Daily Headlines: February 13, 2015

* Uruguay: Uruguayan President-elect Tabare Vazquez said that he was unsure if he will accept a second group of Syrian refugees after his inauguration on March 1st.  

* Cuba: A bipartisan group of six senators introduced a bill aimed at ending the decades-long U.S. trade embargo against Cuba despite opposition from Cuban-American legislators.

* Colombia: The Colombian government welcomed the FARC’s vow to halt the recruitment of minors but called on the rebels to free all of their child soldiers.

* Mexico: Mexican authorities will review the tax filings of nationals who allegedly dodged paying taxes by opening bank accounts in the Swiss division of HSBC.

Video Source – YouTube user AFP (“Thirteen Syrian refugees attended school for the first time (last October) in Montevideo, after arriving in Uruguay with their families less than two weeks ago”).
 
Online Sources – GlobalPost; USA TODAY; The West Australian; Reuters

Daily Headlines: February 12, 2015

* Latin America: A new study concluded that the strong emphasis on immigration controls in Mexico and the U.S. have hurt thousands of Central American child migrants.

* U.S.: The Latino population may be growing but the rate of Latino doctors have fallen according to a recent report.

* Panama: Construction was halted on a nearly completed hydroelectric power plant that was strongly opposed by local indigenous communities.

* Colombia: The ELN guerillas freed an unnamed Dutch hostage who was kidnapped last month.

Video Source – YouTube user teleSUR English (“Specialists believe that the flow of tens of thousands of minors migrating to the United States will not decrease in 2015. An estimated 60,000 Central American children illegally entered the United States in 2014.”)
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino; NBC News; Latin American Herald Tribune; Reuters

Daily Headlines: February 11, 2015 (Updated)

* Haiti: Carnival celebrations are still expected to take place next week in Port-au-Prince despite heightened political and economic tensions.

* Brazil: In one of the latest problems to hit scandal-plagued Petrobras, technical issues have hurt development of the offshore Libra oil field.

Update: More bad news for Petrbras.
 
* Venezuela: Venezuelan bonds fell in early trading today after the government introduced a new foreign exchange system.

* Chile: Possibly coming soon to a theater near you – a new movie from acclaimed Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Video Source – YouTube user Associated Press (“Burning barricades of tires and debris in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Monday signaled the start of a two-day strike to protest against the high price of fuel.”)
 
Online Sources including Update– Bloomberg; Haitian Times; The A.V. Club; Reuters; BBC News

Daily Headlines: February 10, 2015

* Latin America: A former bodyguard to the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, an Ecuadoran business magnate and Uruguayan soccer player Diego Forlan are among the thousands of people accused of evading taxes by hiding money in Swiss bank accounts.

* Mexico: Mexico’s Attorney General’s office lashed out at Argentine forensics investigators for expressing doubts at the investigation into the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students.

* Cuba: Fourteen artists including four recipients of the prestigious Turner Prize signed a letter criticizing the repeated detention and harassment of Cuban performance artist Tania Bruguera.

* Puerto Rico: The government of Puerto Rico is expected to appeal a recent federal court ruling voiding a debt restructuring law.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews (“HSBC helped rich clients dodge tax, according to a report released by a group of investigative journalists”.)

Online Sources – Reuters; Buenos Aires Herald; The Guardian

Daily Headlines: February 9, 2015

* Brazil: The severe drought affecting Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and other areas of southeastern Brazil has been blamed for causing a 57% spike in reported dengue cases last month.

* U.S.: Puerto Rican urban music duo Calle 13 and Carlos Vives of Colombia were among the winners at the Grammy Awards held yesterday.

* Puerto Rico: The Pinar del Rio team from Cuba won the country’s first Caribbean Series title since 1960 and despite the defection of two of their players early in the tournament.

* Venezuela: “They’re $20 glasses from Amazon made in China, not a NASA instrument!” exclaimed the father of jailed Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez after officials discovered a diplomat trying to secretly record a recent legal hearing.

Video Source – YouTube user Reuters (“Researchers in Rio de Janeiro (last September) begin releasing thousands of mosquitoes infected with a bacteria they say can eliminate the spread of the dengue fever virus”).

Online Sources – USA TODAY; MercoPress; The Globe and Mail; VOXXI

Daily Headlines: February 6, 2015

* Haiti: Carnival celebrations in Port-au-Prince later this month could be disrupted by protests critical of the government’s handling of gasoline prices.

* Cuba: At least two Cuban baseball players including the rookie of the year in the island’s league last year defected during the Caribbean Series hosted in Puerto Rico.

* Peru: Researchers discovered a new yellow frog species in the coastal valleys of central Peru that is under threat from a deadly type of fungus.

* Uruguay: According to Israel’s Haaretz daily, Uruguay expelled an Iranian diplomat suspected of placing a bomb near the Israeli embassy in Montevideo last month.

Video Source – YouTube user No Comment TV (“Protests continued in Haiti (on January 11th) with demonstrators making urgent calls for President Michel Martelly to resign as they clashed with police in the capital.”)
 
Online Sources – UPI; Reuters; ABC News; Haaretz

Daily Headlines: February 5, 2015

* Mexico: Mexican priest Gregorio Lopez Geronimo protested outside of the White House yesterday in order to call attention to the case of forty-three students missing for more than four months.

* Dominican Republic: Activists denounced as a “failure” government efforts to naturalize tens of thousands of Dominican-born people of Haitian descent whose citizenship was stripped in a controversial 2013 court ruling.

* Venezuela: Ex-mayor Enzo Scarano was freed from prison nearly one year after he was convicted for allegedly inciting violence during anti-government protests.

* Panama: Will former President Ricardo Martinelli return to Panama where he’s accused of being a key figure in a growing corruption scandal?

Video Source – YouTube user teleSUR English (“Protests demanding the safe return of the 42 missing Ayotzinapa students were held in 20 US cities (last month) to coincide with the visit to Washington by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto”.)
 
Online Sources – Fox News Latino; GlobalPost; El Universal; Stuff.co.nz

Daily Headlines: February 4, 2015

* Brazil: Five top executives at oil giant Petrobras including CEO Maria das Graças Silva Foster resigned amid a major corruption scandal that has shaken up Brazilian politics and has hurt the country’s economy.

* Cuba: Roberta Jacobson, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, rejected the possibility of handing over the Guantanamo military base to Cuba as part of the efforts to improve relations between both countries.
 
* Mexico: A record number of children and women were deported from Mexico in 2014 reportedly due to a government crackdown on undocumented migrants and pressure from the U.S.

* Uruguay: Environmentalists in Uruguay expressed their concern over the potential legalization of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” in order to extract oil.

Video Source – YouTube user Financial Times (“State-controlled oil producer Petrobras is at the center of the biggest corruption scandal in Brazilian history.”)
 
Online Sources – Reuters; Bloomberg; GlobalPost; The Guardian

Daily Headlines: February 3, 2015

* Mexico: New doubts have been raised in the government’s findings of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students after a Mexican magazine claimed detained suspects were tortured into confessing.

* Argentina: In one of the latest twists in the Nisman murder case, an Argentine judge refused to handle allegations of a cover-up by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in the investigation of the 1994 AMIA bombing.

* Cuba: Cuban state media published the first photos of former president Fidel Castro to appear publicly since August of last year.

* Venezuela: The already weakened diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Venezuela have worsened following the expansion of travel bans against members of the Maduro administration.

Video Source – YouTube user teleSUR English (“Family members of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students are in Geneva, Switzerland, taking their case to the UN Committee on Forced Disappearances.”)

Online Sources – The Huffington Post; Voice of America; CNN; MercoPress; The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: February 2, 2015

* Brazil: Brazil's worst drought in decades has led to special alerts in four Brazilian states including Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, decreased agriculture production in Espirito Santo and water rationing in more than ninety cities.

* South America: The Argentine government wants to create a new intelligence agency in the wake of the death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman while scandal-plagued former Colombian intel chief Maria del Pilar Hurtado turned herself in to police.

* Venezuela: Is U.S. Vice President Joe Biden planning a coup against Venezuela’s government or is Nicolás Maduro searching for scapegoats amid a domestic economic crisis?

* Chile: President Michelle Bachelet proposed reforming Chile’s complete ban on abortion by legalizing the procedure in cases of rape or when the mother’s life is at risk.

Video Source – YouTube user Reuters (“Agricultural producers in Rio de Janeiro state battle with the worst drought Brazil has seen in 80 years which is killing large numbers of livestock and crops.”)
 
Online Sources – Latin American Herald Tribune; Buenos Aires Herald; BBC News; Bernama; UPI

The Weekender – Teruggi and Horman

“The Weekender” is our new feature where every weekend we hope to highlight a short film, movie or documentary pertaining to the Americas.

On January 28th, Chilean officials published a court ruling against two former intelligence agents involved in the murder of U.S. citizens Frank Teruggi and Charles Horman shortly after the 1973 military coup. The decision issued on earlier in the month ordered Pedro Espinoza to serve seven years behind bars while his accomplice, Pedro Espinoza, was sentenced to two years of police supervision.

According to the lengthy 276-page ruling, Chile’s intelligence considered the actions of economics student Teruggi and filmmaker Horman as “subversive” and ordered their detention. Horman was kidnapped six days after Gen. Augusto Pinochet ousted the civilian government and killed “by the Military Intelligence Battalion or the Army Intelligence Headquarters.” Teruggi became one of the thousands of people herded into the National Stadium in Santiago, tortured by the military and murdered.

The tribunal also found that a U.S. military group in Chile led by then-Navy captain Ray E. Davis helped carry out a “secret investigation” on Teruggi and Horman. Davis was indicted by a Chilean court in 2011 and ordered his extradition though it was later revealed that he was living in a nursing home in the South American country. Much like Pinochet, Davis died in impunity but questions continue to linger over U.S. involvement in the deaths of Teruggi and Horman.

“Frank, a charitable and peace-loving young man, was the victim of a calculated crime by the Chilean military, but the question of U.S. complicity remains yet to be answered,” said Teruggi’s sister, Janis Teruggi Page.

Horman’s widow, meanwhile, expressed hope that the Chilean justice system will focus on other suspected human rights abusers from the Pinochet era.

“I hope this ruling will strengthen prosecutions for these crimes and stop these types of crime,” said Joyce Horman in an interview after he ruling was made public.

“The memories are still very fresh in my mind. It’s been almost 42 years and for a longtime everyone resisted pursuing an investigation as long as possible,” she added.

In the following video below the page break, Joyce talks with journalist Bob Herbert about receiving harassment prior to the coup, reacting to her husband’s disappearance and seeking for justice in the deaths of Teruggi and Horman.

Daily Headlines: January 30, 2015

* Argentina: President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner defended her right to publicly opine over the death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman while pressure continues to mount against the government since his suspected suicide earlier this month.

* Dominican Republic: Dominican Finance Minister Simon Lizardo claimed that his country finished paying off a multibillion dollar debt owed on Venezuelan oil shipments.

* Cuba: The White House rejected Cuban President Rául Castro’s call for the U.S. to hand over the Guantanamo military base as part of the effort to normalize ties between both countries.

* Mexico: The plummeting price of oil led the Mexican government to announce the slash of $8.4 billion from the federal budget and postpone development of a controversial high-speed rail project.

Video Source – YouTube user euronews

Online Sources – BBC News; Bloomberg; Reuters; The Latin Americanist; BBC News

Daily Headlines: January 29, 2015 (Updated)

* Mexico: Rescue operations are taking place at a Mexico City maternity hospital where at least seven people died in a massive explosion this morning.

Update: Mexico City mayor Miguel Angel Mancera lowered the official death toll to two but said that there were sixty-six casualties as a result of the blast. He added that the explosion was caused by a leak when a gas truck attempted to supply the hospital.

* Cuba: A bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators proposed removing decades-long travel and banking restrictions against Cuba.

* Venezuela: The Venezuelan government ordered the accelerated importing of basic goods amidst a growing economic crisis.

* El Salvador: President Salvador Sanchez Ceren rejected calls from leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 gangs to negotiate with the government.

Video Source – YouTube user Associated Press (“A gas tank truck exploded outside a maternity and children's hospital in Mexico City on Thursday, collapsing much of it. Officials say dozens are injured, including several children.”)

Online Sources including Update – Fox News Latino; Reuters; El Universal; CBC News; USA TODAY

Daily Headlines: January 28, 2015 (Updated)

* Peru: The Peruvian Congress rejected a controversial labor reform law following pressure from young workers who believed the proposal discriminated them.

* Cuba: Former Cuban President Fidel Castro allegedly penned an article supporting the diplomatic rapprochement between the U.S. and Cuba despite admitting distrusting American policy.

Update: Earlier today, Current Cuban leader Rául Castro placed several conditions on fully normalizing ties between his country and the U.S. including returning the Guantanamo military base and lifting the decades-long trade embargo.

* Brazil: State-run energy firm Petrobras reported a third quarter loss of 9.1% but didn’t reveal how much money had been lost in a major corruption sandal.
 
* Venezuela: Is legislative chief Diosdado Cabello the head of a Venezuelan drug trafficking ring according to the claims of a defecting ex-top government bodyguard?

Video Source – YouTube user Reuters

Online Sources (including Update) – Voice of America; GlobalPost; Reuters; Miami Herald; ABC News

Daily Headlines: January 26, 2015

* Latin America: Will Bolivia soon follow the example of Cuba and become the next Latin American state to seek renewed diplomatic relations with the U.S.?

* El Salvador: Legislators in El Salvador recently paroled a woman sentenced to thirty years in prison for undergoing an abortion in 2007.

* Mexico: A measles outbreak that reportedly started in at a Disneyland theme park in December has spread across the border into Mexico.

* Colombia: University student Paulina Vega became the first Colombian representative since 1958 to win the Miss Universe contest. 

Video Source – YouTube user VOAvideo
 
Online Sources – Reuters; UPI; ABC News; Miami Herald

Nuestro Cine: Beauty is Skin Deep?

The Miss Universe contest will be held tonight and perhaps no other country is more synonymous with the world’s top beauty pageant than Venezuela. Seven representatives from the South American country have won Miss Universe tonight including reigning titleholder Gabriela Isler. Nineteen-year-old Migbelis Lynette Castellanos is surely one of the favorites to the crown, which she hopes to win in order for her countrymen torn by economic uncertainty and deep political divisions to “forget everything that is happening for just a short while.” (As the cases of Genesis Carmona and Monica Spear showed, however, even beauty queens are not immune from becoming the targets of violence in their homeland.)

Venezuela’s pageant obsession that includes sending girls as young as four-years-old to train in special “beauty schools” is a theme explored in the film “3 Bellezas” (“3 Beauties”). The movie, examines the lives of Perla, a mom focused on training her daughters to become future beauty queens and her children willing to do whatever it takes to acquiesce to their mother’s wishes. Perla is not shy to teach her kids how to vomit meals or instill hem advice like only “beautiful women” are able to get whatever they desire. They drive to reach what they believe is the pinnacle of fame and fortune but the price they all pay could be very costly.

“I would like for people to understand that we’re acting superficial, said “3 Bellezas” director Carlos Caridad-Montero. “But there is a system that takes you to that level.”

The film takes a very critical look at beauty pageants in Venezuela, though even Caridad-Montero acknowledges those who feel that “attractiveness is seen as a way of climbing the social ladder.”

Below the page break is the trailer with English subtitles for “3 Bellezas” that premiered last Friday. Please check it out: