(Hat tip: La Plaza).
Sources- Los Angles Times, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, La Plaza
My Chilean partner wanted to watch Dancing with the Stars, before Kristi Yamaguchi won, all because there was a Chileno on it, Cristian de la Fuente. Seems he wasn't the only one. According to the website Recoleta Ciudadana, the Chilean National Press payed more attention to Cristian and his "injuries" than it did to their own President Michelle Bachelet who was named one of TIME Magazine's 2008 Most Influential People. 
Contributed by Michael Lisman:Jean’s representatives report that the new initiative will aim to “work with a number of non-government organizations and community groups to address the food crisis by repairing damaged soil and helping farmers to produce larger crops.”
Few countries in the western hemisphere have been hit as hard by the global food shortage as has
Sources: Yéle Haiti, Inter-American Development Bank, VOA, Livesteez.com
Image: CBC ("Wyclef Jean gives a gift to a girl during a Christmas gift distribution to about 600 children sponsored by his foundation, Yele Haiti, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Nov. 29, 2006. (Ariana Cubillos/Associated Press)")
* Latin America: A new study found that cervical cancer kills 33,000 women yearly in Latin America and the Caribbean.
* Argentina: Farmers upset with government economic policies plan to stop their second national strike since early April.
* Mexico: Authorities are on high alert after the recent murders of a Canadian and possibly four U.S. citizens in separate incidents.
* Peru: A local paper alleged that former president Alberto Fujimori is enjoying numerous luxuries while he sits in jail.
Sources (English)- New York Times, Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, Vancouver Sun
Sources (Spanish)- El Tiempo
Image- Sydney Morning Herald (Photo of an Australian woman receiving a cervical caner vaccine)
* The price of oil hit $129 per barrel today; thus, hurting stocks in many countries such as Mexico.* The head of OPEC and Venezuela's Energy Minister issued a joint statement claiming that oil markets are “well-supplied.” Yet that hasn’t stopped U.S. legislators from approving a proposal to take OPEC to court.
* Bolivian President Evo Morales has threatened to nationalize natural gas fields if foreign firms refuse to increase their investments.
* The governments of Peru and Brazil agreed to build a hydroelectric plant in southern Peru.
Sources- AFP, Reuters, Reuters UK, Times Online, International Herald Tribune
Image- CNNMoney.com
Though McCain blamed Obama for changing his position on Cuba, the New York Times politics blog noted that McCain also modified his opinion; during the 2000 presidential campaign he advocated for normalizing conditions with Cuba under certain conditions.
Aside from Cuba, McCain criticized Obama and Hillary Clinton for opposing a U.S. free trade pact with Colombia.
Sources- AFP, YouTube, The Caucus, The Latin Americanist, Reuters UK
Contributed by Michael Lisman:
Bill Gates' well-endowed Microsoft Research last week held its annual Latin American Academic Summit in the “Ciudad del Saber” in
Finchannel.com reports that:
During a keynote address, Rashid, who is the head of Microsoft Research’s six global research labs, announced the company’s second round of funding to the Latin American and Caribbean Collaborative ICT Research Federation (Virtual Institute). This funding of $150,000 (
The LAAS in
Sources: Microsoft PressPass, FinChannel.com, PREAL.com, Inter-American Dialogue
* Colombia: A female guerilla commander who surrendered to authorities said that the FARC was “decimated” but also mentioned that “they accuse me of a lot of things I wasn't part of.”
* Venezuela: A State Department spokesman admitted that a U.S. military aircraft “accidently” strayed into Venezuelan airspace over the weekend.
* Chile: Is the world’s most wanted Nazi war criminal hiding in the southern Chile?
* Paraguay: Relations could get heated between Paraguay and Brazil over the Itaipu hydroelectric dam.
Sources- The Latin Americanist, International Herald Tribune, Al Jazeera English, Reuters, Los Angeles Times
Image- CNN (“Nelly Avila Moreno, center, alias Karina, is escorted by soldiers after surrendering.”)
The video clip below looks at the impact of HIV/AIDS in Jamaica. The video is based on a project form the Pulitzer Center which we mentioned last month.
Sources- The Latin Americanist, YouTube, AFP, AVERT
* The Roman Catholic cardinal of Monterrey, Mexico- Francisco Robles Ortega- said that while marriage is a union exclusively for a man and woman, such a view “should not justify hatred much less disgust” towards gays.
* Speaking of Mexico, the country’s first transgender wedding took place on Saturday with the couple hoping that their marriage could lead to expanded rights for transsexuals.
* In Cuba, First Daughter Mariela Castro is spearheading an anti-homophobia campaign launched by the government.
* A case overturning a ban on mixed-race weddings in 1948 was cited in last Thursday’s landmark decision to legalize gay marriage in California. The “Perez” in Perez v. Sharp was a Mexican-American plaintiff who won her case in wanting to legally marry an African-American man.
Sources (English)- Reuters, MSNBC, Andrew Sullivan, Wikipedia
Sources (Spanish)- Milenio
Image- Queerty
Venezuelan officials have claimed that a U.S. Navy aircraft crossed into its territory on Saturday. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said today that he would ask for an explanation from the U.S. ambassador regarding the alleged incursion of the military plane into Venezuelan airspace in the Caribbean.This incident occurs days after the Venezuelan government sent a note of protest over allegations that sixty Colombian troops illegally crossed the border. The Colombian government has denied that claim.
Sources- BBC News, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, El Universal
Image- CNN
In the wake of last Tuesday’s controversial resignation by Brazil’s environment minister several cabinet officials have strengthened their rhetoric on the environment. Marina Silva quit due to difficulties with “implementing the government's environmental agenda” and her disappointment with President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. Since then, the Lula administration has tried to show that they are taking environmental problems very seriously:Whether the rhetoric can transform itself into strong actions (such as a recent crackdown on illegal logging) remains to be seen.
Sources- BBC News, Xinhua, The Latin Americanist, Reuters, Associated Press
Image- New York Times (“Brazil sees a need to stem deforestation, as in shutting a clandestine sawmill.”)
* Latin America: The Andean Community and the European Union reached agreements over trade negotiations as a Latin America- E.U. summit ended on Saturday.
* U.S.: A Haitian woman who accused her adoptive family of “repeated beatings…and compelling her to perform forced labor” won her case in federal court.
* Colombia: Army officials have denied Venezuela’s accusations that Colombian troops illegally crossed the border.
* Cuba: Cuban officials claim to have documents proving that the U.S. government is secretly funding dissident groups on the island.
Sources- MSNBC, SignOnSanDiego.com, New York Times, Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist
Image- Al Jazeera English
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