Daily Headlines: August 31, 2016

* Cuba: Direct commercial flights from the United States to Cuba will resume on Wednesday for the first time since 1961 and could soon reach as many as 110 per day.

* Haiti: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former Haitian president ousted on two separate occasions, made a rare public appearance to back Maryse Narcisse in the race for the country’s next president.

* Colombia: “Today we have a slogan that ... we will not forget the disappeared during peacetime,” said a human rights campaigner calling attention to the more than 45,000 missing people during Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict.

* Venezuela: Several opposition activists have been detained and three journalists were expelled from Venezuela on the eve of what is expected to be a massive anti-government protest in Caracas on Thursday.

YouTube Source – AFP (“US secretary of transportation Anthony Foxx will travel to Cuba August 31, 2016, on the occasion of the first regular flight between the two countries after more than 50 years of suspension, according to local authorities.”)

Online Sources – ABC News, Fox News Latino, Reuters, CNN

Daily Headlines: April 27, 2016

* Mexico: A few thousand people including some family members of 43 missing Ayotzinapa university students marched in Mexico City yesterday to question the government’s shaky investigation into the case.

* Peru: Peruvian officials will expand a law allowing the military to shoot down civilian planes suspected of drug smuggling to include boats and backpackers.

* Argentina: State-run YPF will export crude oil next month for the first time since 2013 as part of a plan to boost production amid low oil prices.

* U.S.: A new study concluded that the number of Latino children was undercounted in the last Census and this has caused a lack of federal funds to be destined to some communities in need.

YouTube Source – El Universal

Online Sources – Reuters, NBC News, Bloomberg, Voice of America

Daily Headlines: December 16, 2015

* Mexico: At least seventeen corpses were found abandoned in a ravine days after Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto proposed two new legal initiatives in the battle against disappearances and kidnappings.

* South America: The former head of South America’s soccer federation, Juan Angel Napout, pled not guilty to charges related to the “FIFA-gate” corruption scandal while Paraguayan officials allowed the extradition one of Napout's predecessors, Nicolas Leoz, to the U.S. for questioning.

* Venezuela: U.S. investigators will reportedly charge Venezuela’s National Guard chief Néstor Reverol with cocaine trafficking as part of a widening probe aimed at Venezuelan military officials.

* Latin America: According to the Inter-American Development Bank exports from Latin American and Caribbean will drop by 14% this year and the outlook for 2016 may not be much better.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English (“Data just released by Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office indicates that 185 mass graves containing over 500 corpses have been found in the country in the last five years.”)

Online Sources – NDTV, InSight Crime, New York Daily News, Fox News Latino, MercoPress

Daily Headlines: October 19, 2015

* Colombia: In the latest pact between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels, both sides agreed to work together and provide information on the tens of thousands of people missing due to the armed conflict.

* Bolivia: Bolivian officials claimed that spy planes have crossed into national territory and, thus, the government will buy some $229 million in radar equipment from France.

* Argentina: For the first time Argentina made it through to the final four of the Rugby World Cup after Los Pumas blitzed Ireland by a score of 43-20 in the quarterfinals.

* Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff backed beleaguered Finance Minister Joaquim Levy despite mounting pressure against her proposed austerity measures designed to boost the weakened Brazilian economy.

YouTube Source – AFP (“Thirteen years after Medellin was rocked by violence when the government decided to recapture a sector of the city disputed by right-wing paramilitaries and militias, family members and others take part in commemoration events.”)
 
Online Sources – BBC Sport, Voice of America, Fox News Latino, Reuters

Daily Headlines: October 14, 2015

* Mexico: A recently released report from the Mexican Attorney General ‘s office on the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students has shown numerous contradictions with the results of the official probe.

* Latin America: Three people died and fourteen inmates escaped from a Brazilian prison during a riot, while four suspected gang members died during an uprising in a Salvadoran correctional facility.

* Colombia: U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Kevin Whitaker said that his country will not push for the extradition of FARC rebel commanders though Washington will seek alleged criminals.

* U.S: A new Nielsen study found that Latinos over the age of fifty are growing in numbers, represent a burgeoning consumer base and are healthier than initially believed.

YouTube Source – teleSUR English (Thousands of marchers took to the streets of Mexico city last month on the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa students.)
 
Online Sources – Tico Times, oneindia, Fox News Latino, BBC News, Latina Lista

Daily Headlines: September 1, 2015

* Mexico: Mexican human rights groups claimed that forced disappearances are on the rise including an estimated 26,000 cases over the past eight years.

* Nicaragua: An extra $700 million could be added to the $50 billion price tag for the construction of Nicaragua’s interoceanic canal.

* South America: The Organization of American States (OAS) rejected a Colombian proposal to hold an urgent meeting over a growing migratory crisis with Venezuela.

* Brazil: A feature article in Brazilian newsmagazine Epoca accused ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of acting as a lobbyist in Cuba for a construction firm involved in a major bribery scandal.

YouTube Source – La Jornada (Several thousand protesters marched in Mexico City last week to mark the 11-month anniversary of the disappearance and possible massacre of 43 Ayotzinapa college students.)  

Online Sources – JOC.com, Reuters, NBC News, teleSUR English

Mexico: Social Media Outrage Over Offensive Missing Student Tweets

Social media has been beneficial for businesses looking to promote their brand, increase sales and gain an advantage above their competitors.  But it can also be a double-edged sword for companies that either inadvertently or purposefully post controversial messages in the aftermath of tragedies. This is a lesson that at least two Mexican companies faced after publishing a tweet alluding to the possible massacre forty-three students.

Marca de chocolates Crunch publica tuit de burla sobre los normalistas http://t.co/AKNIJDC79g
— Proceso (@revistaproceso) November 9, 2014

As seen above, the original message posted Sunday just after midnight on the twitter account for Mexico’s Nestlé Crunch roughly translates to “We Crunched the ones from Ayotzinapa.” The offending tweet was removed approximately two-and-a-half hours later and Nestlé apologized in four subsequent tweets.

“We regret for the recently published content and offer our deepest apologies. We are united with the families (of the disappeared)…and extend our apology to all of the brands affected by this bad joke,” read some of the content tweeted by Nestlé. Yet another message alleged that the Twitter account was hacked and that Nestlé was going to take all measures to prevent future infiltration.  This excuse did not sit well with some netizens who voiced their anger at the candy company.

“Hahahaha ‘we were hacked’ hahaha,” “You finally got what you wanted … to make some noise” and “I will never again buy your product…and I hope you fire the idiot (behind the tweet)” were just some of the messages left behind by indignant social media users to the Mexican Nestlé Crunch twitter account.

Mario Vera, vice president for communications of Nestlé in Mexico, later told the press that the company would investigate if the “offensive message” came from someone within Nestlé or via a hacker.

Meanwhile, a Mexico City pizzeria belonging to the 50 friends chain of eateries also came under fire following an insulting tweet regarding the missing and reportedly murdered students.

Missing Mexican Students Murdered Says Attorney General

Forty-three Mexican students missing for forty-one days were reportedly murdered according to Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam.

At a press conference on Friday, Karam presented videos of two suspects who confessed to allegedly carrying out the killings of the students. They claimed that the students from Ayotzinapa were taken in large trucks to a dump in nearby village of Cocula where some of them where shot dead while others died from bags placed over their heads. The corpses were then thrown into the dump and burned for six to fifteen hours before being disposed into a river.

"The confessions we have gathered ... very sadly point to the murder of a large number of people," said Karam.

Despite the confessions, Karam kept open the investigation while forensics tests are conducted to properly identify the remains.

On September 26th, several dozen students were riding local buses back to their school following a protest over job discrimination in Iguala.  That evening, armed men from the town of Iguala fired upon the buses and killed three passengers while others fled in terror.  Eyewitnesses claimed that local police shot at some of the escaping students while others were caught and bundled into police vehicles.

Daily Headlines: November 4, 2014

* Mexico: Police apprehended the fugitive former mayor of Iguala and his wife who are believed to have ordered the disappearances of 43 students missing since September 26th.

* Bolivia: Ombudsman Rolando Villena expressed his worry over an apparent increase in violence against women in Bolivia including the recent rape and murder of a four-year-old girl.

* Venezuela: President Nicolás Maduro announced that the Venezuelan minimum wage will be increased by 15% in a move that comes a week after he boosted military salaries by 45%.

* Cuba: Cuban officials presented a list of 246 projects that will require some $8.7 billion in foreign investment to the island.

Video Source – PBS NewsHour via YouTube

Online Sources – BBC News; NBC News; The Latin Americanist; NPR; Fox News Latino

Ongoing Protests in Solidarity with Missing Mexican Students (Updated)

University students in several parts of Mexico are protesting on Wednesday as part of a continuing push for the safe return of 43 young adults missing for more than a month.

At least one hundred protesters have taken control of several highways of access Mexico City today and have allowed motorists to avoid paying at the tollbooths. The demonstrators reportedly include pupils from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN) and are calling for support of the students from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state who have disappeared since September 26th. 

In addition, students from the IPN and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) plan to take control of the radio stations to their respective schools and provide messages of support for the families of those missing.  Meanwhile, both teachers and students at one of the campuses of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) have suspended classes today as part of their own protest.

Today’s events are part of three days of action planned by several universities with the aim of calling to justice those responsible for the missing students, defend public education and criticize state-sponsored violence.  Students, teachers and other demonstrators plan to march in Mexico City on Friday, for example.

On September 26th, were riding local buses back to their school in Ayotzinapa following a protest over job discrimination in Iguala.  That evening, armed men from the town of Iguala fired upon the buses and killed three passengers while others fled in terror.  Eyewitnesses claimed that local police shot at some of the escaping students while others were caught and bundled into police vehicles.

Daily Headlines: October 13, 2014

* Bolivia: According to exit polls and a quick count Bolivian president Evo Morales won reelection to a third straight term in office with roughly 60% of voters backing him.

* Mexico: The governor of Guerrero claimed that the remains found in recently unearthed graves do not belong to forty-three students missing since September 26th.

* Venezuela: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro reportedly called for an emergency meeting of O.P.E.C. as the prices of crude oil have hit a four-year low.

* Puerto Rico: Tropical Storm Gonzalo could reach hurricane strength by the time it is expected to hit Puerto Rico tomorrow morning and dump as much as a foot of rain on the island.

Video Source – euronews via YouTube
 
Online Sources – Voice of America; LAHT; The Weather Channel; Bloomberg; The Latin Amercanist

Daily Headlines: October 6, 2014

* Mexico: Investigators in southern Mexico are examining a mass grave that could contain the remains of some of the forty-three student protesters missing since police reportedly attacked them last month.

* Brazil: Defeated presidential candidate Marina Silva said that she will not publicly back Dilma Rousseff or Aécio Neves in an upcoming runoff to decide Brazil’s next president.

* U.S.: Will President Barack Obama’s pledge last week to push for immigration reform attract potential Latino voters to next month’s midterm elections?

* Cuba: “I’m happy I made it alive, but it was something no one should have to go through,” said one of the fifteen Cuban migrants who survived for three weeks without food or water while adrift in the Caribbean.

Video Source – euronews via YouTube

Online Sources – NBC News; Xinhua; The Latin Americanist; The Guardian; CNN

Daily Headlines: August 25, 2014

* Colombia: Members of the Colombian military met for the first time with FARC representatives in Cuba days after the rebels met with a group of victims of the South American country’s decades-long armed conflict.

* South America: Two strong earthquakes of magnitude 6.4 and 6.9 struck in Chile and Peru, respectively, over the weekend.

* Mexico: Mexican officials claimed that at least 22,322 people have “disappeared” since 2006 as a result of drug-related violence including nearly 9800 since President Enrique Peña Nieto took office almost two years ago.

* Costa Rica: A spokesman with Sweden’s TV4 television network apologized for the use of the Costa Rican national anthem to promote a comedy program.

Video Source – TeleSUR English via YouTube (“Negotiators in the Colombian peace talks said the negotiations entered a "decisive phase" on Friday.”)

Online Sources – USA TODAY; ABC News; The Guardian; Fox News Latino; Al Jazeera

Daily Headlines: November 15, 2013

* Latin America: A Pew Research Center concluded that remittances to Latin America has more than doubled since 2000 despite a decrease in money orders to Mexico.

* Brazil: The Brazilian government reported a 28% increase in Amazon rainforest deforestation after four years of declining rates.

* Bolivia: A new study found that three in ten Bolivians nsume coca leaves for traditional and medicinal purposes.

* El Salvador: Armed men reportedly tried to destroy the records of a non-profit group investigating the disappearances of thousands of children missing during the Salvadoran civil war.

Missing Mexican Bar Patrons Found in Mass Grave (Updated)

Mexican authorities positively identified on Friday five of the thirteen corpses in a mass grave as belonging to a group of young bar patrons missing since May 26th.

Update (08/26/13): Officials on Sunday afternoon allegedly identified ten of the bodies in the mass grave as belonging to the missing patrons.      

According to the Mexican Attorney General’s Office, (PGR in Spanish) the badly decomposed bodies were located at a site roughly thirty miles away from the “Heaven” bar in Mexico City where twelve people were possibly kidnapped nearly three months ago.

“Various scientific techniques were used to identify the bodies including examining dental records and previous x-rays since some of the bodies had prosthetic devices,” said senior PGR investigator Sara Mónica Medina Alegría at a press conference on Friday.

Thus far it’s unknown who might be behind the mass grave at a ranch that was first found by police on Thursday, yet coincidentally four corpses were reportedly found at the same ranch in 2011.

The disappearances of the “Heaven” patrons have been shrouded in mystery since the incident occurred in broad daylight and with no obvious sign of force on the surveillance footage.

In addition, there is strong disagreement behind the possible motive behind the disappearances.  Local prosecutors last June claimed that the incident was linked to a rivalry between two street gangs based in the rough and violent Tepito neighborhood.  (Update (08/27/13): Mexico City's top prosecutor said on Monday that the missing patrons were kidnapped as part of a "reprisal" for the murder of a local drug dealer).

Yet relatives of the disappeared rejected the gang voilence hypothesis and accused investigators of scapegoating the missing since they were all Tepito residents.  For them, the entire “Heaven” ordeal has been a living hell with more questions than answers:

Daily Headlines: June 4, 2013

* Mexico: An unidentified government official told the Associated Press that there has been no surveillance video showing the disappearance of eleven young people missing from a Mexico City bar since May 26th.

* Latin America: Representatives of Argentina and Costa Rica, two of the countries co-sponsoring the Arms Trade Treaty, were among the sixty-six signatories yesterday to the historic international weapons pact.

* Spain: Over 50,000 Barcelona supporters gathered at the Nou Camp to welcome Brazil’s Neymar to the storied soccer club.

* U.S.: Seven members of an extended family from Guatemala died as a result of storms that tore through Mississippi over the weekend.

Video Source – YouTube via CNN

Online Sources- NBC News; Deutsche Welle; SI.com; WCVB

Daily Headlines: May 31, 2013

* South America: The Venezuelan government threatened with not meditating in peace talks between Colombian officials and FARC rebels after opposition figure Henrique Capriles met with Colombian leader Juan Manuel Santos in Bogotá.

* Brazil: A judge controversially granted bail to four defendants accused of homicide related to a nightclub fire last January that killed 242 people.

* Mexico: Family members of eleven young adults gone missing and possibly kidnapped from a Mexico City bar blocked traffic along the metropolis’ main boulevard in a sign of protest.

* Chile: President Sebastián Piñera has given the green light to the Pascua Lama mining project, which has been strongly opposed by environmentalists and indigenous groups.

Video Source – YouTube via NTN24 (Last February, then-Vice President Nicolas Maduro blasted Henrique Capriles’ visit to Colombia as part of a “conspiracy” against the Venezuelan government.  Capriles replied by accusing Maduro of being a “mediocre loudmouth.”)
 
Online Sources- GlobalPost; USA TODAY; france24.com; CNN

Daily Headlines: May 20, 2013

* Latin America: A new report from the Organization of American States called for major changes to the “war on drugs” including the possibility of decriminalizing the use of marijuana.

* Mexico: Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam met with a group of mothers on hunger strike for over ten days and announced the creation of a government unit aimed at investigating the cases of thousands of missing people.

* Venezuela: Dozens of protesters participated in a march on Saturday in Caracas and urged the end of discrimination against gays and lesbians in Venezuela.

* U.S.: Will U.S. President Barack Obama mention later this week any major changes to the policy regarding detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison?

Video Source – YouTube via ContactoFESCOL (Former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria is one of several ex-Latin American leaders allied to the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which is a campaign seeking for changes in drug laws).

Online Sources- The Guardian; GlobalPost; AFP; The Latin Americanist; NBC News

Mexican Moms Go on Hunger Strike

A group of thirteen people including numerous mothers have entered a fifth day of a hunger strike in order to seek answers over the whereabouts of their missing children.

Among the demands from the protesters residing in a makeshift camp outside the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) in Mexico City is the chance to talk with senior government officials including Enrique Peña Nieto.

“We are aware that the federal government is not entirely responsible for all the violence occurring in our country.  Yet it is their duty to recognize our appeal,” said Jaime Olivares Cruz, husband of one of the hunger strikers.

The protesters are allegedly in a “delicate” state of health and they were issued yesterday facemasks by a Doctors Without Borders medical delegation.  Some of them are reportedly battling chills, bone pains and other ailments after spending the past few days outdoors.

“We will not leave until our cases have been resolved, the president meets with us and he gathers a working group to tell us when and how they will start to find our missing loved ones,” declared hunger striker Margarita López.  López said her “disappeared” daughter, Yahaira Guadalupe Bahena, was kidnapped two years ago by “armed men” and then tortured until she died. López has urged authorities to uncover a mass grave where her daughter was allegedly buried in but her pleas have thus far been ignored.

López was one of the participants in a seven-day hunger strike that took place last November and that ended after Mexico City authorities met with the protesters.

The current hunger strikers have received support from the likes of author Elena Poniatowska and anthropologist Martha Lamas, whom the protesters hope will bring awareness to their cause and also pressure the government to meet their demands.

Four months ago, Peña Nieto enacted a “Victims Law” that provides a mechanism for compensation of victims of organized crime as well as the creation of a national registry to record what happened to victims.  The Mexican president said, “With this law, the Mexican state hopes to give hope and comfort to victims and their families,” yet some human rights activists believe that more can still be done:

Report Highlights “Disappearances” in Mexico

Around 250 people are believed to have disappeared in Mexico during the administration of former President Felipe Calderón according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The HRW report, which was released on Wednesday, found that 149 people between December 2006 and December 2012 were victims of “enforced disappearances” committed by “all branches of the security forces”.  Furthermore, the report noted how in more than sixty cases evidence was uncovered linking “state agents” with criminal groups such as drug gangs to organize disappearances and extort money from the families of victims.

HRW explained that they uncovered evidence in an apparent disappearance case showing how police in a Nuevo León town “arbitrarily detained” nineteen construction workers in 2011 and gave them to an organized crime group. 

The human rights group believes that there is “little doubt” that there are unofficially  “thousands” more cases of disappearances in Mexico.  An Interior Ministry official confirmed this hours after the HRW report was published when she admitted that there are over 27,000 disappearance cases in Mexico.

None of the 249 cases investigated by HRW have led to a conviction in a court of law.  “All too often, (prosecutors and law enforcement officials) blame the victims and tell families it is their responsibility to investigate,” according to the report.

Days after coming to office last December 1st, current President Enrique Peña Nieto announced the creation of a new national police force which he said would be better trained and equipped to fight crime.  Nevertheless, one senior HRW official also observed how current President Enrique Peña Nieto must take more decisive action: