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

Report: 15,000 Rape Cases Yearly in Mexico

The recent rape of six Spanish tourists in Acapulco has served to highlight the problem of sexual assault against women in Mexico.  A report mentioned in one of Mexico’s main dailies described just how bad this problem is.

The “unpublished” study, which was mentioned in Wednesday’s edition of La Jornada, found that approximately 15,000 instances of rape were denounced yearly. Hence, the report concluded that levels of sexual violence in Mexico are “unacceptably high and, worse still, increasing.”  

The report’s authors, who include the U.N.’s agency on women and Mexico’s National Women’s Institute, also noted that despite such a high number of reported cases of abuse the number of defendants who go on trial decreased between 2002 and 2010.

Furthermore, the study described that 76% of those accused of rape between 1997 and 2006 were convicted of their crimes.  Yet this percentage has supposedly decreased and over the past four years less than 30% of cases have lead to a conviction. 

This study appears to support the results of another report that was presented last year to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.  As written in an October 2012 article in VOXXI:

Daily Headlines: May 11, 2012

* Haiti: A 19-year-old Haitian man testified at a closed-door judicial hearing against six former U.N. peacekeepers from Uruguay accused of sexually assaulting him last year.

* Chile: The Chilean legislature overwhelmingly backed an anti-discrimination law that had been stalled for years but was fast-tracked after the March murder of gay teen Daniel Zamudio.

* Mexico: An American Civil Liberties Union report urged U.S. authorities to investigate complaints of abuse by Border Patrol agents against migrants and Mexican residents.

* Puerto Rico: According to a poll published this week a slim majority of Puerto Ricans back the island’s current commonwealth status.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- News24, Huffington Post, The Latin Americanist, MSNBC, Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: November 25, 2008

* U.S.: A Houston Chronicle investigation found that red tape is impeding hundreds of sex trafficking victims- including some from Central America- from receiving special visas.

* Bolivia: Evo Morales lifted the martial law over a region that had been the site of violent protests two months ago.

* South America: The presidents of Argentina and Mexico vowed to better coordinate efforts to combat crime.

* Brazil: Indigenous groups are hoping to increase their political participation in order to better influence government policy.

Image- BBC News
Sources- Houston Chronicle, The Latin Americanist, IHT, Bloomberg