Daily Headlines: February 17, 2012

* Honduras: Honduran and international human rights groups alleged that the government’s crackdown on gang violence led to overcrowded prisons including the one where over 350 people died in a fire.

* Latin America: According to a new study China has issued $75 billion in loans to Latin America since 2005; thus, topping financing from the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and U.S. Export-Import Bank.

* Brazil: Officials in Rio de Janeiro state reportedly plan to give away over three million condoms during Carnival festivities that begin this week.

* U.S.: A Pew Research Center analysis concluded that Latinos have helped boost the rise in interracial marriages to a record 4.8 million unions.

Video Source – YouTube via Al Jazeera English (The prison in Comayagua, Honduras where a major fire took place this week housed over 800 inmates, more than double its original capacity.)

Online Sources- Fox News Latino, CNN, Americas Quarterly Blog, Bloomberg, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: February 16, 2012

* Honduras: According to “an internal Honduran government report obtained by The Associated Press” most of the inmates in a Comayagua prison where a major fire took place on Tuesday hadn’t been convicted of any crime.

* Central America: Guatemala’s conservative president, Otto Perez, and El Salvador’s leftist president, Mauricio Funes said that they would consider some form of drug legalization.

* Mexico: Police captured a suspected methamphetamine producer who is also a fugitive in the U.S.

* Cuba: Cuba’s Foreign Minister said that his country would be willing to attend the upcoming Summit of the Americas but rejected the idea of rejoining the Organization of American States.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews (“Body after body has been brought out of the raised Comayagua jail in Honduras after what is now recognized as the world's worst prison fire.”)

Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, CBS News, USA TODAY, BBC News, CNN

Hundreds killed in Honduras prison fire (Updated)

In what is being reported as “one of the worst prison fires ever in Latin America,” at least 357 people died after a massive blaze swept through a Comayagua prison on Tuesday night.

Officials including one speaking in the below video said that most of the dead were “burnt, carbonized, or asphyxiated” due to the acrid smoke:

The exact cause of the fire in the prison has yet to be determined though prison service head Daniel Orellana claimed that one hypothesis is that a prisoner set fire to the mattress in his cell. Yet Orellana denied rumors that a riot in the prison occurred before the fire.

Today about 300 inmates’ relatives surrounded the Comayagua prison seeking answers over the state of their loved ones who ether died or are disappeared. Police fired tear gas after some relatives attempted in desperation to break through the prison gates.

“We understand the families’ pain but we have to go through with the process according to the law”, said Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla to the Honduran press.

A few of the survivors accused the prison guards of not opening all of the cells to permit inmates to flee the fire. These allegations are unproven though Comayagua firefighters' spokesman Josue Garcia noted, “we couldn't get them out because we didn't have the keys and couldn't find the guards who had them.”

The Comayagua prison housed approximately 850 inmates, more than double its original capacity. Overcrowding is one of the worst problems in Latin American prisons including in Honduras according to a recent U.S. State Department report:

Prisoners "suffered from severe overcrowding, malnutrition, and lack of adequate sanitation," it cited human rights groups as saying.

"Authorities did not provide adequate food or other basic necessities. The ready access of prisoners to weapons and other contraband, impunity for inmate attacks against nonviolent prisoners, inmate escapes, and threats by inmates and their associates outside prisons against prison officials and their families contributed to an unstable and dangerous penitentiary system environment," the department said in its 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.

As we mentioned last week, U.N. human rights representative for South America Amerigo Incalcaterra decried the “alarming pattern of prison violence in the region” due to overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.

Update: According to the Honduran press, the death toll has increased to at least 364 deaths while authorities believe that between eighty and ninety inmates may have escaped amidst the chaos caused by the fire.

In a televised speech this afternoon Honduran president Porfirio Lobo suspended prison officials as part of a "totally transparent" investigation into the fire. Meanwhile, a team from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights will be dispatched to Honduras in order to conduct their own probe.

Video Source – YouTube via telegraphtv

Online Sources (including Updates) – Milenio, MSNBC, BBC News, CNN, The Latin Americanist, Los Angeles Times, La Prensa, infoBAE.com, Univision.com

Daily Headlines: February 15, 2012

* Peru: Hundreds of women forcibly sterilized in the 1990s under a program created by then-President Alberto Fujimori continue to wait for to justice to be served.

* Nicaragua: The head of the central bank quit after a disagreement with President Daniel Ortega over how to pay for a regional bank for the ALBA bloc.
* Venezuela: Political opposition groups cried foul after the Supreme Court ruled against the destruction of lists of voters who participated in Sunday’s primary election.

* South America: Chilean president Sebastian Pinera received a “surprise phone call” from British Prime Minister David Cameron and they reportedly discussed the dispute between the U.K. and Argentina over the Falklands.

Video Source – YouTube via telesurenglish

Online Sources- Fox News, Bloomberg, News24, Mercopress

Daily Headlines: February 14, 2012

* Venezuela: One day after winning the opposition presidential primary election, Henrique Capriles called on Venezuelans to support his campaign and criticized President Hugo Chavez’ economic policies.

* Mexico: Despite heavy media coverage of the Mexican “drug war” tourism to that country rose in 2011 with over 22 million foreign visitors arriving by air.

* Argentina: The Argentina's transport worker's union will reportedly boycott all British ships due to the dispute over the Falklands Islands.

* Peru: “The Shining Path is no longer a threat to the country,” proclaimed President Ollanta Humala after the rebel’s leader was captured in a military operation.

Image Source – Flickr via Andrea Daza Tapia (Venezuelan expats in Barcelona, Spain wait on line in order to vote in Sunday’s opposition presidential primary election). (CC BY 2.0)

Online Sources- CBS News, Los Angeles Times, BBC News, The Guardian

World Watch: Zambia’s Cinderella story

* Zambia: The Zambian men’s soccer team celebrated their first ever Africa Cup of Nations title by paying their respects to their comrades who died in a 1993 plane crash in Gabon.

* Syria: U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay accused Syrian officials of committing crimes against humanity as part of their brutal crackdown against civilian protesters.

* Greece: Stocks around the world rose after the Greek parliament approved a controversial austerity plan that was not well received by demonstrators in Athens.

* Middle East: The Israeli and Iranian governments have accused each other of a pair of bomb attacks at Israeli missions in India and Georgia.

Video Source– YouTube via swagsoccer7

Online Sources – CNN, Reuters, ABC News, Bloomberg

De Musica Ligera: Nobel for “El Sistema”?

The latest edition of the Grammy Awards on Sunday night will most likely be remembered for Adele winning six trophies as well as the tributes to the recently deceased Whitney Houston. In terms of Latino music, one of the event’s biggest surprises was Mana beating out Calle 13 to win in the Latin Pop, Rock or Urban Album category. Yet an even greater surprise could occur later this year thanks to another Grammy winner: Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel.

Dudamel may’ve won his Grammy with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for their recording of Brahms' Fourth Symphony, but since 1999 he has served as the music director of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. This orchestra is an important product of El Sistema, a novel music education program run in Venezuela. Founded in 1975 by former economist José Antonio Abreu, the El Sistema network has helped teach classical music to at least 250,000 youth including children from impoverished economic backgrounds. The program has received government support since 1977 and has been critically acclaimed around the world.

In 2008 Abreu won both the Glenn Gould Prize and the Prince of Asturias Award for he Arts. He could earn a greater recognition later this year after representatives of the International Hagiography Academy nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize. “Master Abreu has met all the conditions because he made music the language of peace and a symbol of Venezuela,” proclaimed the Academy’s president, Monsignor Rafael Febres Cordero, last month.

Should José Antonio Abreu become the first Latin American in two decades to win the Nobel Peace Prize? Perhaps the music from the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra will help you decide:

Video Source – YouTube via TEDtalksDirector

Online Sources- Los Angeles Times, The Onion A.V. Club, The Telegraph, El-Nacional.com

Daily Headlines: February 13, 2012

* South America: While UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged Argentina and Britain to “avoid an escalation” in the dispute over the Falklands, Chilean officials denied “media rumors” claiming that they would consider a blockade of the disputed islands.

* Mexico: According to documents filed in a U.S. court, Mexican drug gangs paid $4.5 million in “political bribes” to figures in the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

* Brazil: Will France’s Dassault Aviation beat Boeing and Saab and win a major contract to refurbish the Brazilian air force?

* Haiti: A fifteen-member delegation of the U.N. Security Council is expected to arrive today in Haiti in order to observe reconstruction efforts over two years after a deadly earthquake shook the country.

Image Source – Flickr via wallygrom (Falklands War memorial in Ushuaia, Argentina). (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources- Bernama.com, Reuters, Voice of America, Miami Herald

Daily Headlines: February 10, 2012

* Latin America: Amerigo Incalcaterra, the U.N. human rights representative for South America, denounced the “alarming pattern of prison violence” in the region due to overcrowding and substandard sanitary conditions.

* Brazil: Police in Rio de Janeiro state went on strike days before the beginning of Carnival celebrations and prison guards and firefighters might join them.

* Mexico: The U.S. State Department expanded its travel warning from ten to fourteen states in northern and central Mexico.

* Peru: Shining Path leader Florindo Eleuterio Flores-Hala, alias Artemio, was reportedly wounded in a raid conducted by Peruvian troops and dissident guerillas.

Image Source – Flickr via CDI Europe (Lemos de Brito prison in Brazil). (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources- Los Angeles Times, Reuters, The Guardian, MSNBC

Daily Headlines: February 9, 2012

* Argentina: Legendary Argentine rock musician Luis Alberto Spinetta died at the age of 62 after months of battling lung cancer.

* Venezuela: Possible rivals to president Hugo Chavez wrap up their campaigns ahead of this Sunday’s opposition primary.

* Ecuador: Emilio Palacio, the former El Universo newspaper editor facing prison after losing a libel case against the Ecuadorian president, has sought asylum in the U.S.

* U.S.: An estimated 12.2 million Latinos are expected to vote in this November’s general election according to the Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund.

Video Source – YouTube via ghanderhva

Online Sources- Buenos Aires Herald, AS/COA Online, USA TODAY, Boston.com

World Watch: Iced Cooly

* Antarctica: The sub-glacial Lake Vostok was reached for the first time after a team of Russian scientists drilled over two miles below the Antarctic surface.


* Egypt: The Egyptian government’s crackdown on nongovernment organizations could hurt relations between that country and the U.S.


* Maldives: Mohamed Nasheed claimed that he was ousted from the presidency in a coup while some of his supporters have clashed with police.


* Somalia: A “suicide car bomber” in the capital city of Mogadishu killed at least eleven people.

Video Source – YouTube via Associated Press

Online Sources – National Geographic, Voice of America, CNN, Reuters

Daily Headlines: February 8, 2012

* Brazil: Carnival celebrations in Rio de Janeiro could be threatened by police officers that may reportedly join their comrades in Bahia state and go on an illegal strike.

* Mexico: A judge dropped some of the charges against two people accused of trying to smuggle members of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's family into Mexico.

* U.S.: A preliminary deal over state and federal redistricting in Texas might not reflect the state’s growing Latino population according to some local legislators.

* Latin America: Drought conditions in several Latin American countries could lead to a global spike in the prices of corn.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources- NASDAQ, CBS News, Bloomberg, CBC News

World Watch: Homs Under Siege

* Syria: While foreign powers debate over how to end violence in Syria, the military continued its deadly offensive against residents in the city of Homs.

* U.S.: A federal appeals court ruled that California’s gay marriage ban is unconstitutional though the final decision may rest with the Supreme Court.

* Philippines: At least twenty-two people died and dozens are missing after an earthquake shook the Negros Island.

* Palestine: Rival factions Hamas and Fatah signed a pact that would form a unity government led by President Mahmoud Abbas.

Video Source– YouTube via telegraphtv

Online Sources – USA TODAY, CBS News, Reuters

Daily Headlines: February 7, 2012

* Brazil: Authorities filed a lawsuit seeking to block Twitter accounts and messages warning about “radar locations, speed traps, and DUI checkpoints.”

* Mexico: Josefina Vasquez Mota became the first female presidential candidate from a major political party after winning the primary for the ruling PAN on Sunday.

* Dominican Republic: At least eighteen migrants died after the boat they where traveling in capsized off the Dominican coast.

* Cuba: Former president Fidel Castro made a “rare appearance” in Havana in order to promote his new memoir.

Image Source – Flickr via xioubin low (CC BY 2.0)

Online Sources- CNet News, Reuters, Voice of America, MSNBC

Daily Headlines: February 6, 2012

* Panama: At least one person was killed after police clashed with indigenous protesters blockading the Pan American Highway.

* Brazil: The military have been deployed to Bahia where 10,000 members of the state police went on strike and refused to return to their posts.

* Ecuador: Chevron refused to issue a “court-mandated” public apology accepting guilt for polluting the Ecuadorian Amazon.

* U.S.: The mayor of East Haven, Connecticut refused to fire his police chief despite a federal investigation charging four officers of racial profiling and harassing Latino residents.

Video Source – YouTube via euronews

Online Sources- CBC News, LAHT, Fox News, Global Voices Online

World Watch: The Not-So-Beautiful Game

* Egypt: Clashes have taken place between Cairo police and mourners angry at military authorities in the aftermath of a deadly soccer riot on Wednesday in Port Said.

* Space: International astronomers concluded that a new planet located about twenty-two light years from Earth might be able to support life.

* Europe: At least one hundred people are dead as a result of cold spell that has hit several European countries.

* Afghanistan: U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta indicated that troops could withdraw early from Afghanistan in 2013 though it remains to be seen if NATO forces will do the same.

Video Source– YouTube via Al Jazeera English (” Egypt has declared three days of mourning for the more than 70 people who died at a football stadium amid violent clashes between rival supporters in the northern city of Port Said.”)

Online Sources – The Guardian, National geographic, TVNZ, USA TODAY