Latin America Digest: Today's one-line news briefs

Salvador, Brazil — Brazil’s President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday joined visiting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in calling on Israel to stop building new settlements in areas claimed by Palestinians.

Bogota, Colombia — Six people, including two children, were killed when suspected Colombian FARC guerrillas stopped and set fire to a bus traveling in the south of the country, a state governor said.

Guatemala City — Guatemalan officials announced the resumption of international adoptions after a nearly two-year suspension prompted by the discovery that some babies were being sold.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras — A Honduran television station that backs deposed President Manuel Zelaya accused the de facto government of interfering with its broadcast signal, replacing news programs with cowboy movies.

Mexico City — Rising oil prices and increased exports are slowly dragging Mexico’s economy out of a severe recession, but the nation’s financial system still faces fundamental challenges, national leaders and experts said.

-- Times wire reports

Filmmakers document consequences of U.S. immigration raid

Back in May 2008, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials rounded up 389 undocumented workers in the Agriprocessors Inc. kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. The raid was the largest in U.S history.

Two weeks later, filmmakers Jennifer Szymaszek and Greg Brosnan started filming "In the Shadow of the Raid," a documentary film showing at the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico. A 15-minute edit of the film was recently broadcast on PBS "Frontline's" website.

"In the Shadow of the Raid" delves into the consequences of the ICE raid for Postville and for some of the the migrants who were arrested and deported back to their homes in two rural villages in Guatemala.

Following the closure of the meatpacking plant, Postville businesses failed and livelihoods were destroyed.

In Guatemala, migrant Willian Toj returned to his wife and parents. Awaiting him was a massive debt that he accrued from his trip to the U.S. He had been working in the Postville plant for 20 minutes before the ICE raid.

Toj can barely earn enough to pay the monthly interest on the $7,000 debt, let alone get the funds to treat his mother's worsening cancer.

The tone of the documentary is observational rather than preachy, in the same vein as other recent works such as "Los Que Se Quedan / Those Who Remain." The filmmakers try to reflect some of the realities that contribute to why so many Central Americans and Mexicans head to the United States. But there are no ICE officials interviewed, no legal redresses sought. Brosnan and Szymaszek focus on the people affected by the raid, and the resulting film is a photographic testament to a sad reality.

Watch the video for more.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City.

Video: An interview with Jennifer Szymaszek and Greg Brosnan, directors of "In the Shadow of the Raid." All non-interview material courtesy of Szymaszek and Brosnan. Video interview by Deborah Bonello.

Guatemalan artists harness power of the web

Renata Avila, one of the authors of Global Voices, the international blog network, writes about how the web is being used by Guatemalan painters and artists, wherever they are in the world.

"Sebastián Sarti is Guatemalan, but was born in Costa Rica, where his Guatemalan father was exiled and married his Puerto Rican mother. He grew up in Nicaragua, lived for a while in Guatemala, and now he is dedicated to his paintings in Aix et à Marseille. He is sharing his works on his personal blog El Desorden de la Cabeza (The Mess Inside My Head)," writes Avila.

She goes on to feature Guatemalan artists in Antigua, New York and France - you can read about them and find links to their blogs here.

Global Voices was founded in 2005 by Rebecca MacKinnon, a former CNN bureau chief in Beijing and Tokyo, and Ethan Zuckerman, a technologist and Africa expert, while both were fellows at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. The idea for the project grew out of an international bloggers’ meeting held at Harvard in December 2004 and it began as a simple blog. (Here's a written report and podcast of that meeting).

— Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Guatemalan journalists in jeopardy, lack support from authorities and media owners

The dangers for journalists in Latin America continue, and the latest report is about Guatemala.

Reporters, media directors and human rights defenders say the greatest risk for journalists is exposure to violence combined with a lack of protection and a lack of commitment to investigate crimes against them, Inter Press Service and Cerigua report.

"It is definitely dangerous to work as a journalist in Guatemala," radio reporter María Teresa López tells Inter Press Service. Journalists outside the capital are especially vulnerable, she says, because "everyone knows us and knows what we’re doing."

The blog of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas reports that "the prosecutor's office for crimes against journalists took legal action on only one of the 36 complaints it received in 2008. But Walter Juárez of the Guatemalan Journalists Assn. says media owners share the responsibility. They "make the reporters stick their necks out by forcing them to sign their stories, while failing to do anything" to protect them, he says.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Mexico on high alert for Obama; Americas summit awaits

Mexico City is on high alert this morning as it awaits the arrival of U.S. President Barack Obama, expected here today in his first official visit to Mexico.

Horrors of Guatemala war subject of photo exhibition

“This struggle is not just their struggle, it’s our struggle,” said human rights activist and photographer Jonathan Moller at a reception for his photography exhibit, “Our Culture is Our Resistance," showing at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures in Bloomington, Ind.

The Indiana Daily Student reports that Moller discussed his experiences chronicling the brutal violence of Guatemala's 36-year civil war, which ended in 1996. He said the worst killing during years of fighting in Central America was the Guatemalan government's campaign against the country's indigenous, who represent between 60% and 65% of the population. The civil war left more than 200,000 people dead or disappeared, mostly civilians.

Read the rest of the report on the exhibition here.

You can see Moller's pictures here on his website.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Mayan new year celebrated in Guatemala

Guatemalans celebrated Mayan New Year on Sunday, which is the year 5125 in the Mayan solar calendar, according to the Prensa Latina news agency.

Fire ceremonies, dances and baseball games in different parts of the country were held in honor of the occasion.

According to the report,  celebrations of Mayan New Year in the past were held in secret. But, for the first time, different state institutions participated this year. They were led by the Culture Ministry, which organized lectures and workshops to debate about the date's significance.

AFP reports that the traditional celebration is important because it was a ritual observed by the ancestors of modern-day Mayans, a civilization that was once spread across central and south Mexico into the Yucatan and swaths of Central America.

Saturday concluded a week of transition between last year and this year --  the year of 'Iq,' or air, the breath of life.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Valentine's Day in Latin America

Forbes magazine takes a peek at Valentine's Day around the world and includes Mexico, Brazil and Guatemala in its sweep.

Valentine's Day, or the day of "love and friendship" (amor y amistad), as it's called here in Mexico City, is a hit with many Mexicans.

"According to Jennifer Hirsch, professor of socio-medical sciences at Columbia University, the 'red rain' begins as soon as Christmas is over. It is common for Mexican men and women to exchange flowers, red balloons and anything red and heart-shaped. The gift-giving is an expression of love and prosperity, says Hirsch, especially among migrant laborers."

The Brazilians, on the other hand, celebrate  Dia dos Namorados ("the day of lovers") on June 12, not Feb. 14, in honor of St. Anthony, patron saint of matchmaking and marriage.

"Single women perform rituals, like writing the names of their crushes on pieces of paper the night before, folding them up and then opening one on the big day to determine who they should marry," reports Forbes.

And in Guatemala, El Día del Cariño, "the day of affection," is much like Valentine's Day in the U.S, only broader.

Guatemalans exchange flowers, chocolates and cards, but the day is also about showing fondness for friends and colleagues.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Antigua, Guatemala, is Wanderlust's top city for travel

Readers of the U.K. travel magazine Wanderlust voted the Guatemalan city of Antigua tops for travel in the magazine's annual awards. The Central American city bested Luang Prabang in Laos, winner for the previous two years, to the title.

The decision by U.K. readers and voters was noted with pride by the Guatemala Times in this report, in which Barbara Schieber wrote that it "is a great pride for Guatemala that La Antigua has been chosen as number one city in the world to visit. Number two is Kyoto in Japan, that is a tough one to beat. Paris and New York did not make it to the top ten."

Latin America has been doing well in travel awards of late. Mexico City was declared the world's top religious tourist destination in January, and Peru and Mexico's Michoacan were named two of the top ten cultural destination in the world by Forbes magazine.

Latin American countries dominated the Ethical Traveler's top 10 travel destinations and Conde Nast Traveler's readers' choice awards voted Mexico's San Miguel de Allende and Oaxaca among hemisphere's top 10 cities to visit.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Violence against journalists continues in Latin America

Attacks on the Press 2008: Carl Bernstein on Self-Censorship of the Press from Meredith Megaw on Vimeo.

Here in Mexico, we keep our eye on the frequent press-freedom reports that come out, given the high levels of violence against journalists in the country and the culture of impunity that abounds.

Tuesday's release by the Committee to Protect Journalists, sadly, held no surprises.