Daily Headlines: October 11, 2016

* Latin America: A new report alleges that surveillance laws in twelve Latin American states are outdated and can be easily exploited by authoritarian regimes.

* United States: The Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments today on the secrecy of jury deliberations based on the case of a Latino man convicted after some jurors used ethnic slurs.

* Brazil: New corruption charges were raised against former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who along with ten other suspects were believed to have allowed some $9.3 million in kickbacks for a construction projects in Angola.

* Mexico: The World Health Organization called for strict measures against consumption of sugary drinks such as those taken in Mexico where a tax was levied against those types of beverages.

YouTube Source – BBC News (A Brazilian judge last May suspended access to WhatsApp for 72 hours over the messaging service’s owner, Facebook, not handing over information requested in a criminal probe).

Online Sources – The Intercept, Fox News Latino, Latin American Herald Tribune, The Guardian

Daily Headlines: September 14, 2016

* Brazil: Eduardo Cunha, the former Brazilian lower house speaker who helped lead the impeachment process against recently ousted President Dilma Rousseff, was himself expelled from the Chamber of Deputies over corruption allegations.

* Latin America: According to the State Department, seventeen Latin American and Caribbean states are still deemed as “major drug transit or major illicit drug producing countries.”

* United States: A new poll taken in four key battleground states in the upcoming presidential election showed Latino voters overwhelmingly support former senator Hillary Clinton.

* Mexico: Investigators looking into the disappearance and possible massacre of forty-three trainee teachers nearly two years ago have widened their probe to focus on more police officers.

YouTube Source – Transparency International

Online Sources – The Atlantic, InSight Crime, Politico, Reuters

Daily Headlines: August 29, 2016 (Updated)

* Mexico: Juan Gabriel, the iconic Mexican singer and songwriter known for such hits as “Siempre en mi Mente” and “Querida”, died on Sunday at the age of sixty-six.

* Colombia: FARC commanders issued a definitive ceasefire to begin on Monday and days after the rebels and the Colombian government reached a historic peace deal that awaits approval via a plebiscite this October.

* Argentina: An Argentine court convicted thirty-eight ex-military officers last week for their role in the kidnapping, torture, and murder of several hundred victims during the oppressive “Dirty War” era.

* Venezuela: A U.S. Department of State spokesman condemned moving opposition figure Daniel Ceballos from house arrest to prison in an action he deemed as trying to “intimidate and impede the Venezuelan people's right to peacefully express their opinion” ahead of a September 1st rally.

Update: The Venezuelan government replied to the criticism by accusing the U.S. of promoting "instbaility" and plotting a coup during the September 1st anti-government march.

YouTube Source – JuanGabrielVEVO

Online Sources including Update – Fusion, ABC Online, The New York Times, Reuters, 20minutos.es

Daily Headlines: July 21, 2016

* South America: The Copa Libertadores title is up for grabs and will be decided in Medellin next Wednesday as Independiente del Valle of Ecuador and Colombia’s Atletico Nacional tied 1-1 in the first leg of the finals.

* United States: A federal appeals court ruled that that the voter ID restrictions in Texas violated the federal Voting Rights Act by discriminating against the poor and minorities like Latinos.

* Mexico: Pedro Rosas Tamayo, a Mexican journalist who received death threats and was purportedly under police protection, was shot and killed at his home in Veracruz.

* Puerto Rico: Several hedge funds who are bondholders of Puerto Rico’s multi-billion dollar debt filed a lawsuit against the Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla and the government of the commonwealth.

YouTube Source – Fox Deportes

Online Sources – SBS, Fox News Latino, teleSUR English, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: July 15, 2016

* El Salvador: El Salvador’s Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional an amnesty law protecting individuals suspected of committing crimes linked to the civil war from 1980 to 1992.

* Brazil: The recession battering Brazil has worsened with May showing the worst level of economic activity in more than six years.

* Mexico: The Mexican government announced changes to a teacher evaluation program following protests by educators arguing that the exams adversely affect rural communities with few resources.

* Peru: Environmentalists and opposition lawmakers will likely push back against President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s plan to lower air quality standards in order to boost investment in mining.

YouTube Source – Catholic News Service (The 1980 murder of Archbishop Oscar Romero could be one of the cases reopened after a top court declared a civil war crimes amnesty as unconstitutional).

Online Sources – Fox News Latino, Xinhua, Latin American Herald Tribune, Reuters

Daily Headlines: June 30, 2016

* Guatemala: An estimated 2.8 million people have been affected by a drought in Guatemala including 900,000 at risk of malnutrition and requiring prompt assistance.

* Mexico: The leaders of the U.S., Canada and Mexico unveiled a plan to boost clean energy throughout North America and also pledged to strengthen economic ties in the region.

* Chile: Officials implemented a new law aimed at lowering Chile’s high child obesity rate by banning ads targeting minors under the age of 14 and prohibiting selling food with a toy prize.

* U.S.: The judge who controversially gave a lenient sentence to convicted rapist Brock Turner has been accused of racial bias for ordering a harsher punishment against a Latino defendant in a similar case of sexual assault.

YouTube Source – CCTV English
 
Online Sources – Al Jazeera, Voice of America, CBC, Fusion

Daily Headlines: June 28, 2016

* Brazil: Rio 2016 Committee CEO Sidney Levy tried to downplay worries over the Zika virus and economic problems in Brazil as top ranked men’s golfer Jason Day became the latest high-profile athlete to skip the upcoming Olympics.

* Chile: Former Chilean military soldier Pedro Barrientos could be extradited to his homeland and face a criminal trial after a U.S. court found him liable for the torture and death of folk singer Victor Jara in 1973.

* Puerto Rico: Time is running short for the U.S. Congress to approve a debt relief package for Puerto Rico before a July 1st deadline to pay $2 billion of its $70 billion debt.

* Venezuela: The opposition coalition claimed to have sufficient signatures to commence a recall referendum process against President Nicolás Maduro.

YouTube Source – CCTV News (From May 31, 2016: “Despite scientists' calls for the Games to be moved or postponed over fears of the Zika virus, the World Health Organization insists that the Olympics and Paralympics ‘will take place during Brazil's wintertime when there are fewer active mosquitoes and the risk of being bitten is lower.’”)
 
Online Sources – ABC News, Reuters, BBC News, Latin American Herald Tribune, The Age

Daily Headlines: June 10, 2016

* Brazil: Prosecutors in Brazil might press criminal charges against eight employees of Samarco, Vale, and VogBR in relation to a dam collapse that killed at least seventeen people last November.

* Puerto Rico: The Supreme Court in a 6-2 decision ruled that charging a suspect with a crime in the U.S. and Puerto Rico is “double jeopardy” and, thus, unconstitutional.

* Colombia: Colombian health officials are expected to break Novartis’ monopoly over popular leukemia drug Gleevec by forcing the firm to lower prices but might stop short of permitting generic production.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan government’s new food distribution program is not settling well with some consumers seeking basic items and critics who believe the plan is unfairly rewarding ruling party loyalists.

YouTube Source – Associated Press

Online Sources – Fox News Latino, The Washington Post, The Hill, Reuters

Daily Headlines: June 2, 2016

* Mexico: Many Mexican states are reportedly hurrying to implement judicial reforms including “increasing transparency and better guaranteeing access to fair and timely trials” before a June 18 deadline.

* Honduras: Members of the Honduran indigenous rights group that included assassinated activist Berta Caceres warned of the return of alleged "death squads" that roamed the country during the 1980s.

* Cuba: Jose Daniel Ferrer, a Cuban dissident allowed to travel to the U.S., called on his fellow political opponents on the island to unite and create a shared strategy in light of the rapprochement between the Obama and Castro regimes.

* Colombia: The U.N. agency representing refugees urged Canada to renew an expiring agreement to help resettle Colombians displaced by armed conflict.

YouTube Source – CCTV Americas Now (Judicial reforms in Mexico were started in 2008 but most states have yet to fully implement new measures).
 
Online Sources –The Christian Science Monitor, The Hamilton Spectator, Latin American Herald Tribune, teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: April 26, 2016

* Costa Rica: Some 600 migrants from Africa will be deported back to their respective countries of origin even though Costa Rican immigration officials admitted that such an action would be expensive.

* Colombia: A new report from a Colombian NGO found that paramilitaries continues to exist and are behind criminal actions including “drug-trafficking, smuggling, (and) illegal mining.”

* El Salvador: The Salvadoran Legislative Assembly approved a series of measures to combat gang violence such as labeling the Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18 as "terrorist groups.”

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan Supreme Court halted opposition-led efforts to cut President Nicolás Maduro’s term short by two years.

YouTube Source – africanews (“Costa Rican authorities (earlier this month) deported some 250 African migrants of different nationalities to Panama”.)

Online Sources – BBC News, InSightCrime, The Tico Times, Colombia Reports

Colombian High Court Continues Push to Expand Gay Rights

Thus far Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay were the only three Latin American states to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. Colombia could soon be added to that list depending on the actions of the country’s Constitutional Court (CC).

According to reports from the Colombian press, CC judge Alberto Rojas Ríos is planning to introduce for debate a project that would recognize same sex marriages. The measure would also reaffirm an April 7th high court decision stating that marriage doesn’t apply exclusively to unions between men and women, and established a path that would allow Congress to legalize same sex marriage.

Rojas’ project argues that the decision last week is constitutional and based on a 2011 CC edict recognizing homosexual couples as a family and ordered the legislature to create rules to ensure the non-discrimination of civil unions for gay and heterosexual couples. Congress failed to do so, however, which led to confusion starting in 2013 among public notaries designating civil unions as marriages or refusing to do so.

One of the main points for debate in the plan by Rojas is interpreting marriage, be it by couples of the same or different sex, as “fundamental right” based on the constitution allowing for the right to create a family. Doing so would not only grant greater leeway for Congress to reform marriage laws but also recognize marriage as beyond the religious framework exclusively as a method to facilitate procreation.

Additionally, the project would contend that the CC must guarantee the basic rights of gay Colombians taking into account twenty-one legislative bills on the subject of same-sex marriage. The document would also support gay marriage based on the continued jurisprudence by the high court in favor of protecting the rights of minority groups.

Daily Headlines: March 31, 2016

* Mexico: A new Human Rights Watch report concluded that Mexican immigration officials broke the law as part of their push to deport thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central American states ravaged by violence.

* Brazil: Brazil may be mired in a political crisis and ongoing recession but that hasn’t stopped the Bovespa stock index and national currency to improve by around 19% and 10% this year, respectively.

* Puerto Rico: A proposal by the House Natural Resources Committee to alleviate Puerto Rico’s nearly $70 billion dollar debt has allegedly been assailed by commonwealth politicians and officials.

* Ecuador: Will WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange end his asylum later this year at the Ecuadoran embassy in London where he has been protected since 2012?

YouTube Source – AFP (Video uploaded on June 26, 2015).

Online Sources – ABC Online, CNBC, The Latin Americanist, Vocie of America, NBC News

Daily Headlines: March 2, 2016

* Latin America: The Food and Agriculture Organization acknowledged strides throughout Latin America to combat hunger but warned that 34.3 million people in the region lack access to food.

* Cuba: British rock group the Rolling Stones announced that they’ll play a free concert this month in Havana, while U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to attend a Tampa Bay Rays vs. Cuba baseball game during his visit to the island on the 22nd.

* Peru: Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru became the latest prominent Latin American figure to assail Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

* Haiti: A three-judge court in the U.S. began listening to the case of Haitian plaintiffs suing the United Nations regarding a cholera epidemic has killed more than 9,000 people in the Caribbean state.

YouTube Source – AFP (Video uploaded in 2012).
 
Online Sources – Xinhua, NPR, ESPN, The Guardian, The New York Times

Daily Headlines: March 1, 2016

* Venezuela: Defeated presidential candidate Henrique Capriles claimed that an investigation into alleged improprieties when he was Miranda state governor are part of a government plot against a possible referendum seeking the dismissal of President Nicolás Maduro.

* U.S.: A new poll found that 78% of Latino voters believe women should have the right to an abortion if respondents disagree with such an action.

* Argentina: Former Argentine intelligence chief Antonio Stiuso testified as part of the probe into the apparent murder of crusading prosecutor Alberto Nisman in January 2014.

* Colombia: Santiago Uribe, the younger brother of ex-President Alvaro Uribe, was arrested over supposedly creating a paramilitary force known as the “Twelve Apostles.”

YouTube Source – AFP (Henrique Capriles lost in a tight presidential election to current President Nicolás Maduro in 2013).

Online Sources – GlobalPost, NBC News, Yahoo News, Colombia Reports

Daily Headlines: February 29, 2016

* Guatemala: Two former military officials were sentenced to over one century in prison for the enslavement and systemic raping of indigenous women during the Guatemalan civil war.

* Argentina: The Argentine government reached a $4.65 billion deal to repay four holdout creditor funds as part of a settlement to repay debt from the country’s $100 billion default in 2001.

* Brazil: Ex-Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is reportedly considering running for another term in 2018 despite being investigated under the “Lava Jato” corruption scandal.

* Venezuela: A new $5 billion loan and gold mining venture could save Venezuela from falling into default.

YouTube Source – AFP
 
Online Sources – Christian Science Monitor, Reuters, The Guardian, Bloomberg

Daily Headlines: January 18, 2016

* Guatemala: Political newcomer turned president Jimmy Morales repeated his campaign pledge to combat Guatemala’s deeply-rooted corruption during his inauguration address last Thursday.

* Latin America: Brazilian scientists will receive public funds to develop a vaccine for the Zika virus though one researcher claimed that it could take from three to five years.

* Bolivia: Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada of Bolivia, currently living in the U.S. on asylum, could become the next former Latin American president to go on trial.

* Mexico: “Emerging markets need to be ready for a potentially severe shock,” warned Mexican central bank Agustín Carstens amid investor worry over the weakening Chinese economy.

YouTube Source – efeinternational

Online Sources – Bloomberg, CNBC, Christian Science Monitor, teleSUR English

Daily Headlines: January 12, 2016

* Venezuela: Venezuela’s new opposition-led congress has been thrown into disarray after the Supreme Court voided new legislative actions over the swearing in of three barred lawmakers.

* Mexico: Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, alleged co-leader of the Sinaloa drug gang along with Joaquin Guzmán, is reportedly Mexico’s most wanted criminal days after the recapture of “El Chapo”.

* Guatemala: A Guatemalan tribunal once again suspended the trial of former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

* Europe: Lionel Messi of Argentina captured the Ballon d’or as the world’s top male soccer player for a fifth time while Brazil’s Wendell Lira won the goal of the year award.

YouTube Source – euronews

Online Sources – Reuters, The Tico Times, The Latin Americanist, BBC Sport

Daily Headlines: December 23, 2015

* Colombia: Colombia became the latest Latin American country to partially decriminalize marijuana use after President Juan Manuel Santos decreed the production and sale of the plant for medical use.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan legislature approved stacking the Supreme Court with thirteen new judges less than two weeks before the opposition gains control of congress.

* Mexico: The number of undocumented migrants attempting to cross the Mexican border into the U.S. has dropped by 30% in the fiscal year 2015 and by 80% from the peak year in 2000 according to Border Patrol data.

* Guatemala: Guatemala is considering voluntarily taking in several thousand Cuban migrants stuck for the past few weeks in Costa Rica.

YouTube Source – AFP

Online Sources – Washington Post, Yahoo News, Vice News, teleSUR English

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: December 9, 2015

* Guatemala: The Guatemalan Constitutional Court tossed out an appeal by the attorneys representing Efrain Rios Montt and stated that the ex-dictator’s genocide trial will go on as scheduled for next month.

* U.S.: A new report found that Latino neighborhoods need greater access to healthier food options sold in markets while Latino youth are more likely to be bombarded by ads promoting unhealthy snacks and drinks.

* Cuba: As part of the diplomatic rapprochement between Cuba and the U.S., envoys from both countries discussed competing claims of billions of dollars in owed assets.

* Mexico: Investigators with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said that they found another inconsistency in the Mexican government probe over 43 students from Ayotzinapa missing since September 2014.

YouTube Source – NTDTV (Guatemalan high court judges are expected to resume the genocide and crimes against humanity trial of former strongman Efrain Rios Montt more than two years after the original verdict was overturned).
 
Online Sources – ABC News, The Guardian, USA TODAY, NBC News