Daily Headlines: November 2, 2015

* Brazil: According to Brazilian daily O Estado de Sao Paulo, Volkswagen is negotiating settling a lawsuit claiming that the automaker turned a blind eye to the detention and torture of factory workers during the military dictatorship from the 1960s to 1980s.

* U.S.: Salvador Perez became the second Venezuelan to win the World Series Most Valuable Player award after the Kansas City Royals clinched the crown in five games.

* Argentina: U.S. federal judge Thomas Griesa ordered the Argentine government to pay an additional $6.1 billion to credit holders before paying off holdouts owed for the country’s historic 2001 debt default.

* Mexico: The Mexican Navy on Sunday rescued four fishermen who went missing after leaving the Ecuadoran port of Esmeraldas on September 24th and drifted 1200 miles away.

YouTube Source – NewsBeat Social (“A lawsuit filed September 22nd accuses German Automaker Volkswagen of condoning the torture of employees by the then-military government of Brazil in 1972.”)
 
Online Sources – Deutsche Welle, ESPN, Latin American Herald Tribune, GlobalPost

Daily Headlines: March 9, 2015

* Mexico: “Torture and abuse are widespread in Mexico,” according to a report that will be published today from U.N. Special Rapporteur Juan Mendez of Argentina.

* Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff urged Brazilians to back new austerity measures she claimed are needed in order to “rebalance our economy.”

* South America: Peru recalled its ambassador to Chile amid a growing scandal over Peruvian military officials supposedly paid to spy for their southern neighbor.

* Cuba: The New York Cosmos soccer squad will allegedly become the first U.S. professional sports team in sixteen years to play a game in Cuba.

Video Source – YouTube user Amnesty International (Video published in 2013).
 
Online Sources – teleSUR English; Reuters; The New York Times; Deutsche Welle

Daily Headlines: September 5, 2014

* El Salvador: “Be very careful when there are groups that seek out destruction, who search for war, who don't know how to work on a team,” warned Pope Francis to a group of Salvadoran schoolchildren during a videoconference yesterday.

* Mexico: A new Amnesty International report concluded that torture is “widespread in Mexico” including a 600% increase in reported cases of torture over the past decade alone.

* Latin America: According to the Latin American Private Equity and Venture Capital Association investment in Latin America fell by 10% to $2.6 billion in the first six months of this year.

* Argentina: Archeologists in Argentina identified a new type of massive dinosaur “with a body the size of a house, the weight of a herd of elephants, and a weaponized tail.”

Video Source – Rome Reports via YouTube

Online Sources – Yahoo! News; Al Jazeera America; New York Times; Huffington Post

Daily Headlines: October 4, 2013

* Mexico: Mexico City police clashed with several of the thousands of people who marched on the 45th anniversary of the Tlatelolco massacre to protest against President Enrique Peña Nieto’s economic plans.

* Ecuador: The Ecuadorian legislature overwhelming approved a controversial proposal made in August by President Rafael Correa to allow oil drilling in the Yasuni National Park.

* Brazil: Ten members of a Brazilian police unit aimed at addressing crime before the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games have been accused of torturing and killing a construction worker.

* Colombia: Representatives of the FARC rebels claimed that peace talks with the Colombian government have achieved “modest progress.”

Video Source – YouTube via Univision Noticias

Online Sources- Deutsche Welle; CNN; The Latin Americanist; Bloomberg; The Guardian

Listening to Barney the Dinosaur is Torture in Guantanamo

As a parent, I have successfully avoided torturing myself with Barney, but those detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, weren't so lucky. According to a Mother Jones report Barney, Eminem, Christina Aguilera, 2Pac, Rage Against The Machine, Metallica and that Meow Mix commercial jingle, were blasted on boom boxes to torture inmates. The music was played on levels just high enough to not burst eardrums and were played on repeat mode.

You really have to hear the original Mother Jones report because it is an audio report, complete with all the music played. There's even a playlist of torture songs and a great analysis on why songs were chosen.

Some of the musicians featured on the torture playlist expressed their disgust with their music being used. Others, like Metallica, felt happy to be part of the war against terror.
Sources : Mun2 and Mother Jones
Image Source : PBS Kids