President Obama over the last four years has had as successful a record on Latin America as the last two presidents before him. It can be argued he has had some added success in the region considering luck and policy with Colombia gaining a handle on its own internal conflict and Cuba slowly reforming to […]
Writing for both the Latin America blog and the Europe blog often has its advantages, and with so little attention being paid to Latin America at this past weekend’s G8 Summit at Camp David I am given some space to discuss how the global economy affects Latin America and other developing regions. The late 90s […]
Meningococcal disease, or meningitis, is a bacterial infection of the meninges, or lining around the brain and spinal cord. If left untreated, it has a 50% mortality rate, and it spreads most easily through crowded areas where people are in close and prolonged contact, from college dorms to informal settlements. Meningococcal disease can result in severe, permanent […]
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes. Marcel Proust Why do American foreign policy decision makers and diplomats continue to misjudge the political character of Latin America and the Caribbean? Our understanding (really our misunderstanding) of the socio-political landscape of this region traps us into supporting […]
As I highlighted in my last post, violent crime is peaking in Brazil’s interior. A disturbing corollary to this trend is the high rate of targeted violence against indigenous communities. New data compiled by the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) for a report on attacks on indigenous peoples underscores the severity of the problem. As well […]
With the possible exceptions of soccer and samba, Brazil’s global reputation is shaped more by its high rates of violent crime than anything else. Romanticized in popular films and culture, the country’s favelas are the most visible symbol of the issue. But according to the Map of Violence 2010, a new report from the São […]
According to two of Human Rights Watch’s top Latin America experts, the way forward in the largely stalemated US-Cuba relationship is for the Obama administration to drop pursuit of the regime change clauses of Helms-Burton in favor of a one-issue focus on human rights, then team with international partners to push for one simple goal […]
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads to Peru today for the meetings of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, which will be held in Lima. Her trip will also include stops in Ecuador, Colombia and Barbados, and she’ll already be back in the States on June 10 (Thursday). The trip has nothing to […]
The movie Avatar is a blockbuster, and now the third-highest grossing movie of all time. It is also a story about migration. In short, it depicts humans in the year 2154, seeking to extract a valuable mineral from a far-off planet called Pandora, and willing to do so at any cost, including the extermination of […]
Yesterday Hugo Chávez, President of Venezuela, gave a more tempered speech to the United Nations General Assembly. He said the smell of sulfur (his reference to George W. Bush in 2006) had dissipated, and that instead he sensed new hope with President Barack Obama in office. Further description of the speech by the Associated Press […]
El Universal reported that a decline in revenue from oil sales caused imports into Venezuela to drop by 49% during the first six months of 2009. Despite a recent increase the value of petroleum, Venezuela has experienced a sharp reduction in available funds since the price of a barrel of oil is just over $65, […]
Yesterday, President Hugo Chávez continued his travels overseas, spending the day in Russia. During his time there he announced that Venezuela will recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states. A brief war with between Russia and Georgia in August 2008 led to the separation of these two regions. More information is available in today’s […]
Popular from Press
