Latin America

Following a historic election victory by the progressive Semilla Party in Guatemala, Latino Rebels Radio producer Oscar Fernandez steps in as guest host to welcome Marco Fonseca, Instructor of Latin American and International Studies at York University in Canada, to discuss how this election almost didn’t happen.

For the first time in history, Cuba will be represented in the Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. A new documentary by Havana-based media organization Belly of the Beast, titled ‘Little League Dreams,’ showcases the young players and their individual journeys.

‘The Eternal Memory,’ by chilena documentarian Maite Alberdi, tells the story of one brave couple that courageously faced both a dictatorship and then a terrible disease—and is the most moving love story you’ll see on any screen this year.

Kenya says it is ready to lead the deployment of a multinational armed force in Haiti and will include 1,000 of its own police officers in the fight to help the Haitian National Police restore law and order by fighting off the 200 or so gangs whose rampant violence has been terrorizing Haitians in recent years.

Bernardo Arévalo of the progressive Movimiento Semilla won just 11 percent of the vote in the presidential election’s first round on June 25, but it was enough to give him the surprise second slot in the August 20 runoff ballot.

During a recent summit in Brussels, a coalition of all but one member country of the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States adopted a host of measures that included another call for the United States to lift its sanctions on Cuba.

Latin America is taking Barbie mania to an extreme, with everything from pink-colored tacos and pastries, commercial planes bearing the Barbie logo, political ads, and even Barbie-themed protests.

More than 50 of the world’s top economists have slammed Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) for recent remarks he made about Cuba and Venezuela, asking that he “stop spreading the false narrative” that there is no connection between the crises in those countries and the U.S. sanctions against them.

‘La Sombra del Sol,’ by Venezuelan-American writer-director Miguel Ángel Ferrer, is a film that shows both its lead characters facing real and difficult challenges. Actor Carlos Manuel González calls it “a great feel-good movie about brotherhood, about hope, about following your dreams, about not giving up.”

On Tuesday the Cuban government issued a statement denouncing the recent presence of a nuclear submarine at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

This week, Latino Rebels Radio is proud to present the first episode of SOS Central America, hosted by Maria Martin, creator and founding team member of Latino USA.

“Politics is a small word when you talk about human rights,” said Beatriz Luengo, director of the new documentary Patria y Vida: The Power of Music, which screened at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) known earlier this summer and is now on the festival circuit.

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — A Guatemalan tribunal sentenced newspaper founder José Rubén Zamora to six years in prison Wednesday in a money laundering case, concluding a trial that press freedom groups decried as a political persecution aimed at silencing a critical voice.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — In his first visit to Latin America, Iran’s hardline president on Monday met with his Venezuelan counterpart and declared that both countries have “a common enemy,” alluding to the United States, before signing a series of cooperation agreements.

Nelson Hernández, a North Carolina hip-hop artist who worked in the U.S. installing floors, was arrested in January while visiting El Salvador for his wedding.

González and four other transgender women testified at the trial of former security officers in April on charges of crimes against humanity, part of what human-rights lawyers and activists call Argentina’s long-overdue effort to recognize the suffering of the trans community under military rule from 1976 to 1983. Members of the community took part in a demonstration last month in support of a bill under discussion in a congressional committee that would provide a lifetime pension for trans people over 40.

The 22nd edition of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival kicks off Wednesday with a special screening of Eva Longoria’s directorial debut in ‘Flamin’ Hot,’ but here are eight other titles you may not get to see anywhere else.

Coming a day after a pro-government May Day demonstration in the capital city of Havana on Friday, Cubans in the municipality of Caimanera, near the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, marched in protest against the government.

“I wanted to write my own history, add a piece, and make it from the point of view of a woman, the anonymous woman,” says Manuel Martelli, co-writer and director of ‘Chile ‘76,’ which offers up a slice of bourgeoisie life under the infamous dictator Augusto Pinochet.

‘Chile ’76’ and ‘The Cow Who Sang a Song Into the Future’ not only announce the arrival of two distinctive, idiosyncratic voices, but directors Manuela Martelli and Francisca Alegría are harbingers of what is yet to come from Latin American cinema.

Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador’s nods to Russia and China are often read as a jealousy game in the U.S. bilateral relationship. Regional leaders claim sovereignty and multipolarity as their mantra. Experts say that non-ideological short-term calculus and a search for impunity are instead guiding their actions.