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Axios Latino: One more drink and other things you should know this week

2021-09-02T19:46:20.778Z


The flights of death before justice; Central American cannabis; and the impact of Hurricane Ida on Latinos: read our weekly newsletter on the most important news for Hispanic communities in the US and in Latin America.


By Marina E. Franco and Russell Contreras

Welcome to Axios Latino, a newsletter to tell you every week 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 the newsletter in your email (in English), you can do so by clicking here.

Every week we will publish it in Spanish on Noticias Telemundo.

[Sign up here to read the newsletter in Spanish]

Announcement Before You Begin: This newsletter will be published twice a week starting September 7.

1 theme to highlight: More drinks due to stress

Hispanic women were among the groups that

increased their alcohol consumption the most in the past year, probably in response to increased stress and more responsibilities for caring for family members during the pandemic, according to a study.

What's happening

: The data contrasts with a historical trend in which Latinas reported more alcohol withdrawal than non-Hispanic whites, according to data from the National Institutes of Health.

  • Researchers in the RTI International study attribute the increase in part to "increased stress" from the aftermath of the pandemic for the "most marginalized communities with fewer resources," such as Latina and black women.

  • Hispanics in general have been hit hard by COVID-19 infections and deaths, and experts predict that unemployment and uninsured rates will continue to be especially high for Latina and black women.

  • Last year, overdose deaths from opioid use also soared among Latinos in general.

This campaign provides the Latino community with greater resources to take care of mental health

Aug. 27, 202103: 37

In numbers

: Hispanic women reported having 2.5 more drinks per month between February and November of last year.

  • Before 2020, alcohol dependence had decreased for Latinos of all genders ages 12 and up, and their alcohol use had remained mostly stable in 2019, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

  • Historically, Puerto Rican men and women have been the Hispanic group that drank the most, while Cubans and Mexican women were the least, on average.

Highlights

: Hispanics with substance abuse problems such as alcoholism tend to develop medical problems earlier.

  • Studies show that Latinos get liver disease from alcohol abuse, such as cirrhosis, when they are four to ten years younger than non-Hispanic blacks and whites.

  • Chronic liver disease is one of the leading causes of death for both Latino men and women, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Between the lines

: The increase in substance abuse among Hispanics in recent years has not coincided with increased timely access to rehabilitation services.

  • Aggravated by the stigma of seeking help and obstacles to getting help, more than 90% of Latinos with drug or alcohol addictions do not receive treatment, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

  • Very few places in the United States offer detoxification services in Spanish or bilingual for Hispanics in need.

2. Hispanics, waiting for help in Louisiana

Days after Hurricane Ida made

landfall in Louisiana, many of the state's Latino residents are still waiting for help amid the heat, lack of electricity, food and clean water.

An Army of Latino Workers Go to Louisiana to Help Hurricane Recovery

Sept.

2, 202102: 01

Details

: The storm left many homes and apartments uninhabitable on the stretch between the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Pontchartrain, where many of the state's Latinos reside.

  • Ida devastated areas like LaPlace, home to many Latinos who lost their mobile homes or were still in their homes unable to leave due to flooding.

  • Before hitting the US as a Category 4 hurricane, Ida struck Cuba as a Category 1 hurricane. Last Friday in parts of the island that depend on crops, now affected by flooding, and where it has not yet been fully restored electrical service.

Latinos are also among those offering

help in Louisiana, such as collaborators with Spanish chef José Andrés, who have been preparing meals and distributing them to those affected.

General situation

: Last week, Hurricane Nora, which left two dead in Mexico, and heavy rains in Venezuela, where at least 20 people lost their lives in the state of Mérida, also exposed the vulnerabilities of Latinos around the world. hemisphere facing the effects of climate change.

  • Climate events are also driving migration, as happened after Hurricanes Eta and Iota in Honduras and Guatemala in 2020.

3. This Latin activist

favors parole for the assassination of a Kennedy

Dolores Huerta, the Mexican-American who is a leader in the fight for civil rights

and who was alongside Robert F. Kennedy moments before he was assassinated, told Axios Latino that perhaps it is a "good thing" that her murderer can get parole after more than half a century in prison.

Dolores Huerta (red) with then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968, before the politician was assassinated.

Frank Carroll / NBC NewsWire

The Big Picture

: The California Parole Board recommended the release of 77-year-old Sirhan Sirhan last week, prompting split reactions among members of the Kennedy family.

  • Huerta said he has had conversations with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a former Kennedy adviser, Paul Schrade, who question official accounts of the assassination.

In his own words

: "There have been many questions about whether Sirhan was actually the person who killed Robert Kennedy," Huerta told Axios Latino.

"I think the fact that the guy gets paroled is probably a good thing," he added.

[The Hispanic who helped Robert Kennedy in his last moments dies at 68]

In Context

: Kennedy, a senator from New York, had won the California Democratic presidential primaries shortly before his assassination, and for that he had publicly thanked Huerta for helping him mobilize voters of Mexican and Asian descent.

The other version

: Authorities have repeatedly rejected RFK Jr.'s theories that Sirhan may not have been the only person to shoot, with the killer himself admitting to opening fire.

4. Approaching justice, four decades later

Portraits of people disappeared during the last Argentine dictatorship were placed outside the Comodoro Py court, in Buenos Aires, during one of the trials against military officers accused of torture in the so-called "ESMA Megacause" of 2017. Javier González Toledo / AFP via Getty Images

For the first time, Argentina is carrying out a trial

against members of the Army for the death flights, an operation with which thousands of dissidents were drugged, forced to board military planes and thrown into the ocean to drown between 1976 and 1983.

Why it matters

: The trial shows how Latin American countries are still trying to deal with the damage done by dictatorships to provide a modicum of justice more than 40 years later.

  • With testimonies arising from the trials, this week the Argentine authorities located a mass grave where some of the bodies that floated back to the coast had been buried.

  • Five retired soldiers are accused of killing three men and a woman whose bodies ended up on the shores of Buenos Aires.

  • It is believed that there were one or two death flights per week, with planes each time carrying some 25 people who had been arbitrarily detained.

  • The Campo de Mayo judicial process takes place in videoconference sessions open to the public every Monday.

  • The trial began in October after prosecutors collected more than 400 statements from former officers and witnesses confirming the existence of the flights.

[This man did not cut his sister's phone line.

40 years later he received a call]

Noteworthy

: Investigations into similar claims have benefited, in part, from the ongoing declassification of US government documents.

In diplomatic reports, briefings and cables, US agents at the time speak in detail about the anti-human rights tactics, demonstrating that they were aware of them while they were being perpetrated.

  • The Chilean, Paraguayan and Uruguayan dictatorships are also known to carry out death flights during the same time.

5. Summary of key news from Latin America and the Caribbean

The UN asks to investigate the use of force against a caravan of migrants in Mexico

Sept.

1, 202101: 29

Mexican agents have been recorded

beating

migrants

in recent days, allegedly to disperse caravans of people seeking to go to the United States.

The families, mostly Haitian and Central American, say they had applied for asylum in the southern state of Chiapas several months ago, but decided to go further north after getting no response.

  • As part of an agreement with the US, Mexico has also been expelling asylum seekers and migrants: first they are flown from Texas to southern Mexico and then taken by bus to remote Guatemalan villages.

Panama is about to become the first

Central American

country

to legalize marijuana, as this Monday the National Assembly voted unanimously in favor of the use of medicinal and therapeutic cannabis.

  • The measure had been pushed for five years by activists, but it still needs a final go-ahead from the president, Laurentino Cortizo, before it becomes law.

The Venezuelan opposition is

ending

its electoral boycott, after years of claiming that they are just a mechanism for the Chavista regime of President Nicolás Maduro to commit fraud while pretending that it is an open and democratic vote.

  • With the opposition participation, scheduled for the governor's elections in November, it will be the first time since 2017 that they agree to be on the ballot, amid negotiations that seek to end the country's political stalemate.

6. Mountains surpassed

A project in Brazil enables people in wheelchairs to practice mountaineering

Aug. 30, 202101: 56

Brazilians with mobility problems

can now climb the highest mountains in Rio de Janeiro, even though they do not have accessible trails.

Details

: Volunteers from the Montanha em Movimento group use a specially designed stretcher,

rappel,

loading wheelchairs with safety straps, or carry people up and down the mountains.

  • Among the offerings are night hikes that allow Brazilians with disabilities to reach the top of the mountain just before sunrise, to see the sunrise from above.

Thanks for reading, until next week.

Do you want to see any of the previous editions?

- The racism of immigration laws

- The multiracial revolution 

- The political battle that is coming

- Shooting against Latinos 

- Recommended reading for this summer: new Latin American voices

- Olympic hopes despite obstacles 

- Behind the multiple crises due to COVID-19 in Latin America

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-09-02

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