Daily Headlines: October 21, 2011

* Guatemala: President Alvaro Colom formally apologized to the family of Jacobo Arbenz, a former president who was ousted in a 1954 CIA-backed coup.

* Haiti: Plans are underway in order to apply cholera vaccinations to an estimated 100,000 Haitians.

* Central America: At least 105 people have died in Central America after approximately ten consecutive days of heavy rainfall.

* Mexico: Officials in the U.S. and Mexico will cooperate in order to make improvements to an “earthquake monitoring system” along the border region.

Video Source – YouTube user misterpucho (“Extract from "The century of the self" by Adam Curtis. Story behind the coup d'etat which toppled elected president Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954. The film explains how Edward Bernays, recruited by United Fruits, created the conditions for a government intervention. Mass media were successfully used for manipulating the public and generating consensus around a military action involving the CIA.”)

Online Sources- BBC News, USA TODAY, ABC News, NPR

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