Blog, Latin America: Week in Review
U.S. Supreme Court will Review Arizona Immigration Law
December 13, 2011 By Staff
Today in Latin America
Top Story — The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it would review Arizona’s controversial immigration law. The court’s eventual decision will determine the validity not only of Arizona’s SB 1070, but also of similar laws passed in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah that have been challenged by the Obama administration on the grounds that it is the federal government’s right to enforce immigration. Among other things, the Arizona law mandates that police check the status of anyone they detain and suspect of being in the country illegally, forbids illegal immigrants to seek work, and requires all immigrants to carry documentation. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, who signed SB 1070 in April 2010, applauded the Supreme Court’s announcement that it would review the rulings that have so far blocked parts of the law from taking effect. Also on Monday, a federal judge in Alabama blocked a portion of that state’s immigration law, which requires residents of mobile homes to show proof of citizenship when registering their homes with the state.
Read more from the Christian Science Monitor.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced Monday that authorities had captured alleged Zeta leader “El Lucky” Raúl Fernández, one of Mexico’s most-wanted criminals.
- Mexican peace activist and poet Javier Sicilia led a march down Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma to draw attention to the thousands of people who are missing since the beginning of Mexico’s drug war.
- More than 5 million pilgrims traveled to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City to pay tribute to the country’s patron saint.
Caribbean
- The Puerto Rican government rejected local economists’ analysis that Puerto Rico has become a “narco-state” and that 20 percent of GDP comes from drug trafficking.
- Pope Benedict XVI announced in the Vatican that he would visit Cuba and Mexico before Easter next year.
- American celebrities Oprah Winfrey and Sean Penn toured an encampment of displaced Haitians in Port-au-Prince on Monday to promote the work of Penn’s aid group. Louis Farrakhan also arrived on a separate trip.
Central America
- A mysterious kidney disease possibly caused by agricultural chemicals is killing men who work in Central American sugarcane fields along the Pacific coast.
- Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted to block President Barack Obama’s appointment of Mari Carmen Aponte as ambassador to El Salvador over concerns about her former Cuban boyfriend and her support of gay rights.
- Manuel Noriega was immediately taken to El Renacer prison after arriving in Panama Sunday night after a 22-year absence.
Andes
- Human Rights Watch criticized a bill before the Colombian government to allow greater military jurisdiction over charges of human rights abuses by security forces rather than letting civilian courts preside over such cases.
- Colombia on Monday extradited alleged drug trafficker Ramón Quintero to the U.S. to face charges for shipping drugs through Mexican cartels.
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez launched a government program on Monday to give needy Venezuelan families $100 a month per child for up to three children.
- Remains found in a Quito cemetery may belong to two Colombian brothers who went missing in 1988.
Southern Cone
- Brazil’s Folha de São Paulo newspaper reported Monday that Brazil’s military government supported the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile between 1973 and 1976, based on an analysis of 266 telegrams.
- Uruguayan President José Mujica said that regional trade bloc Mercosur may revise its rules to get past the Paraguayan Senate’s rejection of Venezuela’s full incorporation into the group.
- Brazilian doctors announced Monday that former Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s tumor has shrunk 75 percent after two chemotherapy sessions.
Image: edwardweston52 @ Flickr.
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