Daily Headlines: April 3, 2012

* Mexico: At the “Three Amigos” summit yesterday Mexican President Felipe Calderon called on the U.S. to revive an assault weapons ban while Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed to boost trade with his North American partners.

* Ecuador: President Rafael Correa said that he would skip this month’s Summit of the Americas in Colombia since Cuba was not invited.

* U.S.: Over 3100 undocumented immigrants, most of whom are convicted criminals, were apprehended as part of a federal immigration sweep last week.

* Nicaragua: The head of the Nicaragua Sunflowers sex workers’ organization claimed that seven prostitutes have been murdered over the past twelve months.

Image Source – Flickr via Oldmaison (The heads of government of the U.S., Mexico and Canada met at the 2009 edition of the “Three Amigos” summit in Guadalajara). (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources- Voice of America, Huffington Post, LAHT, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: October 4, 2011

* Peru: Nearly three hundred women including at least five minors were rescued after having been forced into prostitution in the Amazon state of Madre de Dios.

* Puerto Rico: The commonwealth joined a lawsuit with seven states and the Department of Justice seeking to prevent the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile.

* Latin America: U.S. President Barack Obama formally submitted free trade pacts with Colombia and Panama to Congress for approval.

* Cuba: Officials claimed that U.S.-government-run Radio/TV Marti is breaking Cuban law by sending SMS messages to the island’s cell phone users.

Video Source – NTN24 via YouTube (Five people were arrested and charged with human trafficking due to there suspected role behind a Peruvian prostitution ring).

Online Sources - MSNBC, MiamiHerald.com, Reuters, PC Magazine

Daily Headlines: May 24. 2011

* Honduras: The Central American country could soon be readmitted into the Organization of American States after Honduran president Porfirio Lobo and ousted leader Manuel Zelaya signed a key pact with the help of the Colombian and Venezuelan governments.

* Peru: Conservative presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori led in two polls over her nationalist opponent Ollanta Humala though plenty of undecided voters are still up for grabs.

* U.S.: According to a newly released report, Arizona’s Latino population dropped by 100,000 residents since the controversial SB 1070 anti-immigration law went into effect over a year ago.

* Mexico: Authorities claimed that police freed 62 women including a 13-year-old girl who were forced to work as prostitutes.

Image – AP via MSNBC ("Honduras' President Porfirio Lobo, left, and Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya, right, shake hands after signing an agreement as Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos applauds in Cartagena, Colombia, Sunday, May 22, 2011. The accord allows the return of Zelaya to his homeland and Honduras' re entry into the Organization of American States, OAS, as a solution to the crisis caused by the June 2009 coup that sent Zelaya into exile and caused the OAS to suspend Honduras as a member.")
Online Sources- Reuters, LAHT, AS/COA Online, MSNBC

Daily Headlines: January 25, 2010

* Mexico: In a unique way to celebrate Mexico’s bicentennial, the great-granddaughters of Mexican Revolution leaders Plutarco Elias Calles and Venustiano Carranza will pose nude in Playboy Mexico.

* Bolivia: One day after being inaugurated to his second straight term President Evo Morales named women to half of Bolivia’s new cabinet positions.

* U.S.: Federal agents arrested a bar owner and waiter in Texas accused of hiring undocumented Guatemalan girls and forcing them into prostitution.

* Brazil: At least 1.6 million new jobs will be created in Brazil this year according to the government.

Image – Diario.com.mx (This is one of the few non-NSFW photos on the web that we could find of Fernanda and Isabel Calles Carranza).
Online Sources- Sify, Houston Chronicle, LAHT, AFP

Daily Headlines: October 28, 2009

* Honduras: A trio of senior U.S. diplomats are expected to travel to Honduras today in order to restart deadlocked negotiations between ousted President Manuel Zelaya and de facto head Roberto Micheletti.

* Uruguay: The country’s presidential election will head to a runoff yet the governing Broad Front coalition secured a new legislative majority.

* Brazil: A Massachusetts man claimed that U.S. officials denied the asylum claim of his gay Brazilian husband partly due to his sexual orientation.

* Mexico: Fourteen adults were arrested and accused of running a child prostitution ring in Mexico City.

Image- New York Times (“President Manuel Zelaya has been holed up in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.”)
Online Sources- AP, The Latin Americanist, LAHT, BBC News

Daily Headlines: September 22, 2009

* Latin America: The deltas for the Colorado River and Brazil’s Rio São Francisco are just two of many waterways worldwide in danger of sinking and displacing hundreds of millions of people.

* Mexico: With over three months left in the year the homicide rate in Ciudad Juarez has broken the record of 1,653 murders set in 2008.

* Cuba: Could the ban on traveling from the U.S. to Cuba be overturned this year? One congressman thinks so.

* Peru: Children’s rights groups in Peru claimed that kids are prostituted by their impoverished parents for a pittance and that “various foreign bands” are behind the making of in child porn.

Image- BBC News (“The Sao Francisco flows along the canyon in northeastern Brazil”)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, AFP, LAHT, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: August 11, 2009

* Bolivia: Research conducted on an indigenous Bolivian tribe concluded that strokes and heart attacks may’ve been very rare throughout most of human history.

* Uruguay: While several Latin American left-of-center governments are in danger of being defeated by conservatives, a recent poll showed that most Uruguayans back their moderate/left ruling party.

* U.S: Police and federal agents raided a pair of Long Island restaurants in order to halt an alleged prostitution ring that exploited undocumented women from Central America.

* Guatemala: President Alvaro Colom said that he would continue to crackdown on corruption in the country’s police which he claims is due to drug traffickers.

Image- examiner.com
Online Sources- Los Angeles Times, Angus Reid Global Monitor, LAHT, The Latin Americanist, newsday.com

Five convicted in L.A. prostitution case

Five people were convicted for running a prostitution ring that targeted girls from Central America.

According to the Justice Department, four Guatemalan women and one Mexican trafficked ladies to the U.S. and subsequently forced them into prostitution in Los Angeles. The convicted people now face life in prison with a minimum sentence of fifteen years.

During the six-week trial, details emerged of the abuse, exploitation, and shamelessness of those convicted:

The case presented by prosecutors relied heavily on the testimony of 10 young women who said they were forced to work as prostitutes and turn over their pay to the defendants.

Only one woman said she knew she was going to work in the sex trade before arriving in Los Angeles. The others said they were expecting to work as baby sitters, housekeepers, waitresses or in other jobs in which they hoped to earn up to $10 an hour, far more than they could in Guatemala.

Only after they arrived in the U.S., the young women testified, were they told the truth about what they would be doing.

Image- L.A. Now
Online Sources- AP, AFP, Los Angeles Times

Daily Headlines: January 12, 2009

* U.S.: The nominee to be the next head of Homeland Security- Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano– said that more Border Patrol officers are needed and expressed some reservations over constructing border barriers.

* Bolivia: Catholic Church officials denied that the diocese planned a local day of prayer which united opposition leaders.

* U.S.: A Guatemalan woman testified in court that she was forced to become a prostitute after migrating into the U.S.

* Dominican Republic: Brazilian firm Embraer sold eight “light-attack aircraft” to the Dominican Republic, according to execs with the company.

Image- Tuscon Weekly
Online Sources- eastvalleytribune.com, Catholic News Agency, UPI, Reuters

Bolivia: Prostitutes on hunger strike

Prostitutes in a city near the Bolivian capital of La Paz have sown their lips shut as part of a hunger strike. Though prostitution is legal in the Andean country, sex workers in El Alto are protesting at a health center against the closing of bars and brothels by the city’s government:

"We are fighting for the right to work and for our families' survival," Lily Cortez, leader of the El Alto Association of Nighttime Workers, told local television.
"Tomorrow we will bury ourselves alive if we are not immediately heard. The mayor will have his conscience to answer to if there are any grave consequences, such as the death of my comrades," she said, surrounded by about 10 prostitutes who had sewn their lips together with thread.

The shutdown of El Alto’s bars and brothels came about after those businesses were ransacked and destroyed by an “angry mob” last week.

Sources- news.com.au, Reuters, AFP

Image- Canada.com (“Sex workers cover their faces in a health center, where they are holding a hunger strike in El Alto, October 22, 2007”)

Daily Headlines: May 22, 2007

* Miss Jamaica Zahra Redwood (image) aims to go “against what (the general public) developed as a stereotype” of Rastafarians in the week before next Tuesday’s Miss Universe pageant.

* The U.S. needs to boost its military aid to the Americas according to a senior defense official.

* “Ethnic Democrats, wherever they are, are going to be attracted to Rudy (Giuliani).” Oh really?

* Sex workers in Peru want the government to regulate their industry due to safety and health reasons.

* Leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky gives his two cents on Venezuela in this interview.

Image- Jamaica Gleaner

Sources- Sydney Morning Herald, Reuters AlertNet, Gothamist, VenezuelaAnalysis.com

USAID chief quits over prostitution link

An alleged affinity for Central American prostitutes may have led to the resignation of Randall Tobias (image) from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Tobias was touted by the Department of State as “a leader in helping the most vulnerable populations” while in charge of the U.S.’ main foreign aid agency. Yet he quit effective immediately on Friday after admitting to ABC News that he was a customer of an escort service featuring Central American women.

Ironically, Tobias had been the Bush administration's “AIDS czar” who “was responsible for overseeing all U.S. international HIV/AIDS assistance” according to Wikipedia.

Links- Reuters, U.S. Department of State, ABC News – The Blotter, White House, Wikipedia

Image- CBS News

There is a light that never goes out – a Peruvian answer to prostitution

Sometimes the road to the best solutions starts with the simplest ideas. Case in point: the mayor of La Victoria- a neighborhood in the Peruvian capital of Lima- was not pleased with prostitutes and johns congregating in the area’s main square. So what was his answer to try to get rid of the plaza’s sex workers? Install more light posts around the square:

“In association with the electric company Luz Del Sur, (Mayor Alberto Sanchez Aizcorbe) installed high power lights that illuminate the entire plaza, eliminating the 'dark' corners that served as work stations for area prostitutes”.

Mind you, “getting rid” of prostitution requires a deeper commitment including promoting viable economic alternatives for women and assuring satisfactory social services for the community. (In other words it isn’t that simple). But hopefully Mayor Sanchez’ illuminating idea can be the start of improvement in La Victoria.

Links- Living in Peru

Image- Living in Peru (Sex workers in the Peruvian province of Arequipa)