Video of the Day: Feliz Ano Novo

We’ll resume regular blogging on Wednesday including the results of our top news stories of 2007 poll.

The following is the New Year’s celebrations on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Over 4 million revelers attended the world’s largest New Year’s party this year.

(Video link):

Sources- YouTube, Independent Online

Daily Headlines: January 1, 2008

* Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez pardoned those jailed for participating in a failed 2002 coup against him.

* Trade between Cuba and China grew by 23% last year according to the Cuban press.

* The World Trade Organization ruled against Mexico in a trade dispute brought up by the U.S.

* Could Panama’s construction boom soon bust due to suspicions of drug money backing investments?

Sources- Associated Press, International Herald Tribune, Times of India, Reuters

Image- Ashville Global Report (“Soldiers and demonstrators clash on the streets of Caracas, Venezuela on Apr. 11.”)

Video of the Day: Adios 2007!

Just a quick note that we’ll reveal the results of our top headlines of 2007 poll on Tuesday.

We want to thank everyone who voted and made it one of the blog’s most popular polls ever. For the most part the results were very close except for your choice as top news story of ’07. (Can you guess what it is?)

In the meantime, here’s the video for one of our favorite songs of 2007:

Thanks for reading this blog and may all of you have a Feliz Año Nuevo!

Stalemate continues in Colombian hostage rescue

Delays have pushed back a rescue mission to free three Colombian hostages that was hoped to have taken place this past weekend.

Colombia’s president and Venezuela’s Foreign Minister have traveled to Villavicencio where an international commission continues to wait for the coordinates of where the three hostages may be picked up. The Colombian government has extended the deadline for the use of foreign aircraft in Colombia for the humanitarian mission, though a spokeswoman for the International Red Cross warned the FARC to move forward with the operation as soon as possible.

One of the most intriguing parts of the mission has been the involvement of filmmaker Oliver Stone. Stone- who has admitted to being a “friend” of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez- told local press that he planned to film the rescue mission if it occurs:

Telesur Venezuelan channel founder Jorge Botero who is attending the operation in Central Colombia, said Sunday Stone is the only one authorized to film the moment three hostages held by Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) are to be released in a yet undetermined location.

"Oliver Stone and his cameraman, [Argentine filmmaker Carlos Marco], are confirmed to go with the group of international delegates that will receive the hostages," Botero said.

Update: According to local press, Colombian president Alvaro Uribe claimed that one of the hostages to be rescued, 3-year-old Emmanuel Rojas, is under custody in a medical clinic.

Image- Al Jazeera

Sources (English)- AFP, International Herald Tribune, Xinhua, Reuters

Sources (Spanish)- El Tiempo, RCN

Argentine nurse kidnapped in Somalia

The Argentine government expressed hope that a Somali gang would soon release an Argentine nurse and a Spanish doctor kidnapped last week. According to AFP:

"We're optimistic," the Foreign Ministry's head of consular affairs Felix Cordova told reporters, adding that both kidnapped women were "faring well."

"It’s possible that in the next few hours" Spanish and Argentine diplomats would meet in Somalia's breakaway region of Puntland -- where the kidnappings took place -- with its President Mahmud Muza to discuss the hostage situation, he said.

The medics- Mercedes Garcia (image) and Pilar Bauza- work for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) who on Friday demanded medical access to the hostages. The incident was condemned by an “influential Somali politician” who claimed that such violence was rare in Puntland despite the region's semi-autonomous status.

Image- Typically Spanish

Sources- news24.com, AFP, allAfrica.com, Wikipedia

Mexico: High-tech solution for southern border

Most discussion on Mexico and immigration centers on the flow of migrants from that country into the U.S. However, an often overlooked issue is the tens of thousands of Central Americans who cross into Mexico via its southern border each year.

Mexican president Felipe Calderon has viewed that part of the immigration topic as “a law-and-order problem” and has tried to push a guest-worker program and increased border controls to control the influx of Central Americans into the country. The latest government initiative will be the use of electronic “smart cards” for visitors entering Mexico. According to the Associated Press:

Starting in March, the National Immigration Institute will distribute the cards to record the arrival and departure of so-called temporary workers and visitors. They will replace a non-electronic pass formerly given to foreigners who cross into Mexico, which has proven "easily alterable and subject to the discretion of migration agents," the institute said Thursday.

Will the Mexican government’s initiatives work? We’ll see.

Sources- AHN, Christian Science Monitor, El Universal, PRESS TV, Associated Press,

Image- New York Times (Some Central American migrants board on freight trains to cross into Mexico)

Daily Headlines: December 31, 2007

* The photoblog of Argentine First Daughter Florencia “florkey” Kirchner
is “a gossip columnist's dream” according to the Guardian UK. 

* Fifteen ex-agents of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet were
sentenced to prison over their role in “revenge killings” of dissidents.  

* The Vatican's second-highest official said that he would like to meet 
Cuban acting president Raul Castro when he visits the island in February. 

* Remember the monkey an airline passenger traveling from Peru to New York tried to smuggle under his hat in August? Sadly, the pint-sized primate died last week.

Sources- Guardian UK, fotolog.com, CNN, The Latin Americanist, Houston Chronicle, International Herald Tribune

Image- rollingstonela.com (“Florencia Kirchner in New York, November 2006”)

Colombian hostage mission delayed, says Red Cross

An International Red Cross (IRC) spokesman said that the mission to free three hostages held by the country’s largest rebel group will be delayed. Earlier today, IRC representative Barbara Hintermann said that the organization won't conduct nighttime operations despite the arrival of two Venezuelan helicopters in anticipation of the operation.

The guerillas- known by the Spanish acronym FARC- announced last Tuesday their intention to free the trio of high-profile hostages including a politician and her son who was allegedly conceived with one of her captors.

Representatives from several countries are involved in the delicate mission including ex-Argentine president Nestor Kirchner and filmmaker Oliver Stone. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has been key in the negotiations to release the hostages and said that the helicopters would fly out to get the hostages once he receives permission from the FARC.

The Colombian government has issued a deadline of 6:59pm on Sunday for the mission to be completed.

Image- canada.com

Sources (English)- Reuters Africa, AFP, The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg, Monsters & Critics

Sources (Spanish)- El Tiempo

Study: Gene mutation affects Latinas with cancer

A new scientific study found that Latinas with breast cancer are very vulnerable to a gene mutation common in certain Jewish women. The mutation on the BRCA1 gene is found in 8.3% of Ashkenazi Jewish women with breast cancer, according to the study, yet Latinas with breast cancer were the second highest group with the mutation.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and looked at over 3000 women in northern California. According to the report’s head author, the findings could help pinpoint which groups need the most help in terms of cancer prevention and treatment:

"The vast majority of breast cancer patients do not have a mutation in these genes," said Esther John, an epidemiologist and lead author of the study. "But if women have a mutation, they do have a very high risk of developing breast cancer. That's why it is important information in the family, because if a mother has the mutation, her daughters are likely to have the mutation as well" …

"It could very well be that when genetic testing is being focused on Hispanic women, that it should be focused on that mutation," said John, a research scientist at the Northern California Cancer Center.

Sources- UPI, Houston Chronicle, Reuters UK, San Jose Mercury News

Image- ABC News

Daily Headlines: December 28, 2007

* Cuba’s oil output “rose only slightly” this year yet fills nearly half of the country’s fuel needs, according to the state media.

* Over 70,000 handguns have been destroyed in Argentina as part of a special gun control program.

* Was there a plot to assassinate Hugo Chavez in Guatemala? The Venezuelan president thought so.

* Follow-up: “At no time did I order assassinations or disappearances” said former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori as his trial for human rights abuses continues.

Sources- Xinhua, Associated Press, Reuters UK, Houston Chronicle, AFP, The Latin Americanist

Image- MSNBC

Wait a Minute Mitt Romney has Mexican Roots?

When Tom Tancredo dropped out of the presidential race, he threw his support behind Mitt Romney. An article posted on AlterNet reveals Mitt's Mexican connection.

Mitt Romney's father George was born in Chihuahua, Mexico in 1907, the son of Gaskell Romney and Anna Amelia Pratt. Three generations of Romneys lived in Mexico because Miles Park Romney, a polygamist, moved the family there in 1884 as it became increasingly clear that the U.S. government would not tolerate polygamy in the Utah Territory. The 1882 Edmunds Act stripped polygamists of the basic rights of U.S. citizenship, denying them the right to vote, serve on juries or hold office. Not dissimilar to current immigration raids, U.S. federal agents hunted and arrested polygamists. Polygamists were forced to leave the country or risk jail.

Mitt's grandparent's crossed back into the U.S. during the Mexican Revolution. But that hasn't made this candidate any softer on the immigration issue.


Source : AlterNet
Image Source : NY Press

A Not So Merry Navidad Gift for Puerto Rican Activists

Right before Christmas Eve some Puerto Rican (three according to some accounts) activists in NYC have been approached by agents of the Terrorist task Force in the New York City area. Some have been served with subpoenas to appear before a grand Jury in Manhattan on January 11th 2008. This linking of the Puerto Rican independence movement with terrorism is not a new one but it is a troubling one. Many feel that the subpoenas are an intimidation tactic aimed at scaring activists.

Daily Headlines: December 27, 2007

* Rescuers found a 12-year-old girl who survived for over two days in the Panamanian jungle after a plane crash killed her family.

* Colombia’s newest tourist attraction opened yesterday: a theme park built on the former estate of dead drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.

* Fidel Castro’s health continues to improve according to a speech by his brother, Cuban president Raul Castro.

* Follow-up: Nicaragua’s Supreme Court has started an investigation against the judges who overturned the conviction against Eric Volz.

Sources- Independent Online Edition, CNN, Guardian UK, The Latin Americanist, Associated Press

Image- ABC News (“Francesca Lewis, 12, is carried on a stretcher after being rescued from the jungle in the town of David, west of Panama City, Dec. 26, 2007. Francesca was found Tuesday walking near the wreckage of the plane in the 3,500-feet (1,067-meter) high, jungle-laden flanks of the Baru. (Arnulfo Franco/AP Photo)”)

Ecuador: President may pardon drug “mules”

During a speech given over the weekend, Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa proposed pardoning low-level drug smugglers commonly known as “mules.” Correa said that these and similar drug enforcement laws were drafted years ago under pressure from the U.S. and are unfair to the poor:

The current law "treats as the same the boss of the Cali cartel and a poor unemployed single mother who dared to carry 300 grams of drugs," Correa said, referring to an amount equal to about 10 ounces. "It's a barbarity."

According to a 1997 New York Times article, nearly half of the country’s inmates at the time were in jail over drug-related charges.

Earlier this year, the Ecuadorian and Colombian governments quarreled over aerial spraying near both countries’ border. Meanwhile, Ecuador’s government supposedly offered China control of the Manta air base after the contract with the U.S. ends in 2009.

Sources- Reuters, Associated Press, New York Times, The Latin Americanist

Image- Town Topics (Still shot from 2004 film “Maria, Full of Grace”)

Mexico: Police re-arrest suspected massacre mastermind

Mexican police rearrested the person allegedly behind a 1997 massacre in Chiapas. Authorities from that state said that suspected paramilitary leader Antonio Santiz ordered the killing of 45 natives in Acteal and even provided weapons for the assassins to use.

Witnesses to the massacre are unsure whether the Tzotil natives were murdered due to a supposed allegiance with the Zapatistas or as revenge for a killed priest. Whatever the reason may be, the Tzotil community has been split over the Acteal massacre according to an article from the International Herald Tribune:

A decade after the massacre, the Tzotzil live side by side but divided. In one group, the one that backs the PRI [then-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party], many of the men have been sent to prison for the killings. The others, from the Abejas [advocate] group, who live down the road, insist that even more killers are at large.

Meanwhile, Mexico's courts struggle to handle what has grown into one of the country's longest and most complex cases. A dozen judges have been involved in the trials and, now, the appeals of their convictions…

"This is the most complicated case in Mexico," said [professor Javier Angulo] in Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas State, as he prepared to appeal the convictions of some of the men. "It's possible that in 10 more years we'll still be talking about what really happened in Acteal."

Sources- International Herald Tribune, Reuters, Xinhua, Associated Press,

Image- libertadlatina.org

Daily Headlines: December 26, 2007

* The Cuban Catholic church called for “reconciliation and unity” among the island’s people during its annual Christmas message issued on Monday.

* A Texan couple has been taking care of six children after their mother was deported to Mexico last month.

* Italian prosecutors have issued arrest warrants against 140 exiled former “Dirty War” officials.

* An indigenous Mapuche activist was hospitalized in Chile after going on a 75-day hunger strike.

Sources- Associated Press, Caribbean Net News, Dallas Morning News, ABC Online

Image- Department of State (“Christmas light display at U.S. Interests Section, Havana”)