Since Rafael Correa was elected president of Ecuador in 2006, the country has become a study in new socialism.
It is new because it combines the social aspect of socialism while also relying on market forces.
Ecuador, like many developing countries, has suffered from the ill effects of “dependencia,” a system that …
Recently I had a conversation with a civil engineer from Greece. He asked me directly if my country accepts economic migrants. As someone who has worked in the immigration system and has followed recent changes to the system here, I had found it odd that people who apply to immigrate …
The Economist’s Venezuela correspondent put out an informative video on the succession of the next possible leader in Venezuela, that can be found here. I also encourage everyone to read the last few posts on FPA’s Latin America blog for information on Venezuela as well. The consensus …
Recently in my own community, one branch of the government has taken to openly violating some enshrined rights under the constitution using their own legislation that clearly violates the rights of the people. The acceptance in using the legal system to remove the rights of citizens that are governed under …
Hugo Chavez should be officially sworn into office on January 10. But with Chavez’s advanced cancer and his recently announced “complications,” it is unclear who will lead the country in 2013. Here is a brief primer.
As Tim Padgett recently argued, Venezuela’s Bolivarian constitution provides a “murky map” on matters of …
China’s investment in Brazil has taken off like a catamaran surfing across the Pacific. While one might associate this trend with a Chinese desire to earn returns and pump capital into a fellow BRIC country, a look at the Chinese approach suggests otherwise. China does not have the variety or …
Many who believe the Mayan calendar’s predictions are factual see December 21st as the last day of days. Recent worldwide events might make many feel that his could be the case. With political strife in the Middle East, the murder of children in both the U.S. and China, ongoing economic …
In the films Taken and Taken 2, Liam Neeson plays a father who tracks down his daughter after a group that seeks to sell her into sex slavery kidnaps her. While this is not a common occurrence for young American students in Paris, it is a major problem in many …
President Obama’s election victory last month proposed many new policy changes for the next four years. One of the most important policy relationships may be the one between the United States and Mexico. This past Saturday, Enrique Pena Nieto was sworn in as Mexico’s new President. With …
Currently an attempt to maintain a cease-fire between Israel and the Gaza Strip is taking shape, with conditions based on the halt of rocket fire and artillery from both sides. An obvious conclusion to create a cease-fire is to stop shooting, but the roots of a cease-fire comes from a …
After a summer and autumn listening to campaign commercial after campaign commercial, watching debates and analysing policies from the most passive to the most extreme, the election in the United States has finally ended. It seems the only thing that has changed, however, is the fact that both Democrats and …
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 …
I have been reflecting on the unrealized but ever-expanding influence that Hispanics will have on our entire electoral process. The Economist recently published an article called “Throwing votes away.” It criticizes the Republican Party for losing steam with Hispanic voters since leaders such as George W. Bush made significant …
Long-term policy goals by America’s neighbors have made them some of the best performing economies worldwide. Unfortunately, America’s backyard has received little attention from the Obama Administration and even less attention during the Bush years. During the recent electoral debates there have been some mention of Canada and Mexico, but …
At this point, the plight of Venezuelan prisons is internationally known. Jails are severely overcrowded, conditions are horrendous and members of armed gangs kill each other with such frequency that the government actually created a new Prison Ministry to oversee the rights of prisoners. But the most perplexing aspect of …
