Las Notis is a daily news column that gets you up to speed on the political, media + other going ons in Latin America and the diaspora—all in one quick digest.
Here’s your glimpse at what’s going on today:
- The House of Representatives is getting ready to vote on legislation that could lead to a National Latino Museum in Washington, D.C. A group of legislators, led by New York Rep. José E. Serrano, introduced a bill to create a potential museum in 2019. [NBC]
- Thousands of people whose homes were damaged during Hurricane Maria are still without housing. The Associated Press reports that nearly 27,000 homeowners have applied for a federally-funded program that was supposed to design and rebuild housing; not a single job has been completed almost a year and a half later. [AP]
- Protesters in Portland continue to face off against federal agents sent to the city by the Trump administration, but some wonder if the majority-white demonstrators might be eclipsing the larger aims and messages of Black Lives Matter. [The Guardian]
- A detailed investigative report from The Chicago Tribune shows how disinvestment rooted in redlining and segregation continue to affect Black and Latino communities.
- After announcing that he had contracted coronavirus on July 7, Brazil’s controversial president Jair M. Bolsonaro is now saying that he is no longer infected. He tweeted a photo of himself giving a thumbs up, along with a message that claims his most recent coronavirus test was negative. [NYT]
- Nearly two dozen doctors lost their jobs in Nicaragua after speaking up about the dangers of the coronavirus. The administration of Daniel Ortega has been heavily criticized for dismissing the severity of the pandemic and obscuring the number of infections in the country. [WSJ]
- More than 30% of individuals in Palm Beach County’s Guatemalan-Mayan community of roughly 80,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus. That’s three times the average in a state already ravaged by infections. A large majority of those people are laborers and essential workers who have done the work to spur construction booms in Florida. [WaPo]
- Human rights groups have warned about the ways in which drug cartels and guerilla groups have used the pandemic to exercise control over Latin American countries. In Colombia, some people report armed groups enforcing lockdown measures and declaring curfew violators “military targets.” [WaPo]
- Letters from ICE detainees obtained by The Intercept expose the conditions and desperation migrants are facing in prisons and detention facilities.