Daily Headlines: May 15, 2015

* Argentina: On a dark day for Argentine soccer yesterday the Copa Libertaodres match between River Plate and Boca Juniors was suspended after players were attacked with pepper spray, while league play this weekend was postponed over the tragic death of Emanuel Ortega.

* Brazil: A new report blamed a “slow justice system and flawed police investigations as well as the widespread availability of firearms” for a record 42,000 people killed by gun violence in Brazil in 2012.

* Chile: Valentina Maureira, the 14-year-old Chilean girl who earlier this year requested for euthanize, died on Thursday from complications related to cystic fibrosis.

* Colombia: A Colombian counternarcotics panel confirmed the ban on using the possible carcinogenic glyphosate in the aerial spraying against drug crops.

YouTube Source – FootballManiaChannel

Online Sources – Bloomberg, The Guardian, BBC News, TIME, sunherald.com

Daily Headlines: March 2, 2015

* Uruguay: Tabaré Vázquez returned to the Uruguay presidency as the successor to José Mujica, the leader who helped legalize marijuana, decriminalize abortion and accept refugees from Syria.

* U.S.: Cuban-born Latin American baseball pioneer Orestes “Minnie” Minoso died on Sunday purportedly at the age off ninety.

* Brazil: In another negative sign for Brazil’s economy, financial analysts cited by the central bank predicted that the gross domestic product will decrease while inflation will grow.

* Chile: President Michelle Bachelet visited Valentina Maureira, a 14-year-old girl hospitalized with cystic fibrosis whose plea for euthanasia was rejected by the Chilean government.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews (“Uruguay has sworn in Tabare Vazquez as President replacing one leftist leader with another.”)

Online Sources – CNN; Fox News Latino; MercoPress; Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: March 20, 2012

* Latin America: According to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute global arms imports increased between 2007 and 2011 including an 11% boost in the Americas.

* Mexico: Gunmen killed twelve policemen investigating the deaths of ten beheaded people, while the Knights Templar drug gang called for a ceasefire during next week’s visit from Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico.

* Venezuela: President Hugo Chavez claimed that intelligence officials received information pertaining to a supposed assassination plot against rival candidate Henrique Capriles.

* Uruguay: Prosecutors said they have received additional reports of “suspicious deaths” possibly committed by a pair of nurses already charged with sixteen “mercy” patient killings.

Image Source – Flickr via Christian Frausto Bernal (Troops participating in the bicentennial Mexican Independence Day parade the town of Tepic). (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources- Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Bernama, NPR, IOL, Bloomberg

Euthanasia to be legalized in Venezuela?

The big news regarding Venezuela today is that President Hugo Chavez and his Russian counterpart inked several important energy pacts. For this post, however, we’ll focus on reports claiming that euthanasia could be legalized in that South American country.

According to Venezuelan daily El Universal, legislators are considering adding a clause on euthanasia to a major bill on crime prevention. Though the draft of the Organic Criminal Code (COP in Spanish) proposal doesn’t mention euthanasia by name, it would permit doctor-assisted suicide only under very specific circumstances. Those who could be eligible for such a procedure according to Article 163 of the text includes patients in the “incurable phase” of a terminal illness with their “clear and free” written consent as well as those “diagnosed with brain death.”

El Universal’s coverage of the COP draft has been controversial with one legislator accusing the newspaper of “manipulating information” in order to cause a scandal. Some conservative sectors such as the Venezuelan Catholic Church blasted the proposal over the article on euthanasia and another clause that would legalize first trimester abortions. According to a report from the Notimex agency, however, some members of the ruling party could shelve those sections partly due to the heated debate over abortion in the Brazilian presidential race.

Image- France24
Online Sources- El Universal, SDPnoticias.com, The Guardian