Daily Headlines: October 25, 2016

* Bolivia: A new scientific report found that glaciers in Bolivia have shrunk by 43% from 1986 to 2014 and “glacier recession is leaving lakes that could burst and wash away villages or infrastructure downstream.”

* Brazil: Aircraft manufacturer Embraer agreed to pay $205 million and officially claim responsibility in order to settle numerous corruption investigations in Brazil and the United States.

* Haiti: According to the United Nations heavy rainfall over the last few days has impeded the distribution of food and medicinal aid to areas of Haiti devastated by Hurricane Matthew.

* United States: An “unprecedented” number of Latinos have reportedly cast their ballots in early voting in Florida but is this a sign of a large Latino turnout on Election Day in two weeks time?

YouTube Source – Deutsche Welle (Video uploaded in 2010).

Online Sources – Science Daily, Xinhua, The Atlantic, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: June 15, 2016

* Latin America: The U. N. Development Programme warned that 25 million Latin Americas that escaped poverty could soon fall back into serious financial hardship due to a “lengthy economic crisis and social exclusion in the region.”

* U.S.: The Latino community in Orlando, Florida tries to recover from the massacre of forty-nine people at a local nightclub including twenty-three Puerto Ricans as well as victims from Mexico as well as Venezuela.

* Argentina: Argentina’s foreign minister reiterated her county’s sovereignty claims over the Falklands but called on an “open dialogue” and better relations with the U.K.

* Puerto Rico: U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the upper house will debate a debt relief bill for Puerto Rico later this month yet very close to a July 1st deadline for the island to pay $1.9 billion.

YouTube Source – DW (English) (From September 2015: “Agriculture is helping Paraguay's economy expand fast. Growth came in at about 5 percent last year. But many people still live in extreme poverty.”)
 
Online Sources – NBC News, ABC News, El Pais, Reuters, MercoPress

Daily Headlines: June 13, 2016

* U.S.: LGBT centers in the area of Orlando, Florida are working to offer Spanish-speaking grief counselors in light of the massacre of at least fifty people during an “Upscale Latin Saturday” party at the Pulse nightclub.

* Puerto Rico: U.S. President Barack Obama in his weekly address urged the Senate to quickly approve a plan that would help alleviate Puerto Rico’s $70 billion debt.

* Brazil: According to “two unpublished academic studies” researchers have detected a “super bacteria” present in the waters of several venues of the upcoming Rio Olympics.

* Guatemala: Three former ministers who served under disgraced ex-President Otto Perez Molina were arrested on corruption charges while around 2000 protesters in Guatemala City rallied in favor of greater political transparency.

YouTube Source – Jornalistas Livres (Vigils were held in several Latin American cities including Sao Paulo in solidarity with the victims of the mass shooting of at least fifty people in Orlando on Saturday).
 
Online Sources – PBS NewsHour, Fox News Latino, Reuters, Deutsche Welle

The First Thanksgiving

The following post was first published in 2013:

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 back in 2007, 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:

Although Thanksgiving is not typically celebrated in Latin America, many Latinos in the U.S. do celebrate the holiday.  Some households modify the holiday and add traditional Latin American details such as feasting on tamales or (in the case of my family) serve yellow rice as one of the side dishes to the Thanksgiving turkey.

Video Source - The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via YouTube

Online Source - The Latin Americanist; Latino Post

Daily Headlines: June 17, 2014

* Venezuela: American Airlines has become the latest air carrier to slash capacity, sales or routes to Venezuela due to “an unresolved dispute over cash trapped there”.

* U.S.: A new poll released today found that most Cuban-Americans in south Florida, especially younger generations and recent arrivals from Cuba, oppose continuing the U.S. embargo on the Caribbean island.

* Argentina: President Cristina Fernandez said that her country would be unable to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court order to repay billions of dollars to creditors within the next two weeks.

* Colombia: Roughly twenty-four hours after being elected to a second straight term, president Juan Manuel Santos proposed changing the constitution in order to bar presidential reelection.

Video Source – CCTV America via YouTube

Online Sources – Miami Herald; Bloomberg; USA TODAY; Xinhua

Daily Headlines: March 7, 2014

* South Africa: Brazil may have romped South Africa 5-0 in an international soccer friendly on Wednesday but the big winner was a five-year-old boy who entered the field and received a warm reception from the verdeamarela players.

* U.S.: Florida’s Supreme Court ruled against granting undocumented immigrants licenses to practice law in a case whose plaintiff entered the U.S. from Mexico at the age of nine, and later graduated from law school and passed the state bar exam.

* Colombia: Famous Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez celebrated his 87th birthday by greeting journalists and well-wishers outside of his Mexico City residence.

* Nicaragua: Senior Nicaraguan government officials denied rumors that Russia would build a military base in the Central American country.

Video Source – YouTube user Neymar Junior
 
Online Sources - Huffington Post; Russia & India Report; seattlepi.com; Fox News Latino

Daily Headlines: February 10, 2014

* Colombia: Will the recent revelations of the Colombian military wiretapping of peace talks between the government and the FARC rebels seriously hurt the latest round of discussions?

* Mexico: The leaders of several Michoacán vigilante groups called on authorities to arrest the head of the La Ruana “self-defense” collective after he led the capture of a Knights Templar drug gang stronghold.

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro claimed that he would propose a bill aimed at ending “sensationalism and the campaign and propaganda that feeds on the blood and death (the media) promotes.”

* Cuba: Charlie Crist, the former Florida governor who is running again for that office, criticized the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba as a failed policy that needs to be “taken away.”

Video Source – euronews via YouTube (“Allegations of spying on government officials have Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (on February 4th) to dismiss his army's head of intelligence and the director of the army's technical intelligence center.”)
 
Online Sources- LAHT; Fox News Latino; Politico; SBS

"Food for Thought" Revisted

The following post was originally published on November 2012:

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 back in 2007, 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:

Daily Headlines: November 1, 2013

* Mexico: Mexican legislators approved a proposal that would raise taxes on sugary drinks and junk food.
 
* Latin America: According to a new World Bank report Peru is the best Latin American country for foreign investors while Venezuela is the worst in the region.

* Cuba: Direct passenger flights between Key West, Florida and Cuba are expected to resume for the first time in fifty-one years.

* Chile: Canada’s Barrick will halt development of its Pascua-Lama gold mine in Chile that was opposed to by some local residents and environmental activists.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources- Bloomberg; Fox News Latino; GlobalPost; Reuters

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: September 5, 2012

* Mexico: Authorities arrested Mario Cardenas, one of the suspected leaders of the Gulf drug trafficking gang, and presented him to the media yesterday.

* Colombia: Now it’s official – the Colombian government and FARC guerillas will start peace negotiations next month in Oslo, Norway.

* Haiti: Will a huge billboard located along I-95 in south Florida help boost tourism in Haiti?

* Chile: Indigenous Mapuche protesters agreed to end their 39-day occupation of UNICEF offices in Santiago.

Video Source – YouTube via user ElUniversalTV

Online Sources- UPI, MSNBC, The Latin Americanist, CBS Miami, Santiago Times

Daily Headlines: June 27, 2012

* Ecuador: “Thousands of people asking the Ecuadorian government to accord asylum to Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, sent a steady stream of messages saying why they support him,” according to a public statement.

* Bolivia: The government announced that it reached a deal with striking police officers after a week of protests throughout Bolivia.

* Cuba: A U.S. judge issued a temporary injunction against a new Florida law that would ban companies from getting government contracts if they also do business in Cuba or Syria.

* Latin America: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao ended a tour of Latin America by proposing to set up a $10 billion credit line to the region for infrastructural projects.

Video Source – YouTube via Voice of America

Online Sources- The Australian, CBS News, Reuters

World Watch: There Goes the Fear

* Indonesia: Officials called off a tsunami alert though that didn’t prevent some Indonesians from panicking after an 8.6-magnitude earthquake occurred on Wednesday.

* U.S.: A special prosecutor in Florida charged George Zimmerman with second-degree murder in the controversial killing of teen Trayvon Martin.

* Greece: Prime Minister Lucas Papademos resigned and called for a general election in the economically weakened country to take place on May 6th.

* Syria: Will the government comply with a UN-brokered cease-fire due to go into effect on Thursday morning?

Video Source– YouTube via Associated Press

Online Sources – The Guardian, Reuters, The Australian, BBC News

Daily Headlines: September 30, 2011

* Chile: Student protest leaders and government officials met yesterday in order to find a peaceful solution to nearly five months of demonstrations in support of meaningful educational reform.

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez appeared on live television yesterday and blasted media reports alleging that the ailing leader was hospitalized and may’ve suffered kidney failure.

* U.S.: Activists opposed to the death penalty decried the execution via lethal injection of Cuban-born Manuel Valle in Florida.

* Guatemala: President Alvaro Colom will reportedly apologize to the family of Jacobo Arbenz, a former president who was controversially deposed in a 1954 coup.

Video Source – Al Jazeera English via YouTube (This video focuses on Giorgio Jackson, one of the leaders of Chile’s student protest movement who met with government officials at a negotiating table on Thursday).

Online Sources - Bloomberg, MSNBC, The Latin Americanist, The Guardian, Reuters AlertNet

Daily Headlines: October 25, 2010

* Bolivia: President Evo Morales said that the government will go ahead with or without a foreign partner in the production of lithium batteries.

* El Salvador: What does the information on the conflict in Iraq disclosed by WikiLeaks have to do with El Salvador's civil war?

* Latin America: The Christian Science Monitor analyzed the improved state of democracy in contemporary Latin America.

* U.S.: The Floridian convicted of killing two Chilean students last year will stand trial in April and could be sentenced to the death penalty.

Image - Scientific American ("Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia is the largest salt pan in the world. Beneath its crust is found the world's largest concentration of lithium, estimated at 5.4 million metric tons by the U.S. Geological Survey—or roughly half of the world's reserves.")
Online Sources - Miami Herald, The Latin Americanist, Christian Science Monitor, The Independent, CBC, BusinessWeek

Daily Headlines: June 28, 2010

* Mexico: Popular grupero musician Sergio “El Shaka” Vega was killed mere hours after denying Internet rumors of his death.

* Argentina: In the latest chapter in the tug-of-war between Argentina and the U.K. over the Falklands British Prime Minister David Cameron said that he “would not budge” regarding the sovereignty of the disputed islands.

* U.S.: Authorities captured 34 Cuban migrants after they arrived on a beach in Florida on Sunday.

* Peru: Tensions between indigenous groups and President Alan Garcia could reignite after he vetoed a law that would’ve curbed energy exploration in the rainforest area.

Image – tribunalatina.com
Online Sources- The Guardian, Miami Herald, The Latin Americanist, Scotsman.com, BBC News

Today’s Video: How about “No pendejos”

Was it a harmless prank or a racist message? So far the motive is not known as to why a pair of roadwork signs on a southern Florida highway were hacked and altered to read “No Latinos” and “No tacos”. It’s also unknown how long the messages were visible and whether the signs were modified internally or remotely. Yet by Tuesday morning the signs were turned off and under police surveillance.

With that area home to such a notable Latino population it was bound to rile some people up. According to NBC Miami’s website:

Reaction to the sign, posted on the "Today in South Florida" Facebook page was mixed.

"Wow someone has a lot of time on their hands to think up of how they can belittle and disrespect a group of people who help keep this country going," said Luly Cueto-Belot.

"Greatest thing I ever saw...let's take this country back dammit!!!..south will rise again mother---er!!" said David Pines.

This must be seen to be believed:

Online Sources- NBC Miami, AHN, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Guatemalan Suspected in 1982 Massacre Arrested in Florida

Federal agents arrested Gilberto Jordán in Palm Beach County, Florida on Wednesday for suspicion of lying on citizenship paperwork processed years ago.

Normally that sort of charge wouldn't make headlines, but Jordán is no normal ICE case. It is suspected that he was one of the members of Guatemala's elite Kaibiles unit who massacred 217 civilians in the village of Las Dos Erres.

The massacre was one of the worst in the 35-year-long Guatemalan Civil War. From the Miami Herald article reporting details of his arrest:

In a chilling interview Tuesday with ICE special agents, Jordán, now 54, "readily admitted that he threw a baby into the well and participated in killing people at Dos Erres, as well as bringing them to the well where they were killed,'' according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.

Two other former Kaibiles who currently reside in the US, Jorge Vinicio Sosa-Orantes Pedro Pimentel-Rios, are also being sought on similar grounds.

The Kaibiles were and are a highly skilled jungle warfare group with a dubious human rights record. More recently, several Kaibiles have joined ranks with the violent Los Zetas organization - originally a force protection group for the Gulf Cartel who are now operating more independently in the Mexican drug arena.

It remains unclear whether there will be additional charges against Jordán besides the immigration violation - a charge that could lead to 10 years in prison and revocation of his naturalized US citizenship.

Image Source: Global Post - "The wood boxes that once contained the victims' remains decomposed long ago, leaving bundles of bones, boots and clothes."

Online Sources: Miami Herald, NY Times, Mexidata.info, Wikipedia, Sun-Sentinel

War Games!

Fidel Castro dies, Raul is assassinated in coup, and thousands of would-be refugees make their way for Guantanamo. No, it's not a late April Fools joke, but rather a post-Castro simulation carried out by the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American studies.

The Miami Herald laid out some of the potential actions and reactions that the simulation produced, and all seemed to underscore the point that when things change in Cuba, they may change extremely fast and have huge a impact on whichever US administration has to deal with them.

Though the stakes might not be as high as a recent war game simulation carried out by the Brookings Institution in the case of an Israeli strike against Iran nuclear facilities, the Cuba case shed some interesting light on how a rapid change in Cuba would ripple across the Florida straight.

Online Sources: Miami Herald, New York Times

Image Source: US News

Lincoln Diaz-Balart Will Not Seek Re-election

Lincoln Diaz-Balart, the Cuban-American representative of the heavily Cuban 21st district in South Florida, announced today that he will not seek re-election later this year.

Diaz-Balart, a stalwart of the anti-Castro resistance and father of the legislated Cuban embargo said in a statement:

"I am convinced that in the upcoming chapter of the struggle, I can be more useful to the inevitable change that will soon come to Cuba, to Cuba's freedom, as a private citizen."

Generally this means that he's either really passionate about what he can do in post-Castro Cuba (and probably thinks post-Castro Cuba is a very near-term proposition), or there's an impending scandal.

Although I live in D.C., I'm an eternal optimist, so I reckon it's the former.

The video below, although of a Cuban-American, has nothing at all to do with Rep. Diaz-Balart or his decision to not seek re-election. It certainly is funny though.

Online Source: Washington Post
Video Sources: YouTube