Daily Headlines: October 10, 2016

* Haiti: Doctors warned that Haiti could face its second cholera outbreak in recent years following the more than 1000 fatalities and towns still isolated by Hurricane Matthew.

* Argentina: An estimated 70,000 people marched in the Argentine city of Rosario for women’s rights and against all forms of gender violence including femicides.

* Mexico: The Mexican peso has strengthened by 2.3 percent in a reported indication that the market is confident over a Hillary Clinton victory in the United States presidential election.

* Uruguay: Rodolfo Nin Novoa, Uruguay’s Foreign Minister, called on ex-Guantanamo detainee Jihad Diyab to end his two-month-old hunger strike and “continue looking for a better future for him and his family.”

YouTube Source – Al Jazeera English (“The death toll has reached 1,000, but rescue teams are still combing through wreckage in the remote southwest of the country. A number of cholera cases have been reported, raising fears of a renewed outbreak of the disease.”)

Online Sources – NBC News, Financial Times, teleSUR English, Reuters

Daily Headlines: August 30, 2016

* Brazil: A defiant suspended President Dilma Rousseff defended herself during a marathon session of Brazil’s Senate but it may not be enough to prevent her from being ousted as soon as later today.

* Puerto Rico: Monica Puig made made history this month by earning Puerto Rico’s first ever gold medal but the tennis star was shockingly eliminated in the first round of the U.S. Open.

* United States: A federal appeals court upheld an order denying asylum to twenty-eight immigrant mothers and their children who claimed they would face danger if deported to their Latin American countries of origin.

* Mexico: Federal police chief Enrique Galindo was fired from his post over denunciations against officers accused of the extrajudicial killings of twenty-two suspected drug gang members last year.

YouTube Source – euronews (“Brazil's suspended President Dilma Rousseff has accused her critics of using trumped charges against her to trample on the country's democracy.”)

Online Sources – Daily Telegraph, ABC News, Reuters, USA TODAY

Daily Headlines: June 30, 2016

* Guatemala: An estimated 2.8 million people have been affected by a drought in Guatemala including 900,000 at risk of malnutrition and requiring prompt assistance.

* Mexico: The leaders of the U.S., Canada and Mexico unveiled a plan to boost clean energy throughout North America and also pledged to strengthen economic ties in the region.

* Chile: Officials implemented a new law aimed at lowering Chile’s high child obesity rate by banning ads targeting minors under the age of 14 and prohibiting selling food with a toy prize.

* U.S.: The judge who controversially gave a lenient sentence to convicted rapist Brock Turner has been accused of racial bias for ordering a harsher punishment against a Latino defendant in a similar case of sexual assault.

YouTube Source – CCTV English
 
Online Sources – Al Jazeera, Voice of America, CBC, Fusion

Daily Headlines: June 9, 2016

* Brazil: Hundreds of pairs of underwear were laid on Copacabana beach last Monday as part of a protest calling attention to violence against women including the recent suspected gang rape of a sixteen-year-old girl.

* Panama: Shell companies purportedly used by the Cuban government to circumvent the U.S. trade embargo against the island join Argentina’s president and a Chilean anti-corruption activist as some of the entities mentioned in the “Panama Papers”.

* Haiti: U.S. and European Union officials are none too pleased with the decision to rerun Haiti’s disputed presidential elections twelve months after they were first held.

* Guatemala: A UNICEF study found poverty, sexual abuse and machismo have fueled a “shocking” amount of child sex trafficking in Guatemala.

YouTube Source – AFP

Online Sources – The Huffington Post, The Latin Americanist, Quartz, euronews, The Miami Herald

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 27, 2016

* Mexico: While questions continue in the official investigation of the 43 Ayotzinapa college students missing since September 2014, one of the survivors of the attack against his classmates has sought political asylum in the U.S.

* El Salvador: The Salvadoran legislature approved issuing $152 million in bonds in order to finance proposals to combat rampant gang violence.

* Brazil: Police are searching for at least thirty suspects behind the gang rape of a sixteen-year-old girl in Rio de Janeiro that was recorded and uploaded on Twitter.

* Panama: The Panamanian Supreme Court urged the federal government to seek the extradition of ex-President Ricardo Martinelli from the U.S.

YouTube Source – AJ+ (Video uploaded in September 2015.  Yesterday marked twenty months since the 43 Ayotzinapa students have disappeared and may have been murdered).
 
Online Sources – The Atlantic, Vice News, euronews, CBC, Reuters

Daily Headlines: May 24, 2016

* Guatemala: Guatemalan prosecutors are considering a inaugurating a new office specializing in dealing with femicides in response to the 222 gender-based murders of women in the first four months of 2016.

* Puerto Rico: Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders railed against a bipartisan congressional plan backed by the White House to help restructure Puerto Rico’s $70 billion public debt.

* Peru: Polls indicate that Keiko Fujimori has widened her lead ahead of the June 5th presidential runoff despite corruption allegations within her campaign and concerns over the relation to her imprisoned father, ex-president Alberto Fujimori.

* Venezuela: Brazil’s acting foreign minister said his country and Argentina reportedly agreed to help mediate in Venezuela’s worsening political crisis.

YouTube Source – DW (English)
 
Online Sources – teleSUR English, Politico, Reuters, ABC News

Daily Headlines: May 18, 2016

* Dominican Republic: Luis Abinader conceded Sunday’s president election to Danilo Medina but not before blasting the policies of the incumbent and denouncing problems at voting stations.

* South America: The Paraguayan Congress is considering a bill to help combat a recent surge in femicides, while lawyers for the Bogota, Colombia government have come under fire for blaming the female victim of having been raped and killed in a 2012 murder.

* Argentina: Monsanto will reportedly “suspend future soybean technologies” as part of a dispute with the Argentine government and framers of genetically modified soybeans.

* Mexico: President Enrique Peña Nieto proposed expanding the legalization of same-sex marriages from a few locations like Mexico City to the entire Mexican nation.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – ABC News, teleSUR English, Colombia Reports, Reuters, The Huffington Post

Daily Headlines: April 28, 2016

* Venezuela: A study released this week found that Venezuela, which is undergoing an energy crisis, is the country most vulnerable to the low price of crude oil.

* Cuba: The recent increase in the number of Cuban migrants entering the U.S. could lead to a reform of the Cuban Adjustment Act even though White House officials have denied the possibility of enacting changes.

* Mexico: “We want to stay alive” was the theme of a protests held days ago in the State of Mexico to repudiate femicides and violence against women.

* Latin America: The economy for Latin America and the Caribbean is expected to contract for a second straight year in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund.

YouTube Source – PBS NewsHour (Video uploaded in March 2016).
 
Online Sources – GlobalPost, CNBC, Politico, The Guardian, Vox

Daily Headlines: March 4, 2016 (Updated)

* Haiti: Haiti’s prison system is stretched to its limits by overcrowding as inmates reside in squalid conditions, according to “independent U.N. expert on human rights” Gustavo Gallon.

* Brazil: A court ordered House Speaker Eduardo Cunha to face trial as part of the “Lava Jato” corruption scandal that has implicated figures of Brazil’s political and economic elite.

Update: Speaking of figures implicated in the "Lava Jato" probe, Lula has some explaining to do.
 
* Venezuela: U.S. President Barack Obama issued a one-year extension to an executive order presented in March 2015 deeming the deep political unrest in Venezuela as a national security threat.

* Guatemala: Two ex-military men recently convicted of torturing and raping eleven indigenous women during the civil war three decades ago have been ordered to pay a $1 million restitution to their victims.

YouTube Source – The New York Times (Video uploaded in May 2010).

Online Sources including Update – Yahoo News, ABC News, Fox News Latino, Reuters, BBC News

Daily Headlines: February 29, 2016

* Guatemala: Two former military officials were sentenced to over one century in prison for the enslavement and systemic raping of indigenous women during the Guatemalan civil war.

* Argentina: The Argentine government reached a $4.65 billion deal to repay four holdout creditor funds as part of a settlement to repay debt from the country’s $100 billion default in 2001.

* Brazil: Ex-Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is reportedly considering running for another term in 2018 despite being investigated under the “Lava Jato” corruption scandal.

* Venezuela: A new $5 billion loan and gold mining venture could save Venezuela from falling into default.

YouTube Source – AFP
 
Online Sources – Christian Science Monitor, Reuters, The Guardian, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: February 1, 2016

* El Salvador: Ex-President Francisco Flores passed away on Saturday prior to standing trial over the alleged embezzlement of $15 million in earthquake relief funds.

* Chile: Manuel Pelligrini will depart from coaching English soccer club Manchester City, while ex-Spanish international Juan Antonio Pizzi will head Copa America titleholders Chile.

* Guatemala: Two former Guatemalan military commanders are expected to go on trial today over the raping and enslavement of eleven women during the brutal civil war thirty years ago.

* Ecuador: Ecuadoran officials finalized the $80 million sale of 500,000-acre oil blocs to a pair of Chinese firms despite resistance from environmentalists and indigenous Amazon communities.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – USA TODAY, The Guardian, BBC Sport, SBS, The Los Angeles Times

Daily Headlines: January 19, 2016

* Latin America: Colombia enacted a law imposing harsher punishments against those convicted of attacking women with acid, while the Dominican opposition accused the government of doing little to combat femicides.

* U.S.: The Supreme Court accepted listening to arguments later this year over the legality of the DACA and DAPA immigration relief programs.

* Chile: Chilean prosecutors will reportedly reopen an investigation into the origins of the late dictator Augusto Pinochet's multimillion dollar fortune.

* Brazil: Another negative sign for Brazil’s economy as economists believe that inflation will rise by 7% this year.

YouTube Source – Thomson Reuters Foundation (Video uploaded on April 2015).
 
Online Sources – BBC News, Dominican Today, Fox News Latino, Bloomberg, NBC News

Daily Headlines: November 24, 2015

* Cuba: Internet access is difficult for the average Cuban resident but social networking has been a vital resource for migrants attempting to make their way through Mexico and Central America.

* Latin America: Peruvian President Ollanta Humala issued decrees with the goal of halting violence against women, while a recent report revealed mixed results for Nicaragua in terms of gender equality.

* Venezuela: U.S. prosecutors accused the Venezuelan military of being involved in a shipment of cocaine seized in Haiti this month and leading to the arrest of the nephews of first lady Cilia Flores.

* Dominican Republic: Dominican officials issued arrest warrants against three French nationals accused of helping two of their compatriots escape drug smuggling convictions.

YouTube Source – AFP

Online Sources – Christian Science Monitor, NDTV, Quartz, MercoPress, RFI

Daily Headlines: August 27, 2015

* Latin America: Economic experts and environmental analysts warned that Latin American and Caribbean states must lower water consumption for agricultural needs in order to ensure water security throughout the region.

* U.S.: A Texas court issued a reprieve against the execution of a convicted Nicaraguan national, while the mother of an Argentine on death row in Texas for 19 years is hoping that Pope Francis will intervene during his U.S. visit next month.

* Ecuador: For the second straight year an InterNations survey named Ecuador as the best country for expats including the highest scores in areas like “feeling welcome,” “personal finance” and “cost of living”.

* Colombia: A coalition of Colombian women’s rights groups called for the government to take a more active role in investigating sexual violence by “state security forces, paramilitaries and other private actors.”

YouTube Source – CCTV Americas Now

Online Sources – Economic Times, Fox News Latino, The Guardian, U.S. News & World Report, NBC News

Daily Headlines: August 20, 2015

* Argentina: Attorneys representing the family of Alberto Nisman, a top Argentine prosecutor killed under mysterious circumstances last January, claimed that “someone” erased data from his cell phone shortly before he died.

* Venezuela: PDVSA chief Eulogio Del Pino was named as Venezuela’s new oil and mining minister amid a domestic economic crisis caused in part by the low prices of crude.

* Colombia: Colombia recently became the sixteenth Latin American country to define femicides as a specific crime but will the new law help decrease levels of violence against women?

* Brazil: Brazil’s unemployment rate rose for the seventh straight month in July and jumped from 6.9 percent in June to 7.5%.

YouTube Source – BBC News

Online Sources – Reuters, Financial Times, The Latin Americanist, Buenos Aires Herald

Daily Headlines: May 25, 2015

* Peru: Authorities declared a 60-day state of emergency in two Peruvian provinces over an escalation of violence between police and protesters against construction of the $1.4 billion Tia Maria copper mine project.

* Mexico: Family members of some of the forty-two alleged criminals killed in a shootout on Friday alleged that the victims were massacred by Mexican troops.

* Argentina: The recent death of a 14-year-old girl reportedly murdered by her boyfriend has shined a light on femicides in Argentina.

* U.S.: Juan Pablo Montoya overcame being in last place and pit stop problems to win his second Indianapolis 500 title fifteen years after his initial victory.

YouTube Source – euronews (At least four people have died in clashes over the proposed Tia Maria project in southern Peru).
 
Online Sources – GlobalPost, The Daily Beast, CNN, CBS Sports

Daily Headlines: March 18, 2015

* Peru: Protesters and police clashed this week during demonstrations in southern Peru against a sharp hike in local electricity fees.

* U.S.: News magazine The Economist has come under fire for using “chili peppers to depict the stripes in the American flag” in its cover image highlighting an article on the Latino community.

* Dominican Republic: At least twenty minors were among the twenty-nine women rescued in a sex trafficking sting in the Dominican town of Sosua.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan government in an open letter published in The New York Times denied that the country is a national security threat to the U.S.

Video Source – YouTube via EFE

Online Sources – Latin American Herald Tribune; Fusion; Fox News Latino; The Guardian

Daily Headlines: March 17, 2015

* Colombia: A new U.N. report named the “bandas criminales” groups of demobilized right-wing paramilitary members and criminal gangs as the primary security threat in Colombia.  

* Argentina: Citigroup will pull out of the custodial business in Argentina after a U.S. judge opted not to remove an injunction that prevented the bank from processing $2.3 billion in Argentine bond payments.

* Mexico: Was the recent firing of acclaimed investigative journalist Carmen Aristegui from Mexico’s MVS radio network justifiable or censorship?   

* Brazil: A new femicide law was enacted last week in Brazil that includes increased prison time for those convicted of the gender-based killing of women.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources –Reuters; euronews; CNN; Voice of America

Daily Headlines: November 19, 2014

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro announced plans to arrange a meeting with countries excluded from the OPEC cartel in order to discuss the plummeting prices of oil.

* Brazil: Eike Batista, the man once named as Brazil’s wealthiest person but is allegedly $1 billion in debt, went on trial over charges of insider trading. 

* Mexico: Mexican first lady Angelica Rivera said that she would sell her shares in a $7 million mansion built by a construction firm that received government contracts under President Enrique Peña Nieto.

* Honduras: Police discovered the bodies of the reigning Miss Honduras, Maria Jose Alvarado, and her sister who had been missing for approximately one week.

Video Source – CCTV America via YouTube

Online Sources – BBC News; The Guardian; Bloomberg; ABC News