails

“Document-leaking site” Wikileaks will auction off to the media what they claim is secret information relating to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. According to a statement on the website, they will give to the highest bidder three years of e-mail messages between Chavez and an aide pertaining to items such as “CIA activities in Venezuela, an incursion by the Colombian Army and how Chavez has managed his government.”

The controversial scheme may be ethically unsound and could fail according to an article on wired.com’s Threat Level blog:

University of Minnesota media ethics professor Jane Kirtley laughed when told of the scheme.

"Ethically speaking, why don't they just publish it?" Kirtly asked. "They pride themselves on being a new breed of news delivery"…

Stephen Aftergood, who runs a complementary and competing site called Secrecy News that focuses on U.S. government documents, called the e-mail trove a "coup" for Wikileaks. But Aftergood also doubts the auction model will attract quality media outlets.

"It looks like Wikileaks is still looking for the optimal method to distribute its materials," Aftergood said. "I think it will automatically rule out publications like The New York Times and others that might devote significant attention to an in-depth look at such internal e-mails but would not pay for them."

Wikileaks has come under intense scrutiny over its leaking of documents such as a 2003 Guantanamo Bay ops manual. The site had been taken offline in February as part of a lawsuit brought up by a Swiss bank. Wikileaks returned after that lawsuit was dropped in March.

Image- Time

Sources- Threat Level, editorsweblog, The Latin Americanist, BBC News, Guardian UK

Border laptop searches raise eyebrows

Complaints from travelers and privacy advocates has led some politicos to question U.S. Customs policy allowing agents to search laptops, cell phones and other electronics devices at the border.

While the federal government has argued that such extreme measures are needed for national security, critics alleged that Border Patrol agents are engaging in racial profiling and are overstepping their authority. “Congress should not allow this gross violation of privacy” said Sen. Russell D. Feingold during a subcommittee session on Wednesday as testimony was given for and against the Customs measures.

One senator was caught in a bind when he embarrassingly contradicted himself:

As the hearing began, Senator Brownback, a Republican of Kansas, said the rationale for border searches is "obvious." He noted that a conspirator in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, Zacarias Moussaoui, kept information on his laptop "that, if discovered, might have prevented" those strikes.

However, later in the session, Mr. Brownback acknowledged a visceral discomfort with government agents rifling through his digital assistant when he crosses the border. "I don't like the idea of coming across with my BlackBerry and somebody saying, 'I want to root around in your whole BlackBerry.' I got a lot of things on there. I don't know what all is on there, in some cases. I don't want people looking at that randomly," the senator said.

Sources- PC World, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, New York Sun

Image- Think Progress