"Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, a powerful Democrat who once led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was convicted (July 16) of participating in a vast international bribery scheme, in which prosecutors said he had accepted gold, cash and other payoffs worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for political favors abroad and at home." — The New York Times, July 17, 2024 "Today, Hispanics make up nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population, up 23 percent over the past decade. The Hispanic segment's purchasing power has reached $3.2 trillion — a number larger than the GDPs of all but four nations." — Hispanic Marketing Report 2024, Ad Age, July 17, 2024 "Northgate González Market is one of the largest Mexican supermarket chains in the country — family-owned, with 43 locations across Southern California and more than $1 billion in annual revenue." — The New York Times, July 10, 2024 Dylcia Pagan, a Bronx-born Puerto Rican nationalist, who "was one of the most high-profile of the 10 members of a domestic terror group, Armed Forces for National Liberation, known by its Spanish initials, F.A.L.N." died. She was 77. Pagan served 19 years in prison. — The New York Times, July 13, 2024. Argentina won a record 16th Copa America title, besting Colombia 1-0, breaking that team's 28-game unbeaten streak. "Making his 39th and possibly last Copa America appearance, (Lionel) Messi had one goal in the tournament." — The Associated Press, July 14, 2024 Minerva Pérez Castro, a "Mexican fisheries industry leader, who denounced illegal fishing and drug cartel extortion, was shot to death" in Ensenada, Baja California. Pérez Castro, president of Mexico's National Chamber of Fisheries, was killed a few blocks from her office in what the state prosecutor described as a "direct assassination attack." — United Press International, July 10, 2024 Criminal groups in "Colombia, the global nexus of the cocaine industry" are pursuing a new economic model buying large quantities of coca paste from a smaller number of farmers and limiting their operations to border regions where it is easier to move drugs out of the country. The shift has resulted in other areas becoming impoverished for lack of sales. — The New York Times, July 15, 2024