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Latin America Reports: The Podcast
In this special episode, we speak to the Latin America Reports team, who reported on Colombia’s national strike in Medellín, as well as political analyst Sergio Guzmán, who took part in the march in Bogotá. Guzmán tells us what is different about these protests, what he thinks they will achieve, and why the current government response is “lacklustre.”
Visit our website LatinAmericaReports.com for photos and interviews from the protests in Medellín.
LATEST NEWS
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Protests sweeping the Latin American continent have have taken their toll. In Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, and now Colombia, social unrest has resulted in thousands of injuries and over 50 deaths. According to Reuters, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera has said that there will be no impunity for security officials who use excessive force, but added that protesters will also have to face consequences for their actions. Despite international human rights entities calling for police reform and condemning abuses of power, Piñera has asked lawmakers to allow him to put put military back on the streets. El País reported that public opinion […]Read more...
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Brazil is geographically and economically the largest country in Latin America, but 89 percent of its micro and small businesses don’t have a digital footprint. This means it’s impossible to find any data on them online, including addresses, opening times, or even what they sell without going in-person to the business and asking. In 2016, Geoffrey Michener spotted this gap in the market and created Dataplor, a company that indexes micro-businesses and sells the information to larger companies. At first, he intended for his business venture to be based in the United States, but soon discovered that the market for […]Read more...
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Access to capital at various stages of a technology startup’s life cycle is crucial to its survival and development. Historically, Colombia’s “biggest ceiling” to startup growth has been a lack of venture capital activity from regional investors. For instance, no Colombian investors made Latin America Venture Capital Association’s (LAVCA) list of most active investors in the region for 2018, according to LAVCA’s Annual Review of Tech Investment in Latin America. The government is trying to circumvent this dearth of local investment by attracting foreign venture capitalists to the Colombian startup ecosystem as well as sending Colombian firms abroad to meet […]Read more...
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Russia has long-since fueled the left-wing governments of Nicaragua, Bolivia, Cuba, and Venezuela – where it sees opportunities to achieve its foreign policy goals, as well as press the United States in what it has long-considered its area of influence. When Vladimir Putin took on the Russian presidency, he sought to project the idea – both domestically and abroad – that Russia’s power on the international political stage should be taken seriously again. This has been the crux of his foreign policy to date. The Kremlin uses a mix of tools such as its oil and gas companies, sales of […]Read more...
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For the first time in 14 years, Bolivians are unsure who will win the presidential elections. Socialist and current President Evo Morales won the vote outright the last three times he ran for the presidency, but as voters head to the ballot boxes this Sunday, October 20, it looks increasingly likely that he will have to face a second round against rival and ex-president Carlos Mesa. Doubt and uncertainty are the main emotions the elections are evoking in Bolivian voters, who spoke to Latin America Reports. In polls published by America’s Quarterly, 20-30 percent of people say that they are […]Read more...
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Evo Morales, leader of the party Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement for Socialism, or MAS), has been in power longer than any other current head of state in Latin America. This year, his position appears to be under threat for the first time in thirteen years as former President Carlos Mesa (Comunidad Ciudadana – Civic Community) fares well in polls ahead of elections on October 20. In Bolivia, a candidate wins the presidency outright if they get over 50 percent of the vote, or if they get 40 percent with a ten-point lead over the nearest competitor. If not, there is […]Read more...
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After protests against austerity cuts brought Ecuador to a standstill for 11 days, President Lenin Moreno backed down. He published a tweet on Sunday, October 13 pledging to substitute the controversial austerity package (known as decree 883) with a new one that would protect citizens with fewer economic resources. Moreno is now meeting with indigenous groups in order to agree upon ways to cut the country’s spending without inciting further protests. Ecuadorian media outlet El Comercio reported that negotiations are being mediated by the United Nations and the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference, and a final agreement is set to be announced […]Read more...
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Students and teachers of private and public universities took to the streets across Colombia last Thursday, October 10 to protest against police violence and voice their dissatisfaction over a corruption scandal that broke last month involving the rector of Bogotá’s Universidad Distrital. According to Colombia’s El Tiempo, Rector Ricardo García Duarte had been using the public university’s credit card — which was designated for administrative spending purposes — for personal transactions. The scandal sparked protests across Colombia’s capital city on September 24 and 25, which ended in violent confrontations between the police and the country’s Mobile Anti-Disturbance Squadron (ESMAD). As […]Read more...
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The U.S. government has signed agreements with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — countries with some of the highest levels of violence and crime in the world — which would allow migration officials to redirect migrants seeking asylum in the United States to these territories. Latin America Reports spoke to Noah Bullock, director of El Salvador-based NGO Cristosal which works to advance human rights and offer protection to victims of violence. Bullock noted that the calculated use of language has characterized these agreements with the aim of making them more palatable for the international community. Initially pursuing “safe third country” […]Read more...
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Ecuador’s protests show no signs of slowing down as thousands of indigenous people traveled to Quito this week to participate in a national strike against President Lenin Moreno’s austerity cuts. For over two decades, indigenous organizations and protests have played a key part in forcing three Ecuadorian presidents to step down. In 1997, President Abdalá Bucaram was impeached in a decision supported by the indigenous Pachakutick movement. In 2000, protests led by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities in Ecuador (CONAIE) also contributed to Jamil Mahuad’s resignation, and in 2005, aided by the military, CONAIE pressured then-president Lucio Gutiérrez to step […]Read more...
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According to a judicial document acquired by AP News, Brazil’s Caixa Econômica Federal (CEF) has ordered the liquidation of the construction giant Odebrecht. The government-owned bank — the largest financial institution of its kind in Latin America — is one of Odebrecht’s many lenders. Since becoming the main company to be implicated in the Lava Jato corruption scandal — widely recognized as the biggest corruption case in Latin America’s recent history — Odebrecht has experienced severe economic difficulties. And in June this year, the company asked for a judicial recovery plan which would shield it from bankruptcy. With a debt […]Read more...
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On Tuesday October 2, Ecuador’s president, Lenin Moreno, announced a decree that would cut fuel subsidies that have been in place for four decades. On Thursday, Ecuadorians responded to the announcement by staging massive protests that paralyzed the country, forcing Moreno to declare a nationwide state of emergency. El Pais reported that the removal of fuel subsidies will raise the price of petrol by approximately 37 US cents per gallon, and the price of diesel by up to $1 per gallon, which will save the government $1.4 billion a year. These cuts form part of continuing austerity laws implemented by […]Read more...
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The trillion dollar company Amazon is expanding its international infrastructure to include a regional data center in Argentina, reported Bloomberg on October 3. The data center will expand the cloud reach of Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon that provides cloud computing services on a pay-as-you-go basis. It will be located in Bahia Blanca, a port city in the province of Buenos Aires, which is also a free-trade zone, meaning the data center will not pay national or provincial taxes on energy consumption. For a data center, these would normally be significant expenses. According to Bloomberg’s anonymous sources, who […]Read more...
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As the first South American country to legalize abortion, marijuana, and same-sex marriage, Uruguay is often upheld as the bastion of liberalism in the region. Much of this progressive legislation has been made possible by the center-left political party Frente Amplio, which has governed the country for nearly two decades. But as the general elections on October 27 draw closer, more widespread issues around security and education are beginning to reveal frustrations with the political status quo. “This is the fourth time I’ve voted [for a president], but the first time I’ve been fairly certain that the left is going […]Read more...
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Earlier this week, Peru’s Congress met to appoint new judges to Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal. Contrary to President Vizcarra’s wishes, the Fujimorista-dominated Congress prepared to pack it with similarly-aligned politicians. To prevent this from happening, Vizcarra proposed to reform the way the tribunal judges are appointed, in order to create a more transparent selection process and block his opposition’s power play. To double down on his proposal, Vizcarra declared that this proposal would constitute a vote of confidence in his cabinet so that if the proposal was rejected, Vizcarra would have the constitutional power to dissolve Congress. Read more: The backstory […]Read more...
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On Monday night, President Martín Vizcarra announced his decision to dissolve Congress in a final blow to the institution which has long been resisting his anti-corruption drive. Since then, the vice president, Mercedes Aráoz stepped down after she was nominated to be the interim leader of the country. Tensions between President Vizcarra and Congress spiked at the end of July, when Vizcarra proposed holding general elections next year as opposed to 2021. Although this proposal received widespread approval from a public who had grown disenchanted with domestic politics embroiled in corruption scandals, Vizcarra could only hold elections if he acted […]Read more...
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Carmen Chamorro Avilé and her fellow activists from government opposition alliance Unidad Nacional Azul y Blanco have been organizing simultaneous ‘flash protests’ — demonstrations made up of small groups that last approximately one minute — across the country, to oppose the regime of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. “The streets are militarized and full of police … so, as we have seen, we are unable to organize bigger protests because of repression,” Chamorro told Latin America Reports. 22-year-old Chamorro — who besides her work in the Unidad Nacional Azul y Blanco is a political secretary for the political and social movement […]Read more...
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Editor’s note: After careful consideration, this article has been updated to include quotes from an interview we conducted with Carlos Sprick, a representative from the Fundación Venezuela Esequiba. Our mission at Latin America Reports is to illustrate the importance of Latin America for a global audience by explaining current events and analyzing diverse perspectives. For this reason, we decided to update the article. At the beginning of September, Venezuela’s Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, opened a criminal investigation against self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaidó for treason against the country. The investigation, reported Colombian paper El Espectador, is linked to a […]Read more...
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On Tuesday, September 24, Uruguay carried out its first export of marijuana to Australia, where the drug is legal for medicinal purposes. The Latin American country has previously sent samples to Germany, reported AP News, but the ten kilogram shipment of marijuana to Australia marks the first Uruguayan commercial export since it became legal in 2013. One of the arguments used by Uruguayan legislators to promote the legalization of the plant was its potential to generate economic benefits through international exports, but it has taken nearly six years to create an infrastructure that allows this to take place. The marijuana […]Read more...
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A special report published by Bogotá-based political risk consultancy Colombia Risk Analysis explores local election forecasts across the country. We take a look at the predictions for a selection of regions with differing political environments. The Pacific Colombia’s Foundation for Peace and Reconciliation (PARES) considers the Valle del Cauca to be an “at risk” department for political candidates, of which it calculates that 16 — including pre-candidates — have been murdered across all departments since the beginning of this year’s electoral cycle. In the Valle del Cauca, elevated unemployment rates continue to fuel the operation of illegal industries such as […]Read more...
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The member states of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance – also referred to as the Rio Treaty – agreed at a meeting in New York on Monday to impose sanctions against members of the Nicolás Maduro administration, but for the moment, will not consider military intervention. Of the 18 countries that participated in the meeting, 16 agreed on the imposition of sanctions, with Trinidad and Tobago abstaining and Uruguay in opposition. Meanwhile, Cuba, one of Maduro’s key allies, was not present at the meeting as the country left the Rio Treaty in 2012. The stated reason for the meeting […]Read more...
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Earlier this week, Colombian President Iván Duque announced measures that the government would take to increase protection for political candidates ahead of the October 27 local and regional elections. The announcement followed outrage over the murders of seven candidates, the latest victims of political violence which spiked after the 2016 peace deal with FARC guerrillas. Iván Duque and his party Centro Democrático (CD) have been under criticism for the scarce resources they have pledged to the National Protection Unit (UNP), the agency which provides bodyguards and protection to public figures. According to Colombia Reports, Interior Minister Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez and […]Read more...
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On September 15, nearly 210 years to the day after Priest Miguel Hidalgo freed political prisoners to help fight in Mexico’s war of independence, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) proposed his own amnesty law to Congress. The law, if passed, will allow thousands of current prisoners to be released. “There are various common elements or distinctive markers that apply to many imprisoned people, for example low levels of education or even illiteracy, and in many cases the fact that they belong to an indigenous community,” wrote the coordinator of AMLO’s political party Morena’s federal deputies, Mario Delgado Carrillo, […]Read more...
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In 2017, Latin America was home to just two companies worth over $1 billion. A year and a half later, the region boasts 14 unicorn startups, with more on their way. This massive spike in high-value companies could bring Latin America out of its recent slump in economic growth: an opportunity that governments are capitalizing on. The Latin America Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (LAVCA) reported that in 2016, capital funding on the continent was around $500 million, but by 2018 this number had increased to $2 billion. By August this year, with the help of Japanese company SoftBank’s […]Read more...
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Two former guerilla fighters known by their aliases as Jesús Santrich and El Paisa, who agreed to hand in their weapons and abide by the conditions of the 2016 peace agreement, will no longer be tried by the bespoke transitional justice system. According to a recent press release published by Colombia’s post-conflict transitional justice mechanism, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) has formally excluded two of the former FARC rebels on account of their recent call to return to arms, broadcast at the end of last month. ‘Jesús Santrich’ and ‘El Paisa,’ are the first two former rebels to no […]Read more...
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São Paulo-based startup Quinto Andar, which translates to ‘fifth floor,’ has just become Brazil’s newest startup unicorn, thanks to a recent round of US $250 million Series D funding from Japanese multinational conglomerate Softbank. The real-estate startup, according to Techcrunch, is now worth approximately $345 million. It simplifies property rental by connecting tenants with home-owners directly. Users of the online platform can search for, book, advertise and rent property in nearly 30 Brazilian cities. Over the last two decades, the average middle class Brazilian citizen has been unable to afford to own a home. The option of renting is also […]Read more...
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For leaders of countries with Amazonian territory, economic development and environmental preservation are eternally at odds with each other. Former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, famously said, “We can’t be beggars sitting on a mine of gold,” referring to the untapped resources in the Amazon. But what if the environmental costs don’t outweigh the profit? A study by Claudia Azevedo-Ramos, former Director of the Brazilian Forest Service explains that attempts to profit from the Amazon do not bring true development, employment, better income distribution or environmental benefits to locals. In fact, these Amazonian regions often have much higher percentages of […]Read more...
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Estamos listas, which translates to “we’re ready” in English, is Medellín’s first ever gender-focused political movement, spearheaded by women. A self-financed, independent, grassroots political movement standing as a collective candidacy, Estamos Listas is ready to be elected to Colombia’s second largest city council. The movement’s main proposals revolve around the care economy — defined by Colombian law as the unpaid work undertaken in the home — the defense of human rights, tackling violence against women, developing a sex education policy aimed at children, and sustainable development with a focus on rural issues. Estamos Listas is comprised of over two thousand […]Read more...
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Last week, thousands of Peruvians took to the streets to demand a government that they feel represents them. At the end of July, President Martín Vizcarra proposed to bring general elections forward to next year, as opposed to 2021, even if that means he would have to step down. A recent Ipsos poll showed that 75 percent of Peruvian citizens supported earlier elections, and after Vizcarra announced the proposal, social media exploded with the handles #ElPeruPrimero (Peru first) and #VizcarraSíMeRepresenta (Vizcarra does represent me). Vizcarra does not have a majority in Congress, which is held by right-wing Fujimoristas. Although it […]Read more...
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“In no way is Bolsonaro correct when he says the Amazon belongs to Brazil,” Jorge Acero, a lawyer for NGO Amazon Frontlines told Latin America Reports. “The territory forms part of the state, but the ancestral land belongs to the indigenous people.” In recent months, the Amazon rainforest has been ravaged by flames. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has come under international criticism for refusing offers of international aid and accusing politicians of meddling with Brazil’s sovereignty when it comes to the Amazon. But in reality, his attack on the rainforest — and the people who live there — began from […]Read more...
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The Supreme Court trial of former President of Colombia Álvaro Uribe Vélez — who is accused of fraud and bribery — began yesterday, September 3. The court will hear from 48 witnesses, including former members of the paramilitary, politicians, the former chief prosecutor, former magistrates and the ex-president himself. Ironically, the charges of witness tampering that were brought against Uribe in 2018 date back five years prior, when he accused his political rival of the same thing. Uribe pressed charges against Senator Iván Cepeda in 2013, accusing the left-wing congressman of bribing at least five paramilitaries to testify against him and […]Read more...
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On Sunday, September 1, the Argentine government released an official bulletin describing the “extraordinary, temporary and urgent” economic measures put in place to attempt to arrest the national peso’s fall in value. The measures came into force on Sunday and include the implementation of currency controls to stabilize the Argentine currency, which reached a record low last month at an exchange rate of 60 pesos to one U.S. dollar. This is an unexpected move from President Macri, who entered office vowing to abolish such capital controls, considering that these measures are intended to be in effect until the end of […]Read more...
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Mobile applications like Rappi have swept across Latin America to make food delivery more convenient, but Panal Fresh has a very different mission. The Bolivian app, which won Seedstars‘ Latin American pitch competition in 2018, not only boasts convenience, but also a loftier goal to reduce the financial disparity among those who grow what comes on Bolivian dinner plates. Panal Fresh allows small-scale farmers to sell and distribute their fruits and vegetables through an online marketplace. And the conscious consumers in Santa Cruz and Cochabamba that select their food from the online store not only receive a next-morning delivery to […]Read more...
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On Tuesday, the El Salvadoran Prosecutor’s Office for the Defense of Human Rights (PDDH) released a report revealing that security forces killed at least 116 people between 2014 and 2018. Raquel Caballero, head of the PDDH, explained that the El Salvadoran police used excessive force and abused their positions of authority, adding that the victims suffered “police mistreatment, arbitrary detentions, systematic assault and even death threats.” According to the BBC, investigation for the report began in 2018 in response to an increased number of accusations of police violence. Over two thirds of the extrajudicial killings took place in rural areas, […]Read more...
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“A new phase of the struggle” On August 28, Iván Márquez, a former commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), released a video reinstating a call to arms for the rebel group, three years after a peace accord was reached and signed with the Colombian government. In the video, Márquez is flanked by what appears to be Jesús Santrich, who have both been accused by the United States of drug trafficking and whose whereabouts have been unknown. “The guerrilla fight is an answer to the betrayal of the state of the peace accords in Havana,” Márquez reads. His […]Read more...
