Daily Headlines: October 28, 2016

* Brazil: Brazilian authorities warned that a recent outbreak of prison violence between the PCC and Comando Vermelho criminal groups could spill on to the streets.

* Panama: The Panamanian government took a big step in its push to remove the stigma from the Panama Papers leak by signing a multilateral treaty to combat tax evasion.

* Cuba: The United Sates Food and Drug Administration has purportedly given the green light for the clinical trial of a Cuban lung cancer medicine known as CIMAvax.

* Haiti: Spain’s soccer federation has been ordered to return around $240,000 in public funds that were misappropriated instead of being spent on a project in Haiti.

YouTube Source – AFP 

Online Sources – InSight Crime, ESPN FC, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, CBC

Daily Headlines: August 4, 2016

* Colombia: The neoconservative Democratic Center political party announced their opposition to a peace plebiscite regarding the FARC even though nearly three out of four Colombians in a recent poll would vote for the “Yes” option,

* Venezuela: In what seems to be the latest concession by the Venezuelan government to the military, a general accused by the United States for drug trafficking was named as interior and justice minister for the South American state.

* Panama: The newest batch of documents uncovered via the Panama Papers leak has implicated businesses in at least fifty-two African countries including Egypt, Nigeria, and Algeria.

* Puerto Rico: Pedro Pierluisi, Puerto Rico’s lone member of Congress, suggested that genetically modified mosquitoes could be used to combat the spread of the Zika virus on the commonwealth.

YouTube Source – euronews (From June 2016: “Three years of historic peace talks between Colombian government and FARC negotiators have resulted in a ceasefire agreement.”)

Online Sources – Reuters, teleSUR English, Business Insider, allAfrica.com, ABC News

Daily Headlines: June 9, 2016

* Brazil: Hundreds of pairs of underwear were laid on Copacabana beach last Monday as part of a protest calling attention to violence against women including the recent suspected gang rape of a sixteen-year-old girl.

* Panama: Shell companies purportedly used by the Cuban government to circumvent the U.S. trade embargo against the island join Argentina’s president and a Chilean anti-corruption activist as some of the entities mentioned in the “Panama Papers”.

* Haiti: U.S. and European Union officials are none too pleased with the decision to rerun Haiti’s disputed presidential elections twelve months after they were first held.

* Guatemala: A UNICEF study found poverty, sexual abuse and machismo have fueled a “shocking” amount of child sex trafficking in Guatemala.

YouTube Source – AFP

Online Sources – The Huffington Post, The Latin Americanist, Quartz, euronews, The Miami Herald

Daily Headlines: May 19, 2016

* Puerto Rico: Relief may finally arrive for Puerto Rico after House Republicans and the Obam administration agreed to a proposal that would help restructure the commonwealth’s $70 billion debt.

* Argentina: The revelations from the Panama Papers leak may have been an embarrassment for Panama and Argentine President Mauricio Macri but it could help alleviate the South American country’s financial woes.

* U.S.: A Government Accountability Office study released last Tuesday found that U.S. public schools have become more racially segregated including an increase in the percentage of Latino children enrolled in “impoverished K-12 public schools.”

* Mexico: Mexican authorities rescued 271 people, including 112 minors, of an overcrowded drug rehab clinic where patients were reportedly tortured and grossly mistreated.

YouTube Source – PBS NewsHour
 
Online Sources – NBC News, UPI, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: May 12, 2016

* Brazil: In a pair of speeches to the press and followers this morning in Brasilia, a suspended president Dilma Rousseff proclaimed her innocence amid the impeachment process against her and accused political rivals of plotting an illegal “coup”.

* Panama: The Panamanian government has tried to repair the country’s image in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal but fell short by being excluded from an anti-corruption summit hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

* Mexico: A new report claimed that natural disasters and increased violence has led to the internal displacement of some 100,000 people in Mexico last year.

* Haiti: Plans to donate 500 metric tons of peanuts from the U.S. to malnourished Haitian children has backfired and led to an avalanche of criticism from farmers and NGOs.

YouTube Source – CNN (“Brazil's embattled president says there is no reason for her impeachment because she has committed no crime.”)

Online Sources – BBC News, GlobalPost, Bloomberg, Washington Post, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: May 5, 2016 (Updated)

* Brazil: A Brazilian top court judge ordered Eduardo Cunha, the chief of the Chamber of Deputies chief and strong advocate for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, to step down from his post over corruption charges.

Update: The Supreme Court subsequently issued a unanimous ruling suspending Cunha as lower House leader.
 
* Argentina: President Mauricio Macri, who was one of the figures named in the recent “Panama Papers” leak, claimed that he is willing to collaborate with investigators regarding his alleged links to two offshore firms.

* Guatemala: The genocide retrial of ex-strongman Efrain Rios Montt was suspended indefinitely after attorneys for indigenous victims succeeded in separating his case from that of former intelligence head Jose Rodriguez.

* South America: For the fifteenth straight year the Copa Libertadores will not have a repeat champion after reigning titleholders River Plate of Argentina were ousted in the round of 16 by modest Ecuadoran side Independiente del Valle.

YouTube Source – AFP (“Street artist Luiz Bueno paints a mural on Paulista Avenue, in the financial heart of Sao Paulo, depicting Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, Vice President Michel Temer, the lower house Speaker Eduardo Cunha and the head of the opposition PSDB party Aécio Neves "conspiring" with each other, to bring awareness to the current political crisis.”)
 
Online Sources including Update – Time, The Latin Americanist, Buenos Aires Herald, Business Standard, ESPN FC, ABC News

Daily Headlines: April 15, 2016

* Panama: Panamanian authorities reportedly agreed to follow international tax reporting standards outlined by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development chief Angel Gurria even though they had blasted him for comments made following the Panama Papers leak.

* Brazil: The lower chamber of the Brazilian Congress began three days of debating today over whether President Dilma Rousseff should be impeached over money laundering allegations.

* U.S.: The crisis hitting newspapers in the U.S. might lead to the end of El Diario/La Prensa, the longest-running Spanish-language daily and in circulation for 102 years.

* Puerto Rico: The Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to the surviving Puerto Rican soldiers of a U.S. Army regiment known as the “Borinqueneers” who fought both World Wars and the Korean War.

YouTube Source – BBC News (Video uploaded on April 3, 2016).

Online Sources – Deutsche Welle, the Latin Americanist, USA TODAY, Fox News Latino, CNN

Daily Headlines: April 11, 2016

* Panama: As part of Panama’s campaign to save face in light of the “Panama Papers” leak, President Juan Carlos Varela in a New York Times op/ed piece tried to shift attention towards tax evasion as a “global problem.”

* Latin America: The Inter-American Development Bank anticipates a 0.3% contraction of the Latin American regional economy in 2016 and weak growth in the next few years.

* Argentina: Former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner might be charged in relation to an investigation into alleged money laundering.

* Puerto Rico: Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla ordered emergency financial measures aimed at preventing a default on a debt payment scheduled for May 1st.

YouTube Source – AFP (Over the weekend “police raided the El Salvador offices of the Panama-based law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers scandal that has revealed how the wealthy in many countries stashed their riches offshore”.)
 
Online Sources – Reuters, MercoPress, The Economic Times, Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: April 8, 2016

* Guatemala: Five men were convicted and received prison sentences of up to fifty years for the 2011 homicide of Argentine singer Facundo Cabral and the attempted murder of his manager who they were trying to kill.

* Argentina: Federal prosecutor Federico Delgado has called for an investigation into President Mauricio Macri prior involvement with several offshore firms that was revealed by the recent “Panama Papers” leak.

* U.S.: A new poll of Latino registered voters found a virtual split in support for Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders as well as an 83% unfavorability rating for Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro issued a decree that would allow public workers to take a three-day weekend in order to save energy in the oil-rich country.

YouTube Source – euronews (Video uploaded in 2011).
 
Online Sources – Billboard, The Latin Americanist, Vice News, NBC News, CBC

Panamanian Gov’t Lashes Out over “Panama Papers” Leak

What do a Nobel laureate, “La Reina del Sur” and the president of a South American country all have in common? These and a few thousand other Latin Americans were named in the “Panama Papers” leak of eleven million documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca purportedly assisting in tax evasion, circumventing sanctions, and money laundering. In light of the damaging allegations, the government of the isthmus had gone on a diplomatic offensive.

Deputy Minister Luis Miguel Hincapié on Tuesday blasted Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) chief Angel Gurria for suggesting that Panama failed “to meet the international tax transparency standards are now out there in full public view.” he claimed Gurria made “allegations and insinuations whose falsity is easily demonstrated.” Hincapié further accused Gurria of discriminating against Panama by not pointing the finger at other jurisdictions like the British Virgin Islands where half of firms mentioned in the “Panama Papers” are registered in.

The official earlier today also implied that the OECD has coerced Panama as part of its campaign to place international standards on tax transparency.

“(Panama) for a long time has suffered pressure from the OECD so that the country can sign a multilateral treaty to exchange fiscal information,” Hincapié mentioned at a press conference.

“We only agreed in the interchange of information on a bilateral basis and in specific cases,” he said.
The OECD hasn’t been the only foreign body receiving criticism from the Panamanian government. Minister of the Presidency Alvaro Aleman threatened with “retaliation measures” against France if the European country goes through with placing the isthmus on its blacklist of tax havens.

Economics Minister Dulcido De La Guardia rejected claims that Panama is a “fiscal oasis” and claimed “three-quarters of income received by the government comes from taxes paid by nationals and foreigners residing in the country.” (Though this does raise the question of where does the other 25% come from).