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LATEST NEWS
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Who benefits from a Latin America coworking boom?
It was from the 41st floor where I looked down at a bird’s eye view of one of Mexico’s most renowned monuments. The Angel de la Independencia attracts dozens of tourists a day and is at the center of a bustling roundabout in the heart of Mexico City. Almost at the top of one of the capital’s tallest skyscrapers, a signature smog lingered over Mexico City. To the faint tapping of keyboards and hangout meetings, I wondered for a moment how many people have had the chance to see the monument from this breathtaking perspective, and the panoramic city beyond. […]Read more...
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Latin American technology production appears to benefit from trade war
At least four Chinese companies have invested in Mexico’s border city of Tijuana since the start of this year. Large international companies are contributing to a growing trend of Latin American investments which are taking the region by storm. Allured by Mexico’s proximity to Silicon Valley and a plethora of developers who are willing to work across Latin America for smaller wages than their U.S. counterparts, international investors in the region are bound to increase their involvement, primarily in the natural resource and technology sectors. It has long been known that China is increasingly interested in Latin America, a considerably […]Read more...
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Are reggaeton and social media enough to save Colombia’s human rights activists?
Colombian YouTubers have teamed up with social leaders and journalists in a music video campaign to draw attention to the threats facing the country’s human rights defenders. The video features the likes of YouTubers La Pereztroica, Juan Pablo Jaramillo and Nancy Loaiza, along with Maria Paulina Baena – the face of El Espectador’s opinion video blog ‘La Pulla.’ It also profiles Colombian social leaders such as Francia Márquez, an activist for environmental rights, Juana Ruiz, who fights for women’s rights, as well as other advocates for territorial, farmer’s and LGBT rights. The launch of the #UnLiderEnMiLugar (#ALeaderInMyPlace) campaign was spearheaded […]Read more...
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Where China is most heavily investing in Latin America
Since 2005, China has poured over $141 billion in loans into the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. This is more than lending from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the CAF Development Bank of Latin America combined. China is also working to bring its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to expand overseas investment by building infrastructure for land and sea routes across the world, to the region. It also purports to help developing countries improve their infrastructure and capitalize on trade opportunities with China, although critics say it will inadvertently put small or weak […]Read more...
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Brazil’s government signs law simplifying bureaucracy for startups
In April, a new law was passed in Brazil that aims to “de-bureaucratize” entrepreneurship in the country. The law, called MP 881/2019, is a provisory legal measure that will need to be approved by Congress in under 120 days for it to become permanent. Prior to the passing of the law, startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) had to undergo a complex and time-consuming process to register their company. “In the last 20 years, Brazil has produced a massive number of laws, regulatory agencies and conditions,” Bruno Bonassi explained to Latin America Reports. Bonassi is the Brazilian country manager […]Read more...
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Opinion: Where do US progressives stand on Venezuela and Maduro?
The complicated and dynamic relationship that the United States has with Latin America has become a flashpoint of tensions between progressives and the US government. Last week activists from anti-war collective Code Pink, who have been living inside the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, refused to vacate the premises and make way for the US-recognized delegation named by interim president Juan Guaidó. (By the way, if you want to read context on Venezuela, please read here, here, and here). The group remains in support of President Nicolás Maduro, whom they consider Venezuela´s legitimate elected leader. Progressive politicians such as Bernie Sanders […]Read more...
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Indigenous activists killed in Guerrero, Mexico
The Attorney General’s Guerrero Office is investigating a double homicide after the bodies of two prominent indigenous activists were found in the state of Guerrero, Mexico on Monday 6. José Lucio Bartolo Faustino and Modesto Verales Sebastián, both active members of the Nahua indigenous community, went missing following a meeting for the Indigenous and Popular Council of Guerrero Emiliano Zapata on May 4. Their bodies were found in an abandoned car in Chilapa de Álvarez with gunshot wounds. The pair had been attending a meeting in Chilpancingo, Guerrero before allegedly being kidnapped on the way home to their communities. Frustrated […]Read more...
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Rio de Janeiro’s police killed a record number of people in three months
Yesterday, on May 6, police snipers from a helicopter fatally shot eight people in a densely populated area of Rio de Janeiro, according to reports from the Brazilian news outlet UOL. The community Facebook page Maré vive posted a photo of what appears to be schoolchildren in the neighborhood of Complexo da Maré running from the attacks. The killings follow a succession of shootings by police across the state. In the first three months of this year, according to official data reviewed by the Associated Press, Rio de Janeiro police killed 434 citizens. This amount is up from 368 in […]Read more...
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A tribute to Mexico’s murdered journalists: A Q&A with the creators of Netflix’s Tijuana
As we were conducting this interview, the Committee to Protect Journalists was calling upon Mexican authorities to protect the editor-in-chief of the country’s leading newspaper, Reforma, after a string of death threats. By the time Netflix’s new drama Tijuana first aired in early April, four news reporters had been murdered in Mexico in just as many months. Although Mexico’s journalists are paying with their lives in a disproportionately high volume, many of these stories remain outside the gaze of the international media. Enter Tijuana: the Spanish-language Netflix series that goes behind the headlines and brings Mexico’s real news reporting crisis […]Read more...
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After two days of protests in Venezuela, who has the upper hand?
Over the last two days, thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets in support of opposition leader Juan Guaidó. The 34-year-old is calling it the “final phase” of his “Operation Freedom” (#OperaciónLibertad), which aims to remove current President Nicolás Maduro from office. Venezuelan human rights group Provea announced via Twitter that 109 people were injured in Tuesday’s demonstrations, 60 of those occurring in the capital city of Caracas. Reuters released a video of an armed police car attempting to run over civilians, and the Miami Herald reported that the events devolved into “brutal street battles” with tear gas, rubber bullets […]Read more...
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Contrasting Reactions to Guaidó’s Most Recent Uprising in Venezuela
Early Tuesday morning in Caracas, Venezuela, opposition leader Juan Guaidó posted a video on Twitter calling the Venezuelan people to mobilise against the “usurper,” President Nicolás Maduro. About a dozen soldiers flanked him at La Carlota airbase, and he made repeated mentions of the National Armed Forces who would aid in the restoration of a free Venezuela. He was also accompanied by Leopoldo López, Guaidó’s political mentor and ally who Efecto Cocuyo reported was released today by Guaidó’s armed forces contingent after over two years of house arrest. En el marco de nuestra constitución. Y por el cese definitivo de […]Read more...
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This female-led startup is making domestic work more secure
There are over 18 million domestic workers within the Latin American and Caribbean region. Despite this, household employees such as privately hired cleaners tend to have few government-imposed working rights within the workplace. This is something that Mexican-based Mi Dulce Hogar is working to change. Launched just four years ago in Guadalajara, the cleaning platform is now launching in Mexico City and will allow users to schedule cleaning appointments through their app for their homes across Mexico’s vast capital. From cleaning common areas, homes and offices, users are also able to hire workers to help with folding clothes, polishing […]Read more...
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Indigenous group wins historic land battle against the Ecuadorian government
On Friday, April 26, the Waorani indigenous group won a historic case against the Ecuadorian government which will suspend oil companies’ ability to exploit land in the Amazon rainforest, reported Al Jazeera. In 2012, the Ecuadorian government divided Amazon territory, where Waorani are the rightful landowners, into 16 oil blocks, before putting each block up for auction to oil companies. After little interest from prospective buyers and demonstrations from indigenous groups, last year the government reduced the number of blocks to two. Hydrocarbons Minister Carlos Pérez explained to Latin American news outlet Nodal that the decision was “to avoid conflicts […]Read more...
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Peru reacts to the suicide of Former President Alan García
Sixty-nine-year-old former Peruvian president Alan García committed suicide last week just hours after a warrant for his arrest was released. The allegations were of corruption. García was accused of having received bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, one of the most heavily implicated conglomerates in Operation Car Wash; the biggest corruption scandal to have characterized Latin America’s recent history. He becomes Peru’s fourth former presidential leader to have been involved in the scandal, joining Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Alejandro Toledo, Ollanta Humala, and the former presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, daughter of ex-president Alberto Fujimori. Outside of Peru, the corruption cobweb […]Read more...
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Chile leaves UNASUR as alternative PROSUR gains traction
Last week, Chile announced plans to leave the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) on account of its “inefficiency,” making it the sixth country to exit the coalition. Twelve South American countries, including Chile, created UNASUR in 2008, when left-leaning leaders such as Lula da Silva, Hugo Chávez and Cristina Kirchner were in power. Established to facilitate political dialogue between the nations and to counter U.S. influence on the continent, the international coalition has lost momentum since being left without a leader in January 2017. Six countries have already suspended their membership of the group, and now Argentina, Brazil, Chile, […]Read more...
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Time is of the essence for Colombia’s pro-JEP coalition to garner support ahead of regional elections
Between now and October 27, Colombia’s 32 departments are gearing up to elect local mayors, state representatives and city councilors for this year’s regional elections. While candidates begin to campaign for support, voters are now tasked with defining the parties in charge of their state governments. This will open up a window for national political matters – such as the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) – to influence regional elections. According to Andrei Gómez-Suarez, associate researcher in memory and reconciliation in Colombia and co-founder of nonpartisan transitional network Rodeemos el Diálogo, “the JEP has a deficit of legitimacy amongst Colombian […]Read more...
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US takes a hard stand against socialism with new sanctions
The “three stooges of socialism” — Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua — are subject to further sanctions, announced U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton on Wednesday, April 17. The new sanctions are an attempt to financially choke the three left-wing countries, and in doing so, push Nicolas Maduro out of power in Venezuela. Venezuela is already subject to a long list of U.S. sanctions, but the most recent ones have closed in on the Central Bank of Venezuela. They will cut off access to U.S. currency, freeze assets in the United States and limit the bank’s ability to carry out international […]Read more...
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South America’s indigenous languages: Where are they now?
South America has a rich linguistic heritage. According to The World Bank’s 2015 study “Indigenous Latin America in the 21st century,” the number of languages spoken in the region is 560, although some studies estimate that before Spanish colonization the continent was home to over 2,000. This diversity is in part due to the continent’s geography; dense jungles, snow-capped mountains and deserts separate communities making contact difficult with other groups. Large empires like the Incas, the Mayans, and the Aztecs reduced linguistic diversity when they conquered large swathes of land and people, but even today, there are remote monolingual groups […]Read more...
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Q&A with Argentina’s Former Foreign Minister: The state of women’s rights in Latin America
Susana Malcorra, Argentina’s former Foreign Minister, is one of the 43 women who penned an open letter titled ‘Group of Women Leaders for Change Inclusion,’ published just before this year’s International Women’s Day. The letter states there is an “erosion” of developments in women’s rights and calls for more complete gender equality, emphasizing the importance of multilateralism as a vehicle through which this can be achieved. It gathers a range of signatures from female leaders worldwide including: former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark, Ethiopian president Sahle-Work Zewde, Bulgarian politician and former UNESCO director Irina Bokova, former UN secretary […]Read more...
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The Mapuche take human rights grievances to the International Criminal Court
The indigenous Mapuche people are accusing the Chilean and Argentine governments of genocide and crimes against humanity in a petition they made to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday, April 11th. The movement began on February 20, when Frédéric Luz wrote a letter to the ICC’s headquarters in the Hague urging the international entity to take action. Luz is a 55-year-old French citizen who is also the Prince of the legally defunct Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia. The Mapuche people historically suffered violence and repression at the hands of both Argentina and Chile, especially during the Pacification of Araucania […]Read more...
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Colombian Congress rejects Duque’s JEP objections
Last week, Colombia’s Lower House voted to reject the six official objections filed by President Iván Duque to the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) bill. The objections, which political analyst Sergio Guzmán described as “flimsy,” were defeated by 110 votes to 44 in Congress. Guzmán is the director of Colombia Risk Analysis, a Bogotá-based political risk consulting firm. This happened despite US ambassador Kevin Whittaker publicly speaking out in favor of Duque’s objections. He claimed that the changes were necessary for the United States’ ability to extradite former combatants who might have committed crimes after the 2016 Peace Accord was […]Read more...
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U.S. diplomat offers a word of caution to the United States on Latin America
Towards the end of a phone interview with Latin America Reports, the former U.S. Ambassador to Panama John Feeley quoted a poem in Spanish written by the 19th century Nicaraguan poet, Ruben Diario. The poem, “To Roosevelt,” addresses U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt and challenges him to reconsider his approach to Latin America. Now, as a civilian, Feeley is doing the same to President Trump. In an extensive profile The New Yorker called “The Diplomat Who Quit the Trump Administration,” Jon Lee Anderson portrays Feeley as a man of deep convictions, a diplomat-gone-rogue. For nearly three decades, Feeley served as a […]Read more...
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Uruguayan homicides nearly double as country gears up for presidential elections
Last month, the Uruguayan government revealed that homicides in the country rose 46 percent in 2018. This drastic rise corresponds with increased public support for tougher policies against crime, and is likely to play a leading role in the upcoming presidential campaigns. The death toll in 2018 was 414, up from 284 the previous year. This means that the official rate of homicides in Uruguay reached 11.8 per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest in the country’s history. The government’s data shows that the number of gun-related homicides in particular has increased, from 170 in 2017 to 296 the following year, whereas […]Read more...
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Maduro accepts Red Cross offer of humanitarian aid for Venezuela on his own terms
President Nicolás Maduro has decided to allow the entry of Red Cross humanitarian aid into Venezuela, following a meeting with Peter Maurer, the chief of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Maurer conducted a five-day visit to Venezuela to review the ICRC’s activities in the country, becoming the organisation’s first chief to do so in 24 years. Yesterday, April 9, he met with Maduro at the Miraflores Palace in an encounter the president described as “productive.” After months of claiming that accepting humanitarian aid from outside Venezuela was to risk US invasion, Maduro has now decided that it […]Read more...
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The perils of traveling to Mexico as a Central American migrant
Despite the violent conditions that many migrants leave behind in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, Mexico is far from easy to navigate through. Growing hostility from Mexican citizens combined with the pressure on a flailing legal system means that many experience abuse, violence or kidnapping long before they have the chance of being granted asylum in the United States. In the first two days of April, Mexican immigration authorities detained 1,259 undocumented migrants close to the US border, according to an interview with Mexico’s commissioner of Mexico’s National Migration Institute, Tonatiuh Guillén and almost 500,000 migrants have been caught and […]Read more...
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Bolsonaro fires education minister accused of historical revisionism
In a recent interview with Brazil’s Valor magazine, former Minister of Education Ricardo Vélez described the 21-year military dictatorship as a “democratic regime by force” and proposed alterations to the way it is depicted in history textbooks. Yesterday, April 8, President Jair Bolsonaro announced his dismissal. The planned changes to “rescue visions” of the dictatorship were announced just over a week after Brazilian military troops commemorated the anniversary of the country’s 1964 military coup. It was the first time in eight years the military coup anniversary had been observed, reversing an eight-year ban imposed by former President Dilma Rousseff. Vélez’ […]Read more...
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The judge who ordered the arrest warrant for Thelma Aldana is under investigation for corruption
UPDATED on 5/9/2019: On Wednesday, April 8, Guatemalan prosecutors confirmed that they have opened an investigation into a Supreme Court Judge who ordered the arrest warrant against presidential candidate Thelma Aldana. According to Guatemalan paper El Periódico, Judge Víctor Manuel Cruz Rivera reportedly received millions of dollars in bribes. After authorizing the detention of Aldana, Cruz also asked the Ministry of Government for an armored vehicle and two bodyguards. He also has three other security guards, reported Prensa Libre, which means he is the most protected judge in the country. Cruz issued the arrest warrant on March 18, three months […]Read more...
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Latin America’s entrepreneurs take center stage at this year’s Seedstars World Summit
Argentina’s Blended was crowned the winning startup at this year’s Seedstars World Summit, the tech conference that took place this week in the Swiss city of Lausanne. The ed-tech startup, which encourages communication between schools and parents through a cloud-based platform, was awarded the grand prize of US$500,000. Of the five Latin American startups that attended the summit; representing Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Guatemala, four of them made it through to the final rounds of pitching. With industries ranging from finance, to health tech, insurance, edtech and gastronomy, areas of innovation at the 2019 Seedstars Summit were varied. Despite […]Read more...
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Venezuela starts to regulate Bitcoin as trading volume hits all-time high
As Bitcoin breaks new records in terms of trading volume in Venezuela, the government has issued new fees as part of its efforts to regulate cryptocurrency remittances. The National Superintendency of Crypto Assets and Related Activities (SUNACRIP) is now the regulator for cryptocurrencies in Venezuela. As part of that new mandate, it has established a monthly transaction limit for remittances whilst collecting taxes of up to 15% of the transaction amount. The new regulations were first published last Thursday in Gaceta Oficial No. 41581, with SUNACRIP taking to Twitter shortly afterwards to confirm the development. A cryptocurrency enthusiast went on to comment […]Read more...
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Teenage pregnancy rates soar across Latin America
The U.S Government recently expanded a Global Gag Rule which substantially limits funding to organisations that advocate and support abortions. Known as the Mexico City Policy, it is a ruling that has been reinstated by every Republican president only to be rescinded again by Democrat leaders.Read more...
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Does restricting the use of private vehicles tackle Medellín’s pollution problem?
The city of Medellín has recently imposed a state of preventative alert on its driving restriction policy due to dangerously high levels of pollution that have been affecting the health of the metropolis. The policy, known as pico y placa – which literally translates to ‘peak and plate’ – restricts private vehicles from driving during specific time periods on certain days. It was originally introduced to reduce traffic congestion during rush hours. However, since it was imposed by the then-Mayor of Bogotá Enrique Peñalosa in 1998, the system has doubled as an attempted measure to combat levels of air pollution. […]Read more...
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How a distrust in police leads to lynch mob culture
Ricardo Flores, 21, was studying law in Jalapa when he went to visit family in the town of Tianguistengo in August of last year. Assisting his uncle Alberto, 53, in buying construction materials in a neighboring town, the pair was arrested by local police officers for drinking a beer in public. While at the police station, false news spread through the town and across social media platforms that the two men were child kidnappers and a mob of locals began to gather outside the police station. Reports vary upon what happened next. Initial statements following the incident suggested that some […]Read more...
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Anti-corruption commission in Guatemala faces an uncertain future
As of March 18, the two most popular presidential candidates in Guatemala have been accused of corruption. The current president, Jimmy Morales, has also been accused of irregularities in his presidential campaigns, and two former presidents have been sent to prison for corruption, fraud and money laundering. And it isn’t just the politicians. An Insight Crime report reveals that the Guatemalan “corrupt elite” regularly interact with organized crime groups to maintain and expand both their economic and political power base. The strength of their hold over the Central American country means that corruption is rife and justice is nearly impossible […]Read more...
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How Guaidó’s Twitter persuades thousands to take to the streets
Updated 4/30/2019: Early in the morning of Tuesday, Abril 30, Juan Guaidó released a video on Twitter calling the Venezuelan people and armed forces to join him in an attempt to oust President Nicolás Maduro from power. At the time of writing, the tweet had received 41 thousand likes and 31 thousand retweets. Since declaring himself Interim President of Venezuela on January 23, Juan Guaidó has selected the platform that has enabled him to conduct leadership: Twitter. Not only does he use social media as a place to inform his 1.95 million followers about when and where protests against Maduro […]Read more...
