Latin America: Week in Review, United States
Immigration Law Appeal Filed By Arizona’s Jan Brewer
August 12, 2011 By Staff
Today in Latin America
Top Story — Arizona Governor Jan Brewer filed an appeal Wednesday to the U.S. Supreme Court over a lower court ruling on the state’s controversial immigration law. In April, Arizona said that it intended to appeal directly to the Supreme Court to overturn an injunction blocking parts of its immigration law that required police enforcing other laws to question people about their immigration status if they have reason to suspect those people are in the country illegally. Brewer said in her petition that undocumented immigrants put a hardship on the southwestern state and that the federal government has a “broken system” in regards to immigration that puts an unfair hardship on Arizona. “I am hopeful the U.S. Supreme Court will choose to take this case and issue much-needed clarity for states, such as Arizona, that are grappling with the significant human and financial costs of illegal immigration,” Brewer said. ” If the federal government won’t enforce its immigration laws, we will.”
Just Published at the Latin America News Dispatch
- Violence against Mexico’s LGBT community is darkening what should be its shining moment — the passage of milestone legislation, including a law legalizing gay marriage in Mexico City. Daniel Hertz reports from Mexico’s capital.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- Mexican marines arrested an alleged leader of the Zetas drug cartel and his female companion in San Nicolas de Los Garza, one of Mexico’s wealthiest cities.
- Authorities in Mexico found the three grandchildren of a California congressman who had been missing for nearly four years.
- Wednesday marked the 100th birthday of famed Mexican comic Mario Moreno, who played Cantinflas and died in 1993.
- The U.S. men’s soccer team drew a 1-1 tie with Mexico on Tuesday in the team’s first game under new manager Juergen Klinsmann.
Caribbean
- Former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro turns 85 on Saturday.
- Moody’s put University of Puerto Rico’s ratings on Watchlist for a possible downgrade.
- Haitian President Michel Martelly said during a trip to Chile that he wants the U.N. peacekeeping mission in his country to become an economic development mission.
Central America
- According to the violence monitoring organization, the Mutual Support Group, more than 400 massacre victims by have been reported Guatemala this year to date.
- Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper’s visit to Honduras is drawing criticism from his country due to Honduras’ poor human rights record among other issues.
- Coffee exports from El Salvador almost doubled in July, according to the country’s coffee council.
Andes
- Critics say that the temporary suspension of prison admissions issued by Venezuelan Prison Minister Iris Varela last week is causing police stations to fill with detainees.
- Two soldiers were killed after a skirmish with FARC guerrillas in southwestern Colombia on Thursday.
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced in a radio interview Thursday that his second session of chemotherapy in Havana was going well and that he would win his fight against cancer.
- In contrast to his predecessor Alan García, critics say that current President Ollanta Humala has not made enough public speeches in his first two weeks in office.
Southern Cone
- Protesting Chilean students occupying a high school for two days were removed with tear gas and water cannons, resulting in an additional 50 arrests Thursday as students continue to call for educational reforms.
- The World Bank will hold a tribunal brought by Italian bondholders to determine whether Argentina should be held accountable for tens of thousands of defaulted bonds.
- Brazilian authorities are still unable to locate members of a previously uncontacted Amazonian tribe after their suspected run-in with drug traffickers in the area.
- Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner joined Uruguayan President José “Pepe” Mujica in forming a joint bid commission to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup in both their respective countries, 100 years after the first World Cup was held in Uruguay.
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