Today’s Video: Arde (cerca de) Buenos Aires

Pardon us for paraphrasing the song by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs but blazing wildfires in northern Argentina have led to thick clouds of smoke all over Buenos Aires. The dense smoke has led to numerous inconveniences around the Argentine capital (as the video below shows) and has even spread to neighboring Uruguay:

Sources- lyrics007.com, BBC News, Bloomberg, YouTube

Colombia: “Para-politics” scandal continues

An ex-senior official of Colombia’s main intelligence agency claimed that several agencies and institutions have been infiltrated by paramilitary groups. If true, then Rafael Garcia’s testimony in front of the Colombian Supreme Court paints a stark portrait of a very corrupt government:

Garcia Torres said…that paramilitarism penetrated as far as the office of the Chief Prosecutor…and also that former Environment Minster Sandra Suarez Perez was possibly “a former collaborator with paramilitaries.”

He also assured that there was paramilitary infiltration in the National Civil Registry…in the Departments of Interior, Foreign Relations, Agriculture, Environment, Communications, and Transportation…and in the Navy and Colombian Embassy in Panama. [Ed. – personal translation]

The Supreme Court recently opened preliminary investigations against four senators with supposed links to paramilitaries, while seven soldiers were arrested Wednesday after being accused of assisting with paramilitary drug smuggling operations.

Update: Now we can add the president of the Colombian Senate to the list of politicians being investigated for possible links to paramilitaries.

Sources (English)- International Herald Tribune

Sources (Spanish)- El Tiempo, Caracol Radio

Image- Javno

First South American gay marriage in Uruguay

While Brazil’s president backs a proposal granting equal rights to gays seeking visas, the first South American gay marriage took place yesterday in Uruguay. As the AFP reported:

Judge Estrella Perez officiated the civil union between Adrian Figuera, 38, and actor and theater director Juan Carlos Moretti, 67, in a courtroom before a small group of friends and family, as witnessed by an AFP reporter.

Moretti later told AFP that after living together for 14 years, he and Figuera thought their marriage was "a matter of justice and a step forward for Uruguayan society."

The head of LGBT affairs for the Mercosur bloc said that allowing gay civil unions is a positive step yet noted that “this doesn’t mean that homophobia and discrimination will suddenly disappear.”

Cities like Mexico City have laws on gay civil unions though the Uruguayan law is the first national law on that issue.

Sources (English)- AFP, Yahoo! News, The Latin Americanist,

Sources (Spanish)- Observa

Image- Towleroad

Canadian Indigenous Leader Seeks Hugo Chavez's Help

Terrance Nelson, chief of the Roseau First Nation in Manitoba, is looking towards Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for help. Specifically the native leader is seeking Chavez's support behind an effort to block two multibillion-dollar pipelines that will transport oil from Alberta to the United States.

"What Chavez will do is give us an international forum," Mr. Nelson said. "We're fighting big oil. We have two pipelines going through that [are] going to bring $47-billion a year in crude oil sales to the U.S., and we're saying the [federal] government is not sitting down with us. They're not following the law. The Supreme Court has made dozens of decisions on this - on the duty to consult and accommodate - and they haven't done that."

Source : The Angry Indian

Brazil's President Lula Backing Same Sex Partnership Visa Requests

Brazilian Presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced that his administration was supporting a legislative proposal that would extend to gay Brazilians the same right straight Brazilians have to sponsor foreign partners for temporary or permanent resident visas.

The proposed law would simply remove any distinction of sex from existing provisions that allow Brazilians to sponsor foreign partners. In reality, Brazil is already one of two-dozen countries that already allow gay citizens to sponsor foreign partners for residence, but that right is based entirely on vulnerable judge-made law.

Source : Blabbeando

Daily Headlines: April 18, 2008

* Caribbean: Rest in piece Aimé Césaire; the Martinique poet who promoted black cultural identity died yesterday at the age of 94.

* Brazil: Could the recent discovery of a “major oil field” be a boon for the country’s economy?

* Venezuela: One less controversy for “The Simpsons” as Venezuela’s Televen placed the program in a nighttime slot after having removed from the 11am space.

* Chile: The former chief of the country’s secret police force was sentenced to 15 years in jail over a “Dirty War” disappearance.

Sources- BBC News, Associated Press, The Latin Americanist, International Herald Tribune,

MSNBC

Image- RMC.fr

Today’s video: Feliz Cumpleaños Chavela Vargas!

Today is the 89^th birthday of famed Mexican-Costa Rican singer Chavela Vargas. In honor of the occasion here is her interpreting a ranchera classic – “Volver, volver”.

Sources- Wikipedia, YouTube

Americas should support Castro, says Gorbachev

Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev was instrumental in introducing vast reforms which led to the fall of communism there. During a speech yesterday, the ex-president advocated that the U.S. and Latin America back the recent reforms in Cuba under Raul Castro:

“I believe that Raul Castro will continue in, many ways, the cause of his brother, but I do believe that there will be changes. I believe that both the Americans and Latin America should respond and help facilitate that change,” Gorbachev said during a speech at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.

Gorbachev advocated dropping the U.S. embargo against Cuba and added that “it was a mistake to demonize Fidel Castro.”

Coincidentally, a March editorial in Canada’s National Post compared Raul Castro to Gorbachev by claiming that the Cuban leader will “preside cluelessly over its collapse.”

Sources- PBS, AHN, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, National Post, The Latin Americanist

Image- Palm Beach Post

Brazil: Lula defends biofuels

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defended the use of biofuels and rejected claims that they were responsible for the rise in global food prices. During a conference of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization in Brasilia, Lula warned that unfair trade policies, not biofuel consumption, are to blame:

Food riots also underlined the need for an agreement in the so-called Doha round of global trade negotiations, Lula said. Rich countries need to reduce farms subsidies and trade barriers to allow poor countries to generate income with food exports, Lula said on Wednesday…

Either the world solves the unfair trade system, or "every time there's unrest like in Haiti, we adopt emergency measures and send a little bit of food to temporarily ease hunger."

If Europe doesn't open its market to farm imports, "someone will have to assume the historic responsibility," Lula warned.

Brazil’s emphasis on increased biofuel usage has gotten its share of critics; for instance, the U.N. special rapporteur for the right to food called biofuels a “crime against humanity.”

Sources- BBC News, Reuters UK, MSNBC

Image- BBC News

Hispanics flow to Catholic church

As the Pope leads mass today in Washington D.C., the Baltimore Sun has a story about an increase in Hispanic Catholics has molded the current Catholic church in the United States.

One-third of Catholics are Hispanic, the Sun reports, many of whom are under 40.

Many say the flow of Hispanics has been good for the church, perhaps filling a void from others falling away from the church.

The feature zeroes in on a Catholic church in Baltimore experiencing a new Hispanic wave.

Source and Photo: Baltimore Sun

Bush considers labeling Chavez sponsor of terror

Apologies for the tardy posting!

The Huffington Post writes today about the Bush administration and Colombia tying Chavez to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The latest proof, HuffPost says, is resurrected from the border dispute in March when Colombian troops recovered laptops and documents after attacking the FARC across the Ecuador border.

The Bush administration now wonders whether Venezuela should go on a list of "state sponsors of terrorism," implying economic sanctions.

HuffPost concludes that no one else in the region backs the Chavez-FARC ties.

Source: Huff Post

Photo: whitehouse.gov

Daily Headlines: April 17, 2008

* Peru: The country’s Supreme Court upheld a six-year jail sentence against former president Alberto Fujimori while he continues to stand trial for human rights abuses.

* Honduras: In order to curb rising food prices (and avoid violence like in Haiti) the government started a program designed to increase agrarian output.

* Bolivia: Ex-president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada is being sued in a U.S. federal court over deaths caused during protests in 2003.

* Chile: The country’s education minister was booted from her post due to alleged accounting irregularities.

Sources- Associated Press, The Latin Americanist, Guardian UK, CNN, MSNBC

Image- Christian Science Monitor

Today’s Video: Argie anger over “Simpsons”

An episode of “The Simpsons” has caused controversy in Argentina over a sniping remark about former president Juan Peron. "E Pluribus Wiggum” has not aired in South America; yet according to a Chilean TV report one Argentine legislator wants the episode banned:

This hasn’t been the first time that “The Simpsons” has previously upset others in the region:

• “Complaints from viewers” led Venezuela’s Televen network to replace “The Simpsons” from the 11am slot with “Baywatch.”
• In 2002, the Rio de Janeiro tourist board threatened to sue producers over an episode where the Simpsons visit Brazil.
• A group of fans boycotted last year’s Simpsons movie over the decision to abruptly change the Spanish-language voice actors.

Sources- Variety, YouTube, Reuters, Guardian UK, Latina Viva

Cuban “reggaetonero” missing, maybe dead

One of Cuba’s top reggaeton artists has gone missing and is presumed dead after trying to migrate by sea. U.S. Coast Guard officials rescued fourteen people on the raft they shared with Elvis Manuel before it sank yet the singer is nowhere to be found.

Two Cubans have been detained by immigration authorities for heading the “ill-fated migrant smuggling mission” Manuel was on. According to one source, a pair of survivors blamed a Miami-based record label for trying to deceive Manuel:

(Alejandro "DJ Jerry" Rodriguez Lopez) said he and his friends were intrigued by fame and fortune.

"We were told we would be millionaires in two months," Rodriguez said. "They said we would be signed for about $25,000 each on arrival. I thought I would send my father $20,000 so he could build a palace in Cuba. That kind of money lasts forever here."

Elvis Manuel's mother, who also survived the voyage, said her son and his friends were "brainwashed" by tales of success across the Florida Straits. Nodarse, who managed her son's career, decided to make the journey with him.

"They filled his head with lies and promises," she said.

Executives at Millennium Records Entertainment Corp. have denied the accusations against them.

Sources- MSNBC, UPI, miamiherald.com, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, HeraldTribune.com

Image- South Florida Sun-Sentinel

U.S. issues new travel alert for Mexico

The U.S. State Department released a new travel alert for Mexico, citing violence by drug gangs in the northern part of the country. The advisory warns that people should be “exercising common-sense precautions” when visiting and /or residing in Mexico:

Violent criminal activity fueled by a war between criminal organizations struggling for control of the lucrative narcotics trade continues along the U.S.-Mexico border. Attacks are aimed primarily at members of drug trafficking organizations, Mexican police forces, criminal justice officials, and journalists…

U.S. citizens are urged to be especially alert to safety and security concerns when visiting the border region. While Mexican citizens overwhelmingly are the victims of these crimes, this uncertain security situation poses risks for U.S. citizens as well.

The alert also briefly mentions the Mexican government’s anti-crime efforts that have been partially successful.

Sources- Newsweek, State Department, UPI, The Latin Americanist

Image- BBC News

FBI Continues It's Harassment on Puerto Rican Independence Movement

Just this morning, a Puerto Rican independence activist was payed a not so friendly visit by the FBI. Miguel Viqueira was getting ready to leave his home to go to work when armed FBI agents showed up, insulting and threatening Viqueira .

At 8:10 this morning, the FBI continued it's witch hunt by approaching Tania Delgado Soto as she left her home in Rio Piedras.
In both cases the FBI left when the individuals asserted their legal right not to speak to agents without a warrant and without legal counsel.

These very recent examples of the continued harassment of Puerto Rican activist demonstrates just how the U.S. federal government operates with regards to the Puerto Rican people and those determined to fight for the island's sovereignty. People are reminded that they have no legal responsibility to speak to federal agents, that when they are approached they should seek legal counsel, and report all incidents of harassment so that the Feds know that they are being watched.

Update: the count of people being harassed by armed FBI agents on the island is now up to 4 and there may possibly be an arrest. Still waiting for confirmation on that last part.

Gracias to Jo Boriken for the information.