Daily Headlines: July 23, 2012 (Updated)

* Cuba: Oswaldo Payá, a leading Cuban dissident and supporter of the Varela Project, died in a car crash on Sunday.

Update: Representatives of several foreign governments on Monday expressed their condolences over Payá's death.

A White House statement, for example, praised the late dissident as "a tireless champion for greater civic and human rights in Cuba."

Meanwhile, anti-Castro activists in Cuba and exile groups in the U.S. have urged for a thorough investigation into the circumstances behind Payá's death.

"According to information we've obtained from people traveling with him, there was a vehicle trying to force him off the road... We don't think it was an accident," Payá's daughter reportedly claimed.

* Mexico: A rally organized by the YoSoy132 student movement in Mexico City yesterday was the latest protest against the results of the July 1st general elections.

* Puerto Rico: Will the commonwealth’s sagging economy lead to the end of legalized cockfighting?

* U.S.: Proceedings began last week in a civil lawsuit alleging that deputies under controversial anti-immigrant Sheriff Joe Arpaio engaged in racial profiling against Latinos in Arizona.

Video Source – YouTube via NDI Public Affairs (Circa 2003 documentary on Oswaldo Payá and the Varela Project).

Online Sources including Update - Fox News Latino, MSNBC, Bernama, Huffington Post, The Latin Americanist, Washington Post, AFP

Daily Headlines: July 20, 2012

* South America: Brazil's oil regulator confirmed that Chevron will have to pay a $24.7 million fine for an offshore oil leak last November, while Chevron will invest an additional $2 billion in a joint venture with Venezuela’s PDVSA.

* U.S.: A U.S. immigration judge granted asylum to a woman who fled her native Guatemala in 2004 after she was “brutally beaten and raped by her common law husband.”

* Argentina: One of the worst droughts to hit the U.S. in recent history could benefit Argentine grain farmers.

* Mexico: The head of the Mexico's National Institute of Indian Languages warned that sixty-four indigenous dialects could soon “die out.”

Video Source – YouTube via Associated Press (Video from November 2011).

Online Sources- Reuters, San Jose Mercury News, Busninessweek, GlobalPost

Daily Headlines: July 19, 2012

* Colombia: The federal government and indigenous protesters in southern Colombia started a dialogue aimed at lowering tensions in the war-torn Cauca province.

* Mexico: Andrés Manuel López Obrador continued his legal challenge against Mexico’s recent presidential election and accused the campaign of apparent president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto of money laundering.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan foreign ministry condemned the attack yesterday that killed three senior Syrian military officials and called for global powers to “avoid any armed intervention.”

* Dominican Republic: The Dominican Republic joined Honduras and the Ukraine and filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization against Australia's cigarette package laws.

World Watch: Syrian Strike

* Syria: Three senior military members and close allies to President Bashar al-Assad were killed in a rebel bombing attack.

* Bulgaria: Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, blamed Iran for an explosion of a bus in Bulgaria with Israeli tourists.

* Netherlands: The International Court of Justice in The Hague could soon prosecute the exiled former rulers of Chad and Tunisia.

* World: A new scientific study concluded that a sedentary lifestyle that includes a lack of exercise kills as many people worldwide as smoking does.

Video Source– YouTube via Associated Press

Online Sources – Reuters, CBS News, MSNBC, BBC News

Daily Headlines: July 18, 2012

* Mexico: The head of Mexico's banking and securities commission defended the regulator amid claims that HSBC ignored warnings of money laundering by drug gangs.

* Cuba: The Cuban government announced an increase in import taxes days after the island received its first cargo shipment from the U.S. in fifty years.

* Colombia: Tensions continue in the war-torn Cauca province where the indigenous community has sought the removal of the military and FARC guerillas.

* Chile: A court charged two ex-military men with torturing and killing the father of former president Michelle Bachelet in 1974.

Video Source– YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- Reuters, euronews, Huffington Post, CNN, BBC News

Daily Headlines: July 17, 2012

* Mexico: President Felipe Calderon claimed that murders in the first six months this year dropped by as much as 20% though human rights activists claimed that violence against women has “surged” in the state of Mexico.

* Honduras: Remittances to Honduras between January and June of this year increased by 2.2% compared to the same period in 2011.

* Bolivia: India's Jindal Steel cancelled a contract with the Bolivian government to invest in a $2.1 billion mining project.

* Peru: Ollanta Humala's approval rating fell to 40% one year into his presidency according to a recently released poll.

Video Source– YouTube via cmdpdh (A January 2011 report from Televisa Noticias highlighted the growth in femicides in the state of Mexico).

Online Sources- Fox News Latino, Los Angeles Times, Economic Times, Reuters, Honduras Weekly

Today’s Video: Stevenson’s Rocket

The opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Games will be held on July 27th. This week we will examine several athletes from Latin America and the Caribbean who made their mark on previous competitions.

It was over a month ago that Teófilo Stevenson, surely of the greatest amateur boxers to ever grace the ring, passed away in his native Cuba.

From 1972 to 1980 Stevenson won three gold medals while fighting in the heavyweight division. Only two other boxers (including his countryman Félix Savón) have won three gold medals in three Olympics.

Stevenson dominated amateur boxing and won over three hundred amateur bouts in a career that lasted over two decades. He could have reached greater heights in the Summer Games yet he was prevented from winning further medals due to Cuba’s boycott of the 1984 and 1988 games. More famously was how The Las Tunas-born pugilist preferred to stick to his own political convictions rater than pursue a career as a professional boxer.

"What is a million dollars against eight million Cubans who love me?" Stevenson reportedly said in 1974 when offered a $5 million dollar purse to fight then world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. It was this loyalty, which included earned him the admiration of Cubans on the island including long-time dictator Fidel Castro and the hundreds of Havana residents who followed the funeral procession of Stevenson’s coffin.

After retiring Stevenson became a coach in Cuba's amateur boxing program and guided a generation of fighters including Savón. In an interview with BBC News, Savón explained why he emulated Stevenson and refused to turn professional:

Daily Headlines: July 16, 2012

* Honduras: A radio reporter shot and killed while on vacation became the twenty-first journalist killed in Honduras since the ouster of president Manuel Zelaya in June 2009.

* Brazil: Why have the bodies of over five hundred penguins washed up on beaches of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul?

* Cuba: According to Cuban health officials a cholera outbreak that killed three people has been contained and weakening.

* Guatemala: A Guatemalan court reportedly granted the early release of a former colonel sentenced to twenty years in prison for the 1998 murder of Bishop Juan Jose Gerardi.

Video Source– YouTube via The VJ Movement (Video posted to YouTube in March 2011).

Online Sources- The Sun Daily, The Telegraph, Fox News Latino, The Guardian

Today’s Video: What Makes Ana Tijoux Tick?

We will be back on Monday to cover several news and notes from the past week in the Americas.

The Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC) takes place in New York City from July 11-14 and it includes concerts featuring artists from Latin America and the Caribbean. One of the most exciting performances will be tonight when Puerto Rico's Calle 13, Ana Tijoux from Chile and Ritmo Machine perform for free in Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

If you cannot make it to the concert fans worldwide can still listen to it live via NPR Music starting at 8:00 PM (ET).

Much like Calle 13, hip-hop artist Tijoux does not shy away from mixing politics into her music and she has involved herself in campaigns for immigrants' rights in the U.S.

In the following video via the Brave New Foundation, Tijoux explains how the Pincohet-era dictatorship led her to believe that she cannot separate "a political thought from a musical sensitivity":

Online Sources - NPR, Celebrate Brooklyn, News Taco

Video Source - YouTube via Brave New Foundation

Daily Headlines: July 13, 2012

* Chile: President Sebastián Piñera signed an anti-discrimination bill that was rapidly approved by Congress after the March murder of young gay man.

* Venezuela: "The Bolivarian hurricane is back!" boasted President Hugo Chavez during a campaign rally yesterday, while rival Henrique Capriles said that October’s election would be “a choice between a people that want to progress and a government that wants to stay in power.”

* Mexico: A U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee found that Mexican anti-drug efforts are “largely ineffective” and urged for a greater focus on training police and judiciary.

* Brazil: Is Brazil’s stagnant economy on the road to recovery?

Video Source –YouTube via Al Jazeera English (A hate crime bill that had been stalled for years was approved weeks after the killing of Daniel Zamudio nearly four months ago).

Online Sources- Reuters, CNN, Bloomberg, MSNBC

Today’s Video: Manifestations in Mexico

Opposition continues in Mexico against Enrique Peña Nieto’s apparent presidential election victory.

Leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador launched a legal challenge to the election and alleged that the Peña Nieto campaign "purchased" millions of votes throughout the country. Meanwhile, the head of the conservative National Action Party highlighted that there were "strong questions about the way millions of votes were obtained."

Several sectors of civil society have also expressed their discontent with the possible return of the old guard Institutional Revolutionary Party to the presidency. One of the most vocal contingents is the student-based Yo Soy 132 movement that has held protests opposed to Peña Nieto and the supposed media collusion with his campaign.

In the below video an estimated 20,000 people took to the streets of Guadalajara this week to demonstrate against the "imposition" of Peña Nieto as Mexico's next president:

Daily Headlines: July 12, 2012

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales announced that the government would take over the Malku Khota mining project after five people died in protests last week.

* Mexico: The Nuevo Laredo-based El Mañana newspaper became the latest north Mexican daily to promise not to report on “narcoviolence”.

* Latin America: A new study published in the journal Nature claimed that the first inhabitants of the Americas came over 15,0000 years ago in three waves of migration.

* Brazil: Indigenous demonstrators agreed to end their three week-long protest at the site of the controversial Belo Monte dam project.

Video Source – YouTube via teleSUR

Online Sources- Reuters, Fox News Latino, UPI, NPR, The Latin Americanist

World Watch: Srebrenica

* Bosnia: Over five hundred victims of the infamous 1995 Srebrenica massacre were buried though “bodies of the victims are still being found in mass graves throughout eastern Bosnia.”

* Afghanistan: Demonstrations took place in Kabul condemning the public execution of a woman accused of adultery last month.

* Spain: Thousands of coal miners from around Spain gathered in Madrid to protest against austerity measures that are part of a “soft bailout” from the E.U.

* Space: The Hubble Space Telescope discovered a fifth moon orbiting around the dwarf planet Pluto.

Video Source– YouTube via Journeyman Films

Online Sources – USA TODAY, ABC News, Reuters, BBC News

Daily Headlines: July 11, 2012

* Paraguay: Organization of American States chief Jose Miguel Insulza said that Paraguay should not be suspended as a member due to the recent ouster of Fernando Lugo.

* Ecuador: Gustavo Cortez, editor of Ecuador’s El Universo newspaper, alleged that recent criticism from President Rafael Correa was “a (verbal) attack in violation of his rights”.

* U.S.: Dominican outfielder Melky Cabrera was named All-Star Game MVP after hitting a home run that helped the National League win 8-0 over the American League.

* Argentina: The Argentine government filed a compliant with the World Trade Organization over U.S. and Japanese restrictions on some food imports.

Video Source – YouTube via teleSUR

Online Sources- Bernama, SI.com, Huffington Post, Mercopress

World Watch: Lubanga Behind Bars

* Congo: The International Criminal Court sentenced Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga to fourteen years in prison for recruiting child soldiers in his rebel army a decade ago.

* U.S.: A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that President Barack Obama has a six-point lead over likely Republican candidate Mitt Romney while both candidates are tied according to a separate Washington Post-ABC News poll.

* Syria: United Nations special envoy Kofi Annan is seeking global consensus on a peace plan aimed at ending widespread violence in Syria.

* Spain: The European Union backed a “soft bailout” of Spain that could include pushing for pension reform, cuts in public spending and a sales tax increase.

Video Source– YouTube via International Criminal Court

Online Sources – The Guardian, Voice of America, ABC News, Reuters, Christian Science Monitor

Daily Headlines: July 10, 2012

* Colombia: The director of the Gabriel García Márquez New Journalism Foundation rejected rumors alleging that the Nobel laureate is suffering from senile dementia.

* Latin America: Will India become the next emerging world power behind China seeking to “forge a productive partnership” with Latin America?

* Venezuela: At a press conference yesterday President Hugo Chavez claimed that he was “free, free, totally free” of a cancerous tumor that was originally diagnosed about a year ago.

* Mexico: A $1 million reward has been issued to track down five suspects in the December 2010 death of a Border Patrol agent near the boundary of the U.S. and Mexico.

Video Source – YouTube via EFE (Jaime García Márquez said last week that his brother, acclaimed Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, is in the “throes” of senile dementia.)

Online Sources- Fox News Latino, New York Daily News, Reuters, USA TODAY