Every year, the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Committee on Freedom of Association releases a list of cases examined and their findings, placing a higher priority on some particularly egregious violations or lack of responsiveness on the part of governments. This year, situations in Argentina, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Fiji, and Peru were determined to be the most […]
In recent weeks, two southern cone neighbors, Argentina and Chile, have demonstrated radically different youth voting tendencies. Culturally, economically and politically, Chile and Argentina’s approaches toward just about everything are famously different; to say the two countries have a rivalry would be an understatement. Yet, as I sit on the Santiagan side of the Andes, I cannot help […]
This past week the Council on Hemispheric Affairs published an article on the Obama Administration’s actions to depressurize the relationship between Argentina and the “vulture funds” that made profit off Argentina’s default from their 2001 economic collapse. With so many formerly healthy economies in Europe now facing the same end game as Argentina did nearly […]
Behold, Foreign Policy has announced “a new golden age of oil and gas.” Here’s the good news: unlike previous booms this one stands to benefit a wide swath of humanity, including places as far flung as the Canary Islands and the Falklands, Brazil and the Arctic. The bad news: We could cook the planet. That […]
In a recent discussion on Argentina’s expropriation of YPF there was much commentary on how the Falklands issue was still one of great importance. Seeing Argentina as independent and able to move ahead, despite having poor relations with the Europeans, created a healthy debate on the issue. As the moderator of the posts I create, […]
Investors often fear one outcome to their investments beyond any natural disasters or recessions, one that has characterised possible nightmare results of investing in Emerging Markets, that of a nationally supported expropriation. Latin America as a whole has often fought and suffered as a result of state expropriations of American and European companies over the […]
No, it’s not because the land of the Pampas looks to become an energy giant as it taps the world’s third-largest shale gas reserves. Rather, Argentina is becoming the victimizer of internet-gullible Westerners. PRI’s “The World” recently aired a story on foreign nationals recently arrested in Argentina for trafficking cocaine. Says The World anchor Marco […]
What the decline of a hallowed institution says about Argentine politics, and why Chavez shares the blame. The Economist recently announced it will no longer publish inflation figures supplied by the Argentine government because of chronic underreporting of official figures—by half, according to just about every independent surveyor—and the politicization of INDEC, Argentina’s official statistics […]
As the move toward energy conservation takes hold, lithium for use in ion batteries is destined to play a significant role in the energy equation of the next generation. From 2003-2007, global demand for lithium carbonate doubled, and realizing current hybrid car technologies will require access to massive stocks of lithium, which is largely harvested […]
Hard to say, this past week, who was madder and more affronted about a missed opportunity: Evgeni Plushenko, the Russian figure skater who won Olympic silver but felt he deserved gold, or Argentina, which found out that a British company was exploring for oil in the nearby but British-held Falkland Islands. Despite losing a short […]
Countries within the Southern Hemisphere are on the move. This past weekend member states of UNASUR and the African Union met on Margarita Island, Venezuela, in order to strengthen ties between their countries and continents. One of the ideas proposed by President Hugo Chávez, as well as Moammar Gadhafi, of Libya, is an alliance among […]
Will the IAEA some day have to shift its attention to northern South America? In a move bound to attract US attention, Venezuelan officials have declared that they are conducting further exploration for uranium deposits. This, combined with President Hugo Chávez’s close ties with Iran and Russia, leads to concerns about transfer of the material […]
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