América Latina

In Brief

Latinamerica Press

23/01/2013

Opinión

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Mexico, Brazil, Honduras, Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador, Haiti

According to the Latin American Federation of Journalists, a total of 45 journalists and press professionals were assassinated in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2012. The crimes were concentrated in Mexico (17), Brazil (10), Honduras (9), Bolivia (4), Colombia (2),Argentina (1), Ecuador (1), and Haiti (1). Drug gangs were reportedly responsible for the majority of the deaths in Mexico and Brazil. In the Honduran case, there would have been political motivations for the murders, for the deaths of both journalists and activists increased after the coup that toppled former President Manuel Zelaya (2006-2009) in 2009.

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, a World Bank institution, accepted in mid-December of 2012 a demand presented by the Spanish oil company Repsol againstArgentina. The company demands a compensation of US$10.5 billion for damages caused by the May 2012 expropriation of 51 percent of the shares of the oil company YPF, owned by Repsol since the 1992 privatization. Repsol ensures that Argentina violated the Agreement for the Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments, a 1991 agreement with Spain.

On Jan. 14 an immigration reform in Cuba that eliminates a series of requirements to travel outside of the country went into force. The requirements eliminated include the exit permit granted by the government, the invitation letter that family members or friends residing abroad must present on behalf of the traveling individual, and other expensive procedures. The reform also includes the authorization for temporary return for Cuban migrants, including scientists and high-performance athletes who left the country and did not return. According to official figures, between 2000 and 2012 almost a million Cuban citizens travelled abroad, 12 percent of whom did not return.

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa is favored to win in a single round the February 17 elections in which 11.5 million voters will elect the president, vice-president, 137 parliamentary members, and five Andean parliamentary members. According to public opinion surveys, Correa, who is running for a third four-year term — after being first elected in 2006 and again in 2009 according to the new Constitution — is supported by 60 percent of voters. Among the other seven candidates are the former President Lucio Gutiérrez (2003-2005), former Energy and Mines Minister Alberto Acosta, banker Guillermo Lasso, and Evangelical pastor Néstor Zavala.

More than 4,000 femicides occurred in Mexico between 2006 and 2012 during the administration of former President Felipe Calderón, whose term ended on Dec. 1, 2012. The National Femicide Citizen Observatory ensured that 1,000 women were murdered in the last three years only in the northern state of Chihuahua, 40 percent of them in Ciudad Juárez. Likewise, since mid-2011 until the end of 2012, almost 4,000 forced disappearances of women were recorded, 51 percent of the women between the ages of 11 and 20 — indicating that these cases are directly linked to the trafficking of women.

Source:: http://lapress.org/articles.asp?art=6770

https://www.alainet.org/en/active/61185?language=en