* Latin America: Seventeen Western Hemispheric nations including all of Central America, Bolivia, and Venezuela were placed on a White House narcotics watch blacklist.
* Mexico: Authorities reportedly believe that the Zetas drug gang may’ve been behind the murders of three relatives of a policeman detained in relation to last month’s arson attack on a Monterrey casino.
* South America: Tensions over areas such as energy and trade have led to deteriorating diplomatic relations between Argentina and Paraguay.
* Cuba: The Cuban government has become increasingly upset at ex-New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s visit to the island in order to negotiate the release of jailed contractor Alan Gross.
Image – AP via BBC News (“The blacklisting came on the day El Salvador celebrates independence from Spain.”)
Online Sources- CNN, MiamiHerald.com, BBC News, UPI
* Colombia: Jorge Noguera, ex-intelligence chef under the presidency of Alvaro Uribe, was convicted and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for his ties to illegal paramilitary groups.
* Haiti: Protesters in Port-au-Prince called for the removal of U.N. troops from Haiti though President Michel Martelly is expected to seek renewal of the U.N. mission's mandate.
* Puerto Rico: Reggaeton duo Calle 13 received a record ten Latin Grammy nominations including album, record and song of the year.
* U.S.: President Barack Obama attempted to push his jobs plan to the Latino community in a speech given last night.
Image – AP via BBC News (Jorge Noguera, the former director of Colombia's secret police, has been jailed for 24 years by the country's supreme court.) Online Sources- BBC News, USA TODAY, NPR, Boston.com
* U.S.: According to a Census Bureau report the poverty rate for Latinos rose to 26.6% while roughly one-third of Latino children are below the poverty line.
* Venezuela: Electoral officials announced that the presidential vote will be held on October 7 next year, roughly eight months after the opposition is expected to pick their candidate to run against President Hugo Chavez.
* Cuba: Sixty-two worshippers on a “spiritual retreat” have sequestered themselves for over three weeks in a Havana church.
* Argentina: Former President and current Senator Carlos Menem was acquitted on charges of arms smuggling to Croatia and Ecuador.
Image – CSMonitor.com (“Job seekers line up at a career fair in New York. Hispanics saw one of the sharpest rises in the poverty rate of any group in the United States. More Hispanics under 18 are poor than any other group.”)
Online Sources- Reuters, Al Jazeera English, Time, Voice of America, CNN
Last week we looked at several recent cases of violence and harassment against journalists in Latin America and the Caribbean. Some members of the media have fought back against those intent in trying to stifle them.
On Sunday approximately 250 protesters marched in Mexico City to call attention to the eighty journalists slain in Mexico since 2000. The protest was organized by Contralinea, an investigative magazine that employed one of two female journalists killed (and possibly tortured) in Mexico City last month.
The video below from YouTube user "PeriodismoIDN" provides footage of the demonstration such as posters with messages like "The worst crime is being silenced".
Video Source - PeriodismoIDN via YouTube
Online Sources - The Latin Americanist, Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas
* Chile: European researchers at an observatory in Chile discovered fifty “exoplanets” located outside of our solar system.
* U.S.: The possible discrimination against Latino educators in Arizona may've factored in the decision to halt monitoring classrooms to see if teachers speak with accents.
* Brazil: The country’s currency, the real, fell to its weakest level in ten months due to worries over a possible Greek default.
* Mexico: Monterrey mayor, Fernando Larrazabal has refused to resign despite allegations of corruption related to the last month’s deadly arson at the Casino Royale.
Image – ESO via MSNBC (“An artist's depiction of a super-Earth." Scientists using the Harps instrument in Chile’s La Silla Observatory discovered sixteen “super-Earths”).
Online Sources- UPI, The Guardian, Bloomberg, LAHT
* World: According to a report supported by the World Health Organization the number of malaria cases worldwide continue to decrease and could reach near-zero deaths by the end of 2015.
* Egypt: The ruling military council will widen a state of emergency days after a group of protesters attacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
* U.S.: President Barack Obama continued pushing for a jobs plan that will soon be presented to Congress.
* Russia: Alexander Galimov, the last surviving member of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv team that died in a plane cash last week, succumbed to his injuries and passed away today.
The tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks gave us time to commemorate the nearly 3000 victims such as the father of Jillian Suarez, a New York City police officer who died at the World Trade Center (WTC). We also remember those like William Rodriguez, a janitor at the North Tower of the WTC whose quick action helped save dozens of lives. We cannot forget the hundreds of people who regardless of details such as immigration status unselfishly worked in rescue and recovery efforts. Lastly we honor those who have helped in the rebuilding process that cotinues in the decade since 9/11.
The feelings of loss and longing due to the attacks are perhaps best encapsulated in the following emotional video via StoryCorps: http://youtu.be/7k8HHfJe828
Online Sources - WNYC, Azteca Noticias, La Nacion
Video Sources - Univision Nueva York, StoryCorps via YouTube
We will soon publish a few short posts examining the 9/11 attacks and its impact on the Latino community in the U.S. For this post, however, we're going to look at another important event that occurred decades ago.
September 11th is a notable date in Latin American history for it was on that day in 1919 U.S. Marines invaded Honduras while thirteen Haitians were killed in the St. Juan Bosco massacre of 1986. Yet the most well-known event on that date was the 1973 military coup that overthrew Chile's civilian government.
The overthrow of President Salvador Allende and the subsequent regime under Gen. Augusto Pinochet which lasted until 1990 continue to be the subject of debate. Backers of the late dictator claimed that the coup was needed in order to prevent Chile from turning into a communist country under a socialist leader. Detractors, meanwhile, contend that the CIA-backed coup helped usher in a wave of brutal repression under the iron hand of Pinochet.
The aftermath of the coup thirty-eight years ago today can be seen in "The Death of Pinochet", a film that depicted the reactions of Chileans on the day he died. The conflicting views on the impact of the coup and Pinochet's rule can be seen in this documentary, which aired last month in New York as part of the Latinbeat series. The Spanish-language trailer to the film provides a glimpse into mixed feelings of joy, sadness and anger held by residents of Santiago on that day in December 2006:
Approximately 5000 people in Santiago today participated in a march to commemorate the hundreds (if not thousands) of people who died in the 1973 coup. The event was reportedly marred by clashes between police and 300 demonstrators.
Online Sources - La Tercera, La Nacion, BBC News, The Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence, sandinorebellion.com Video Source - YouTube
* Mexico: Local energy officials claimed that power has been resorted to almost all of the 1.1 million customers whose electricity was temporarily cut off in a blackout that also affected the southwestern U.S.
* U.S.: A report presented yesterday found that basic legal rights might've been broken in the deportations of tens of thousands of Latino illegal immigrants.
* Brazil: A judge upheld the thirty-year prison sentence against a rancher convicted of the 2005 murder of nun and environmental activist Dorothy Stang.
* Latin America: U.S. President Barack Obama called on Congress to “clear the way” for free trade pacts with Colombia and Panama.
Image – Reuters via CBC News (“A couple walk their dogs past a malfunctioning traffic intersection in Cardiff, Calif., following a sweeping power outage that knocked out power in parts of the U.S. southwest and Mexico.”)
Online Sources- Huffington Post, Fox News Latino, CNN, Colombia Reports
* U.S.: According to a new government report released “immigration offenses" have helped push Latinos to make up the new ethnic majority in federal prisons.
* South America: Thousands of demonstrators calling for education reform marched in several Colombian cities yesterday while organizers of education protests in Chile suspended their actions this week as a sign of respect for the victims of last week’s plane crash.
* Cuba: Former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson will travel to Cuba in order to seek the release of imprisoned U.S. contractor Alan Gross.
* Latin America: Could Brazil’s reviving of a “long-running anti-dumping feud” with China hurt economic ties between that Asian nation and the Mercosur bloc?
In 1977 a team with soccer legend Pele play a friendly match in Kolkata, India against local side Mohun Bagan. Thirty-four years later the Argentine and Venezuelan national teams played in an exhibition match in that city with the former beating the latter by a score of 1-0.
Star player Lionel Messi made his debut as captain of los albicelestes in that game that was played last week. But could his celebrity status help spur the development of soccer in India? Or will it require grassroots efforts like those in Venezuela, where soccer has grown despite the sport's secondary status compared to baseball? It remains to be seen if the "Messi effect" has any substantial impact for a country whose lone qualification to the World Cup finals came over sixty years ago.
Video Source - Al Jazeera English via YouTube
Online Sources - New American Media, India Today, AFP
* Haiti: Uruguayan President Jose Mujica apologized to his Haitian counterpart over the suspected rape of a Haitian man by Uruguayan U.N. troops while Brazil plans to remove some of its troops from the Caribbean country.
* Peru: President Ollanta Humala approved a law that would allow indigenous groups to be consulted before any rural land development projects.
* Mexico: Police arrested a U.S. man suspected of smuggling grenade parts across the border to the Sinaloa drug gang.
* Argentina: A judge opened an inquiry into allegations of rape and sexual abuse committed at a “notorious torture center” during the Dirty War period.
Image – AP via CSMonitor.com (“In this picture taken Sept. 3, 2011, people walk in front of a UN base where Uruguayan peacekeepers allegedly sexually abused an 18-year-old man in Port Salut, Haiti.”)
Online Sources- Reuters, MSNBC, BBC News, Voice of America, Times of India
Yesterday would've been the 65th birthday of Freddie Mercury, the former frontman for the rock band Queen. Numerous tributes have been held in his honor this week including an animated video on Google's home page and a limited edition sports car.
In 1997 several Latin American rock musicians interpreted Queen songs to Spanish as part of a tribute album. Soda Stereo, Molotov and Fito Paez where among those who participated in the unique project. Colombia's Aterciopelados contributed "Juegale, Apuestale", their version of "Play the Game", which you can appreciate below during the group's MTV Unplugged performance in 1997: Online Sources - cduniverse.com, Auto Guide, The Atlantic Video Source - YouTube
Robert Rivard, the head of a commission of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), proclaimed that 2011 is the “most tragic year in the last two decades” for Latin American journalists. Since Rivard made those remarks in late July a series of incidents seem to have validated his claim.
The bodies of a pair of Mexican journalists, the founder of an investigative magazine and a freelancer, were found near Mexico City last week. Authorities said that the corpses of Ana Maria Marcela Yarce Viveros and Rocio Gonzalez were naked with their limbs bound and strangulation marks around their necks. Mexico City’s Attorney General mentioned the possibility that both women may’ve been targeted as part of a “gender crime” but did not discard their professions as a possible motive for their murders.
A suspected Dominican drug trafficker is believed to be behind the murder of local journalist Jose Agustin Silvestre. Silvestre, who was reportedly preparing a “bombshell” corruption story in the next edition of his magazine, was kidnapped and slain just over a month ago. The alleged mastermind behind the murder, Matias Avelino Castro, remains at large though police have detained his daughter.
Peruvian journalist Kitty Vela asserted that she has been the target of numerous threats possibly related to her investigative work. She further claimed that an hit man confessed to being paid $1800 in exchange for killing her.
IAPA president Gonzalo MarroquÃn recently called on Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa to “cease his harassment against the press.” Carlos Lauria, the senior program coordinator for the Americas at the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, appeared to echo these concerns in a report published last week. “Over the course of Correa’s tenure, the administration has created an elaborate legal framework to restrict news media,” mentioned the report that also accused Correa of using the state media as his “political megaphone.”
* Haiti: President Michel Martelly lashed out against an alleged sexual assault of a Haitian teen by U.N. troops from Uruguay and deemed it “an act that revolts the national conscience.” (Update: According to one Uruguayan legislator there are "two more videos and photographs" depicting abuse by U.N. peacekeepers in Haiti).
* Guatemala: The race for the presidency hasn’t show signs of slowing down ahead of Sunday's first round of elections.
* Brazil: Is the Brazilian economy about to go on the decline?
* U.S.: According to a government report released last week the Latino unemployment rate is 11.6%, a figure that nearly doubles “when the underemployed and discouraged workers are included.”
Image Source – AP via The Guardian (Haitian President Michel Martelly urged a full investigation into the supposed sexual assault of a teen by Uruguayan U.N. peacekeepers).
Online Sources- The Independent, insdecostarica.com, Bloomberg, Fox News Latino
* World: Clashes broke out at the trial against former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak while ex-president Jacques Chirac of France faces a maximum ten-year prison sentence if convicted of corruption.
* Africa: The U.N. warned that as many as 750,000 people could die in the upcoming months due to a famine that originated in Somalia.
* Libya: Authorities in China denied a report by Canada's The Globe and Mail newspaper alleging that Chinese firms were planning to sell $200 million in weapons to deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
* Japan: At least 34 people died as a result of one of the worst typhoons to hit Japan in recent years.
Image – Reuters via The Guardian (“Riot police clash with anti-Mubarak protestors on the first day of the former Egyptian president's return to trial.”)
Online Sources- Voice of America, euronews, MSNBC, CNN, BBC News
Several Latin American cities, such as the Colombian capital of Bogota last February, have held car-free days designed to raise environmental awareness. Bolivia upped the ante on Sunday with the "Day of the Pedestrian", which restricted individual auto users public transit buses nationwide during ten hours. "The city is not only for vehicles but also for the people," declared La Paz mayor Luis Revilla as street performers and marathon runners took to the auto-free streets yesterday.
Sunday's activities came amid protests against the construction of a major highway through the Amazon rainforest.
* Chile: Two days of national mourning were declared in honor of twenty-one people that are beloved to have died after an air force plane crashed off near the remote Juan Fernandez islands.
* Haiti: Five Uruguayan U.N. peacekeepers were recalled from Haiti over allegations that troops sexually assaulted an eighteen-year-old man.
* Cuba: President Raul Castro is among the thousands of Cubans paying tribute to Defense Minister Julio Casas who died on Saturday at the age of 75.
* Latin America: A “sharp decline” in Peruvian silver mining this year has allowed Mexico to overtake the Andean country to become the world’s top silver producer.
Image – Reuters via BBC News (The Chilean navy search for bodies and aircraft wreckage near the Juan Fernandez Islands. Among those still missing from Saturday's accident is popular television host Felipe Camiroaga.)
Online Sources- Xinhua, The Guardian, MarketWatch, UPI
* Latin America: Seventeen Western Hemispheric nations including all of Central America, Bolivia, and Venezuela were placed on a White House narcotics watch blacklist.
