Daily Headlines: January 16, 2015

* Cuba: Several new, relaxed travel and commerce restrictions from the U.S towards Cuba go into effect today as part of a bilateral push to normalize bilateral relations.

* Colombia: President Juan Manuel Santos announced his willingness to seek a bilateral ceasefire with the FARC yet a chief government negotiator noted that the Colombian military’s offensive against the rebels has not been suspended.

* Brazil: Health officials in Brazil removed the prohibition on the sale and import of a medicine containing a cannabis-based ingredient.

* Mexico: The U.S. will allow Mexican companies to apply for permission for “long-haul, cross-border transportation” based on NAFTA guidelines according to the State Department.

Video Source – YouTube user Newsy Politics

Online Sources – CNN; New York Times; Xinhua; ABC News

Daily Headlines: January 15, 2015

* Guatemala: The genocide retrial of ex-Guatemalan strongman Efrain Rios Montt was once again suspended after he skipped attending a court hearing this week.

* Venezuela: Former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles called on the Venezuelan opposition to unite and protest against the government amid a worsening economic crisis.

* Mexico: At least twenty Mexican state officials including prosecutors, forensic investigators and state police are being investigated for allegedly helping cover up the extrajudicial killings of suspected gang members in June 2014.

* Colombia: Colombia will become the first Latin American country to use a new cell phone app aimed at providing free internet nationwide and championed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Video Source – YouTube user WochitGeneralNews (The genocide retrial of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt was initially suspended last week following the intervention of his lawyers).

Online Sources – BBC News; Bloomberg; ABC News; Voice of America

Daily Headlines: January 14, 2015

* Venezuela: Moody’s downgraded Venezuela’s credit rating while President Nicolás Maduro traveled to fellow OPEC countries Saudi Arabia and Qatar in order to try to boost plunging oil prices.

* Haiti: Haiti’s political crisis worsened on Tuesday when the parliament was dissolved following failed negotiations.

* Puerto Rico: Puerto Rico reported 681 murders last year, which represents a 40% drop compared to the record high 1164 homicides in 2011.

* Mexico: The former mayor of the Mexican town of Iguala will be officially charged with the kidnapping of forty-three students missing for nearly four months and presumed dead.

Video Source – YouTube user Financial Times

Online Sources – Bloomberg; Reuters; Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: January 13, 2015 (Updated)

* Colombia: Colombian striker James Rodriguez won the FIFA Puskas Award for best goal of 2014 for his strike in last year’s World Cup round of 16 victory over Uruguay.

* Mexico: Maria de los Angeles Pineda Villa, the wife of former mayor of the Mexican town where forty-three students may have been massacred, will be tried over her alleged ties to local criminal gangs.

Update: On a related note, several family members of the disappeared students accused Mexican authorities of "assaulting" them with rocks and tear gas during a protest on January 12th. (Source link is in Spanish).

* Brazil: Several thousand striking autoworkers upset at the announcement of layoffs last week blocked traffic on a major highway connecting Sao Paulo to Brazil’s largest port.

* Argentina: Argentina’s central bank will reportedly receive $400 million from China as part of an $11 billion currency swap with the Asian country.

Video Source – YouTube user FIFATV

Online Sources including Update – ITV Sport; Reuters; The Latin Americanist; GlobalPost; Bloomberg; La Republica

Daily Headlines: January 12, 2015

* Haiti: Deep political divisions, economic uncertainty and outbreaks of disease are some of the challenges still faced in Haiti more than five years after a major earthquake hit the country.

* Cuba: U.S. officials confirmed the liberation of fifty-three Cuban political prisoners “whose release was sought as part of the U.S. agreement last month with the Cuban government”.

* U.S.: Actor, comedian and artist Taylor Negron died on Saturday at the age of 57 following an extended battle with cancer.

* El Salvador: The path to sainthood for assassinated Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero became clearer last week after a Vatican committee reportedly recognized him as a martyr.

Video Source – YouTube user AFP news agency
 
Online Sources – CBC News; The A.V. Club; The Latin Americanist; NPR; ABC News

Daily Headlines: January 9, 2015

* Cuba: Bilateral diplomatic negotiations between the U.S. and Cuba will reportedly take place on January 21st and 22nd while dissidents on the island claimed that 36 political prisoners have been freed over a 48 hour span.

* Peru: Former Peruvian strongman Alberto Fujimori received a twenty-five year prison sentence for corruption on top of four previous sentences on charges including human rights abuses.

* Argentina: Argentine Cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich has come under fire over his remarks on a seven-year-old indigenous girl who died due to tuberculosis and malnutrition.

* Nicaragua: The Chinese firm behind the construction of a controversial interoceanic canal alleged that the project would create some 25,000 jobs for Nicaraguans.

Video Source – YouTube user Pedazosdelaisla (Cuban hip-hop musician Angel Yunier Remon alias “El Critico” was among the thirty-six imprisoned dissidents liberated on January 8th and 9th, 2015).
 
Online Sources – Voice of America; Reuters; Fox News Latino; ABC News

Daily Headlines: January 8, 2015

* Latin America: The Chinese government will invest $250 billion in Latin America and the Caribbean in order to strengthen ties between the region and the Asian country.

* Colombia: Colombia's second largest leftist guerrilla group, the ELN, could soon copy the FARC rebels and hold peace negotiations with the government.

* Mexico: Mexico will move forward with plans to bring more private investment to its oil industry despite the low price of the fossil fuel according to a spokesman for President Enrique Peña Nieto.

* Cuba: Cuban dissidents claimed that officials released three political prisoners including twin brothers sentenced to thirty months in jail.

Video Source – YouTube user CCTV America

Online Sources – Latin American Herald Tribune; The Guardian; Fox News Latino; Voice of America

Daily Headlines: January 7, 2015

* Dominican Republic: Pedro Martinez became the second Dominican and twelfth Latin American to be elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

* Paraguay: In what sounds like a repeat from 2013, Paraguayan protesters in a labor dispute have resorted to crucifying themselves.

* U.S.: While Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto met with his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, several dozen protesters demonstrated outside the White House against Peña Nieto’s visit.

* Cuba: According to the State Department, Cuba released “some” of the fifty-three inmates regarded by the U.S. as political prisoners.

Video Source – YouTube user CDN 37 (Residents of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic celebrated the election of Pedro Martinez to baseball’s Hall of Fame).
 
Online Sources – New York Times; ABC News; The Latin Americanist; NBC News; Newsweek

Daily Headlines: January 6, 2015

* Guatemala: A Guatemalan court postponed the retrial of ex-dictator Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity related to the massacre of 1771 people in 1983.

* Venezuela: The U.S. State Department rejected Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s offer of a prisoner swap to free opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez.

* Brazil: Slower economic growth and lower prices for key exports could be to blame for Brazil’s first trade deficit since 2000.

* U.S.: Immigrant rights groups in Arizona praised a federal judge’s order against Sheriff Joe Arpaio to halt workplace raids of undocumented workers.

Video Source – YouTube user teleSUR English
 
Online Sources – The Guardian; Reuters; Zee News; Voice of America

Daily Headlines: January 5, 2015

* Latin America: Argentine-born Pope Francis selected fifteen new cardinals including one each from Panama, Uruguay, and Mexico reportedly in order to promote diversity within the Catholic Church.
 
* Panama: A consortium led by Spanish firm Sacyr claimed to have won a $234 million ruling for cost overruns on the expansion of the Panama Canal.

* Cuba: The U.S. Coast Guard have apparently noticed a spike in Cuban migrants traveling by sea since the leaders of both countries agreed to improve relations.

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro proposed freeing imprisoned opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez if the U.S. would liberate Puerto Rican activist Oscar Lopez Rivera.

Video Source – YouTube via ROME REPORTS in English

Online Sources – New York Times; CBC News; Reuters; NBC News

Daily Headlines: January 2, 2015

* Mexico: The F.B.I. is reportedly aiding in the search for 43 Ayotzinapa students missing for more than three months while relatives of the disappeared continue to put pressure on Mexican authorities.

* Brazil: In her second inauguration speech, President Dilma Rousseff vowed to lead a “national pact against corruption” in response to a major kickback scandal hitting state-run oil firm Petrobras.

* Cuba: Despite the recent rapprochement between the U.S. and Cuba, the State Department criticized an apparent crackdown against dissidents on the island.

* Argentina: Survivors and victims’ families of the Republica Cromañon nightclub fire gathered this week to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the tragedy that killed 194 people.

Video Source – YouTube user Ojos DePerro

Online Sources – Latin American Herald Tribune; CNN; NBC News; CBC News

Daily Headlines: January 1, 2015

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro promised to enact a series of reforms over the next six months in order to boost a Venezuelan economy that is officially in recession.

* Cuba: Performance artist Tania Bruguera and the husband of blogger Yoani Sanchez were among the roughly fifty dissidents briefly detained and then released by Cuban authorities.

* Colombia: Colombian Teofilo Gutierrez and Jose Pekerman of Argentina have been chosen in a poll by the Uruguayan newspaper El Pais as South America’s top soccer player and coach of the year, respectively.

* Argentina: Argentina may be struggling with a debt default and rising inflation but that hasn’t stopped the country’s Merval from being named the “best performing global index of 2014.”

Video Source – YouTube user CNN

Online Sources – Reuters; NBC News; CNBC

Daily Headlines: December 30, 2014

* Brazil: The Aurelius Capital hedge fund that was reportedly ‘a leading member of a group of investors that refused to accept a debt restructuring with Argentina” is now campaigning for Petrobras to fall under default.

* Argentina: If you believe that Argentina’s president became the godmother of a Jewish baby to stop him from becoming a werewolf then there’s a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in buying.

* Venezuela: According to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, the South American country ranks only behind Honduras for the highest number of homicides in 2014.

* Chile: President Michelle Bachelet submitted to Congress a labor reform package aimed at promoting unionization and expanding the use of collective bargaining in contract negotiations.

Video Source – YouTube user FRANCE 24 English

Online Sources – New York Daily News; The Guardian; NBC News; Zee News; Reuters

Daily Headlines: December 29, 2014

* Puerto Rico: Will the U.S. follow up the liberation of former contractor Alan Gross by intervening to free imprisoned Puerto Rican activist Oscar Lopez Rivera?

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro named Foreign Minister Rafael Ramirez as the next ambassador to the U.N. days before Venezuela will be represented on the international body’s Security Council.

* Paraguay: “I'm healthy after all this time, I'm calm, I'm okay,” admitted former hostage Arlan Fick who was let go by his EPP rebel captors.

* El Salvador: A Salvadoran man kidnapped by the armed forces at the age of three in 1982 reunited with his biological family last week.

Video Source – YouTube user Fusion (Video uploaded in June 2014).
 
Online Sources – Latin American Herald Tribune; Reuters; teleSUR English; The Latin Americanist; MercoPress

Daily Headlines: December 26, 2014 (Updated)

* Argentina: Former dictator Reynaldo Bignone received a twenty-five year prison sentence for the illegal adoptions of children during the “Dirty War” era.

* U.S.: U.S. immigration officials began a pilot program earlier this month to place GPS tracking devices on undocumented migrants caught crossing the border from Mexico. 

* Colombia: The FARC rebels agreed to release a Colombian soldier who was kidnapped hours before a ceasefire want into effect on December 20th.

Update: Th FARC freed soldier Carlos Becerra Ojeda on Friday.

* Nicaragua: At least two people have died during protests this week against construction of a $50 billion interoceanic canal.

Video Source – YouTube user locomotiv63

Online Sources – The Independent; The Guardian; Voice of America; Latin American Herald Tribune; NBC News

Daily Headlines: December 24, 2014

* Spain: Immigrants from several Latin American counties were among the big winners who will receive about $490,000 from Spain’s $3 billion “El Gordo” lottery.

* Cuba: The U.S. government will pay $3.2 million as part of a settlement to recently liberated former subcontractor Alan Gross.

* Brazil: The first woman to head Brazil’s biggest agrarian lobbying group was selected to become the country’s first female agriculture minister.

* Argentina: Researchers in Argentina have reportedly created “the first prosthetic arm in Latin America to use sensors to respond to nerve impulses.”

Video Source – YouTube user Reuters

Online Sources – Bloomberg; Reuters; The Latin Americanist; ABC News