Haiti, Guatemala amongst world’s most “failed states”

Foreign Policy revealed its annual list of the most unstable countries in the world and a few states from the Americas were not exempt from the list. Haiti was ranked in 11^th due to being “wracked by extreme poverty, lawlessness and urban violence.” The “narcoterrorist insurgency” in Colombia was influential in placing that country in 33^rd place, and rounding out the worse of the worse was Bolivia (59^th) and Guatemala (60^th).

The list of the 60 most “failed states” can be read here; Sudan, Iraq, and Somalia claimed the top 3 spots.

Image- UNCDF

Sources- Foreign Policy

Scientists claim Amazon River is world's longest

The Amazon River crosses through four South American countries and is considered to be the world’s largest river based on water volume. However, a study conducted by a group of Brazilian scientists claims that the Amazon is the world’s longest river, not the Nile.

Scientists from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics concluded that the start of the Amazon is high atop southern Peru’s Mismi Mountain. Thus, it would add nearly 200 miles to the length of the river and make it 65 miles longer than Egypt’s Nile River.

Sources- Wikipedia, FOX News, Telgraph.co.uk

Image- Earthtimes.org

Video shows Colombian prez meeting with paramilitary leader

A video dated from “October 2001” shows Colombian president Alvaro Uribe shaking hands and meeting with a right-wing paramilitary leader nicknamed “Commandant Esteban.” Despite Uribe’s repeated denials of meeting with paramilitaries, the video shows him briefly with “Esteban” in a video was taken in the midst of presidential campaigning in Colombia.

Part of the video can be seen below as was reported by Colombia’s Noticiero Uno (via YouTube). According to the report, the video was sent to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by a U.S. attorney, and will be shown later this week to senior Democratic and Republican legislators. Aside from showing Uribe meeting with “Esteban” the video also shows a 2000 “graduation” where local politicians pledge their alliance to Colombia’s largest paramilitary group.

Update: A press release from the Colombian government this afternoon denied that Uribe "asked or received (campaign) funds from drug traffickers or paramilitaries." (Spanish-language link via El Diario/La Prensa).

Sources- CBS News, YouTube

Daily Headlines: June 18, 2007

* Congrats to British Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton (image); the 22-year-old rookie of Guyanese background won his second straight race yesterday in Indianapolis.

* U.S. television network NBC confirmed plans to produce Spanish- and English- language versions of successful Colombian telenovela "Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso" ("Without Breasts There Is No Paradise").

* First it was Evo Morales. Then it was Hugo Chavez. Now it’s Daniel Ortega who becomes the third Latin American president in less than two weeks to visit Fidel Castro.

* “(Venezuela) is a country where economic problems are mounting and we are seeing (that) on the political and press side it's not moving in a healthy direction,” said nominee for the World Bank presidency Robert Zoellick.

* Vigilantism led to the death of three people in Guatemala who were accused of the kidnapping and murder of a nine-year-old girl.

Sources- ABC News, Miami Herald, CNN, The Latin Americanist, AHN

Image- Sydney Morning Herald

De Musica Ligera: Music from blogs

This week’s music post will list several blogs that over the past week have mentioned musicians from the Americas or highlighted songs with a Latin American beat. Please be sure to check them our as well as two exceptional music blogs we have on our blogroll: La Onda Tropical and zonaindie.

• Via Idolator: As Merecenarias – Me Perco
• Via Mainstream Isn’t So Bad…Is It?: Bondo do Role – James Bonde
• Via Motel de Moka: Cansei de Ser Sexy – This Month Day 10
• Via The Late Greats: Antibalas – Age
• Via Sonorama.net: Los Planetas – Reunion de la Cumbre
• Via Soul Clap: Nuyorican Soul – Runaway (Mongloloids in Space)
• Via SoundRoots: Orchestra Zarabanda – Galla Que Canta
• Via This Woman Coil: Juana Molina – Rio Seco

Image- Pagina 12 (Argentine folk singer Juana Molina)

Pop quiz - immigration

While leaders in Washington still try to bring back a stalled bill on immigration reform, we offer you a quiz.

Question: when was the following comment on immigration published in The Atlantic Monthly?

“The question today is not of preventing… our jails from being stuffed to repletion by new arrivals…but of protecting the American rate of wages, the American standard of living, and the quality of American citizenship from degradation through the tumultuous access of vast throngs of ignorant and brutalized peasantry.”

a) 2006

b) 1994

c) 1954

d) 1920

e) 1896

Answer: click here to find out.

(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan)

Sources- BBC News, The Atlantic Monthly, Andrew Sullivan

Expert cites culture as blame for Latina suicide attempts

Over recent years more focus has been given over the disproportionate number of Latinas in the U.S. that have attempted suicide in comparison to other ethnic groups. One 2005 study placed blame on different levels such as culture clashes, conflicts with family, and the struggle to find an identity.

It is the cultural component that has been placed the most blame according to an expert at a conference on young Latinas. Said psychiatrist Mercedes Martinez (and as reported via Notimex):

“(Adolescent Latinas) grow up facing other cultural notions that oppose what their parents try to instill such as sacrificing womanhood during marriage.”

What can be done to take care of the problem? Maybe the answer lies in this snippet from August 2006 USA TODAY editorial:

“With increased awareness, the same cultural forces that often serve as barriers to Latina teens — family bonds, religious beliefs, community ties — can be used to help them succeed.

We've recognized what ails these young women. Now it's time for Latino advocacy groups to step forward and ensure that our society — indeed, our government — treats this crisis with the proper urgency.”

In the meantime, the problem continues as some young Latinas are stuck trying to figure out what to do.

Source (Spanish)- Milenio

Sources (English)- El Diario/La Prensa, PubMed.gov, USA TODAY Opinions

Image- Little Voice Productions (Scene from the documentary “Sweet Ambition” on the difficulties facing Latino youth)

FIFA stands behind altitude ban

A spokesman for the world’s governing body on soccer affirmed a ban against international games played 8200 feet above sea level. The remarks came in response to an alleged fax sent by the FIFA medical board saying that the ban would be modified to help some Andean states.

Meanwhile, the medical panel representing South America’s soccer board has debated over the health concerns of playing at high altitudes. The split has erupted between countries representing high altitude and low altitude countries, and may lend credence to the claim that soccer giants Brazil and Argentina were behind the ban.

Nonetheless, the president of South America’s soccer board expressed his displeasure at the ban after meeting with Bolivian president Evo Morales this afternoon.

Source (Spanish)- El Tiempo

Sources (English)- Reuters India, International Herald Tribune, Foreign Policy Passport

Image- BBC News (According to the caption “Bolivian protesters take their argument to Conmebol”)

Colombia: Uribe compares guerilla spokesman to Hitler

Quite frankly I’m surprised this didn’t happened sooner:

“(Colombian president Alvaro Uribe) criticized the ‘importance’ given by the media to messages from (FARC spokesman) Raul Reyes. ‘What difference is there between Hitler’s torture against the Jews to what Reyes and his gang do to our hostages? None,’ underlined the chief of state.”

Uribe’s remarks seemed similar to those made last year by Donald Rumsfeld and Hugo Chavez.

Source (Spanish)- RCN

Source (English)- The Latin Americanist

Image- Digger History (World War II poster)

Daily Headlines: June 15, 2007

* Gisele Bundchen (53), Ronaldinho (31), Jessica Alba (78), and George Lopez (73) were named to Forbes’ “The Celebrity 100” list.

* Thirteen players from Haiti’s under-17 men’s soccer team who were reported as missing during a layover in new York on Wednesday were all found by Thursday afternoon.

* Ecuador’s legislature is debating over whether or not to create a new province.

* Brazil’s GDP grew by over four percent in the first quarter of 2007.

* Popular Guatemalan fast food chain Pollo Campero opened it’s first establishment in China four months after opening its first Asian branch in Indonesia.

* Follow-up #1: Last month we linked to on an article by Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer on the risks reporters face in the Americas. A correspondent in Colombia from sister newspaper El Nuevo Herald reported that he's received death threats from paramilitaries.

* Follow-up #2: A federal judge refused to obligate U.S. authorities to help search for a mentally disabled man supposedly wrongly deported to Mexico.

Sources- Forbes, Gothamist, Soccer by Ives, People’s Daily Online, Global Voices Online, The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, Earthtimes.org, SignOnSanDiego.com

Image- E! Online (Comedian George Lopez)

Titulares de las Americas

* About twenty thousand teacher’s union supporters gathered in Oaxaca’s main square to protest the local government.

* Paparazzi discovered actor Mel Gibson and his family vacationing in Cartagena, Colombia.

* Brazil’s president said that Brazilians ought to speak more positively about their country in order to decrease the negative perceptions by the media.

* Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza said he would be willing to head an OAS mission to Venezuela regarding RCTV.

* Coca production in Bolivia increased by 8% in 2006 according to a United Nations study.

* A Peruvian ship dating back to the War of the Pacific was found off the Chilean coast.

* The chief prosecutor in the Dominican Republic rejected the country’s inclusion on an intermediate list of the worst human traffickers.

Sources (Spanish)- El Universal, Hoy Bolivia, Folha da Sao Paulo, Hoy Digital, La Republica, El Vocero de Puerto Rico, Milenio

Venezuela to buy Russian submarines

According to the Russian media, the governments of that country and Venezuela brokered a $2 billion submarine deal. The deal- as originally reported by Kommersant and corroborated by a source to RIA Novotsi- would be finalized in time for Hugo Chavez’ diplomatic visit to Moscow later this month but before Vladimir Putin’s visit to the U.S. in July.

Russia has emerged as a major arms dealer not only to Venezuela but to the rest of Latin America; it is the concern over increased “militarization” of the region which led Foreign Policy to deem it one of the most underreported stories of 2006.

Image- People’s Daily Online (Hugo Chavez and Vladimir Putin meeting in 2006)

Sources- Kommersant, RIA Novotsi, International Herald Tribune, The Latin Americanist, Guardian UK

Argentina: Kirchner claims sovereignty over Falklands during war's anniversary

Commemorating the silver anniversary of the end of the Falklands War, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner expressed hope that the Falklands islands will return to Argentina. In a speech at a Buenos Aires rally earlier today, Kirchner also responded defiantly to remarks made by former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher:

“President Kirchner underlined that the British ‘may have won a battle (but) they will never win justly with reason because the Malvinas (Falklands) belong to Argentina.'”

Since losing the Falklands War in 1982, Argentina has held resentment against the British who (as Kirchner mentioned today) “massacred Argentine youth and soldiers.” That resentment has expressed itself diplomatically as was the case in earlier this year when the Argentine government refused to cooperate in a bilateral commemoration of the war.

Sources (Spanish)- Clarin

Sources (English)- Bloomberg, Monsters & Critics, The Latin Americanist, BBC News, CNN

Image- BBC News (A guard stands watch over a Falklands War memorial in Buenos Aires)

Boca draws first blood in Libertadores final

In a battle between Argentines and Brazilians in the Copa Libertadores final, Boca Juniors is at an advantage after beating Gremio 3-0 last night. Much like in the previous rounds midfielder Juan Roman Riquelme (image) was key in Boca’s victory during the first leg of South America’s top soccer club tourney played at “La Bombonera” in Buenos Aires. The deciding second leg will be played in Brazil next Wednesday.

The Porto Alegre club tied in aggregate goals 3-3 with Santos in the semifinals, but a goal by Diego Souza during the second leg in Sao Paulo served as the tiebreaker in Gremio’s favor. Meanwhile, Boca came back from a 3-1 first leg deficit and won the second leg at home 3-0 over Colombia’s Deportivo Cucuta.

Meanwhile, leaders of several Andean states continue to protest against FIFA’s high altitude ban; a ban that one blogger blamed on Brazil and Argentina. Bolivian president Evo Morales and some of his staff played a makeshift soccer game nearly 20,000 feet up in the Andes Mountains on Tuesday.

Sources- Latin Americanist, Foreign Policy Passport, International Herald Tribune, ESPN Soccernet

Image- Javno.hr

Daily Headlines June 14, 2007

* “I can tell you that he has recovered his fastball of 90 miles an hour,” said Hugo Chavez on Fidel Castro’s health after the two held a private meeting together in Havana.

* An earthquake measuring 6.8 degrees on the Richter scale affected El Salvador and Guatemala yesterday.

* Heavy snowfall stranded hundreds of freight trucks along the Chile-Argentina border.

* Over 400 stolen artifacts will be returned from the U.S. to Peru.

* Follow-up: Less than three months after topping the world’s soccer rankings, Argentina slipped down to fifth place while Brazil remained in third place.

Sources- Bloomberg, Monsters & Critics, CNN, International Herald Tribune, The Latin Americanist, MSNBC

Image-BBC News (Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez meeting)

Bloggers of the world unite and take over

* In my travels abroad I’ve learned that the best places to eat are usually the most dingiest and unattractive. Chileno proves my point, albeit in Chile’s capital.

* Is the controversy over secret CIA-run jails in Europe similar to the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s?

* Bloggings by Boz links to several follow-up articles on the plot to blow up fuel lines at New York’s JFK Airport.

* Check out these stunning photos of Monterrey, Mexico from Ricardo’s Blog.

* Did you know that the economy of Utah has a similar per capita GDP to Peru? (Hat tip: kottke.org)

* Are the Venezuelan students protesting against the RCTV decision acting unreasonably?

* Two perspectives on the Department of State’s human trafficking report from Foreign Policy Passport and Venezuela News and Views.

* Chile’s right-wing parties aren’t willing to bail out Transantiago according to Greg Weeks.

* Mercifully, the soon-to-be-released RBD Barbie dolls do not sing like the real-life RBD members.

* Unfortunately, not all was fun and games at the Puerto Rican Day parade last Sunday.

* Lastly, here’s the video to Rodrigo y Gabriela’s “Diablo Rojo” (via Brooklyn Vegan):

Sources- Chileno, Huffington Post, Wikipedia, Bloggings by Boz, Ricardo’s Blog, Strange Maps, kottke.org, Borev.net, Foreign Policy Passport, Venezuela News and Views, The Latin Americanist, Two Weeks Notice, Latina Viva, Gothamist, Brooklyn Vegan, Huevos Pericos