Latino Daily News: Bringing You the Latest Hispanic Current Events and News Stories 24/7

The forest fires affecting eastern Spain have already destroyed some 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) in the province of Valencia and continue to spread, given that ongoing changes in wind direction are making it difficult for authorities to control and extinguish them.

More than 2,000 people worked all night to try and put out the worst fires Spain has experienced since 1994, which have produced a huge cloud of smoke and ash that on Sunday morning covered a large part of Valencia.

The difficulty in controlling the blazes was confirmed on Sunday by the Military Emergency Unit, or UME, which said that - although 900 soldiers were sent to the zone to help with firefighting tasks - the situation is still problematic because “the wind changes direction constantly and the temperature is high.”

“It’s rather difficult to handle the situation,” said an official from the UME, which has also dispatched fire engines and 250 other vehicles to the region, as well as three helicopters.

The UME has been deployed in the area since last Thursday, when a fire broke out in the town of Cortes de Pallas, and UME personnel are analyzing the “defense of sensitive points, like areas where there could be people and homes.”

According to government sources, Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz is following the situation in Valencia, where the Civil Protection service has declared a Level 2 emergency, which activates national aid for the region to deal with the catastrophe, although the management of the alert and leadership in handling the situation continue to reside with the autonomous regional authorities.

The general director of the Civil Guard, Arsenio Fernandez de Mesa, met with the head of that institution in Valencia, Gen. Fernando Santafe Soler, and other top officials to evaluate the situation. More than 300 members of that security force are working to battle the fires in the area.

Officials with the State Meteorological Agency told Efe that the minimum temperatures will fall somewhat on Sunday night and that they are expecting a notable decline in maximum temperatures on Monday, while the east wind that is forecast to blow starting in the afternoon should help firefighters extinguish the blazes.

In fact, on Sunday morning a light rain fell in the northern part of the Castellon district and on zones affected by the Andilla fire, which broke out on Friday.

During the night, 1,100 people participated in efforts to put out the fire in the town of Cortes de Pallas (another focal point of the blazes), and 800 more were working in Andilla trying to establish a perimeter to prevent the fires from spreading and stabilize them.

Currently, about 20 municipalities have been affected by the fires and 14 highways have been cut due to heavy smoke.

The firefighting teams are also trying to prevent the Andilla fire from spreading into the Sierra Calderona nature park.

Read more by HS News Staff →

A stone found in Guatemala carved by the Mayas some 1,300 years ago states that the ancient civilization’s 13th “baktun” period - each of which lasts some 400 years - will end on Dec. 21, the second historical reference found regarding the ancient civilization’s pending calendar change.

The find was announced this past week by Guatemalan and U.S. archaeologists who explained that they uncovered the stone last April at a dig being worked by students from Guatemala’s Universidad Del Valle, Tulane and the University of Texas.

U.S. archaeologist David Stuart, one of the experts who announced the find, said that the carved steps on which the stone was found contains the longest Mayan text discovered to date in Guatemala.

This is the second reference ever found regarding the change in the Maya calendar. The other was uncovered at a site called Tortuguero in Mexico’s Tabasco state, he said.

The stone was found among several panels making up the stairway found at the La Corona dig, an archaeological site uncovered in 1999 in Peten, a region in northern Guatemala bordering on Mexico and Belize, countries where - along with Honduras and El Salvador - the Mayan civilization once thrived.

According to Stuart, an epigraphist with the University of Texas, the stone makes reference to 13 Baktun, the Maya calendar based on 394-year periods, known as “baktuns,” with each era made up of 13 cycles that added up to 5,125 years, and it was carved to commemorate the visit of the king of the Maya city of Calakmul.

The Maya calendar was divided into 20-year segments, each one called a “katun,” and 20 of these periods made up one baktun.

King Yuknoon Yich’aak K’ahk, who was the most powerful Maya leader of the time, visited La Corona on Nov. 29, 696, some 13 centuries ago.

The written text on the stone refers to the end of 13 Baktun on Dec. 21, 2012, he said.

The glyphs carved on stone by the Mayas do not set forth any prophecies but rather record actual historical events from the 7th century, the U.S. expert said.

He said that the stones discuss events in the lives of the leaders and nobles of La Corona and list their names in order, and they also mention the queens who were part of the dynasty but were from Calakmul.

Stuart cited as an example the figure of a noble who is speaking with the king of Calakmul, which was a Maya capital, and that of another man who is seated on a Maya throne where feathers of quetzals (Guatemala’s symbolic bird) are carved and glyphs refer to a war.

La Corona was a much smaller center than Calakmul, but it was strongly linked with that capital, Stuart said.

Guatemalan archaeologist Tomas Barrientos said that the stairway is made up of many panels but only 22 have been found after being discarded by looters. And just 12 of the panels have glyphs carved upon them.

“So, we feel that this is one of the longest Maya texts in history” because the panels form part of the frontal stairway of the building that experts believe was a residence, Barrientos said.

U.S. archaeologist Marcelo Canuto, who since 2005 has been coordinating the La Corona research project, said that the site was looted and the monuments bearing glyphs and other carvings were “the most desired and coveted.”

Canuto said that La Corona was initially known as “Q” as a result of the looted panels that are on display in U.S., Australian and European museums.

In his opinion, the looters discarded the “ugliest” panels and took only the “prettiest.”

“The looting shows that something important existed at La Corona,” Canuto, the director of Middle American Research Institute at Tulane University, said.

“We’ve found many hieroglyphic monuments and we’re trying to make a map of the site to see how it looked in the past, what its population was like and the use of animals they had to understand the social, political and economic life of the place,” he said.

Guatemala is preparing to commemorate the end of 13 Baktun at several Maya archaeological sites.

The Mayan predictions for December 2012 were about the return of the god Bolon Yokte and not about the end of the world, experts say.

The Dec. 21, 2012, date found on Mayan glyphs led to speculation about Maya prophecies of the end of the world, prompting archaeologists and epigraphists to deny them.

In the Mayan cosmology, a cycle of creation was completed at the end of each era and then another began.

Bolon Yokote is a god associated with creation and war that participated in the start of the current era, which began on Aug. 13, 3114 B.C.

The idea that the pre-Hispanic civilization predicted the end of the world in 2012 has been popular in some New Age circles since the 1970s.

Read more by HS News Staff →

One suspected criminal was killed and nine others, including six Guatemalans, were arrested following a shootout between the security forces and gunmen in Xalapa, the capital of Mexico’s Veracruz state, security officials said.

The shootout started Saturday after police and marines went to a hotel where armed men had been spotted.

The gunmen opened fire on the security forces members, who returned fire and even used fragmentation grenades against the criminals.

The engagement spread to other parts of Xalapa, security officials said, adding that one of the suspects was killed and nine others surrendered at a safe house apparently belonging to the gang.

The suspects beloging to a cell of a criminal organization, the Navy Secretariat said.

Veracruz has been plagued by a turf war between rival drug cartels that has sent the state’s murder rate skyrocketing over the past 18 months.

The federal government launched “Operation Safe Veracruz” last October in an effort to stem the wave of drug-related violence in the Gulf state.

On June 12, police found the remains of 14 people stuffed into an abandoned SUV on the Alamo-Potrero del Llano state highway near Los Cuates, a ranch in northern Veracruz close to the border with Tamaulipas.

The Gulf, Los Zetas and Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartels, as well as breakaway members of the once-powerful La Familia Michoacana organization, are fueling the violence in the state.

Veracruz, Mexico’s third-most populous state, is coveted as a key drug-trafficking corridor to the United States, officials say.

President Felipe Calderon declared war on Mexico’s drug cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006, deploying tens of thousands of soldiers and Federal Police officers across the country to combat drug cartels and other criminal organizations.

The death toll in Mexico’s drug war stands at more than 50,000 since 2006.

Read more by HS News Staff →

Spain has won the Euro 2012 title, making this their third major soccer title.  Spain defeated Italy 4-0 to gain the title today in the finals.

Spaniards Jordi Alba, Juan Mata, David Silva and Fernando Torres each scored in the game, with the final two goals coming in the final minutes of the competition. 

Spain has now won the Euro title twice, last time in 2008 and also won the World Cup title in 2010.  The Spain team was coached by 61-year-old Vicente Del Bosque that also lead the World Cup team to victory. 

The final was held in Kiev at their Olympic Stadium and capped off three weeks of non-stop soccer competition with 16 teams participating.

Win this decisive win Spain is undoubtedly ‘El Rey’ of world football. 

Read more by HS News Staff →

Shrimp and cheese are a great combination, and the addition of salsa and sour cream creates a balance of flavors for these easy to make quesadillas.

Summer is here, V&V Supremo; one of the nation’s oldest family-run Hispanic food business, wants to share some authentic recipes to celebrate the Fourth of July ¡a la Mexicana!

Shrimp Quesadillas

Ingredients

4 Flour tortillas
1 Cup Chihuahua cheese, shredded
8 Medium size shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 Tbsp. lime juice
½ Cup of the sauce of your choice
1 Tbsp. corn oil
Ground black pepper
Salt
½ Cup sour cream

Preparation

1. Cut each shrimp in 4 pieces, place in bowl and mix with lime juice and a dash of salt and pepper.

2. Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat, add shrimp. Cook, stirring, until shrimp firm up and just cook through. (Approx. 2 minutes) Remove from heat.

3. Place a large skillet over medium heat, place one tortilla in skillet, and top with one quarter of the Chihuahua cheese, one quarter of the shrimp and salsa. Fold tortilla in half.

4. Repeat process with as many tortillas as will fit in skillet. Turn quesadillas from time to time for even browning.

Serving

Quesadillas can be presented whole or cut in half and served with sour cream.

Variations, Tips, Shortcuts

Use precooked shrimp

Yields 4 servings

Read more by HS News Staff →

Mexican actor Demian Bichir on Friday made a stout defense of films as an art that reflects the times, a good example being his latest film, “Savages,” Oliver Stone’s take on the world of drug trafficking.

The 48-year-old performer told Efe in an interview that movies like “Savages,” to premiere in the United States on July 6, “put the finger in the wound of what the problem of drug trafficking really means.”

The adaptation of Don Winslow’s 2010 novel “Savages” portrays with raw credibility the clash between two young Americans who grow marijuana and a fictional Mexican cartel known for its savagery.

The film may well offend the sensibilities of some moviegoers but will undoubtedly attract “millions of people waiting to see a new work by director Oliver Stone,” Bichir, nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor for the film “A Better Life,” said.

“All through history men have lived in tragic times, very harsh, bloody times,” and film is here to tell the story, said Bichir, son of an actress and a stage director and the brother of actors.

In “Savages” Bichir plays Alex, the lawyer of Baja cartel boss Elena, portrayed by Salma Hayek.

The cast also includes John Travolta and Benicio del Toro.

Read more by HS News Staff →

Citing environmental factors, lack of maintenance and uncontrollable urban developments, the World Heritage Committee placed an historic Panamanian property on its list of endangered world heritage.

The site, Portobelo-San Lorenzo, is made up of a group of fortifications and is considered an example of 17th and 18th century military architecture built on Panama’s Caribbean coast to protect transatlantic trade.

“The Committee considered that the site, inscribed on UNESCO’s news release from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The World Heritage Committee meets once a year, and is responsible for the implementation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, which defines the kind of natural or cultural sites which can be considered for inscription on the World Heritage List. The Committee’s other responsibilities include the inscription or deletion of properties on the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Over more than a decade, the Committee has been asking for measures to preserve Portobelo-San Lorenzo.

The List of World Heritage in Danger is designed to inform the international community of threats to the outstanding universal values for which a property has been inscribed on the World Heritage List, and to encourage corrective action.

Read more by HS News Staff →

The U.S. Department of Labor awarded three National Emergency Grants totaling more than $4 million to the Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Resources that will assist more than 750 workers affected by recent plant closures and resulting layoffs in Puerto Rico.

“The services provided through these federal grants will help these dislocated workers improve their re-employment prospects by providing training to prepare them for careers in high-demand industries,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis.

A $1,928,745 grant will assist more than 400 workers affected by the closure of three Bluewater Defense Inc. locations and of Legacy Pharmaceuticals International, all located in eastern Puerto Rico. The funds will provide employment and training services to prepare dislocated workers for jobs in the advanced manufacturing, financial services, information technology, health care and retail industries.

A $1,061,970 grant will provide employment-related services to about 200 workers affected by the closure of Checkpoint Caribbean Ltd. in Ponce. The funds will provide dislocated workers, many of whom are also eligible to receive Trade Adjustment Assistance, with access to “wrap-around” and supportive services unavailable through the TAA program.

A $1,136,000 grant will assist about 160 workers affected by the closure of Bumble Bee Foods LLC in Mayaguez. The funds will provide employment and training services to assist the dislocated workers in obtaining jobs in the construction, energy, hospitality, retail and transportation sectors.

Read more by HS News Staff →

Sunday, July 1st, is election day in Mexico.  Nearly 80 million Mexicans are registered to vote, but far less will make it to the polls.

Hispanically Speaking News’s infographic takes a look at the candidates, election statistics, and why the 2012 elections will differ from years past. 

Read more by HS News Staff →

Two occupants of a small plane, one of them a prominent local businessman, died Saturday in Mexico when their plane crashed in a park in the northern city of Monterrey, emergency management officials told Efe.

The officials said the twin-engine aircraft was flying low and crashed in La Huasteca Park in the metropolitan area of Monterrey, the biggest city in northern Mexico.

Traveling in the plane were businessman Pablo Gonzalez Sada and the pilot, Jose Martinez Ferrara - both apparently died instantly on impact.

Preliminary reports indicate that the aircraft crashed after flying into power lines, the officials said.

Gonzalez Sada was chief operations officer of textile products and packaging for the Cydsa group and a member of it board of directors, and was also on the board of the Vitro group.

Members of the Red Cross and the emergency management office rushed to the scene of the accident, as well as Federal Police agents and Mexican army soldiers.

Read more by HS News Staff →