Daily Headlines: July 27, 2016

* Latin America: Analysts with the International Monetary Fund and the U.N.  Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean believe the economy of the Latin American region will contract this year by 0.4% and 0.8%, respectively.

* Central America: The White House announced a series of measures aimed at helping refugees from Central America but also attempting to discourage the migrant flow from that area.

* Panama: Operators of the newly expanded Panama Canal claimed bad weather was to blame for a “damaging scrape” caused by a Chinese container ship on the waterway.

* Venezuela: Opposition politicians called on their supporters to march in Caracas today and demand that electoral officials validate efforts to hold a recall referendum against President Nicolas Maduro.

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English (This video examines the Argentine economy, which both the International Monetary Fund and the U.N.  Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean believe will weaken this year along with those from Brazil and Venezuela).
 
Online Sources – teleSUR English, Fox News Latino, NPR, The New York Times, Reuters

Daily Headlines: June 2, 2016

* Mexico: Many Mexican states are reportedly hurrying to implement judicial reforms including “increasing transparency and better guaranteeing access to fair and timely trials” before a June 18 deadline.

* Honduras: Members of the Honduran indigenous rights group that included assassinated activist Berta Caceres warned of the return of alleged "death squads" that roamed the country during the 1980s.

* Cuba: Jose Daniel Ferrer, a Cuban dissident allowed to travel to the U.S., called on his fellow political opponents on the island to unite and create a shared strategy in light of the rapprochement between the Obama and Castro regimes.

* Colombia: The U.N. agency representing refugees urged Canada to renew an expiring agreement to help resettle Colombians displaced by armed conflict.

YouTube Source – CCTV Americas Now (Judicial reforms in Mexico were started in 2008 but most states have yet to fully implement new measures).
 
Online Sources –The Christian Science Monitor, The Hamilton Spectator, Latin American Herald Tribune, teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: March 11, 2016

* Honduras: Representatives of more than 200 conservation and human rights groups signed a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry calling on the U.S. to back an investigation into the recent death of renown Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres.

* Chile: A Chilean judge halted the sixteen-year probe looking into a U.S. professor missing and possible abducted by state agents, while former “Caravan of Death” Gen. Sergio Arellano Stark died at the age of 94.

* Latin America: The gender pay gap in Latin America has narrowed by 12% from 1990 to 2014 but women still earned 26% less than men according to the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

* Brazil: Some twenty Syrian refugees claimed that they are being hurt by the bureaucratic process in order to obtain local work permits.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English (Honduran human rights activist Berta Cáceres was shot on killed at her home on March 2nd).

Online Sources – The Hill, The New York Times, BBC News, Reuters, Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: January 14, 2016

* Chile: Alejandro Aravena of Chile became the fourth Latin American to win the Pritzker Prize, which is the most prestigious honor in the architectural world.

* Central America: Mexico will grant transit visas to the first group of some 8000 Cuban migrants stranded in Costa Rica for several weeks, while the U.S. State Department announced an expansion of a program helping refugees from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

* Latin America: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control could issue a travel warning for pregnant women against visiting parts of Latin American and the Caribbean due to the spread of the Zika virus.

* Colombia: The final stage of peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC commenced amid doubts by rebel negotiator Joaquin Gomez over reaching a final agreement by the March 23rd deadline.

YouTube Source – Arch Daily
 
Online Sources – Quartz, Reuters, National Geographic, MSNBC, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: December 24, 2015

* Brazil: Brazilian Attorney General Rodrigo Janot is investigating if embattled congressional leader Eduardo Cunha received $475,000 in bribes related to next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

* Uruguay: Eugenio Figueredo, the former vice president of soccer governing body FIFA, was extradited to his native Uruguay where he will be arraigned in connection to a massive corruption scandal.

* Canada: Canadian immigration authorities withdrew the deportation order against a Salvadoran refugee who has received sanctuary in a British Columbia church since 2013.

* Puerto Rico: Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla believes that the island will be unable to make a $1 billion debt payment due on New Year’s Day.

YouTube Source – PBS NewsHour (The toxic waters where certain aquatic events are schedules is one of numerous problems that have arisen in preparation for the 2016 Rio Olympics).
 
Online Sources – CBC, Reuters, BBC News, SI.com

Daily Headlines: November 19, 2015

* Mexico: A new study found that the first year of Mexico’s Southern Border Program has led to a spike in the capture of migrants but also increased violence and “widespread abuse.”

* Honduras: Honduran migration officials affirmed that the six Syrians detained yesterday for carrying stolen Greek passports do not belong to any terrorist or extremist groups.

* Puerto Rico: Legislators will be convened to an emergency session in the first week of December to discuss an $8.2 debt-restructuring proposal for Puerto Rico’s main electric utility.

* Ecuador: President Rafael Correa rejected running for reelection in 2017 but that hasn’t stopped lawmakers from attempting to remove presidential term limits.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English

Online Sources – Reuters, teleSUR English, Bloomberg, CBS News

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: September 14, 2015

* Mexico: The Mexican government condemned the deaths of at least two nationals killed when the Egyptian military attacked a tour group allegedly mistaken for a terrorist convoy.

* Latin America: Several Latin American countries including Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico are considering following the lead of Argentina and Uruguay by welcoming refugees from war-torn Syria.

* South America: Colombia’s Foreign Ministry is expected to lodge a formal complaint over the incursion of two Venezuelan military planes into Colombian territory.

* Peru: One of Peru’s most wanted suspected drug traffickers, Gerald Oropeza Lopez, was extradited from Ecuador where he was caught after spending four months on the lam.

YouTube Source – euronews
 
Online Sources – The Atlantic, International Business Times, The Guardian, UPI

Daily Headlines: June 19, 2015

* Brazil: Police arrested twelve individuals including the head Latin America's largest engineering and construction company as part of a corruption probe at state-run oil firm Petrobras.

* Bolivia: The Bolivian government announced plans for oil exploration at eight national parks and the finding of the first domestic oilfield since 1992.

* Mexico: Mexico's Southern Border Program has been credited as the main cause behind the deportation of nearly 93,000 migrants between October 2014 and April 2015.

* Colombia: A new U.N. study found that Colombia has the world’s second highest number of refugees and individuals displaced by armed conflict.

YouTube Source – CCTV America

Online Sources – Reuters, Fox News Latino, U.S. News and World Report, The Miami Herald

Daily Headlines: May 27, 2015

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro quashed speculation of dollarizing the Venezuelan economy in light of a rapidly depreciating national currency and rumors of local divisions of foreign car companies considering making transactions in U.S. dollars.

* Colombia: The International Crisis Group warned that the recent suspension of the FARC’s unilateral ceasefire could lead to an escalation of Colombia’s armed conflict and “fresh humanitarian damage.”

* Brazil: Brazil has accepted nearly 2000 Syrian refuges, which is more than any other nation in Latin America.

* Mexico: At least fourteen people died in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Acuña following a tornado that occurred on Monday.

Online Sources – NBC News, ABC News, Fox News Latino, International Crisis Group

Daily Headlines: May 7, 2015

* Cuba: U.S. firms are reportedly “uninterested” in drilling for oil off the Cuban coast despite the push to improve diplomatic and economic ties between both countries.

* Colombia: A new study found that Colombia accounts for a whopping 85% of the population of displaced individuals in the Americas.

* Panama: Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela accused his predecessor, Ricardo Martinelli, of having lost $100 million in government funds due to corruption.

* Peru: Peru will join eleven other countries including Chile, Japan and the U.S. in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade alliance.

YouTube Source – NewsyBusiness (Video uploaded in December 2014).
 
Online Sources – Reuters, teleSUR English, Zee News, Peru this Week

Daily Headlines: August 13, 2014

* Ecuador: At least two people are dead and several more are trapped by a landslide caused by a 5.1-magnitude earthquake near Quito, Ecuador yesterday.
 
* Chile: A group of armed gunmen stole over $10 million from an armored vehicle in what has been reported as the largest robbery in the Chile's history.

* Brazil: Officials at the Sao Paulo state Education Department have come under fire after posting a job opening that requires female applicants to undergo genealogical exams.

* Colombia: According to the U.N. High Commission for Human Rights more than 400,000 Colombian refugees affected by armed conflict have fled to other countries.

Video Source – NTDTV via YouTube

Online Sources – The Guardian; BBC News; The Huffington Post; Colombia Reports

Daily Headlines: June 20, 2014

* Latin America: Today is World Refugee Day and according to the U.N. the number of refugees in Latin America is expected to rise this year as a result of “increasing violence from new criminal entities.”

* Ecuador: As Julian Assange’s stay in the Ecuadorean embassy in London moves past its second year, Ecuador's Foreign Minister admitted that talks with Britain to safely release the WikiLeaks founder have reached a legal “impasse.”

* Cuba: Russia state-owned firm Rosneft is reportedly seeking an agreement that would allow for the exploration of potentially lucrative Cuban offshore oil fields.

* Mexico: Legislative approval of a major energy reform backed by President Enrique Peña Nieto has been delayed due to opposition from both the left and right in Mexico’s Congress.

Video Source – YouTube user The VJ Movement (Video uploaded in 2011 shows Colombian refugees laboring as sex workers in neighboring Ecuador).
 
Online Sources – Newsweek; The Wire; Reuters; United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Daily Headlines: April 9, 2014

* Argentina: An Argentine court sentenced ten people to up to twenty-two years in prison regarding the 2002 kidnapping and “sexual exploitation” of a missing young woman named Marita Veron.

* Mexico: Death row inmate Ramiro Hernandez is running out of legal options and today he will likely become the second Mexican national to be executed in Texas this year.
 
* Cuba: Sen. Patrick Leahy, the head of the Senate subcommittee that oversees USAID, blasted the administrator of that agency for a “cockamamie” failed social network project launched in Cuba.

* Haiti: A new report found that the percentage of Haitian earthquake survivors living in refugee camps has plummeted by 91% though the study notes the “phenomenon of new families moving into camps and families splitting and occupying more tents constitutes a worrying trend.”

Video Source– The Daily Beast via YouTube (Susana Trimarco, the mother of missing Argentine woman Marita Veron, has become an activist against human trafficking as she continues the search for her “disappeared” daughter.) 

Online Sources – BBC News; The Latin Americanist; ABC News; CBS News; Miami Herald

World Watch: Liar, Liar

* U.S.: Disgraced cycling champion Lance Armstrong reportedly admitted that he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France.

* Mali: Defense chiefs of several western African countries will back the deployment of thousands of troops aimed at defeating Islamist rebels in Mali.

* Syria: An International Rescue Committee report found that Syria’s humanitarian crises is worsening as a result of female refugees escaping from rape and other forms of sexual abuse.

* Pakistan: Ten of thousands of people in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad participated in anti-government protests.

Video Source– YouTube via user jchau (Lance Armstrong featured in this 2001 Nike ad where he tried to downplay rumors of doping).
 
Online Sources – USA TODAY, Reuters, NPR, Christian Science Monitor

Ads Nauseam: Toy Soldiers

Toys: innocent, fun and entertaining. Yet they are sometimes used in ads in order to effectively make a serious political statement. For instance, a 1972 ad for the campaign to reelect U.S. President Richard Nixon used toy warships and troops in order to attack rival candidate George McGovern's pledge to cut defense spending.

The following video was commissioned by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) in order to call attention to human rights violations caused by Colombia's armed conflict. The use of toys along with jarring piano music and a twist in the end creates a very moving ad that highlights the horrors of war:

(Hat tip: Copyranter).

Online Sources - The Museum of the Moving Image, Copyranter

Video Source - YouTube via TheAdvertisingFan

Daily Headlines: August 24, 2011

* Chile: Police protection will be provided to student protest leader Camila Vallejo after she received death threats via social media networks.

* Brazil: Could a Brazilian proposal to grant more rights to stateless people push other Latin American countries to give more help to refugees?

* Cuba: A U.S. federal court ordered that the Cuban government pay $2.8 billion to a former CIA agent.

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez signed a decree that would nationalize Venezuela’s gold mining industry.

Image – AFP via BBC News (A Chilean student protester holds up a flag with the words “Five Years Studying (and) Fifteen Years Paying”.)
Online Sources- Reuters AlertNet, swissinfo, Sydney Morning Herald, MiamiHerald.com

World Watch: Escape

* Ivory Coast: A humanitarian crisis is rapidly developing on the Ivory Coast as an estimated one million refugees are fleeing the country.

* Portugal: The E.U. is considering a hefty bailout for Portugal after legislators rejected government-backed austerity measures.

* Canada: The Conservative Party-led government was defeated today after a vote of no confidence in the Canadian parliament.

* World: Unrest in Libya and the recent natural disasters in Japan could hurt the global auto industry according to this article.

Image – Reuters via Al Jazeera English (“The UNHCR's estimates of the number of displaced nearly doubled in the past week amid ongoing fighting.”)
Online Sources- USA TODAY, Xinhua, Bloomberg, euronews

Daily Headlines: March 18, 2011

* Colombia: Colombia’s refugee crisis worsened with the displacement this month of over 800 mostly Afro-Colombian residents originally from the Pacific coast.

* Venezuela: One fatality has been reported as a result of a “resurgence” of the swine flu in Venezuela.

* Guatemala: A class action lawsuit was filed against the U.S. government in the name of a group of Guatemalans secretly infected with syphilis in the 1940s.

* Brazil: A French court has charged airplane manufacturer Airbus with manslaughter over the 2009 crash of Air France flight 447 off the Brazilian coast.

Image – AFP Photo / Inaldo Perez via Russia Today (Colombia has the world’s second-largest population of internal refugees).
Online Sources- CBS News, CNN, LAHT, Bloomberg

World Watch: Red Rover

* Libya: According to the AP a Red Crescent official claimed that pro-Gadhafi soldiers are preventing the escape of tens of thousands of refugees attempting to leave Libya.

* Denmark: The country’s immigration minister was fired after she wrongly refused granting citizenship to three dozen stateless Palestinians.

* Yemen: At least several dozen protesters are reported to be injured after security forces fired on anti-government demonstrators.

* Ivory Coast: A protest against the massacre of seven women ended with soldiers shooting and killing four people.

Image – Spencer Platt/Getty Images Europe via The Guardian (“Libya's border with Tunisia has seen thousands of migrant workers crossing over – but the number has fallen dramatically.”)
Online Sources- ABC Online, MSNBC, BBC News, The Guardian