Daily Headlines: August 21, 2014

* Latin America: A Gallup study found that Latin America and the Caribbean respondents ranked their region as the least secure in the world.

* Mexico: Exports have been cited as the main reason behind stronger than expected growth in Mexico’s economy over the last quarter.

* Honduras: According to the director of the morgue in San Pedro Sula between five and ten of the forty-two minors killed in Honduras since February were recently deported from the U.S.

* U.S.: “There is no dispute that Shakira's version of the song was based on Bello's version,” wrote a U.S. judge who concluded that a 2010 song interpreted by the Colombian musician was plagiarized from a Dominican songwriter.

Video Source – AFP via YouTube (According to Gallup “Venezuela's index score of 41 (in the latest Law and Order Index) is the worst not only in the region, but also in the world”.)

Online Sources – Billboard; Bloomberg; Los Angeles Times; Gallup

Crime Becomes Election Issue in Argentina

The Wall Street Journal reports today that crime is becoming a major issue in the upcoming mid-term elections in Argentina.

In April, a truck driver was shot 21 times by a 14 year-old in an attempted robbery. Following that incident, several thousand people protested in the streets. Additionally, a recent poll done by the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires showed that 38 percent of those surveyed responded that at least one person in their family had been a victim of crime in the past year.

Ex-president Nestor Kirchner's main rival in the election, Francisco de Narvaez, has increasingly made crime an issue. His website features a "map of insecurity" where citizens can post crimes happening in their neighborhoods. He has also proposed a 50 percent increase in the security budget.

Online Sources: Wall Street Journal, www.franciscodenarvaez.com.ar

Image: Natacha Pisarenko for the WSJ