By Marina E. Franco and Russell Contreras
Welcome to Axios Latino
, a newsletter designed to tell you every Thursday the stories that have a special impact on the Latino communities in the United States and in Latin America.
If you are interested in subscribing and receiving it in your mail in English, you can do so by clicking here.
Every week we will publish the
newsletter
here on Noticias Telemundo also in Spanish for those who prefer it in this language.
1 topic to highlight: Planting trees and bizarre proposals to address migration
Eniola Odetunde / Axios
A group of US politicians and the president of Mexico
are pushing for development projects in Central America to reduce the exodus from the region.
Why it matters
:
For years, specialists have warned that increasing border surveillance is not enough to make migratory flows more manageable.
And that, instead, surveillance needs to be complemented with medium and long-term plans that improve the living conditions of people, who otherwise feel forced to leave their homes.
Issues for improvement include long-standing problems, such as violence, corruption and poverty (which have worsened during the pandemic), and more recent problems such as the devastation by hurricanes Eta and Iota in November, which disappeared villages whole and the way of life of many.
Hispanic representatives
in Congress are calling for a program like the Marshall Plan to be established, with which the US helped Western Europe rebuild after World War II.
Joaquín Castro, Democratic representative for Texas, told Axios that without this development plan "we will be condemned to repeat the same cycles over and over again."
Representative Veronica Escobar, also from Texas, commented that a development plan is needed but that it must be hemispheric, with contributions from countries such as Canada or Panama, and not depend solely on the United States.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador
has an additional proposal.
He suggests expanding an agricultural and tree-growing program, with which he ensures that people who migrate will have less urgency because they will have work in which the US authorities review pending asylum cases or green cards.
AMLO will propose to Biden a regional migration plan that includes work visas and grants nationality to immigrants
April 19, 202101: 06
And now what comes:
The White House budget plans include $ 800 million in foreign funding to combat violence, poverty and corruption in Central America.
And in matters of rhetoric, the Biden Administration has ordered to change the terms that immigration agencies use to refer to people, such as the use of
alien
, which will be replaced by "migrant person."
The Government has also been paying the people who will care for or sponsor unaccompanied minors so that they can travel to the centers where the children and adolescents are housed to take them home as their immigration procedures progress.
2. One more year in search of justice
The entrance to the Guillén house turned into an altar for Vanessa.
The mother, Gloria, sits at least once a day to pray to her with a rosary.Damià Bonmatí
This Thursday marks the first anniversary that Private Vanessa Guillén was reported missing from the Fort Hood base.
His case was key for there to be a review of the actions of the armed forces at that base, which was later indicated in an independent report as promoting a “permissive environment” towards crimes.
Promoting the issue:
Guillén's family will be in Washington DC this weekend advocating that congressmen pass a law in honor of the soldier, which will be voted on on May 10.
The “I am Vanessa Guillén” law, named after the hashtag that went viral after the disappearance of the soldier, would make the armed forces investigate cases of sexual harassment or abuse at their bases without involving the direct bosses of the person who denounces.
The background
: Guillén, 20, disappeared in April of last year after telling her mother that she was being harassed by a superior of hers.
The young woman's family had to insist that the authorities search for her, and Guillén's body was found months later.
The motive of who murdered her and the main suspect, who also claimed to be the last person to see her alive, remained free for weeks and ended up committing suicide.
During the search for Guillén, the bodies of other soldiers who had disappeared from the base were even found.
A year after the disappearance and murder of Vanessa Guillén, her family is still waiting for answers
April 22, 202 104: 02
The general situation:
The Guillén case caused the armed forces to begin to recognize the problems that exist for women and minority recruits at their bases.
They have promised to implement reforms.
Meanwhile, another 20-year-old Latino soldier, Juan Muñoz, is currently reported missing from his base in New Mexico.
3. A life preserver for boys and girls in Venezuela
Ronaikel Brito, 16, rummages through empty milk cartons in the Pavia garbage dump on the outskirts of Barquisimeto, Venezuela, in March 2021.
The Government of Venezuela and the UN food agency have just reached an agreement for the international body to provide meals for children in the most food insecure areas of the South American country.
Why it matters:
Venezuelans of school age have been particularly affected by the country's food shortages and sky-high food prices;
there are cases of children fainting from poor nutrition and even children dying from hunger or from eating tubers they did not know were poisonous in their desperation to have something in their stomach.
However, the Nicolás Maduro regime for a long time refused to accept food assistance and continued to promote its subsidy program with food boxes called CLAP.
The CLAP boxes are not without controversy: an investigation discovered that the powdered milk they contained was not even milk, and the US Treasury Department accused several businessmen and people close to Maduro of using the CLAP program to divert public resources.
In figures:
A third of the Venezuelan population does not eat what they need, according to an analysis by the World Food Program, and a survey of living conditions indicates that the average Venezuelan has lost up to 13 kilograms of weight due to having to skip meals.
4. Chicago is required to investigate the police for the death of a Hispanic teenager
Adam Toledo case: Nacho Lozano wonders how they are training US police officers.
April 16, 202103: 49
Lawyers and activists in Chicago want the US Department of Justice to intervene in the city after a video came to light showing how police shot to kill a 13-year-old boy with his hands up.
Why it matters:
Advocates are asking that in the process of reviewing how the police use force, in the face of the furor caused by cases like George Floyd's, not forget the impact on Latinos of how law enforcement acts.
Latinos suffer the second highest rate of deaths at the hands of the police, after black people, according to an analysis of the data by the Washington Post.
Adam Toledo, the 13-year-old boy of Mexican descent who was shot by police, died during a manhunt on March 29 in Little Village, Chicago, a mostly Hispanic neighborhood.
Police camera video shows that he was shot with his hands raised and empty, although officers first described what happened as an armed “confrontation”.
5. Latinos are reluctant to get vaccinated, even though they are eligible
Still have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine?
A doctor answers the most controversial questions
April 21, 202103: 21
Half of the people of Latino descent in the US who have not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19 say they do not want to be immunized, in part because of the misinformation that is circulating on social networks regarding vaccines.
Why it matters:
A Latino infected with coronavirus is three times more likely to have to be hospitalized, and twice as likely to die.
However, there are still difficulties in accessing doses and, at the same time, reluctance to get vaccinated due to false information campaigns is growing.
51% of Latinos surveyed said they did not trust vaccines to be safe, despite all the worldwide studies on the matter, and 32% said they do not trust drug companies, according to a poll by the Voto Latino group.
The distrust figures increase among US Latinos who speak Spanish at home: two-thirds of them are uncertain whether to get vaccinated in part because of information against vaccines they have seen on Facebook.
More detailed
information
:
The false information that is transmitted on social networks adds to the historical distrust of medical authorities by certain Latino communities.
To combat it, a bilingual campaign has just been launched with artists such as Benicio del Toro and Zoe Saldaña, who wants to motivate more agents to go to vaccination centers now that all people over 16 years of age are eligible.
Although many Latinos who would be looking for the vaccine have not been able to get it due to difficulties in making an appointment on websites that do not have information other than in English or to go to the sites where the doses are distributed.
In his own words:
"If we care about the health of our relatives, loved ones, neighbors, and we want to be able to return to a normal life, then we all have to get vaccinated," said Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, appealing to the community through Noticias Telemundo.
6. Impediments to press freedom are growing
The press freedom index shows that almost all of Latin America has a “problematic” or “difficult” situation (orange and red) and that in Cuba it is “very serious” (black).
Reporters Without Borders
The worst setback for press freedom globally has occurred in the Americas over the past year, according to the most recent Reporters Without Borders (RSF) index.
Why it matters:
Censorship has been on the rise in Latin America for several years, with red flags especially in countries like Mexico, where some journalists even self-censor so that they don't get killed for doing their job.
But now RSF warns that the situation is also worsening in other nations, such as El Salvador - where there were police seizures of journalistic material - and Guatemala, where the president, Alejandro Giammattei, said that "he would like to put a curfew on the media."
President of Guatemala is criticized for alleged 'practical joke' at the doors of congress
March 19, 2020
In short:
RSF highlights that Brazil is the country that committed the most offenses at the regional level towards freedom of the press.
The president, Jair Bolsonaro, threatened to hit journalists in the face and has accused the newspapers of generating "social chaos" because they are reporting the actual numbers of deaths from COVID-19.
7. To the sound of his baton, from Barquisimeto to Paris
Gustavo Dudamel has just been appointed the musical director for the National Opera in Paris, something unprecedented for any Hispanic musician, which is a milestone and a sign of diversification for one of the world's most renowned cultural sites.
Dudamel will also continue to be the artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and will continue with his work as a mentor and director of the youth orchestras of the Venezuelan System that gave him flight, since in Venezuela music is one of the few reliefs for many minors.
As context:
Dudamel is the first Venezuelan person to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and moves easily between settings of more classical culture and more popular culture: he has been a guest conductor for the recording of
Star's
music.
Wars: The Force
Awakens has played with Coldplay at the 2016 Super Bowl and made many stop dancing with moments like this:
8. Renovations from heaven
Christ could use a touch-up, and it will happen this way in Rio de Janeiro.
The restoration of Christ the Redeemer begins in Brazil for the celebrations for its 90 years
March 26, 202100: 19
One of the most recognizable statues in the world is undergoing a restoration and renovation process, by the architect Cristina Ventura, with a view to finishing it by October when it is the 90th anniversary of Christ the Redeemer.
The renovation team begins at dawn by abseiling the statue, located on top of a 2,700-foot-high mountain (or 700 meters above sea level).
They work to repair small cracks and to re-waterproof the stone, all before 8am when tourists start to arrive at the site.
Thanks for reading,
until next week.