Friday, July 20, 2012

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

Thursday, July 19, 2012

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.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

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

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

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

Monday, July 16, 2012

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