Latin America

SALES LEADS LATAM: Didi, Flybondi.com, JetBlue…

A summary for Corporate Marketers, Media Sales Executives and Advertising Agencies to see what clien..

Published

6 years ago

January 18, 2018

A summary for Corporate Marketers, Media Sales Executives and Advertising Agencies to see what clients are moving into the market and/or targeting Latin American consumers right now.

2018 NETWORKING SOLUTIONS. To find out about Portada's new networking solutions targeting the decision makers of the below campaigns, please contact Sales Manager Isabel Ojeda at [email protected].

For prior Sales Leads LatAm editions, click here.

Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing has advertised online for a range of jobs in Mexico as it prepares to break into the country, one of rival Uber's regional strongholds. Didi Chuxing plans this year to launch a smartphone app in Mexico and to recruit drivers to the platform, Reuters reported last month. The expansion underscores Didi's growing interest in Mexico and, more broadly, Latin America, a market where Uber Technologies Inc doubled down after Didi drove it out of China.The company is the second-most highly valued, venture-backed private firm in the world, after Uber. Uber stressed its commitment to Mexico, noting its presence in 43 cities.Didi has been outspoken about its global ambitions, but the Mexico expansion marks a turning point. The company's plans had previously been limited to financial commitments to ride-hailing companies in other countries and a research lab in Silicon Valley that opened last year. Didi has invested in a variety of Uber rivals around the world.The Chinese firm agreed to acquire control of Brazil's ride service 99, the companies announced earlier this month. Didi will likely face regulatory battles in Mexico, just as Uber has.

Flybondi.com

Argentina’s first Low-Cost airline has officially begun selling airline tickets through its website. The company will invest US$ 1375 million in the country during the next 4 years. Within the first 16 routes, Flybondi.com will operate 11 from El Palomar airport in Buenos Aires, 3 from Córdoba city and the remaining 2 from Mendoza city.

JetBlue announced it is adding even more travel choices in its Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood focus city in 2018 with new service between South Florida and two top Caribbean markets: Santiago, Dominican Republic’s Cibao International Airport (STI) and Grand Cayman’s Owen Roberts International Airport (GCM).Flights between Fort Lauderdale and Santiago, D.R. will operate once daily roundtrip beginning June 14, 2018, subject to government approval. Seats are on sale today starting at US$99 one way (a).Santiago and Grand Cayman become the 58 [th] and 59 [th] nonstop destination offered from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and will open up a variety of new connecting opportunities between the Caribbean destinations and U.S. cities such as Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Atlanta and multiple west coast markets.

Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold have been accepted into Virtuoso’s portfolio of luxury travel partners, which comprises more than 1,700 preferred suppliers in 100 countries. Inclusion in Virtuoso will open up new sales and marketing opportunities to the network’s more than 16,000 luxury travel advisors around the world and their highly desirable clientele. Virtuoso agencies sell more than US$21.2 billion annually.Insight Vacations, a premium guided Vacation Company, and Luxury Gold, a luxury travel company, join Virtuoso’s collection of hotels, resorts, cruise lines, airlines, tour operators and other suppliers worldwide. These partners secure Virtuoso clients superior offerings, rare opportunities and exceptional value. These providers are able to market to Virtuoso clients via network vehicles and to Virtuoso agencies through multiple communications channels and events, including Virtuoso Travel Week. Insight and Luxury Gold’s acceptance into Virtuoso gives them direct relationships with leisure travel agencies in North and Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East.

Liberty Global

Global cable and communications giant Liberty Global has spun off its Latin American and Caribbean business into a separate corporate entity, Liberty Latin America.With more than US$3.7 billion in annual revenue, Liberty Latin America operates under a number of brands in the region, including VTR, Flow, Liberty, Más Móvil, and BTC.The carrier has positioned the de-merger as an opportunity for investors to tap higher growth in Latin America, with its CEO Mike Fries saying that the new company will have access to the capital and resources necessary to achieve “superior financial and strategic growth“.Liberty Global, whose subsidiaries in the region include Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), has more than 3.7 million subscribers in the region. C&W owns and operates a sub-sea terrestrial network that connects over 40 markets in the region.

NEW FEATURES TO PORTADA'S INTERACTIVE DATABASES
We have incorporated new features to the interactive database of corporate marketers and agency executives targeting LatAm consumers:
–New Leads: Weekly more than 20 new leads uploaded to the Database by the Portada team as well as the contacts related to the above weekly Sales Leads column written by our editorial team.
Download the Database: Download the full Database in Excel Format.
Search Database: You can search through a user-friendly interactive Interface: Search Fields include: Name, Company/Agency, Job – Title, Address, Zip, E-mail, Accounts (Agency), Phone, Related News.

Celeste Martorana @celesmartorana

Celeste joined Portada’s team in 2014. Since then, she has been working as an editor for Portada’s English-language website and compiling information for Portada’s Databases.

Original Article

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Latin America

Honduras prison violence: Dozens killed in women’s jail riot

Published

3 months ago

June 22, 2023

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At least 46 women have been killed in a riot at a women’s prison in Honduras on Tuesday.

It is understood that a fight broke out between rival gangs, after which one gang set a cell alight.

Officials say most of those who died were killed in the fire but others were shot, stabbed or beaten to death.

An investigation is under way to determine how the inmates managed to smuggle automatic weapons and machetes into the jail.

President Xiomara Castro, who last year launched a crackdown on gangs, said on social media that she was “shocked by the monstrous murder of women” and would take “drastic measures” in response.

She has dismissed Security Minister Ramón Sabillón and replaced him with the head of the national police force, Gustavo Sánchez.

Survivors of the deadly incident told local media that it was triggered by rivalries between two of Central America’s most notorious criminal organisations: the 18th Street Gang and MS-13.

They said members of one gang had been taunting their rivals, who then set fire to the mattresses in the cell holding those taunting them.

Videos posted on social media showed a huge cloud of grey smoke rising from the women’s prison, which is located about 25km north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, and holds approximately 900 inmates.

While the warring factions are locked up in different parts of the jail, the wings are located close to each other.

The unrest broke out early in the morning local time on Tuesday.

Survivors said that many of those who died had been seeking refuge from the flames in a bathroom. Their burnt bodies were found piled on top of each other.

Others were shot dead and stabbed by gang members in the corridors and a prison courtyard.

Some of the victims are not thought to have been linked to either of the two gangs but were caught up in the incident.

Among them is a former police cadet who was serving a 15-year prison sentence after confessing to killing a fellow police officer.

Another of those killed was only days away from being released after serving her sentence for kidnapping.

Honduras is known for corruption and gang violence, which have infiltrated government institutions and seen the homicide rate soar.

Along with neighbours El Salvador and Guatemala, the country is a major transit route for cocaine coming from South America to the United States.

It also has a history of deadly prison riots, which are often linked to organised crime.

At least 18 people were killed in gang violence at a prison in the northern port city of Tela in 2019.

Read from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-65969092

Latin America

Colombian plane crash: New clues found in search for lost children

Published

4 months ago

May 28, 2023

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A desperate search for four children who have been missing since their plane crashed in the Colombian jungle on 1 May has yielded new clues.

Items belonging to the siblings, who are aged between 11 months and 13 years, have been found in two different locations in the rainforest.

Their mother and the other adults on board the plane died in the crash.

But search teams say small footprints found last week indicate that the children survived the impact.

The footprints were spotted on Thursday and specialists said most likely belonged to the children.

Earlier last week, search teams had found a child’s drinking bottle, a pair of scissors and a hair tie, as well as what appeared to be a makeshift shelter made from branches and a half-eaten passion fruit.

The children belong to the Huitoto indigenous group and members of their community have expressed the hope that their knowledge of fruits and jungle survival skills will have given them a better chance of surviving the ordeal.

But despite more than 100 soldiers combing the jungle, no further traces were found until the early hours of Wednesday.

The latest items were spotted by an indigenous woman some 500m (1,640ft) from the crash site.

She found a dirty nappy, a green towel and shoes, which judging by their size are thought to belong to the second youngest of the missing siblings, who is four years old. The nappy is believed to have been worn by the 11-month-old baby.

At a separate location, the search team found another nappy, a mobile phone case and a pink cap which matches the drinking bottle found last week.

Indigenous people have joined the search and helicopters have been broadcasting a message from the children’s grandmother recorded in the Huitoto language urging them to stay put and to stop moving so as to make them easier to locate.

The latest traces are further indication that the four siblings survived the plane crash which killed their mother and the plane’s pilot and co-pilot, the Colombian army said.

But it warned that the state of the items suggested that they had not been abandoned there recently, but “sometime between 3 and 8 May”.

The army added that it was encouraged by the fact that none of the items showed traces of blood.

The army colonel in charge of the search also said that all indications were that the four children were roaming the jungle on their own.

Last week, Colombia’s president came under criticism when a tweet published on his account announced that the children had been found.

He erased the tweet the next day saying that the information – which his office had been given by Colombia’s child welfare agency – could not be confirmed.

Read from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-65699761

Latin America

Pedro I: Emperor’s embalmed heart arrives in Brazil

Published

1 year ago

August 27, 2022

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The embalmed heart of Brazil’s first emperor, Dom Pedro I, has arrived in the capital Brasilia to mark 200 years of independence from Portugal.

The heart, which lies preserved in a flask filled with formaldehyde, was flown on board a military plane from Portugal.

It will be received with military honours before going on public display at the foreign ministry.

The heart will be returned to Portugal after Brazil’s independence day.

Portuguese officials gave the go-ahead for the preserved organ to be moved from the city of Porto for the celebrations of Brazil’s bicentenary.

The organ arrived on a Brazilian air force plane accompanied by the mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira.

Mayor Moreira said it would return to Portugal after having basked “in the admiration of the Brazilian people”.

“The heart will be received like a head of state, it will be treated as if Dom Pedro I was still living amongst us,” Brazil foreign ministry’s chief of protocol Alan Coelho de Séllos said.

There will be a cannon salute, a guard of honour and full military honours.

“The national anthem [will be played] and the independence anthem, which by the way was composed by Dom Pedro I, who as well as an emperor was a good musician in his spare time,” Mr Séllos said.

Dom Pedro was born in 1798 into Portugal’s royal family, which at the time also ruled over Brazil. The family fled to the then-Portuguese colony to evade Napoleon’s invading army.

When Dom Pedro’s father, King John VI, returned to Portugal in 1821, he left the 22-year-old to rule Brazil as regent.

A year later, the young regent defied the Portuguese parliament, which wanted to keep Brazil as a colony, and rejected its demand that he return to his home country.

On 7 September 1822 he issued Brazil’s declaration of independence and was soon after crowned emperor.

He returned to Portugal to fight for his daughter’s right to accede to the Portuguese throne and died aged 35 of tuberculosis.

On his deathbed, the monarch asked that his heart be removed from his body and taken to the city of Porto, where it is kept in an altar in the church of Our Lady of Lapa.

His body was transferred to Brazil in 1972 to mark the 150th anniversary of independence and has been kept in a crypt in São Paulo.

Read from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-62561928