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Latin America Reports: The Podcast
Marcela Torres is the former CEO of Hola Code, a Mexican social enterprise that provides software development training for refugees and migrants who have returned to Mexico after having lived in the U.S. She was recently named winner of the ‘Entrepreneur’ category in the list of Latin America’s top innovators under the age of 35 published by MIT Technology Review. In honour of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science earlier this month, we interviewed Torres about being a female CEO of a tech company in Latin America, a region lacking support and funding for women working in STEM.
LATEST NEWS
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Colombia’s government is digitalizing social inclusion, expanding connectivity
Colombia’s Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications (MinTic) is currently rolling out a three-pronged digitalization strategy to encourage the social and economic inclusion of marginalized population groups in Colombia. These groups include indigenous communities, Afro-Colombians, Romani communities, Raizal groups of the San Andres Archipelago, and the Palanquero groups of Colombia’s Caribbean coast. According to Iván Antonio Mantilla Gaviria, Colombia’s Vice Minister for Connectivity and Digitalization, they have been historically excluded from the country’s social fabric and public policy. “These communities have not been favored in our country’s history” — Colombia’s Vice Minister for Connectivity and Digitalization A 2018 census carried out by […]Read more...
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MIT Technology Review announces the winners of Innovators Under 35 LATAM
Solar panels derived from micro-algae, a program that gives migrants the opportunity to learn how to code, and a way to use discarded prawn shells to help remove polluting textile dyes from waterways were just some of the projects recognized at MIT Technology Review’s Innovators under 35 Latin America 2019 last week. At the awards ceremony, which was held on January 30 at Mexico City’s Parks BBVA Polanco, 35 finalists were given the opportunity to introduce themselves and their projects. Five winners were chosen from the pool, and will go on to compete in MIT Technology Review’s Global awards. “This […]Read more...
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What’s driving global tech companies to Latin America
Global tech companies are focusing on expansion in Latin America, a sign that the region is ripe with opportunity for market growth and innovation. Latin America’s tech sector has made a name for itself with star startups such as the Colombian unicorn, Rappi, the Brazilian online food delivery platform, iFood, and the Panama-based hospitality brand, Selina. Now, global tech companies see Latin America as the place to focus their expansion. Below are a few key reasons why Latin America offers significant growth potential for global tech companies. 1. Expansive mobile Internet connectivity Internet connectivity is essential for tech company success, and Latin […]Read more...
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MIT Technology Review reveals 2019 list of Innovators Under 35 LATAM
Earlier this week, the MIT Technology Review published its 2019 list of Latin America’s most innovative young people under the age of 35. The list includes men and women who hail from 11 countries and whose projects cover a wide spectrum of topics ranging from biotechnology, medicine, sustainability, artificial intelligence, software and hardware. For over 10 years, the MIT Tech Review, founded in 1899, has partnered with the Spanish-based global consultancy firm Opinno (short for “open innovation”) to mine the Latin American region for its most innovative young minds . In a conversation with Latin America Reports, the Mexico-based Latin America […]Read more...
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Mexico City to host MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35
On January, 30, one of the largest global communities of innovators, pioneers, and social change agents will come together for the 30th edition of Innovators Under 35 in Latin America. The finalists will be announced a week before the event is hosted in Mexico City, Mexico at the BBVA tower. Each year, MIT Technology Review publishes a list of 35 innovative young people who are behind projects and initiatives that are aiming to solve the world’s most pressing problems, through technology and innovation. This year, Mexico is one of the Latin American countries with the largest number of innovators on […]Read more...
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Buenaventura awaits answers for two young men killed by security forces during Colombia’s national protests
Four days before the death of student protester Dilan Cruz – who succumbed to injuries suffered from the impact of a tear gas canister being launched at his head by anti-riot police in Bogotá, Colombia – sparked nationwide outrage, two young men were gunned down by security forces during the country’s national protests over 500 kilometers away in the port city of Buenaventura. Spare some coverage in local media, their deaths have mostly gone unreported. According to official communiques, interviews with officials close to the investigation, and statements from witnesses made to Latin America Reports, on the evening of November […]Read more...
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Colombia’s transitional justice mechanism uses public transport to spread message
“We are just going to ask him some questions and we’ll bring him back in an hour. ‘Don’t worry, ma’am,’ he told me,” said Luz Edith Franco. This was 17 years ago. Franco is talking about her husband, Arles Edison Guzmán, who was forcibly disappeared 17 years ago from Medellín’s Comuna 13 one month after Operation Orion: the 2002 Colombian military offensive to remove left-wing guerillas from the area. It has since been proven that military forces collaborated with right-wing paramilitary groups during the operation, and in 2017, the Inter-American Court of Rights condemned the Colombian state for its role […]Read more...
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Excessive police violence in protests cause deaths and thousands of injuries
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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The startup that puts Latin American micro-businesses on the digital map
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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Morales’ resignation leaves a vacuum of power in Bolivia
Bolivia is in turmoil after a weekend of shifting loyalties, resignations and violent protests and most poignantly, after Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, stepped down from his post after holding office for 14 years. Tensions rose at the end of last week as sources confirmed that Bolivian police began to side with anti-government groups, a signal that Morales had lost control of the situation in his country. On Saturday November 9, Morales televised an address alongside four other political parties to defend democracy in Bolivia, but the majority – including rival and presidential runner-up Carlos Mesa – refused to […]Read more...
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Colombian startups look abroad for funding opportunities
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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Political violence in Colombia after the 2016 peace agreement
Using data from Colombia’s Electoral Observation Mission (MOE), a platform which promotes the freedom to exercise civil and political rights, this graphic illustrates the spread of violence against political candidates and pre-candidates in Colombia during the electoral periods for the 2015 and 2019 local elections. Since the 1940s, Colombia has been no stranger to political violence. Spikes in violence can often be traced back to the conflict with the guerrillas, most notably during the terror campaign conducted in the 1980s and 1990s against the Patriotic Union, the left-wing party associated with the rebels. Several years after the signing of the […]Read more...
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Bolivia’s election protests divide the nation
Luis Fernando Camacho, lawyer and president for the Santa Cruz Civic Committee in Bolivia, called for “decisive action” to force current president Evo Morales to step down after controversial elections last month. He called for a nationwide strike and for the military to “side with the people,” but upon arrival in La Paz on Tuesday, November 5, Morales’ supporters blocked him from entering the capital city. “The people are ready to lose everything, except their democracy and their nation,” Camacho said in a speech he gave the weekend before, reported by Colombian daily El Tiempo. “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion […]Read more...
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Op-Ed: Venezuela is proving to be too costly for Russia
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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Protesters in Ecuador and Chile resort to violence in order to be heard
October was a volatile month for Latin America. After grievances over social inequality reached a tipping point, citizens in Ecuador and Chile refused to accept price increases, and decided to protest, sometimes violently. In Ecuador, the catalyst for 11 days of violent protests was the removal of fuel subsidies aimed to cut public spending to conform with International Monetary Fund (IMF) requirements. For Ecuadorians, the IMF loan meant that life was steadily getting more expensive, while their salaries remained stagnant. The Chilean government’s decision to raise the metro prices by three percent on October 6 seemed inconsequential, but weeks later, […]Read more...
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Medellín NGO working with homeless population calls for more government support
In November 2019, Medellín’s local government will carry out another census to calculate the latest estimates of the city’s homeless population, which is the second-largest in Colombia. Current figures place the number of homeless people in Medellín at 3,500 and classify approximately one thousand more as living in a homeless “state.” In our latest video report, Latin America Reports spoke to María Paulina Domínguez, sub-secretary of population groups for Medellín’s Secretary of Social Inclusion, Family and Human Rights about the factors that perpetuate homelessness as a condition in the city, as well as ways in which the local government works […]Read more...
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Who is Claudia López, Bogota’s first openly gay, female mayor?
“Today, we finally won!” Claudia López, Bogotá’s mayor-elect, told cheering voters on Sunday, October 27. She was elected the first female mayor of Colombia’s capital city after beating rival candidate Carlos Fernando Galán by a narrow margin of 2.7 percent. The centrist mayor-elect’s victory is particularly symbolic as she will become not only Colombia’s first female mayor, but also the first openly gay mayor of a capital city in Latin America, pledging in her winning speech to combat “sexism, racism, classicism and homophobia.” “Today was a day for girls, today was a day for young people, today was a day for […]Read more...
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Colombia’s key local election outcomes mark a shift away from political elite
In Colombia’s first round of local elections held since the 2016 peace agreement, the political elite fared poorly, notably losing out in Bogotá and Medellín. Despite the violence which characterized the electoral period, according to the national registry poll, the polling stations this year were the most peaceful they have been in recent times. Headlining the results on Sunday, October 27 was Claudia López’s victory in Bogotá’s mayoral race. The Alianza Verde (Green Alliance) and leftist Polo Democratico Alternativo candidate became the first female and openly gay mayor of Bogotá, the position considered to be the second-most influential in the […]Read more...
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Where do Bolivia, Uruguay and Argentina stand after recent elections?
Over the last two weeks, voters in Bolivia, Uruguay and Argentina have been to the polls to vote for their respective new presidents. With one outright win, one second round vote, and one election tainted by accusations of fraud, we bring you an update on each situation. Argentina Elections took place on Sunday, October 27, and after 97 percent of votes were counted, center-left Alberto Fernández had already received more than 45 percent of the votes he needed for an outright win. His controversial decision to nominate former President Cristina Kirchner to be his vice-president united moderate and left-wing voters, […]Read more...
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Insufficient protection measures leave Colombia’s candidates vulnerable
Despite the efforts of the National Protection Unit to provide bodyguards and protection to public figures and President Iván Duque’s pledges to improve safety for those running in the elections, 34 acts of violence — not including threats — have been committed against candidates and pre-candidates since October 27, 2018. This figure includes 17 attacks, 16 murders and one kidnapping. It does not include the nearly 150 acts perpetrated against social leaders, party affiliates and civil servants during the electoral period. With Colombia’s local elections approaching this Sunday, October 27, Latin America Reports spoke to Ángela Gómez Vega, an investigator […]Read more...
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Ecuadorian entrepreneurs hit hard by political unrest
Recent protests in Ecuador over deeply unpopular austerity measures brought the country to a standstill. A transport union strike — which was declared over center-left President Lenin Moreno’s incendiary proposal to cut fuel subsidies worth $1.3 billion — froze public transport. This opened up the opportunity for demonstrators to block roads in the capital city of Quito and across other smaller cities for a period of 11 days. Although Moreno has since agreed to abandon the proposed subsidy cuts in favor of tax reforms, the transport strikes and subsequent violent protests had a disastrous impact upon some startups in Ecuador. […]Read more...
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Chilean president declares state of emergency and imposes curfews over violent protests
Protests have erupted over the last two weeks in Santiago de Chile, triggered by a rise in metro prices but sustained by growing unrest over unequal wealth distribution in the country. At the time of writing, the BBC reported that 10,500 police and soldiers are now on the streets of Santiago, 1400 arrests have been made, and 11 people have died as a result of the protests, five due to a factory fire set by looters. The protests started on October 6, when Santiago’s metro raised its fare from 800 to 830 pesos, the U.S. dollar equivalent of $1.15. In […]Read more...
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Bolivia’s 2019 presidential elections according to voters
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 and Bolivia face uncertainty ahead of presidential elections
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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Moreno backs down after two weeks of protests in Ecuador
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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In photos: Bogotá students protest against police violence
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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Oaxaca’s legalization of abortion could pave the way for other Mexican states to follow suit
“Us, feminists, we’re the ones who are behind the movement to legalize abortion,” Pilar Muriedas Juárez, a director of Oaxaca-based Feminist Civil Association Consorcio told Latin America Reports. A woman’s autonomy over her own body has always been one of the basic principles of feminism, Muriedas argues, claiming that a belief in gender equality goes hand-in-hand with the movement to legalize abortion. Just over two weeks before this interview, on September 25, Muriedas and her team celebrated a monumental victory as Oaxaca became the second state in Mexico to legalize abortion up to 12 weeks into the pregnancy. In the […]Read more...
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Central America’s ‘asylum countries’ explained
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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Indigenous groups expected to play a key role in Ecuador’s protests
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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Brazilian state bank orders liquidation of Odebrecht
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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Austerity measures trigger violent protests in Ecuador
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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Amazon to construct data center in Argentina
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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Voters in Uruguay dissatisfied with political status quo
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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Peru’s political storm: a timeline of events
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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The backstory behind Peru’s political turmoil
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...
