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LATEST NEWS
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Nicaragua grants amnesty for all actors in anti-government protests
A total of 106 political prisoners have now been freed in Nicaragua after a controversial amnesty law was passed by Congress on June 8, granting freedom to those who participated in last year’s anti-government protests, including both demonstrators and police. The law, backed by President Daniel Ortega’s government, has provoked heavy criticism from U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who has publicly stated that it could “impede the processing of potentially responsible persons for grave violations of human rights.” Likewise, Human Rights Watch has also called for the United States to impose sanctions against senior Nicaraguan government officials […]Read more...
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Mexico’s National Guard will be used to reduce immigration after negotiations with the U.S.
Six thousand National Guard troops will be sent to the country’s border with Guatemala in order to curb immigration, reported the BBC. This is the result of marathon negotiations with the United States to avoid being hit with tariffs that could reach up to 25 percent. The agreement which was signed on Friday, June 7, also requires the Mexican government to expand the initiative to return asylum seekers from the U.S. border to Mexico while they wait for their claims to be processed. And earlier this week, Ebrard announced that the government had already started deploying some of the six […]Read more...
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What is the future for renewable energy in Latin America?
Coming in as Latin America’s second largest country, just falling short of Brazil, Mexico is the fourteenth largest country on the globe with a land mass of 1,964,375 area sq.km. A flight from, for instance, Tijuana on the Pacific Coast to the tourist hotspot of Cancun in the Gulf of Mexico can take over four hours flight time and a journey by land can take days. Within Mexico, the abundances of climates are divided by the Tropic of Cancer and offer anything from tropical and Mediterranean, to arid and dry landscapes. Winters are mild and summers can become staggeringly hot, and most […]Read more...
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In photos: Brazil’s second round of education protests
Yesterday afternoon, Brazil’s Ministry of Education released a statement communicating that no public education institution had the right to encourage students, teachers, other staff, public officials or parents to take part in demonstrations during school hours, nor incentivize political movements. A few hours earlier, protests had already begun. Photojournalist Ana Carolina Fernandes documented the protests that took place in Rio de Janeiro, which were the second round of demonstrations to take place against President Jair Bolsonaro’s recently-announced cuts to the national education budget, supported by Education Minister Abraham Weintraub. The states of Bahia, São Paulo, Brasília, Porto Alegre, Maranhão, Ceará, […]Read more...
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Economy takes center stage for voters in Argentina’s upcoming elections
The run-up to Argentina’s elections in October has been eventful so far. The expected stand-off between current President Mauricio Macri, criticized for his management of the economic crisis, and former President Cristina Kirchner, who is embroiled in a corruption scandal, suddenly dissipated when Kirchner decided to step down. Kirchner is now running as vice-president, which political analyst Raul Aragón expressed to Latin America Reports was a “very intelligent strategy,” and suggested that new candidate Alberto Fernández is more likely to attract more moderate voters. In the current economic climate, however, Argentinians will be looking first and foremost to economic policy […]Read more...
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New law to grant Cubans wi-fi access from their own homes
Yesterday, the Cuban Ministry of Communication announced the legalization of personal wi-fi networks across the island and its decision to permit the importation of routers and servers. Internet access will still be solely provided by state-run communications monopoly Etecsa. Previously, it was illegal in Cuba to be connected to wi-fi in your own home. This is not to say it didn’t happen, as many set up their own clandestine networks and state authorities gradually increased their levels of tolerance around the rule breakers. Now, Cubans will be able to legally set up their own private internet connections via computers and […]Read more...
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Odebrecht scandal involvement begins to unravel in Mexico
Interpol released a red alert yesterday in order to search for Emilio Lozoya Austin, the former head of Mexico’s state-run oil company, Pemex. At the same time in Mexico, a judge has temporarily suspended the arrest warrant facing Lozoya while authorities clarify if there were any anomalies in the process, reported Animal Politico. The former head of Mexico’s state-run oil company Pemex could face trial for bribery and tax fraud allegations which are connected to the wider Latin American Odebrecht scandal. The investigation against Lozoya marks the first anti-corruption case that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — known as […]Read more...
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Brazil’s university students to Bolsonaro: Don’t cut the education budget
Bárbara Martins is a 21-year-old journalism student at Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University (UFRJ) who is worried that recent government cuts to the education budget will mean she will not be able to finish her second university semester of the year. “It’s the biggest university in the country, there is no way it is going to be able to operate with almost halved funding,” Martins told Latin America Reports. Earlier this month, students and employees of Brazilian public education institutions received news of the current government’s decision to freeze approximately 23 percent of the country’s discretionary education budget, equivalent to […]Read more...
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Abortion legislation in the spotlight as Argentina presents new law to Congress
Women across Argentina will take part in marches to celebrate the presentation of new abortion legislation to National Congress. This is the eighth year that legislators and activists have attempted to pass a law to legalize abortion in the country. The new proposal is an altered version of the one presented last year, which passed in Congress but failed when it reached the Senate after a 16-hour debate. Read more: Teenage pregnancy rates soar across Latin America The fight for free, legal and safe abortion last year polarized the largely Catholic country, and resulted in a “green wave” of feminist […]Read more...
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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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Bolsonaro’s admission of weakness sparks discussions of his impeachment
Last week, the publication of a Folha de São Paulo op-ed predicting the possibility of President Jair Bolsonaro’s impeachment coincided with his own admission that Brazil is proving “impossible” to govern. According to Folha columnist Reinaldo Azevedo, all that remains for Bolsonaro to be charged with impeachment is for the political atmosphere to degenerate enough for him to lose at least a third of support in Brazil’s House of Representatives. Since his inauguration in January, Bolsonaro’s popularity rating has fallen by 15%, according to a survey carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics (IBOPE) in March. […]Read more...
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How to save a dying indigenous language
According to UNESCO‘s latest survey of world languages, 43 percent of them are endangered. Since the internet has become the integral platform for communication, many believe that the world wide web is a severe threat to language diversity. And as researcher András Kornai predicted in his study Digital Language Death , 95 percent of all languages spoken today will never gain traction online. It’s not just the internet that is threatening indigenous and minority languages, Juan Gonzalo Betancur told Latin America Reports. Head of social communication at Medellin’s EAFIT University in Colombia, Betancur explained there are various factors that could […]Read more...
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Fifth Mexican journalist killed this year
Francisco Romero left his home in the early hours of May 16 after receiving a tip about a potential story. Shortly after arriving at La Gota bar in the beachside city of Playa Del Carmen, the journalist was shot in the head by an unidentified gunman and died at the scene. Romero is at least the fifth journalist to be murdered in Mexico this year, making the country the deadliest in the world for news reporters, according to Reporters Without Borders. The 28-year-old journalist known as Ñaca Ñaca ran a Facebook news site called Ocurrió Aqui (Happened here) that reported […]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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How incorrect statistics fuel the negative image of immigrants
The current US president consistently vilifies Mexico and its southern neighbors in Central America. This includes his perceived need to ‘‘make America safe again’’ from migrants who the US government has deemed as “criminal illegal aliens.” The belief here, underpinned by much-challenged statistics, is that by declaring a national emergency and funneling billions of US taxpayer dollars to build a wall, the United States would reinstate security and keep migrants at bay. In February, Mr. Trump announced plans to use the US military budget to help reach fund of $8 billion for the wall, but this decision remains stuck in […]Read more...
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Bolsonaro’s environmental negligence goes from bad to worse
This week, Brazil withdrew its offer to host a United Nations Latin America and Caribbean climate week that was due to be held this August in the city of Salvador. Bolsonaro’s current Environment Minister Ricardo Selles told national daily O Globo that it “didn’t make sense to host the event” without hosting the UN Climate Change Summit, which Brazil had already withdrawn its offer to host later on this year. Last week, President Jair Bolsonaro also announced his intention to remove environmental protections from the Tamoios Ecological Station in the state of Rio de Janeiro, opening it up to tourist […]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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Venezuela’s self-declared president urges Europe to legitimize his “diplomats”
Venezuela’s self-declared interim president, Juan Guaidó, on Sunday urged European leaders to “legitimize” his foreign representatives in those countries. The call highlights the precarious position of his “diplomats” on the continent, which are not officially recognized as ambassadors and lack the traditional resources allotted to foreign service members. “I always call this entrepreneurial diplomacy,” said William Dávila Valeri, Guaidó’s designated “emissary” to Austria, Croatia, Slovenia and Slovakia, during an interview with Latin America Reports in April at the Horasis Global Meeting. Davila, whose father is a member of Venezuela’s National Assembly, is the current Executive Director of Corporate Relations at […]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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Paraguay’s Guaraní language is flourishing but its indigenous people are not
The difference between Paraguayan Guaraní and 43% of the world’s languages is that it is far from going extinct–Paraguayan Guaraní is thriving. In Paraguay alone there are 5,850,000 speakers of Paraguayan Guaraní, and the 2012 census showed that 63.9 percent of the population are bilingual in both Guaraní and Spanish. What makes this language unique in South America is that it is the only indigenous language spoken predominantly by non-indigenous people. It’s important to note that the Guaraní that is spoken across the country – known as Paraguayan Guaraní – has changed and developed from the language that the Spanish […]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...
