Today's Video: Food for Thought

Today is the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. and it is generally believed that the first Thanksgiving feast took part between the Pilgrims and native Americans in Massachusetts in 1621.  But as we first mentioned five years ago, the first Thanksgiving really occurred in 1565 when Spanish explorers and Timuca natives in St. Augustine, Florida got together and dined on bean soup.

The following brief video via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette delves into the history behind the first Thanksgiving nearly 450 years ago:
Video Source - YouTube via user PostGazetteNow

Online Source - The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: November 22, 2012

* Brazil: 176 people in Sao Paulo were killed in October according to new data revealed hours after the city's security chief resigned from his post.

* Latin America: The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning to nationals visiting Honduras and updated its warning on traveling to Mexico.

* Peru: Indonesian law enforcement officials claimed that hundreds of women from that country work as “drug mules” in Peru.

* Argentina: A U.S. federal judge ordered the Argentine government to immediately pay over $1 billion owed to foreign creditors since the country defaulted a decade ago.

Video Source – YouTube via user ABCOfficialNews
 
Online Sources- BBC News, Times of India, USA TODAY, Bernama, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: November 21, 2012 (Updated)

* Puerto Rico: Former world boxing champion Hector “Macho” Camacho remains in critical condition and is reportedly struggling to survive after he was shot last night.

Update (November 22): Hector “Macho” Camacho is brain dead and close to death according to doctors overseeing the critically injured former pugilist.

"We have done everything we could,"said Dr. Ernesto Torres of the Centro Medico trauma center in San Juan to the press on Thursday morning.

He added that Camacho's family will decide by Friday whether to take the former three-time title holder off of life support machines.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan economy grew by over five percent in the third quarter but manufacturing has supposedly hit a fifty-year low.

* Argentina: Buenos Aires and other major cities were paralyzed yesterday after Argentina's main labor unions declared a general strike.

* Honduras: Could Xiomara Castro, the wife of ousted ex-president Manuel Zelaya, win next year's Honduran presidential election?

Video Source: YouTube via Associated Press

Online Sources including Update: Globalpost, ABC News, BBC News, Fox News Latino, Reuters, Huffington Post

Daily Headlines: November 19, 2012

* Colombia: Envoys representing the Colombian government and the FARC rebels are scheduled to continue historic peace talks today in Cuba.

* Ecuador: President Rafael Correa said Ecuador would welcome "with open arms" Spanish workers fleeing economic woes at home.

* Brazil: Over one million people took part in Rio de Janeiro's Gay Pride parade, which had the theme of combating homophobia.

* Mexico: The Attorney General's office contradicted a federal police report regarding the controversial shooting of two CIA agents last August.

Online Sources: BBC News, ABC News, Bloomberg, Gulf Times

Video Source: YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Daily Headlines: November 16, 2012

* Venezuela: Miguel Cabrera thanked the “support from God, my family, and my teammates" for helping him become the first Venezuelan to win the American League MVP.

* Latin America: Trade and investment opportunities are some of the main economic issues to be discussed at the Ibero-American summit that starts today in the Spanish city of Cadiz.

* Ecuador: The Ecuadorian government along with a coalition of conservation groups is behind a project to poison millions of rats on the Galapagos Islands.

* Mexico: Jose Cuitlahuac Salinas, the head of the Mexican organized crime unit, resigned due to “personal reasons” yesterday.

Video Source – YouTube via Ultimas Noticias (Miguel Cabrera’s family in Venezuela celebrated his American League MVP victory.)
 
Online Sources- Fox News Latino, The Guardian, MSNBC, Reuters

Daily Headlines: November 15, 2012

* Mexico: No deaths or major damages have been reported as a result of a magnitude-6.0 earthquake that struck in the state of Guerrero early this morning.

* Latin America: In international soccer friendlies yesterday World Cup champions Spain overwhelmed Panama while Brazil and Argentina tied against Colombia and Saudi Arabia, respectively. 

* U.S.: The poverty rate among Latinos is 28% according to a new analysis of figures from the Census Bureau.

* Argentina: The Argentina government requested that the U.N.-affiliated International Sea Tribunal help in the release of an Argentine frigate held in Ghana.

Video Source – YouTube via user EstadoDeMexicoComMx
 
Online Sources- Los Angeles Times, ESPN, Reuters, Fox News Latino, BBC News

Daily Headlines: November 14, 2012

* Colombia: Peace talks between the government and the FARC eebela that was supposed to begin today were delayed until next Monday.

* Peru: Chile’s high court approved another corruption trial against Alberto Fujimori, the imprisoned former president of Peru.

* Latin America: Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela will occupy seats on the the U.N. Human Rights Council.

* Mexico: The senate backed a controversial labor reform bill that was strongly opposed to by trade unions.

Video Source: YouTube via user telesurenglish

Online Sources: Reuters, Washington Post, Voice of America, Los Angeles Times

Daily Headlines: November 13, 2012

* Brazil: A former top aide of ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sentenced to ten years in prison for his role in the Mensalao corruption scandal.

* Nicaragua: Government officials and representatives with the International Monetary Fund began a "process of dialogue" for a new financial aid deal.

* Latin America: A new study from the Inter-American Development Bank concluded that despite gender parity in education most working women in Latin America are underpaid.
 
* Chile: An estimated 50,000 people took to the streets of Santiago as part of a gay rights rally.

Online Sources: Reuters, Christian Science Monitor, BBC News, AP

Video Source: YouTube via user ExclussiveBBC

Daily Headlines: November 12, 2012

* Guatemala: A 6.5-magnitude earthquake shook off the Guatemalan coast days after a stronger tremor killed at least fifty-two people and was felt as far away as Mexico City.
 
* Ecuador: President Rafael Correa officially launched his bid for reelection during a rally with thousands of his supporters in Quito.

* Cuba: Five hundred rabbis from around the world wrote a letter to Cuban president Raul Castro urging the release of imprisoned U.S. contractor Alan Gross on “humanitarian grounds.”

* Paraguay: Suspected Bolivian drug capo Marco Antonio Rocca Ali was nabbed by Paraguayan authorities along with over 3700 pounds of cocaine.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English

Online Sources- USA TODAY, Reuters, AFP, ABC News

Weekend Headlines: November 10-11, 2012

* Cuba: Blogger Yoani Sánchez and ex-hunger striker Guillermo Fariñas were among the approximately twenty dissidents briefly detained after protesting in Havana.

* Guatemala: A family of ten were among the over fifty fatalities caused by Wednesday's 7.4-magnitude earthquake that was the most powerful to hit the nation since 1976.

* Mexico: U.S. and Mexican officials are reportedly close to signing a pact regarding water use in the border region.

* Argentina: The Argentine government may be forced by a U.S. court to pay billions of dollars in defaulted debt to private creditors.

Daily Headlines: November 9, 2012

* Argentina: Hundreds of thousands of Argentines participated in nationwide protests critical of President Cristina Fernandez and her policies.
 
* Dominican Republic: A medical student was killed during demonstrations opposed to major reforms at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo.

* Mexico: Fourteen federal police officers were charged today with attempted murder in the attack on a pair of CIA agents last August.

* Brazil: The Brazilian ambassador to India claimed that trade between the two members of the BRICS group of emerging economic states grew by 34% last year.

Video Source – YouTube via AFP
 
Online Sources- New York Daily News, Huffington Post, New York Times, Reuters

Daily Headlines: November 8, 2012

* Guatemala: At least 52 people are dead and 22 are missing after a massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Guatemala yesterday.

* Argentina: A judge ordered the freezing of Chevron’s $19 billion in assets held in Argentina while courts decide on whether those funds should be paid to plaintiffs in Ecuador.

* Peru: Bolivian officials returned to Peru a 700-year-old mummy that was stolen by traffickers in 2010.

* Brazil: FIFA approved six cities to host the Confederations Cup next year despite the slow construction progress of new soccer stadiums.

Video Source – YouTube via Associated Press

Online Sources- New York Times, IOL, The Guardian, BBC News

Puerto Ricans Vote in Vital Elections (Updated)

All eyes have been placed on the U.S. presidential election that is projected to be won by incumbent Barack Obama over Mitt Romney.  Off the mainland, however, Puerto Ricans participate in a pair of crucial votes on Tuesday.

Hundreds of thousands of boricuas voted in a two-part plebiscite to help decide the political status of the island.  The first part of the referendum asked voters if they prefer the island’s political status as a commonwealth.  The second part of the plebiscite allowed voters to chose what type of political status they would like for Puerto Rico:  become the fifty-first U.S. state, become an independent country or remain as a commonwealth? (The island has been a commonwealth since the U.S. took control of the territory in 1898).

The results of the plebiscite are reportedly too close to call with exit polls indicating a 48%-48% tie over the first question on the island’s “status quo”.  Preliminary results for the second part of the plebiscite have indicated 50% for statehood, 32% for “enhanced commonwealth status” and 4% for independence. 

The referendum is non-binding and details of the island’s upcoming political status would have to be agreed upon by the governments of the U.S. and Puerto Rico.  The role of Puerto Rican governor thus gains more importance yet it’s unknown who will hold that seat for those critical negotiations.

The future of Gov. Luis Fortuño, who is representing the pro-statehood party, is in the balance with results of the gubernatorial election far too close to call.  With half of the votes tabulated in a recount Fortuño is behind by less than 1.0% to pro-commonwealth candidate Alejandro García Padilla.


Obama has said that he would “respect the people's will if there is a clear majority”.   The negotiations over Puerto Rico’s future political status could be made easier if Padilla wins his race since the political party he’s with is allied with the Democrats.

Update below the page break:

Today's Video: Turbaco Votes

We will be back later tonight to briefly report on a few news stories related to Tuesday's U.S. presidential elections.  For now we present an unusual bit of news from South America.

Chicago may be the homebase for President Barack Obama as he awaits results from the polls but it may not be the location where he's most revered.  That distinction could belong to the small Colombian town of Turbaco where people participated in a mock election organized by ex-mayor Silvio Carrasquilla.

"We know that Obama is worried over there because in all states things with Republican Mitt Romney are tight, but Turbaco tells him to relax, we will bring him the decisive victory" Carrasquilla was reported to have said.

As seen in the video below, 3000 ballots were prepared for voters in the "symbolic" election that included Turbaco residents and visitors from surrounding cities:

Daily Headlines: November 6, 2012

* Nicaragua: The U.S. State Department claimed, “disturbing practices have marred multiple recent Nicaraguan elections” that were dominated by candidates representing the ruling Sandinista party.

* Chile: Defense Minister Andres Allamand and Public Works Minister Laurence Golborne left their posts and will likely launch their campaigns for the next year’s presidential election.

* Argentina: Leandro Favio, one of Argentina’s most well known cultural figures, died on Monday at the age of 74.
 
* Honduras: At least three people died over a conflict regarding land rights in the town of Tocoa.

Video Source – YouTube via user canalNTN24 (At leas three people died in violence after Sunday’s municipal elections in Nicaragua.)

Online Sources- Businessweek, BBC News, Huffington Post, Fox News Latino

Sobredosis de TV: Eye on Juarez

It is said that a picture captures a thousand words.  This could be the mantra of photojournalists who venture to some of the world's most dangerous places in order to capture the chaos and conflict through the camera's lens.

"Witness: Juarez" is the first of a four-part documentary series that airs tonight on HBO at 9:00 PM.  Tonight's episode focuses on the work of Eros Hoagland in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Since 1993, he has traveled the world to cover violence and unrest in countries like Colombia and Haiti.  Hoagland followed in the footsteps of his father, John, a veteran photojournalist who was killed while covering the aftermath of El Salvador's civil war. 

In a recent article in The Daily Beast, Hoagland describes that the war on drugs in Mexico is complex and includes varied individuals such as "dirty cops, masked outlaws, and corrupt politicians."  He also delves into what he feels is the goal behind the images he captures:

Pictures lie all the time. I don’t believe my lens conveys the ultimate truth. I know full well that my photos are only part of the truth, and it’s up to you to decide the rest. Cases certainly exist with a clear victim and a villain, but in my line of work, it’s as if everything is in a bag—you can shake it up and take your pick. I’m on the hunt for thematic images that give perspective on a particular place. Good pictures should make you curious. If I’ve made you curious, I’ve done my job.

Below is the trailer for the "Witness" series that will also include Hoagland reporting on the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. 

A recent study found that Ciudad Juarez is not the world's most dangerous city though its murder rate is still a very high 148 people per 100,000. Juarez has reportedly undergone a decline in violence over the past few months though it's yet to be seen if this represents a road to recovery or a temporary improvement.

Online Sources - mexidata.info, The Daily Beat, Time, Eros Hoagland Photography, HBO Documentaries

Video Source - YouTube via user HBO Docs