Daily Headlines: March 31, 2016

* Brazil: Police believe that a 16-year-old girl in Rio de Janeiro has been the victim of a gang rape but worry that rape kit tests may have been done days too late.

* Guatemala: Anabela Morfin has been named as Guatemala’s new attorney general after her predecessor resigned and will leave the country in response to death threats.

* Venezuela: LATAM Airlines and Lufthansa have become the latest air carriers to suspend service in Venezuela due to nonpayment of debts and amid great economic uncertainty.

* Chile: A “red tide” outbreak of algae that has paralyzed the Chilean fishing industry is blamed for a dive in manufacturing production last April.

YouTube Source – France 24 English
 
Online Sources – CBS News, ABC News, euronews, Reuters

Daily Headlines: May 3, 2016 (Updated)

* Mexico: Some 40% of drivers in Mexico City are barred from using their vehicles today after smog levels of the already polluted air of the metropolis spiked yesterday.

* Brazil: A 72-hour ban on the use of WhatsApp in Brazil affecting some 100 million users has reportedly led to a surge in registration for rival messaging app Telegram.

Update: A Brazilian appellate judge on Tuesday lifted the restrictions against using WhatsApp. 

* U.S.: Broadway musical “Hamilton”, created by and starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, received a record sixteen Tony Award nominations.

* Cuba: For the first time in decades a U.S. cruise ship docked in Havana though not without controversy over a former ban on Cubans barred from returning to the island by sea.
YouTube Source – DW (English) (Video uploaded on July 2014).

Online Sources including Update – ABC News, USA TODAY, Quartz, CBS News, Ars Technica

Daily Headlines: April 19, 2016

* U.S.: The 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama was awarded to Lin-Manuel Miranda in recognition of the popular, critically-acclaimed Broadway musical “Hamilton.”

* Latin America: A new report detailed how the Hacking Team cyber security firm allegedly sold spyware and other tools used by authorities in several Latin American states for surveillance against critics and political opponents.

* Colombia: The Colombian government plans to resume using glyphosate to eradicate coca plants even though the World Health Organization classified it last year as a carcinogen.

* Cuba: Carnival reversed its decision to bar Cuban-Americans from traveling on its upcoming cruises to Cuba though it remains to be seen if they will be accepted back on to the island by immigration officials.

YouTube Source – PBS NewsHour
 
Online Sources – Buzzfeed News, ABC News, The Atlantic, Boing Boing

Daily Headlines: April 14, 2016 (Updated)

* Cuba: Cruse ship giant Carnival has come under fire in the Cuban-American community after it emerged that the firm complied with a law in Cuba barring those who were born on the island to return there by sea.

Update: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry entered the fray and criticized the "discriminatory policy" by the Cuban government.
 
* Argentina: A tribunal gave the green light for Argentina to move ahead with its first international bond sale in more than a decade as the country hopes to end to a legal battle over repaying debt from its $100 million default in 2001.

* Puerto Rico: Delays have hit a proposal in the U.S. Congress that could alleviate the Puerto Rican debt crisis and prevent an economic catastrophe on the commonwealth but that some legislators criticize as a bailout.

* Mexico: Is President Enrique Peña Nieto “putting his head in the sand”, as one critic claimed, by skipping a special U.N. General Assembly session on drug policy next week?

YouTube Source – Miami Herald (“A small group of protesters including Ramón Saúl Sánchez, president of the Democracy Movement, demonstrate outside the Carnival Corp. in protest of the ban by the Cuban government of Cubans and Cuban-Americans traveling to Cuba by sea.”)
 
Online Sources including Update – USA TODAY, ABC News, Reuters, Vice News, 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: May 6, 2015

* Peru: At least two protesters opposed to the $1.4 billion Tia Maria copper project in the Arequipa region of Peru have been killed over the past two weeks.

* Cuba: The Treasury Department approved ferry service between Florida and Cuba for the first time in over fifty years, while JetBlue announced plans to begin a weekly New York-Havana route this July.

* Colombia: A new White House report found that the amount of Colombian land used for coca cultivation increased by 39% between 2013 and 2014.

* Mexico: About $5.7 billion in remittances were sent from Mexicans living abroad back to their home in the first three months this year, which represents the most transferred since 2008.

YouTube Source – CCTV Americas Now (Video published in December 2013).
 
Online Sources – Reuters, Sun Sentinel, TIME, Voice of America, Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: September 10, 2014

* Guatemala: The Guatemalan Constitutional Court recently suspended the “Monsanto Law,” which would have forced farmers to obtain permission from firms like Monsanto, DuPont or Bayer in order to grow certain crops.

* Chile: President Michelle Bachelet announced a series of legal reforms including strengthening a Pinochet-era anti-terrorism law in response to a bombing in Santiago, Chile on Monday.

* Peru: Four indigenous environmental activists were murdered in a remote area of Peru allegedly at the hands of illegal loggers.

* Haiti: At least twenty-three people died and thirty-two were injured when a bus fell into a ravine in southern Haiti yesterday.

Video Source – teleSUR English via YouTube

Online Sources –VOXXI; Fox News Latino; The Latin Americanist; Voice of America; Reuters

Daily Headlines: September 2, 2014

* Europe: Mexican soccer star Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez left Manchester United to Real Madrid on a season-long loan hours before Colombian striker Radamel Falcao joined the famed Mancunian team via his own season-long loan.

* Peru: Police in Lima displayed a record 7.7 tons of cocaine seized last week that were reportedly destined for Spain and Belgium.

* Uruguay: A senior Uruguayan official claimed that the process of transferring six Guantanamo detainees to the South American country would likely occur after presidential elections next month.

* Cuba: Cuban expats traveling to the island are none too pleased with new government restrictions on items including “hard-to-obtain” consumer goods.

Video Source – Liga BBVA via YouTube

Online Sources – Los Angeles Times; TVNZ; Uruguay; CBS Miami

Daily Headlines: June 30, 2014

* Paraguay: The Red Cross warned that the flooding that has led to the evacuation of some 300,000 people in Paraguay could lead to "outbreaks of disease like dengue and chikungunya".

* Brazil: A new scientific study concluded that Indonesia has surpassed Brazil as the country with the world’s highest rate of deforestation.

* Cuba: Red Bull gives you wings…except if you travel illegally to Cuba.

* Venezuela: More than half of Venezuela including the capital city of Caracas was in the dark for several hours on Friday due to a blackout.

Video Source – BBC World via YouTube

Online Sources – Red Cross; BBC News; Reuters; Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: February 18, 2014

* Honduras: A United Nations-affiliated report released yesterday found that Honduras continues to have the world’s highest homicide rate even though the rate in murders dropped 6.5% last year.

* U.S.: Is the "fear of deportation" be one of the main reasons behind sagging Latino enrollment in health care programs covered under the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare?

* Mexico: The proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, expanding free trade and easing travel restrictions are topics likely to be discussed by the heads of the U.S., Canadian and Mexican governments at the  “Three Amigos” summit that starts today.

* Brazil: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff clamed that her country will become the world’s top producer of soybeans by the end of this year.

Video Source – AFP via YouTube (“In Honduras, the military police is a highly visible presence in the most violent region of Tegucigalpa and the San Pedro Sula, where residents have been plagued by violent gang crime”).

Online Sources- CBC News; Herald Sun; New York Times; Time

Daily Headlines: November 27, 2013

* Caribbean: At least thirty Haitian migrants died and over one hundred were rescued after an overcrowded boat capsized some fifteen nautical miles off the Bahamian coast.

* Honduras: Electoral officials have yet to declare an official winner of Sunday’s presidential election but did claim that ruling party candidate Juan Orlando Hernández had an "irreversible" lead in the voting count.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan gross domestic product grew by only 1.1% in the latest fiscal quarter, which is a 1.5% drop from the previous quarter and a 2.9% decrease compared to the same period in 2012.

* Cuba: The Cuban government suspended its consular services in the U.S. and will most likely affect the travel plans of Cuban expats planning to visit their relatives and future “people-to-people programs” to the island.

Video Source – YouTube via CBS Evening News

Online Sources- Huffington Post; CNN; Reuters; Miami Herald

Daily Headlines: November 1, 2013

* Mexico: Mexican legislators approved a proposal that would raise taxes on sugary drinks and junk food.
 
* Latin America: According to a new World Bank report Peru is the best Latin American country for foreign investors while Venezuela is the worst in the region.

* Cuba: Direct passenger flights between Key West, Florida and Cuba are expected to resume for the first time in fifty-one years.

* Chile: Canada’s Barrick will halt development of its Pascua-Lama gold mine in Chile that was opposed to by some local residents and environmental activists.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources- Bloomberg; Fox News Latino; GlobalPost; Reuters

Daily Headlines: October 29, 2013

* Venezuela: Venezuelan officials announced the planned installation of tens of thousands of surveillance cameras nationwide including in high-crime areas of several major cites.  

* Chile: Patricio Ahumada, the leader of a gang recently convicted of the 2012 murder of gay youth Daniel Zamudio, was sentenced to life in prison by a Chilean court.

* Cuba: The relaxation of travel restrictions may explain why there was a reported 35% boost in the number of Cuban tourists who have left the island.

* Brazil: Brazil’s Bio-Manguinhos biomedical research center in conjunction with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will try to produce a combined measles and rubella vaccine for export to developing countries.

Video Source – YouTube via user brianandrewsntn24 (Video uploaded in March 2012).

Online Sources- El Universal; The Latin Americanist; GlobalPost; ABC News; Reuters

Daily Headlines: September 26, 2013

* Guatemala: Julio Ligorria, Guatemala's ambassador to the U.S., said that his country would try to complete all pending adoptions by U.S. couples by the end of this year.

* Cuba: According to new government data, approximately 183,000 Cubans were able to legally travel abroad since a migratory reform law took effect in January.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said that he would skip attending the U.N. General Assembly due to alleged threats against his life.

* Honduras: A poll released yesterday showed that Xiomara Castro, the wife of ousted ex-President Manuel Zelaya, and Congressional chief Juan Hernandez are in a statistical tie in the race to become the next Honduran president.

Video Source – YouTube via The New York Times (Video uploaded in December 2012).

Online Sources- ABC News; Bernama; Reuters

Daily Headlines: August 16, 2013

* Paraguay: Conservative business tycoon Horacio Cartes was sworn in yesterday as Paraguay’s first democratically-elected president since the controversial June 2012 ouster of Fernando Lugo.

* Mexico: A Mexican judge issued an arrest warrant for Rafael Caro Quintero, a former drug capo who was unexpectedly freed last week while serving a prison sentence for the 1985 murder of DEA agent Enrique "Kike" Camarena. 

* U.S.: Valentin de Vargas, a “veteran character actor” of Spanish and Austrian background who was active in the Nosotros organization for Latinos in show business, was buried on Tuesday in New Mexico.

* Haiti: The U.S. Department of State issued a new Haiti travel advisory that includes warning visitors of “violent crimes and lack of emergency response infrastructure.”

Video Source – YouTube via user telesurenglish

Online Sources- Defend Haiti; The AV Club; The Guardian; France24; The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: August 12, 2013

* Mexico: The White House is reportedly working with Mexican officials to bring new charges against Rafael Caro Quintero, a former top drug gang leader who was released from prison last Friday.
 
* Argentina: The odds of Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner running for reelection became slimmer after the opposition made several key gains in Sunday’s midterm primary elections.

* Chile: Tensions between Chilean authorities and the local Mapuche community have intensified over accusations of police involvement in the recent killing of a Mapuche land rights activist.

* El Salvador: The U.S. State Department issued a new travel advisory to citizens visiting El Salvador where “crime and violence levels remain critically high”.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources- Bloomberg; CBS News; Department of State; MercoPress

Daily Headlines: June 24, 2013

* Honduras: The State Department issued a new travel warning advising, “U.S. citizens that the crime and violence levels in Honduras remain critically high,” while a group of twenty-one senators urged a review of aid to the Honduran police and military.

* Uruguay: Voters defeated a proposal to hold a national referendum aimed at overturning a 2012 law legalizing abortion.

* Canada: Quebec officials have called on the Canadian government to permit thousands of Haitian earthquake refugees to stay in the country by not lifting a moratorium on deportations.

* Brazil: Hosts Brazil will take on Copa America winners Uruguay in a Confederations Cup semifinal to be held later this week.

Video Source – YouTube via AFP (Video uploaded on April 2012).

Online Sources- U.S. State Department; ABC News; news24.com; CBC; CNN

Sobredosis de TV: Tony and Tejo

Grantland’s Andy Greenwald described Anthony Bourdain’s job as a judge on the televised cooking competition The Taste as someone “defanged like an aging circus lion” though he also expressed his hope that Bourdain’s latest series, Parts Unknown,  “will be excellent”.  Greenwald’s optimism was not off the mark as Parts Unknown debuted this month and provided a much-needed boost to CNN’s weekend ratings.

On the next episode of Parts Unknown Bourdain visits Colombia, a country he first visited for his previous travel series, No Reservations. “It’s inspiring, when you’ve gotten used to the notion that some problems probably won’t ever be fixed in your lifetime, to see some of the very worst kind of seemingly insurmountable problems so quickly and effectively improve,” he said about Colombia in 2008.

Bourdain’s latest visit to Colombia was somewhat controversial when he claimed to have been “misunderstood” when he tweeted a photo of him posing with two young soldiers.  Nevertheless, Bourdain recently praised the country as an emerging “vacation wonderland” and urged viewers to “put aside the stereotypes” related to drugs and violence.

The following video clip from Parts Unknown is a look at Colombia’s national sport: tejo.  Tejo is a hybrid of shot put and horseshoes where competitors toss rock-like pucks roughly twenty yards to a target embedded in a raised board filled with clay. As seen below, tejo is a traditional pastime often enjoyed by Colombians as a popular recreation:
     
The Colombia episode of Parts Unknown debuts tonight on CNN at 9 p.m. ET.  An upcoming episode on Peru is scheduled to air on June 2nd.

Daily Headlines: February 7, 2013 (UPDATED)

* Chile: The Chilean Navy was ordered to investigate a group of sailors caught on video chanting, “I will kill Argentines, I will shoot Bolivians, I will behead Peruvians.”

Update: A report from the Chilean Navy said that the chant by a group of sailors in Viña del Mar was an "improvised" form of a "typical" song used by the military in training.

The report, which was ordered by the federal government in response to the controversial video, labeled the chant as "offensive" but called for the leader of the chant to be punished rather than the entire group of 27 sailors.

* South America: Police in Peru nabbed the suspected head of Los Urabeños, a Colombian neo-paramilitary criminal gang involve in drug trafficking.

* Cuba: Lack of demand is reportedly to blame for a decline in the number of charter flights between the U.S. and Cuba.

* U.S.: Can Governors Brian Sandoval and Susana Martinez help attract Latino voters to the Republican Party?

Video Source – YouTube via user Guillermo Rossini

Online Sources including Update- La Nacion, ABC News, UPI, Miami Herald, New York Times

Daily Headlines: January 14, 2013

* Cuba: Long lines are allegedly forming outside migration offices and the U.S. Interests Section in Havana as today marks the first day that new travel measures take effect.

* Colombia: Peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels will be renewed today after a 23-day holiday break.
 
* Bolivia: President Evo Morales praised the U.N.’s decision to readmit Bolivia into the organization’s anti-drugs convention.

* Costa Rica: Approximately fifty mothers and their children took part in a breastfeeding protest against the supposedly discriminatory policies of a Costa Rican shopping mall.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- Huffington Post, Bernama, Mercopress, ABC News