Daily Headlines: March 30, 2016

* Costa Rica: A Costa Rican court convicted and sentenced four men to prison sentences of between 74 and 90 years for the 2013 murder of sea turtle conservationist Jairo Mora Sandoval.

* Argentina: British Prime Minister David Cameron tried to downplay a U.N. commission decision finding that waters around the disputed Falkland Islands belong to Argentina.

* Venezuela: In the latest clash between Venezuela’s government and opposition, President Nicolás Maduro threatened with vetoing a law granting amnesty to political prisoners.

* El Salvador: Salvadoran authorities declared a state of emergency for the prison system and cracked down against inmates allied to street gangs.

YouTube Source – Vice News (Video uploaded in June 2015).

Online Sources – The Telegraph, The Guardian, Tico Times, euronews

Daily Headlines: January 13, 2016 (Updated)

* U.S.: President Barack Obama’s call to eliminate the trade embargo against Cuba in his State of the Union speech might not sit well with Cuban-American legislators but perhaps they could agree to reform policy for migrants coming from the island.

* Puerto Rico: The Puerto Rican government will allegedly begin discussions today with creditors over the restructuring of approximately $70 million in public debt.

Update: On a related note, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday on a case that could have serious consequences for the island's future sovereignty. 

* Nicaragua: Indigenous and Afro-Caribbean community leaders claimed that officials are obligating them to allow for the building of a controversial interoceanic canal through their lands.

* Guatemala: In one of the latest chapters in the “FIFA-gate” corruption scandal, former Guatemala soccer federation president Brayan Jimenez was detained and accused of bribery.

YouTube Source – AFP

Online Sources including Update – The Hill, The Guardian, Al Jazeera America, Bloomberg, Reuters, ABC News

Daily Headlines: October 13, 2015

* Chile: Five years after the rescue of thirty-three Chilean miners, most of them have reportedly suffered from health problems and difficulties finding employment.

* Honduras: Clients of Banco Continental worry that their savings could be wiped out after the U.S. Treasury Department accused the bank’s owners of laundering drug money.

* Cuba: Cuban dissident groups claimed that authorities over the weekend detained about 300 activists calling for the liberation of political prisoners on the island.

* South America: Chilean Foreign Minister Heraldo Muñoz said that his country would be willing to negotiate with landlocked Bolivia’s access to the sea but refused to “discuss sovereignty” claims.

YouTube Source – Journeyman Pictures (“In 2010 the story of the 33 Chilean miners trapped in a collapsed mine caught the imagination of people around the world. Despite the excitement and emotion, the impoverished mine workers who were not trapped are being easily forgotten by the international media.”)
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino, BBC News, Reuters, teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: May 5, 2015

* South America: Chilean representatives requested the International Court of Justice to dismiss landlocked Bolivia’s long-standing claims of access to the Pacific Ocean.

* Mexico: The U.S. and Canadian embassies in Mexico issued travel warnings for tourists visiting a Jalisco state that has been the setting for a recent uptick in violent drug-related crime.

* Cuba: Alan Gross, the former contractor who spent over three years in a Cuban jail, will lobby for a new political action committee seeking stronger ties between the U.S. and the Caribbean nation.

* Brazil: Brazil will likely fall into a deeper recession and also raise interest rates according to financial analysts reporting to the Central Bank.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English
 
Online Sources – Bloomberg, CBC News, MercoPress, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: March 20, 2014

* U.S.: Officials in Texas found 109 migrants mostly from Central America and Mexico crammed into a dilapidated house and who may have been victims of a human smuggling operation.

* South America: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos gave final approval to the dismissal of Bogotá mayor Gustavo Petro while Venezuelan authorities arrested San Cristobal Mayor Daniel Ceballos and charged him with inciting “civil rebellion.”

* Argentina: Argentine President Cristina Fernandez blasted last week’s referendum in Crimea as “worthless” and compared it to a March 2013 vote where most residents of the disputed Falklands Islands opted to remain under British rule.

* Brazil: Lawmakers dropped a controversial provision from a major Internet bill that would’ve permitted online data to be locally collected in order to bypass U.S. intelligence surveillance.

Video Source – Associated Press via YouTube

Online Sources- The Guardian; Reuters; ZDNet; Bloomberg

International Court Verdict in Peru-Chile Border Dispute

Neither Peru nor Chile got entirely what they wanted in a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding a bilateral border dispute.

The ICJ agreed on Monday to expand Peru’s maritime boundary to cover some 10,800 square miles of ocean currently in international waters.  Thus, the tribunal partially agreed to Peru’s original claim of nearly 15,000 square miles of ocean.

Even though Chile may have to cede some of its territory in the Pacific Ocean, disagreed with Peru’s argument on how to redraw the maritime boundary.  By ruling that the maritime border should start from the same point on the coastline as it does now, the ICJ may have preserved valuable coastal fishing areas currently controlled by Chile.

Although the ICJ’s ruling is nonbinding the presidents of Chile and Peru have agreed to abide by the decision.

“Peru is pleased with the outcome,” said the Andean country’s president Ollanta Humala. “With this controversy resolved, the court affirmed our rights,” added Humala.

Humala’s Chilean counterpart, Sebastián Piñera, said, “he strongly disagreed” with the part of the verdict that expands Peru’s maritime claims.  Yet he noted that both he and President-elect Michelle Bachelet will ensure that the court’s ruling would be applied “gradually and based on future agreements between both countries.”

The ICJ’s ruling was reminiscent of the court’s compromise decision made in a 2012 ruling between Nicaragua and Colombia over disputed oceanic claims.  Unlike the diplomatic tensions in the aftermath of that verdict, the strong economic ties between Chile and Peru mean that neither country would benefit from their leaders harshly criticizing the ruling.

Central American Leaders Blast Nicaragua at U.N.

Yesterday we looked at Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and her speech at the U.N. general assembly (UNGA) that criticized alleged U.S. surveillance.  Yet she was not the only Latin American leader at the UNGA to critique the actions of a country in the Americas.

Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli denounced what he referred as Nicaragua’s “attempt to expand its maritime boundaries.”

In his speech to the UNGA today, Martinelli acknowledged that Nicaragua has the right to file a claim with the appropriate UN authorities seeking to “extend its continental shelf by over 200 nautical miles.”  But he also expressed his “deep and profound worry” that Nicaragua’s maritime claims could endanger treaties between that country and other Latin American states.

“The Panamanian government and its people are upset that we have not been consulted before Nicaragua filed its case,” Martinelli added.

Martinelli refrained from discussing at the UNGA Nicaragua’s plans to build an interoceanic canal that would rival the Panama Canal that’s currently undergoing a $5 billon expansion.

Martinelli’s remarks were more measured in tone than those of his Costa Rican counterpart, Laura Chinchilla, at the UNGA.

Daily Headlines: September 18, 2013

* Latin America: Dozens of people have died in Mexico after several tropical storms hit the country while about six hundred people in Uruguay were evacuated from their homes due to heavy rains and flooding.
  
* Central America: A new market study found that despite low levels of inflation in some Central America countries most individuals in the region believe that prices of basic goods are constantly rising.

* Venezuela: Clashes between rival gangs may be to blame for a riot in a Maracaibo prison that ended with at least sixteen inmates dead. 

* Nicaragua: Nicaragua filed a new lawsuit against Colombia with the International Court of Justice in order to settle a long-standing maritime border dispute.

Video Source – YouTube via AFP

Online Sources- LAHT; Reuters; France24.com; CNN; GlobalPost

Daily Headlines: April 30, 2013

* Peru: President Ollanta Humala indicated that he might pardon Alberto Fujimori, a disgraced former leader who is serving prison sentences for corruption and human rights abuses.

* Venezuela: A political ally of opposition leader Henrique Capriles was charged with promoting post-electoral violence days after U.S. filmmaker Timothy Tracy with conspiracy, falsifying public documents and other crimes.

* Bolivia: The Bolivian constitutional court gave the green light for President Evo Morales to run for a third term in elections scheduled for December 2014.

* Puerto Rico: Several Puerto Rican politicians backed presenting a resolution to the Congress aimed at “achieving the admission of Puerto Rico as a (U.S.) state”.

Video Source – YouTube via Associated Press (In 2009, “a special tribunal convicted former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori of murder and kidnapping on Tuesday and sentenced him to 25 years in prison for death squad activities during his autocratic 10-year rule”.)
 
Online Sources- Businessweek; Huffington Post; Al Jazeera English; The Latin Americanist; AFP

Daily Headlines: April 29, 2013

* South America: Chilean President Sebastián Piñera urged the International Court of Justice to dismiss a lawsuit filed last week by landlocked Bolivia regarding access to the Pacific Ocean.

* Guatemala: Archbishop Oscar Julio Vian praised the late Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi as a “martyr for peace” at a mass held on the fifteenth anniversary of the brutal murder of the humanitarian cleric.

* Argentine: The mother of Argentine rock singer Gustavo Cerati said that there are “small signs of hope” that her son will soon emerge from his near-three year coma.

* Panama: Paleontologists identified what they believe to be fossil remains of the “oldest monkey in the Americas” at the site of the Panama Canal expansion.

Video Source – YouTube via user telesurenglish

Online Sources- ABC News; GlobalPost; Los Angeles Times; Newsroom Panama

Daily Headlines: April 11, 2013

* U.S.: Tens of thousands of protesters including Latino migrants and activists took part in marches yesterday calling for fair and comprehensive immigration reform.

* Guatemala: Guatemala became the eighth Latin American country in the past two years to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state.

* Mexico: A Mexican court sentenced to 38 years in prison a man convicted of murdering crime reporter Regina Martinez in 2012.

* Brazil: Officials with world soccer governing body FIFA are none too pleased at the constant delays in the construction of new stadiums for next year’s World Cup.

Video Source – YouTube via user Noticias MundoFox

Online Sources- Reuters, ABC News, Jerusalem Post, BBC News, The Latin Americanist

Britain to Pope: Stay Out of Falklands Debate

Several British government officials urged the newly elected Argentine-born Pope Francis to refrain from making any political statements regarding the disputed Falklands Islands.

"The Holy See is clear that it considers the question of the Falkland Islands as a bilateral one between sovereign nations, and that it does not have a role to play. We do not expect that position to change," the Foreign Office said in a statement issued on Monday.

The communiqué came hours after the pontiff met and had lunch with Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on Monday. After they talked, Fernández said at a press conference that she “asked him to intercede in opening a dialogue between the U.K. and Argentina”.

Baroness Warsi, the Brtish Faith and Communities Minister, claimed that Francis will be neutral concerning the diplomatic tug-of-war between her country and Argentina over the archipelago.

“The Holy See have always taken the view that this is a bilateral matter.  I don’t anticipate that that will change, said the minister who attended this morning’s inauguration Mass.

British Prime Minister David Cameron criticized the pontiff’s remarks less than two days after Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected as the new Pope.

“The white smoke over the Falklands was pretty clear,” said Cameron.  He also mentioned that the results of a recent non-binding referendum held on the disputed islands “is a message to everyone in the world that the people of these islands have chosen very clearly the future they want and that choice should be respected by everyone.”

Warsi denied rumors that Cameron “snubbed” the Pope by skipping out on the inauguration Mass and noted how when “Benedict was inaugurated eight years ago, neither the prime minister or deputy prime minister attended.”  Fernández, meanwhile, attended the Mass and was among the dozens of foreign dignitaries who subsequently greeted Francis at St. Peter’s Basilica.

U.S. Secretary Kerry Refuses to Take Sides Over Falklands Dispute

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reaffirmed his country’s position of neutrality regarding Britain and Argentina ‘s competing sovereignty claims over the Falkland Islands.

“Our position on the Falklands has not changed. The United States recognizes de facto UK administration of the islands but takes no position on the question of parties’ sovereignty claims thereto,” said Kerry on Monday after holding discussions with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Kerry added that he neither he nor U.S. President Barack Obama would “comment” on a referendum that will take place on the disputed islands next month.  It’s expected that islanders will overwhelmingly choose a resolution supporting the Falklands’ political status as a British colony.

Kerry also condemned the Syrian government for the recent bombing of civilian areas in Aleppo and warned that it would be “simply unacceptable” for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.  Yet it has been his declarations over the Falklands that has not sat well with some British press outlets. For instance, a writer for one of The Telegraph’s blogs accused the White House of caring “more about appeasing a third-rate, declining socialist regime in Latin America than standing with America’s closest friend and ally”.

Daily Headlines: June 14, 2012

* Peru: Authorities released the mayor of Espinar, Oscar Mollohuanca, who was jailed after being accused of inciting anti-mining riots two weeks ago.

* South America: Bolivian President Evo Morales said that a 108-year old territorial treaty with neighboring Chile is “dead because Chile has failed.”

* Mexico: The U.S. State Department issued a warning regarding traveling to Mexico due to the recent arrests of several people linked to the Zetas drug gang.

* Cuba: A lawyer for U.S. contractor Alan Gross claimed that his client’s health has greatly deteriorated in the two years he has been imprisoned in Cuba.

Video Source – YouTube via telesurenglish (The Peruvian government declared a state of emergency in Espinar last month after two people were killed during anti-mining protests.)

Online Sources- CBS News, ABC News, Bernama, BBC News

Daily Headlines: January 4, 2012

* South America: Venezuela's PDVSA said that it will only need to pay $255 million of the $907 million recently awarded to ExxonMobil by an international arbitration panel, while an Ecuadorian appeals court upheld an $18 billion dollar ruling against Chevron.

* Argentina: In a statement emitted on the 179th anniversary of the British occupation of the Falklands, the Argentine government renewed its claims of a “legitimate right” over the disputed islands.

* Cuba: According to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation a prisoner died on Sunday after suffering a heart attack during a hunger strike.

* Mexico: French President Nicolas Sarkozy selected actress Salma Hayek as one of the upcoming recipients of the Legion of Honor.

Image Source – Flickr via Steve Snodgrass (CC BY 2.0)

Online Sources- BusinessWeek, Mercopress, CNN, New York Daily News, BBC News

Weekend Headlines: December 24-25, 2011

* Cuba: The U.S. State Department is “deeply disappointed” that jailed contractor Alan Gross will not be among the 2900 prisoners to be reportedly released by the Cuban government.

* Central America: Nicaragua filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice against plans by neighboring Costa Rica to build a road along the banks of the San Juan River.

* U.S.: A federal judge ruled in favor of expanding a class action lawsuit against Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio to include every Latino questioned or detained by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office since January 2007.

* Brazil: Brazilian officials placed an additional $5.4 million fine on Chevron as a result of environmental damage from an offshore oil spill last month.

* Mexico: Authorities at the port of Lazaro Cardenas seized over 229 metric tons of chemicals that are used to make methamphetamine.

* South America: Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said that he would deploy 10,000 troops along the border with Colombia due to security concerns.

Video Source –YouTube via euronews

Online Sources- Reuters, Voice of America, Huffington Post, Xinhua, MSNBC, AFP

World Watch: The Long Arm of the Law

* Ivory Coast: Ex-president Laurent Gbagbo was arrested and flown to the Netherlands where he awaits trial in front of the International Criminal Court.

* Britain: Hundreds of thousands of public employees took to the streets to protest against government-backed austerity measures.

* Pakistan: The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff “publicly and categorically” rejected accusations that NATO purposely killed 24 Pakistani soldiers over the weekend.

* Palestine: Iceland became the first western European country to recognize Palestine as an independent state.

Image Source – Flickr via Alkan de Beaumont Chaglar (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources- Reuters, USA TODAY, MSNBC, Herald Sun

Daily Headlines: September 27, 2011

* Cuba: Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called for normalizing relations with the U.S. but he did not rule out the possibility of some concessions.

* Argentina: The Group of 77 bloc of developing countries backed Argentine President Cristina Kirchner’s call for renewed talks with Britain over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

* Puerto Rico: Could Puerto Rico’s economic woes lead to a “brain drain” of talented young people from the island?

* Paraguay: Brazilian health officials claimed that cattle are crossing the border from neighboring Paraguay despite a ban due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

Image –Via Flickr user twicepix. (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources- Bloomberg, NPR, The Latin Americanist, CBS News, Sydney Morning Herald

At the UN: Arms, the Falklands, and the debate over Palestinian recognition

Several Latin American spoke at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. What did some of them have to say? Here is a brief summary:

• Mexican president Felipe Calderon spoke out against the global arms trade that he believes is “feeding the arsenals” of criminals and narcotraffickers worldwide. Criminal organizations including Mexican drug gangs “are murdering more people...than all the current dictatorial regimes” according to Calderon. (His speech came a day after 35 bodies were found dumped on the side of a Veracruz highway supposedly at the hands of a new group “making a violent challenge to the dominant Zetas Cartel.”)
• “I implore that (Israeli and Palestinian diplomats) return to the negotiating table as soon as possible because…that is the only path to arrive at what we all want: peace and security for both states.” Believe it or not those words did not come from US President Barack Obama during his UN speech but from his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos.
  
• Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner renewed claims over the sovereignty of the British-controlled Falkland Islands. She urged Britain to negotiate over the future of the archipelago and warned that not doing so could lead to the banning of all stops from Chilean flights heading to Malvinas.
• Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo called for financial reforms at the UN and also criticized the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba. He also addressed the need for countries to unite and find ways to reduce social inequality.
  

Tomorrow we’ll look at yesterday’s remarks by Brazil’s president as well as speeches on the agenda today. (The leaders of Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic are expected to address the UN on Thursday).

Video Source – CNN Mexico via YouTube

Online Sources- Too many to list!

Daily Headlines: August 18, 2011

* Latin America: Numerous top Israeli diplomats have allegedly traveled to several Latin American countries in order to discourage support for the creation of a Palestinian state.

* Central America: Diplomatic tensions between neighbors Costa Rica and Nicaragua over Calero Island could be reignited due to rumors of a recent incursion into the disputed territory.

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez announced that he would pull $11 billion in Venezuelan gold reserves from foreign banks.

* Brazil: According to a “preliminary analysis of satellite photos” deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased by 15% between July 2010 and July of this year.

Image – Reuters (“Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman speaks to the media before the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem July 17, 2011.” Lieberman was one of numerous top Israeli diplomats that have reportedly traveled recently to Latin America in order to drum up opposition to Palestinian statehood).
Online Sources- insidecostarica.com, The Latin Americanist, AFP, CNN