Daily Headlines: October 30, 2015

* Peru: President Ollanta Humala lifted a state of emergency order for regions in southern Peru affected last month by violent clashes between police and protesters opposed to a planned copper mine.

* Venezuela: The U.S. could push for more sanctions against Venezuelan officials despite President Nicolas Maduro’s threats of suing the Obama administration.

* Puerto Rico: Will Puerto Rico run out of money as early as this November and fall into default?

* Costa Rica: The Costa Rica government and children’s rights advocates are planning to expand an online marketing campaign aimed at discouraging child sex tourism.

YouTube Source – AFP (“Demonstrators gather in Lima (weeks ago) to protest against a big Chinese copper mining project in the provinces of Cotabambas and Grau.”)
 
Online Sources – Reuters, GlobalPost, La Prensa, Seeking Alpha, Tico Times

Venezuela: President Requests Decree Powers Amid Rift with U.S.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro urged the federal legislature to grant him decree powers in response to a new series of sanctions imposed by the White House.

In a televised speech on Tuesday night, Maduro formally requested the National Assembly to approve an Enabling Law “to defend the peace, sovereignty and full progress of Venezuela against the threat from the U.S. government.”

Maduro rejected the claim made in the executive order the U.S. President Barack Obama signed on Monday alleging that the “situation in Venezuela...constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy”.  

“Nobody believes that Venezuela is a threat against (the U.S.) becuasie it is false and a lie,” Maduro declared in front of a packed congressional chamber. He said that while the Venezuela is “noble (and) pacifist” in the U.S. commentators appear on cable news channels "pretending to love democracy but approve genocide".

The White House action targeted seven current and former officials affiliated to Venezuela’s security apparatus including the director of the national police, the inspector general of the armed forces and the head of intelligence. The seven are barred from entering the U.S. and their assets are frozen after U.S. authorities accused them of human rights abuses and corruption.

Daily Headlines: February 3, 2015

* Mexico: New doubts have been raised in the government’s findings of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students after a Mexican magazine claimed detained suspects were tortured into confessing.

* Argentina: In one of the latest twists in the Nisman murder case, an Argentine judge refused to handle allegations of a cover-up by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in the investigation of the 1994 AMIA bombing.

* Cuba: Cuban state media published the first photos of former president Fidel Castro to appear publicly since August of last year.

* Venezuela: The already weakened diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Venezuela have worsened following the expansion of travel bans against members of the Maduro administration.

Video Source – YouTube user teleSUR English (“Family members of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students are in Geneva, Switzerland, taking their case to the UN Committee on Forced Disappearances.”)

Online Sources – The Huffington Post; Voice of America; CNN; MercoPress; The Latin Americanist

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: July 30, 2014

* Brazil: A Human Rights Watch report released this week documented some sixty-four cases of torture in Brazil since 2010 and noted, “impunity in cases of serious abuses by police and prison guards is the norm.”

* Venezuela: One of the numerous proposals by the U.S. Congress to sanction the Venezuelan government for human rights abuses could soon come to a vote in the Senate.

* Colombia: The Colombian government blamed the FARC guerillas for causing a blackout that left 500,000 people in the key port city of Buenaventura without power.

* U.S.: A new study found that “women and minorities who promote diversity from corporate leadership positions tend to get lower evaluations from their bosses and colleagues.”

Video Source – Sky News via YouTube (“An investigation was launched in Brazil (in 2013) after video emerged of a police helicopter machine gunning the car of a suspected drug dealer in a built up area of Rio de Janeiro”.)

Online Sources – The Huffington Post; Colombia Reports; Miami Herald; The Latin Americanist; ABC News

Daily Headlines: June 19, 2014

* Argentina: The Argentine government is in a race against time in order to repay billions of dollars of debt to creditors and avoid default before the end of this month.

* Venezuela: Outspoken opposition politico María Corina Machado has been barred from leaving Venezuela as authorities investigate her role in unrest following an anti-government march over four months ago.

* Mexico: A mass grave with at least twenty-eight bodies was found the Mexican Gulf state of Veracruz on Tuesday.

* Colombia: The U.S. Treasury Department removed economic sanctions on more than three hundred people and firms with ties to the formerly active Cali Cartel.

Video Source – euronews via YouTube

Online Sources – Reuters; El Universal; The Latin Americanist; Fox News Latino; NBC News

Venezuelan “Political Prisoner” on Hunger Strike

A Venezuelan ex-police chief whose imprisonment has been denounced by the country's opposition commenced a hunger strike this week.

“Every day in this military prison has turned into an anxious roller coaster ride because I don't know if tonight, or early in the morning, as happened before, I'll end up in the emergency room,” said Iván Simonovis in a letter released on Tuesday via his attorneys. 

The 53-year-old claimed that he has “become tired” of the slow pace of his appeal within the Venezuelan justice system and, hence, decided to take up a hunger strike in order to obtain a conditional release.

“All the legal and political efforts to receive a response to the demands (for an appeal) I made ten months ago have been exhausted… I'm tired of acting in accordance to the law, yet no one listens to me,” said Simonovis in his message.

The former commander of the Caracas Metropolitan Police was sentenced in 2009 to thirty year in prison for aggravated murder related to the deaths of four demonstrators in an unsuccessful 2002 coup against then-President Hugo Chávez. Lawyers for Simonovis claimed that he has suffered from nineteen different ailments like osteoporosis and severe dehydration; thus, he should be released on humanitarian grounds.

“What options does Simonovis have?” exclaimed attorney José Luis Tamayo who added that his client is well aware that he could end up like Franklin Brito, a farmer who died in 2010 following a five-month hunger strike against the Chávez regime.

Simonovis is seen by the Venezuelan opposition as a “political prisoner” unfairly targeted by an authoritarian government and is being kept under unfair conditions despite suffering from scores of ailments.  His imprisonment was one of the main topics in failed negotiations between the opposition and government aimed at ending three months of deep political unrest.

Daily Headlines: May 21, 2014

* Central America: The U.S. Agency for International Development will work with university researchers as part of a $5 million partnership in order to combat a crippling Central American coffee fungus.

* Venezuela: The U.S. Senate could soon vote on a bill that would raise sanctions against Venezuelan officials accused of human rights violations stemming from protests and political unrest since February.  

* Cuba: Cuban dissident blogger and activist Yoani Sanchez launched a new website today that will reportedly “provide daily news about the communist-run country, but insisted it would not be a platform against the government”.

* Uruguay: The plan to legalize the sale and distribution of marijuana in Uruguay will allegedly be exempted from taxation with the goal of “undercutting the black market.”

Video Source – YouTube user CBS Evening News

Online Sources – Reuters; Tico Times; LAHT; BBC News

Daily Headlines: May 8, 2014

* Venezuela: 243 anti-government protesters were arrested on Thursday morning as part of a crackdown on tent camps in Caracas while the U.S. Congress is considering several proposals to raise sanctions against President Nicolás Maduro’s regime.

* Brazil: Federal police have threatened with going on a 24-hour strike in the middle of the World Cup unless the government raises their pay and improves their working conditions.

* Latin America: A new World Health Organization report found that areas of Brazil, Paraguay and Costa Rica have some of the world’s cleanest air.

* Mexico: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will reportedly go ahead with a planned visit to Mexico later this month despite being subpoenaed by Congress over the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Video Source – CNN en Español via YouTube

Online Sources – Latin Times; ABC News; Al Jazeera; Xinhua; NBC News

U.S. to Impose Sanctions Against Venezuela?

U.S. President Barack Obama may have its hands full trying to deal with Russia’s incursion into the Ukraine yet there may be a possibility that the White House could support imposing sanctions against Venezuela.

“There should be sanctions on individuals... The administration is looking at those,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz citing an unidentified "high-level" State Department official.

The head of the Democratic National Committee also claimed that she is also speaking to the White House with the aim of having President Obama take executive action to clear up the immigration status of some Venezuelan residents in the U.S.

Wasserman Schultz blasted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for repressing the opposition and limiting freedom of the press but warned that sanctions against Venezuela must be targeted and not broad.

“Fanning those flames through sanctions, the concern is (with) such a terrible economic situation there already, with many, many people living there in poverty... You could potentially through sanctions make things much, much worse for people on the ground,” said the legislator whose congressional district has one of the largest populations of Venezuelans living in the U.S.

Her remarks came after a closed-door “listening session” with Venezuelan expats who urged greater U.S. action against the Maduro regime.

“We don’t have a government, we have a regime of thugs, they’re stealing our money,” said one of the participants at the event.

Numerous U.S. legislators, particularly those of Cuban-American background, have backed the use of sanctions against the Venezuelan government.  One bipartisan Senate resolution was introduced last week by Bob Melendez and Marco Rubio and “urges President Obama to immediately impose targeted sanctions that are already possible under existing law and encourage a process of dialogue between Venezuela’s government and the political opposition.”

While the proposal calls out the Venezuelan government’s “chronic mismanagement of its economy”, the suggested sanctions would target those suspected of human rights violations exclude economic actions against the Venezuelan state.

World Watch: Crisis in Syria

* Syria: Government repression continued against protesters and opposition activists while the E.U. backed an embargo on Syrian oil exports.

* U.S.: Could another recession soon hit the already weakened and struggling U.S. economy?

* Japan: New Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda pledged "swift fiscal reforms" while also seeking economic growth.

* Britain: Rupert Murdoch will receive a raise even though an illegal wiretapping scandal shook his media empire.

Image Source - Sky News

Online Sources - CNN Money, Reuters, BBC News, CSMonitor.com, Voice of America

World Watch: This land is whose land?

* Israel: The government of Israel defied calls by the White House to not expand the construction of new settlements in the West Bank.

* Europe: A series of German AIDS awareness ads featuring depictions of Hitler and Stalin have raised the ire of European AIDS groups.

* Africa: Several African countries have called for the removal of international sanctions against Zimbabwe and its controversial President Robert Mugabe.

* U.S.: How bad is the budget crisis in California? Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger eliminated state funding for a program that paid for six domestic violence shelters.

Image- MSNBC
Online Sources- Al Jazeera English, MSNBC, BBC News, Guardian UK