Adding to the economic troubles and political corruption that has plagued Brazil recently, a rift between Brazil’s Senate and their courts threaten to unhinge the efforts being made to help ameliorate their troubling situations as a country. This past Wednesday the President of Brazil’s Senate asked the Supreme Court to temporarily halt an investigation involving Senators, breaching the separation of the Legislative and… Read more »
REUTEURS: The president of Brazil’s Senate urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to halt an investigation into the use of Senate police to protect senators from a corruption probe, stoking tensions between the judiciary and the legislative branch.
BBC: The US has for the first time abstained from voting against an annual UN resolution calling for an end to its economic embargo against Cuba.
BBC: More than 20 people have been injured and 39 detained during anti-government protests in Venezuela, a local rights group has said. Images circulated on social media of injured people on the ground. There are reports at least three were shot.
Al Jazeera: Haiti faces a crisis that requires a “massive response” from the international community, the United Nations has said, with at least 1.4 million people needing emergency aid after Hurricane Matthew. The storm killed almost 1,000 people in the impoverished Caribbean nation, with that toll expected to rise as rescue workers reach previously inaccessible areas.
On September 27th, President Obama nominated Jeffrey DeLaurentis as the first U.S Ambassador to Cuba since the United States ended diplomatic relations with Cuba in the 1960’s. This, along with the reopening of the Embassy in Cuba and the lessening of restrictions on travel, remittances, and other landmark events that have happened in recent years, have helped to restore U.S. relations… Read more »
REUTERS: President Barack Obama on Tuesday nominated career diplomat Jeffrey DeLaurentis to be the first U.S. ambassador to Cuba in more than five decades, setting up a fierce confirmation battle with Republicans in Congress opposed to Obama’s opening with the communist-ruled island.
REUTERS: President Michel Temer has not managed to convince Brazilians his government is better than that of his ousted predecessor Dilma Rousseff, and his popularity remains low, according to a poll on Tuesday.
BBC NEWS: A judge in El Salvador has reopened an investigation into the 1981 El Mozote massacre – considered one of the worst atrocities in the civil war. The judge accepted a request put forward by three human rights groups to re-open the case based on a Supreme Court ruling in July.
Al Jazeera: Just last week, western media was praising the Colombian peace agreement. Four years of negotiations in Cuba, commentators noted, had finally put an end to a 50-year conflict between the government and the left-wing rebel movement Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and involving various right-wing paramilitary groups and narco cartels that had claimed an estimated 200,000 lives,… Read more »