Please read part one here first: Censoring Speech
While not the first head of state to politicize Haitian carnival, President Michel Martelly made history with his deliberate attack on civil liberties last February, forbidding Port-au-Prince residents to peacefully assemble and organize their carnival — a decision that not …
President Enrique Peña Nieto has mounted an assault against Mexico’s entrenched monopolies over the past two months. He first took on the teachers union, then the telecoms, explaining his aim was to “transform the country, not just to run it.” Where’s this going? As noted by the Financial Times, the …
Porteños (Argentines from the capital city Buenos Aires) will get quite a self-esteem boost today, March 19 when the Vatican inaugurates Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the new pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
There has been no news in Buenos Aires for the last five days that has not …
Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Pope from outside of Europe for nearly a millennium, reflecting the reality of a church that has the majority of its followers in Latin America and the strong connection with society and social justice that churches have had in the developing world.
Since before the 2006 election of President Felipe Calderon, Elba Esther Gordillo has been someone who could wag a finger and move Mexico’s most powerful politicians into line. These include former President Calderon himself. Gordillo is head of the Mexican teachers union, the largest union in Latin America at 1.4 …
Among the more important questions to surface in the wake of Hugo Chávez’s death on March 5: Will chavismo survive? The answer, usually given in the affirmative, frequently invokes a previous era of Latin American history.
For example, a column on the London Review of Book’s website, “Chavez Hasta …
Now that one of Latin America’s most controversial figures has died, it is interesting to look back at his actions, actions that will reverberate in the western hemisphere for some time to come.
This is a short piece (about 52 minutes) that is clearly a love letter from the maker, Cinema …
“A state too expensive in itself, or by virtue of its dependencies, ultimately falls into decay; its free government is transformed
into a tyranny; it disregards the principles which it should preserve, and finally degenerates into despotism.”
— Simon Bolivar
Regrettably, the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez did not heed the sage words …
Last week, Raul Castro announced that he would step down from power in 2018. The last Castro to leave the seat of power in Havana is effectively ending a half-century long novella starting in the 1950s, etching the names of Castro and Che across all of Cuba and world history. …
At a high-level executive meeting in Mexico City on Feb. 13, the conversation turned, as it often does in Latin American circles, into a guessing game on Chavez´ health. Several participants insisted ¨Chavez is dead, we haven´t heard from him or seen him in weeks.¨ My response? The man is …
After 54 years of leadership by one Castro brother or the other, current Cuban President Raúl Castro announced on Sunday that his current five-year term would be his last — thus providing a firm date for the end of Castro rule in Cuba while …
Latin America is often seen as in the lower echelon of State Department priorities, and many experts think this is appropriate, given the world’s current hotspots. However, Latin Americans are our closest neighbors, much of our immigrant population, and our partners in solving major domestic issues. Christopher Sabatini, Editor-in-Chief of …
“The mountain that eats men.”
That is what Cerro Rico (“rich mountain”) is called.
The mountain in Potosi, Bolivia has yielded a tremendous amount of silver since the Spanish empire began mining it hundreds of years ago.
This documentary follows the daily life of 14 year-old Basilio Vargas, who works long shifts in …
During a live interview aired on Radio Scoop FM (107.7) 48 hours before Haiti’s carnival festivities, President Michel Martelly dispelled all rumors surrounding band selections for Cap-Haitien’s 2013 Carnival possession. “It was I, who personally decided to exclude bands from the carnival parade,” declared the president. “The decision …
President Obama in his State of the Union address announced that the United States and the European Union would seek out a Free Trade Agreement in order to boost the economy of both regions and help curb the ongoing bouts of recessions. This proposed agreement will be …
