Hispanics say Ohio BMV Policy Unfairly Targets Them
Tiffany Teasley, for FOX19 - Date: 11/19/2009
Cincinnati, Ohio -- Nearly 47,000 Ohio drivers received a letter from the Ohio BMV, asking them to submit proper I.D. by December 8 or have their registration canceled.
"If Hispanic businesses pick up and leave, that's a void not only for that local community but it's that Butler County or Hamilton County, they're going to lose businesses, that's tax money," said Brian Wiles.
Wiles runs the Hispanic newspaper La Jornada Latina, and he says the Ohio BMV's new policy isn't just a registration issue, it's a policy that will negatively impact the livelihood of Latinos in Ohio, and his business.
"What that does for us is it decreases our reader base, and that's one thing we definitely don't want to happen," Wiles said.
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Cuba Continues Repression, Rights Group says
Willie Lora and Arthur Brice contributed to this CNN report - Date: 11/18/2009
Washington, D.C. -- Raul Castro's government in Cuba continues to repress civil rights and persecute dissenters three years after he became the communist nation's top leader, Human Rights Watch says in a report released Wednesday.
Raul Castro took over in July 2006, when older brother Fidel became ill and was no longer able to rule after more than 47 years in charge. The new dictator has locked up scores of people and allowed scores more that had been jailed by Fidel Castro to remain behind bars, Human Rights Watch says.
"Rather than dismantle Cuba's repressive machinery, Raul Castro has kept it firmly in place and fully active," the report says.
Cuban government officials in Washington rejected the conclusions reached in the report, titled "New Castro, Same Cuba."
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Women "Bearing Brunt" of Climate Change
Simon Hooper, CNN - Date: 11/18/2009
Botijlaca, Bolivia -- On the steep, dusty slopes of the Chacaltaya mountains, thousands of meters above sea level in the Bolivian Andes, the hardy farmers tending root crops or herding llamas have no need of scientists or climatologists to measure the impact of global warming.
For as long as anyone can remember, communities such as the village of Botijlaca have relied on melting ice flowing down from the Chacaltaya glacier as a source of drinking water, to irrigate their crops and water their animals.
Now the 18,000-year-old glacier -- once home to the world's highest ski resort -- has almost disappeared, reduced to a slither of snow and ice in the space of a few decades. Researchers say Chacaltaya has lost around 80 percent of its volume in just 20 years.
"There is less water now," says Leocadia Quispe, a 60-year-old mother, grandmother and potato farmer. Seven of her eight children have left the region, she says, because there is no way for them to make a living. Most of the men of the village have also gone, heading to the conjoined urban sprawl of nearby La Paz and El Alto in search of work, returning just once or twice a month to see their wives and families.
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Unearthing Mysteries of Argentina's "Dirty War"
Brian Byrnes, CNN - Date: 11/17/2009
Buenos Aires, Argentina -- Laura Feldman was kidnapped by the Argentine military on February 18, 1978. The 18-year-old was never seen by her family again, a victim of the ruthless regime that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. For 31 years, her sister Ana searched for answers -- and her remains.
"Laura was politically active. She was young and had her ideals. But she didn't deserve to die," says Ana, 51.
In 2004, bones believed to be Laura's were found in a mass grave in a cemetery outside Buenos Aires. After a series of genetic tests confirmed her identity, Ana finally received her sister's bones in April 2009.
"I can now speak in the past tense: my sister was executed," says Ana. "And now that I have her remains, I can mourn her -- something her murderers tried to deny me," she says.
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Peru will give Chile Details of Spy Claims
Gisu Guerra contributed to this CNN report - Date: 11/16/2009
Lima, Peru -- Peru will turn over to Chilean authorities all evidence into allegations that a Peruvian air force officer was spying for the neighboring country, Peruvian President Alan Garcia said Monday.
Garcia ordered his foreign minister and justice department to hand over all details of the investigation so Chile could "give the corresponding explanations," he said in a televised address.
The alleged spying by Chile, Garcia declared, was the result of fear and an inferiority complex by the Chileans. He added that Peru will not let the incident become a full-blown crisis between the two nations.
The suspect, Victor Ariza Mendoza, remained imprisoned at a maximum security facility north of Lima, authorities said.
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Woman Sues Officials Over Immigration Arrest in Maryland
Mariano Castillo, CNN - Date: 11/11/2009
Frederick County, Md. -- A Salvadoran immigrant, backed by two immigrants' rights organizations, is suing the sheriff's office in Frederick County, Maryland, and federal immigration officials, claiming that she was unconstitutionally interrogated and detained last year because of her Hispanic ethnicity.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court, Roxana Orellana Santos says that two Frederick County deputies improperly questioned her about her immigration status after they spotted her sitting on a curb, eating lunch. She is seeking compensatory damages of at least $1 million, according to the lawsuit.
The suit also names federal officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement as defendants.
According to the complaint, the deputies had no probable cause to question Orellana Santos, who didn't speak much English and could not communicate well with the officers, about her immigrant status. She was detained for five weeks without charges before being released, the court document states. The incident happened in on October 7 of last year; she was held by federal immigration authorities who released her on humanitarian grounds on Nov. 13, 2008.
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More than 200 Paraguay Villagers Thought Sprayed with Pesticide
Cable News Network - Date: 11/10/2009
Itakyry District, Paraguay -- More than 200 indigenous people who refused to vacate their land in eastern Paraguay were sprayed late last week with what some believe was pesticide, sending seven to the hospital, a government cabinet member said this week.
The 217 members of the Ava Guarani community in the Itakyry district suffered vomiting, diarrhea, headaches and nausea, said Esperanza Martinez, Paraguay's minister of health. Although one person was in serious condition, she said Monday, the rest are improving.
"For us, it's very clear that this is an acute community-wide intoxication caused in a premeditated manner by an unknown substance," Martinez said on her ministry's Web site. "But it is very clear because all of the similar symptoms occurred after this incident."
The Amnesty International human rights organization said Tuesday it "condemned the use of apparently toxic pesticides to intimidate an indigenous community after they resisted being forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands."
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Venezuela, Colombia in War of Words
Cable News NEtwork - Date: 11/09/2009
Bogota, Colombia -- The Colombian government said it would appeal to international bodies over what it called a threat made over the weekend by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
On his weekly Sunday television show, Chavez ordered the Venezuelan military to begin preparations for a war with the neighboring country, warning of a conspiracy between Colombia and the United States to attack Venezuela.
"The two governments have joined together to fool the world or to try to fool the world," Chavez said.
Addressing his military commanders, he added, "Let's not waste a single day in the preparation of our main mission: to prepare ourselves for war and to help the people prepare for war. It's everyone's responsibility."
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Doctors, Five Others Held in Mexican Stolen Babies Case
Cable News Network - Date: 11/06/2009
Mexico City, Mexico -- Mexican authorities have arrested three doctors, a nurse and a receptionist accused of stealing newborns at a private hospital and selling them, the Mexico City attorney general's office says.
A married couple and a woman also were arrested on charges that they bought two newborn girls and registered them as their own offspring, said Luis Genaro Vasquez Rodriguez, an official with the attorney general's office.
The doctors and hospital personnel would tell parents from whom the children were stolen that their babies had died, authorities said Wednesday.
One of the abducted babies, Diana Fernanda Castillo, has been reunited with her biological mother. Authorities who found the baby and confirmed her identity through genetic tests handed her over to her mother, Vanesa Edith Castillo Guzmán, on Thursday.
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Venzuela Rations Water in Response to Drought
Maria Carolina Gonzalez contributed to this report for CNN - Date: 11/02/2009
Caracas, Venezuela -- Residents of the Venezuelan capital on Monday began to experience water rationing as part of a government preservation measure during a drought.
The rolling cuts to water service will affect the capital of Caracas and some nearby areas for periods of up to 48 hours, the state-owned water utility Hidrocapital announced. The rationing will continue through the first quarter of 2010, the government said.
President Hugo Chavez has urged citizens to take extra steps to reduce water use, including a suggestion last week that taking a shower should take only three minutes.
The government says that weather phenomena are behind the drought, while critics of Chavez say that years of lack of infrastructure investment and planning left the country flat-footed when it came to offsetting the drought.
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Ousted Honduran Leader: Pact Will Restore Me
Juan Zamorano, Associated Press Writer - Date: 10/30/2009
Tegucigalpa, Honduras -- Deposed President Manuel Zelaya and his opponents have agreed to a U.S.-brokered deal that he said will return him to power four months after a coup shook faith in Latin America's young democracies.
The power-sharing agreement reached late Thursday calls for Congress to decide whether to reinstate the leftist Zelaya. While the legislature backed his June 28 ouster, congressional leaders have since said they won't stand in the way of an agreement that ends Honduras' diplomatic isolation and legitimizes presidential elections planned for Nov. 29.
Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Shannon said Friday that the two sides finally made concessions after realizing the international community wouldn't recognize the elections or restore aid without a compromise.
"There was no more space for them to dither," he said.
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Castro's Sister: She Helped CIA Against Cuban Leaders
CNN's Mariano Castillo & Carol Cratty contributed to this report - Date: 10/27/2009
Miami, Fla. -- Juanita Castro, the younger sister of Cuban leaders Fidel and Raul Castro, worked for the CIA during some crucial years of the Cold War, she says in her new memoir.
Juanita Castro, originally a supporter of the Cuban revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959, said she became disillusioned by growing injustice.
"They wanted to talk to me because they had interesting things to tell me, and interesting things to ask of me, such as if I was willing to take that risk, if I was ready to listen to them. I was semi-shocked, but I said yes anyway," she told CNN affiliate Univision-Noticias 23 in Miami, Florida.
Univision's interviewer, journalist Maria Antonieta Collins, co-wrote the book. "My Brothers Fidel and Raul, the Secret History" was released Monday.
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Latino in America -- A CNN Special Report
Cable News Network - Date: 10/23/2009
By 2050, the U.S. Latino population is expected to nearly triple. CNN's Soledad O'Brien explores how Latinos are reshaping our communities and culture and forcing a nation of immigrants to rediscover what it means to be an American.
Coverage includes "Voices from the Latino Community" -- where Latinos share their personal stories about family values, traditions, discrimination, immigration, and the American dream -- and other commentary and news stories.
CNN's "Latino in America" television special aired on Oct. 21 & 22, 2009 at 9 p.m.
Additional stories, links, and video clips are available at the web site.
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