Alvaro Uribe Is Closer to a Third Term and to Self-destruction
Latin American Current Events, News & Affairs - Andres Oppenheimer

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who enjoys sky-high popularity rates at home thanks to his successful crackdown on narco-terrorist groups, is a step closer to changing the constitution and running for a third consecutive term. The big question is whether this will turn Colombia into a banana republic.

Some Latin Nations Lead World in Red Tape
Latin American Current Events, News & Affairs - Andres Oppenheimer

Once upon a time, it used to be that communist countries like China had more business-phobic bureaucracies, more red tape and a worse business environment than capitalist ones. Not anymore. According to Doing Business in 2010, a new World Bank study, China and Vietnam offer better conditions to local and foreign business people than most Latin American countries.

Despite Crisis, Latin Countries' Military Spending Rising
Latin American Current Events, News & Affairs - Andres Oppenheimer

Despite the world's worst economic slump since the 1930s and projections that the number of poor in Latin America will rise this year, countries in the region have embarked on their biggest military spending spree in recent memory.

Venezuela's Iran Ties Raise Eyebrows
Latin American Current Events, News & Affairs - Andres Oppenheimer

Here's an issue that is drawing growing attention in Washington, but is going almost unnoticed in Latin America -- allegations that Venezuela is helping Iran develop nuclear weapons, and that Iran's fundamentalist regime is setting up a foothold in Latin America from where to threaten the United States

Fate of Honduras Crisis Will Hinge on Riots
Latin American Current Events, News & Affairs - Andres Oppenheimer

Diplomats see three possible outcomes of the bizarre political crisis in Honduras, a country with two leaders -- one in control, the other powerless but recognized by the world community -- since ousted President Manuel Zelaya's brazen return. The final outcome will ultimately depend on.

Presidential Candidates Key to Solving Honduras Crisis
Latin American Current Events, News & Affairs - Andres Oppenheimer

There is a new possible solution to the Honduran crisis that is gaining traction in Washington and key Latin American capitals: Bypass the country's two presidents, and get leading presidential candidates to work out a deal that would give credibility to the Nov. 29 elections.

Joseph Stiglitz Left's Favorite U.S. Nobel Economist
by Andres Oppenheimer

U.S. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz has become a sort of rock star in left-of-center Latin American countries for his vocal criticism of free-for-all capitalism. But in a wide-ranging interview, he offered some advice that many of his fans in the region may not want to hear.

Childhood Tragedy May Affect President Rafael Correa's Policies
by Andres Oppenheimer

I'm not a great fan of using psychological profiles to explain people's political leanings, but a report on Ecuador's rabidly anti-U.S. President Rafael Correa, which I read during a visit to Colombia last week, left me wondering.

Growth With Equity: Brazil's Path to Economic Recovery
by Patrus Ananias

The financial crisis has left few corners of the global economy unscathed, but many of the loudest cries reflecting the deepest pain are largely ignored. These are the cries of the world's poorest citizens whose suffering is not measured in battered portfolios and retirement plans but in their daily survival

'U.S. Bases' in Colombia May Be Less Than Meets the Eye
Andres Oppenheimer

What's most surprising about South America's growing uproar over Colombia's plans to allow 'U.S. military bases' on its territory is that there may be no such thing in the making -- but rather a major Colombian PR blunder.

What's most surprising about South America's growing uproar over Colombia's plans to allow 'U.S. military bases' on its territory is that there may be no such thing in the making -- but rather a major Colombian PR blunder.

Israel Fortifies Presence in Latin America
Andres Oppenheimer

Following three years of frantic Iranian activities in Latin America that included three trips by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the region -- a fourth visit is scheduled in August to Brazil -- and the opening or enlargement of a half-dozen Iranian embassies, Israel is beginning to raise its own profile in the region.

Partisan Split on Honduras Can Be Costly
Andres Oppenheimer

The conflict in Honduras is rapidly becoming the focus of a fierce partisan fight in Washington, D.C. -- and that may not bode well for the future of U.S. policy in Latin America. Sources in Washington tell me that 17 senators -- mostly conservative Republicans and not part of the usual crowd of legislators interested in Latin American affairs -- are trying to open a new front against Obama on top of healthcare accusing him of being "soft" on anti-American leaders in Latin America.

China Rising in Latin America, but Won't Overtake United States
Andres Oppenheimer

The latest figures showing that China is emerging from the global crisis sooner than anticipated is triggering speculation that China will soon overtake the United States as Latin America's top business partner. Granted, speculation about China's impending leap to becoming Latin America's top economic partner spread like wildfire recently when Brazil announced that it will trade more with China than with the United States this year for the first time. It sounds very interesting, but don't bet on it.

Latin America's Economic Forecast Good but Not Good Enough
Andres Oppenheimer

Good news for Latin America: a new United Nations study projects that the region's economy will start recovering in the second half this year, and that it will grow by a respectable 3.1 percent next year.

OAS Oddly Silent on 'Coup' in Caracas
Andres Oppenheimer

While the Organization of American States is rightly denouncing the coup against ousted President Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, there are growing questions about why it hasn't said a word about the coup against Antonio Ledezma in Venezuela.

Argentine Finance Chief's Tenure an Economic Indicator
Andres Oppenheimer

When Argentina earlier this week appointed its sixth minister of economy in the past six years, it was hard not to conclude that there should be a new economic indicator to measure countries' reliability: the length of their economy minister's time in office.

Chile Should Tout Its Passage to First World
Andres Oppenheimer

By the end of this year, Chile is likely to become the first South American country to join the exclusive club of the world's 30 richest countries.

ALBA Bloc Leaders' Main Obsession: Indefinite Rule
Andres Oppenheimer

It's hard to keep cool while watching the dismantling of democracy in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Honduras. When the presidents of these countries met in Venezuela, for a special ALBA bloc summit -- the Venezuelan-led alliance of mostly radical leftist countries -- it was hard not to see the group as a society of mutual support for self-perpetuation in power.

The Real War in Mexico
Shannon O'Neil

Mexico is engulfed by escalating violence. The question is not whether the Mexican state will fail. It will not. The actual risk of the violence today is that it will undermine democracy tomorrow

Another Swine-Flu Casualty: Good Journalism
by Andres Oppenheimer

The swine flu outbreak that has wrecked Mexico's economy may become a case study in reckless journalism. Like most of you, I had taken it for granted that the disease had started in Mexico.

Latin American Region Silent Amid Attacks on the Media
Andres Oppenheimer

The most immediate threat to democracy in Latin America: a concerted move by authoritarian leaders to silence independent media throughout the region. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, a disciple of Venezuelan President Hugo Ch�vez, said that when he takes over as president of the 12-nation Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in July he will propose creation of a regional body to defend governments against critics in the media.

Brazil Deserves Criticism for Awful Foreign Policy
by Andres Oppenheimer

Brazil, Latin America's biggest country, has received well-deserved praise in recent years for its responsible economic policies. There is hardly a dictator -- or repressive government -- that Brazil doesn't like, human rights groups say.

Brazil Stretching Clout to Central America
Andres Oppenheimer

Brazilian President Luiz In�cio Lula da Silva's largely unnoticed trip to Central America last week underscored an interesting phenomenon: Brazil is making big inroads into a region that was traditionally seen as Mexico's backyard

U.S. Should Do More to Compete With Cuba's Student Programs
Andres Oppenheimer

The House of Representatives approved a proposal last week to dramatically increase the number of U.S. college students studying in Latin America and other parts of the developing world.

Latin America Foreign Investment Outlook Grim
Andres Oppenheimer

A new United Nations report predicts a 40 percent drop in foreign investments in Latin America this year. I hope I'm wrong about this, but the fall in foreign funds may be even steeper.

Commodity Price Hikes Might Not Save Venezuela, Others
Andres Oppenheimer

The nearly 30 percent rise in the price of oil and other raw materials over the past month raises a big question: Will commodity-dependent populist governments in Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador get a second wind? They are certainly hoping for that to happen.

Will Colombia's President Uribe Run Again?
Latin American Current Events, News & Affairs - Andres Oppenheimer

After Tuesday's vote in the Colombian Senate many well-placed Colombians tell me they are convinced that President �lvaro Uribe is serious about running in 2010.

Many Believe End of Argentina's 'K' Era Nears
Latin American Current Events, News & Affairs - Andres Oppenheimer

Seven weeks before Argentina's much-awaited June 28 legislative elections, there is a growing consensus that populist President Cristina Fern�ndez de Kirchner will lose her majority in Congress, and that there will be major political changes in this country.

Brazil, China & India Can Mitigate Global Crisis
Global Economic Viewpoint

Brazil, India and even China will not be able, by themselves, to correct the dysfunctions that produced the global crisis. But it is true that the economic power of these three countries can mitigate its negative consequences. ...

Obama praises army base heroism
President Barack Obama praises the "valour" of those who responded to the deadly attacks at a US army base in Texas.

Obama in 11th-hour health plea
US President Barack Obama is to meet House Democrat lawmakers to try to win support ahead of a crucial healthcare vote.

Jackson's father seeks allowance
Joe Jackson asks for an allowance from the estate of his late son Michael, saying the star supported him before he died.

Electricity blackouts in Ecuador
Two cities suffer blackouts as rationing is brought in following water shortages at an Ecuadorean hydro-electric plant.

Paraguay leader sacks army head
Paraguay's president sacks the head of the armed forces, warning officers were plotting a coup against him.

Aretha to perform at Motown gala
Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder are among the musicians set to perform at a special concert for the US record label.

US jobless rate rises to over 10%
The US economy lost 190,000 jobs in October, taking the jobless rate above 10% for the first time since 1983.

One dead in Orlando office attack
Police in the US city of Orlando arrest a gunman who opened fire in an office, killing one person and injuring five others.

Deal over Honduran crisis 'dead'
Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says a deal to resolve the country's political crisis is "dead".

Brazilian man springs surprise by turning up at own funeral
A Brazilian man surprises his family by turning up at his own funeral, reports say.

Obama father 'abusive', says president's half-brother
One of US President Barack Obama's half-brothers speaks about their "abusive" father at the launch of his first novel.

Political analysis and a British perspective on life in the US
Mark Mardell's take on politics and life in the US and North America.

How the Obama presidency slipped from poetry to prose
One year after Barack Obama's election to the highest office, Matt Frei, presenter of BBC World News America, asks if the president should maybe take a leaf out of the book of his predecessor.

Dilemmas of intervention
History shows the dilemmas of US intervention overseas

Bolt guru Mills ends Jamaica role
Usain Bolt's coach Glen Mills is to step down after 22 years in charge of the Jamaican athletics team.

Woods and Watney share China lead
Tiger Woods birdies the last hole to share the lead with fellow American Nick Watney after two days of the Champions tournament in Shanghai.

Charles tribute to Canada troops
The Prince of Wales praises Canada's armed forces for their courage on the latest leg of his 11-day tour of the country.

US hits China pipes with tariffs
The United States imposes high anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese pipes as trade disputes mar the run-up to a bilateral summit.

Found US baby's mother is charged
US police charge the mother of a baby, reported missing, after finding the child alive under her babysitter's bed.

Ex-NY police chief Kerik guilty
New York's police chief at the time of the 9/11 attacks, Bernard Kerik, pleads guilty to lying to the White House and other charges.

Beatles tracks pulled off US site
EMI wins an injunction against a US website which it claims was selling Beatles songs without permission.

US insider trading case widened
A further 14 people are charged in connection to the alleged $20m insider trading scheme at US hedge fund Galleon Group.

AIG posts second quarterly profit
Insurer AIG reports its second straight quarterly profit since it was bailed out by the US government.

Fannie Mae asks for another $15bn
US mortgage finance firm Fannie Mae asks for another $15bn in state aid after announcing heavy losses.

China defends export restrictions
China denies claims by the US, EU and Mexico that it is unfairly constraining exports of some raw materials.

Tennessee blues
Young and jobless, a year on from Obama's election

Canada's biker massacre
Gang feud behind the slaughter that shocked Canada

J Street on Washington map
New Israel lobby group finds voice in Obama's America

Mothers at risk in the US
Giving birth in the US is riskier than you might think

Rio aims for sporting carnival
Rio to flex economic muscle during 2016 Olympic games

Big headache
What it's really like to get health insurance in the US

Hidden anguish
Residents' sense of shock after Fort Hood shootings

No strings
The day I fell for a Sesame Street puppet

Audio slideshow
People and wildlife on one of Brazil's longest roads

World barriers
How the Brazilian city of Rio is walling in its favelas

Honduras crisis
Supreme Court official's inside view of the political strife

BBC News | World | Americas | UK Edition
Get the latest BBC News from the Americas: breaking news, features and analysis plus audio and video content from the United States and the Americas.

 

As Honduran Deal Failed, Split Behind Crisis Grew
At each stage, the camps of the ousted president and of the acting president have been on different pages.

Latin American Leaders Seek to Rein in Media, Press Group Says
The head of a press association complained of governments’ revoking broadcast licenses, fostering hostility toward journalists and giving a free hand to government supporters.

Paraguayan President Replaces Military Leadership
The new commanders were sworn in a day after President Fernando Lugo abruptly removed the leaders of the army, navy and air force amid speculation of a possible coup attempt.

Mexico City Journal: Where the Swearing Is All About the Context
Mexicans, despite their reputation for formality, curse like sailors, a recent survey found. But exactly what is considered a bad word can require some interpretation.

Honduran Businesses Still Wait to Heal
Businesspeople say four months of political turmoil have caused long-term economic damage, isolating a country that had only recently drawn international investment and tourism.

Chilean President Rides High as Term Ends
After a rough start, Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s first woman in the presidency, is winding up her term as one of the country’s most popular leaders.

In Cancún, Police Pick Wrong People for ‘Bite’
When police in Cancún, Mexico, extorted $300 from an American couple, they didn’t know that the driver’s wife was a Minnesota state senator who would fight back.

World Briefing | The Americas: Venezuela: Indians Die From Swine Flu
The spread of the H1N1 virus to remote parts of the Amazon rain forest in Venezuela caused the deaths of at least five Yanomami Indians in the past two weeks.

World Briefing | The Americas: Mexico: U.S. Air Force Sergeant Killed in Shooting
An off-duty sergeant was among six people killed by masked gunmen early Wednesday in a bar in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, the authorities said.

World Briefing | The Americas: Honduras: Ousted Leader Questions U.S. Policy
Manuel Zelaya is asking the Obama administration to explain why United States officials say they will recognize Honduran elections on Nov. 29 even if he is not returned to power first.

World Briefing | The Americas: Honduras: Vote Postponed on Deal to End Crisis
Congressional leaders decided not to call Congress out of recess to vote on an accord that would restore the ousted president, Manuel Zelaya.

National Briefing | Midwest: Missouri: Pilot Sentenced in Theft
A Canadian man has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for stealing a plane in Canada and flying over three states before landing along a dark highway in southern Missouri.

Trial Begins for a Former President of Argentina
Reynaldo Bignone, a retired general, is accused of responsibility for many cases of torture and other rights violations in the late 1970s.

Mother of Canadian Singer Killed by Coyotes Asks That the Animals Be Spared
The mother of Taylor Mitchell, a young Canadian folk singer who was killed by coyotes, has asked that the animals not be put down.

2 Suspects Tied to Detroit Imam Arrested in Canada
The police in Windsor, Ontario, arrested two men who were linked to Luqman Ameen Abdullah, the imam of a Detroit mosque who was killed by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents during a raid on Wednesday.

Gunmen Kill Union Leader in Mexico
Gunmen ambushed a peasant union leader and his family in northern Mexico, killing him and 14 others in an attack that bore the hallmarks of a hit by drug cartels.

Deal Set to Restore Ousted Honduran President
The de facto government agreed to a deal that would allow Manuel Zelaya, the deposed president, to return to office, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton confirmed on Friday.

Family Fights Odds, Retrieving Kidnapped Girl
This winter in China, Olivia Karolys, an illegal Mexican immigrant from New York, lost her daughter to her estranged husband. They were reunited on Thursday.

World Briefing | The Americas: Colombia: Pact to Expand U.S. Army Presence Signed
Officials have said the agreement will increase United States access to seven Colombian bases for 10 years without increasing the number of personnel beyond the cap of 1,400 specified by American law.

World Briefing | The Americas: Nicaragua: U.S. Ambassador Chased From University
Demonstrators hurling fireworks chased the American ambassador from a university fair on Friday because of his criticism of a Supreme Court ruling letting President Daniel Ortega seek another term.

World Briefing | The Americas: Brazil: Plane Lost in Amazon Is Found With Survivors
A plane that disappeared over the Amazon made an emergency river landing in a remote part of the rain forest, and nine of the 11 people aboard survived, Brazil’s Air Force said Friday.

Revelation Undermines Chevron Case in Ecuador
An American whose secret recordings have placed him at the center of a $27 billion lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador was disclosed to be a convicted drug trafficker.

Nicaraguans Protest Remarks by U.S. Envoy
Demonstrators at the United States Embassy in Nicaragua’s capital demanded that the American ambassador be expelled for criticizing a ruling that allows President Daniel Ortega to seek re-election.

World Briefing | The Americas: Honduras: Interim Government Files Case Against Brazil
The de facto government of Honduras has filed a case with the International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Brazil of meddling in Honduran affairs.

World Briefing | The Americas: Canada: 6 Bikers Convicted in Murders of 8 Others
A jury in London, Ontario, convicted six men on Thursday of murdering eight fellow members of the Bandidos motorcycle gang.

An Appraisal: Other Voyages in the Shadow of Lévi-Strauss
In 1978 I made my first reporting trip to the Brazilian Amazon, with an orange-and-white Penguin paperback edition of “Tristes Tropiques” as the only book squeezed into my gear.

Dominicans Try Shots to Boost Rising Players
In the Dominican Republic, boys are routinely receiving injections of over-the-counter vitamins and painkillers.

Explorer | Latin America Issue: Villa de Leyva, a Graceful Window on Colonial Colombia
This preserved colonial city of whitewashed houses and grand churches meets contemporary life on its own terms.

NYT > Americas

 

Beck will reach out to Latinos
Charlie Beck, the mayor’s nominee to head the Los Angeles Police Department, told Hoy Newspaper he will make a particular effort to reach out to Latinos through community meetings and by conducting news conferences and any other police function in English and Spanish. “I need to get the concerns of all the communities in Los Angeles and some communities have more problem communicating with me than others,” Beck said. He will also maintain Special Order 40, which prevents LAPD officers from inquiring about people’s immigration status. “Special Order 40 is part of the core values of LAPD and that will continue as is,” noted Beck, who has also designated Michoacan, Mexico-born captain Rigo Romero to be his Special Agent for the Latino Community. “Rigo is not just a Spanish speaker. Rigo’s personal history ties him deeply to the immigrant community. He and I are going to work very closely making sure that the police message goes out just as clearly in Spanish as it does in English,” Beck said. “Rigo knows me, he knows my philosophy. He can tell you what it is that I think because he and I have that kind of relationship,” he said. -- Francisco Castro/Hoy...

ICE arrests migrants with permits to be in the country legally
Two women who had applied and been approved under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that gives them permits to be in the country legally report being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, arrests that landed them in jail, in one case for an entire month. Maria de Barrera was arrested in Los Angeles when ICE agents came to her house looking for people who no longer lived there. “I showed the agents my worker’s permit and he said that was not enough and took it away,” said Barrera, 46. She was taken to an immigration detention center and was released several hours later after her lawyer showed ICE agents Barrera had been approved under VAWA. Elvira Ayon, 26, who also was approved under VAWA, was arrested in Delano, Calif., and later taken to an immigration detention center in Arizona where she spent a month before a lawyer gained her released. Jorge Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), says such cases are common and calls them proof of the “racial profiling” practiced by ICE. “They [ICE] don’t go looking for people in Beverly Hills or West Hollywood. They go to...

Preserving El Salvador's historic memory: Organizer explains big L.A. event
As Reed Johnson reports, over the next week, an ambitious multimedia happening at the Los Angeles Theatre Center downtown will try to salvage some of El Salvador's missing past. The project has the umbrella title "Preservación de la Memoria Histórica Salvadoreña" (Salvadoran Preservation of Historic Memory), and you can read the rest of the report here. Below you can see a Spanish-language interview with William Flores, who was one of the main organizers behind the event, in a video from DesdeAquiTV.com, which is an Internet TV channel based in LA. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Central America is most crime-ridden region in world, U.N. report finds
Central America has become the region with the highest levels of nonpolitical crime worldwide, with a murder rate of 33 per 100,000 inhabitants last year, three times the global average, according to a new report from the United Nations that also says crime threatens the region’s development. The U.N. said: Some 79,000 people have been murdered in the region over the past six years, but despite these heightened levels of violence, solving the problem of insecurity is possible within the framework of democracy, according to the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) Report on Human Development in Central America 2009-2010. The full report is available here in Spanish. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Literacy brings immigrants closer to full participation in life
Native Spanish speakers break the code of the written word with help from an L.A. adult-education center, writes Hector Tobar. In her one-bedroom apartment in the Pico-Union district, garment worker Julia Rodriguez lives surrounded by young readers. Her oldest child, 10-year-old Santos, is giving Harry Potter a try. Nine-year-old Wendy devours girl-detective stories. Even her youngest, 6-year-old Marlyn, zips through early reader books. "Tim spins," Marlyn reads from her book. "Tim spins his hat." Julia listens to her daughter and beams. Until recently, the 34-year-old mother of three couldn't read the simplest sentence in any language. Having been illiterate most of her life, she feels deep, bittersweet emotions watching her children master reading. Earlier this year, in the classrooms of the nonprofit Centro Latino for Literacy, Julia finally started learning to read and write herself. Read the rest of Tobar's column here. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City Image: Julia Rodriguez, 34, says her children, Santos, left, Marlyn and Wendy, inspired her to learn to read. "Before, there was no sun for me. Now I feel" more awake, Julia says. She recently bought her first book. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

More NBA en Español
The National Basketball Assn. announced today the launch of éne-bé-a, a marketing campaign that tailors the NBA experience to Latino fans. With Latinos accounting for 15% of the NBA’s U.S. fan base of 120 million, according to Simmons Market Research, the new campaign aims to engage these fans and reach new ones. “It will allow us to further grow the game of basketball throughout the Hispanic market,” said Saskia Sorrosa, NBA senior director of U.S. Hispanic marketing. It’s the league’s first comprehensive, multi-platform promotion catering to Latino fans and will include: -- Television, radio and online advertising -- TV spots featuring the Phoenix Suns' Leandro Barbosa and other pro players that will run on Latino networks such as Telemundo, Univision, Telefutura, Discovery en Espanol, CNN en Espanol and MTV3, among other channels -- Content on Spanish-language social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and MiPagina -- éne-bé-a-branded merchandise -- Grass-roots programs such as Es Tu Cancha ("It's Your Court"), an initiative to improve and renovate basketball courts in Latino neighborhoods throughout the country -- éne-bé-a en forma, part of the NBA's physical fitness initiative NBA Fit, which will target local Latino communities and promote healthy lifestyles -- "Lee Para Aprender," a...

Film based on Gabriel Garcia Marquez book prompts protest in Mexico [Updated]
If you look at the culture pages in Mexico’s newspapers these days, there is little question about what’s the talk of the town in literary circles — old men having sex with young girls, writes Andres Oppenheimer. He's referring to a debate currently raging here in Mexico about whether a planned movie based on Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez's book "Memories of My Melancholy Whores" would glorify the sexual exploitation of children. As the Huffington Post reports, the Regional Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean filed a criminal complaint with Mexico's attorney general's office on Oct. 5. The complaint does not specifically name Garcia Marquez, but instead "whoever is responsible for acts that could be constituted as the crime of condoning child prostitution." Coalition Director Teresa Ulloa told the Associated Press that a movie adaptation of the Colombian author's novel would promote pedophilia and be accessible to a wider audience. Read the full column from Oppenheimer here and go here for more from the Huffington Post. [Updated at 11:57 a.m.: An earlier version of this post said the Regional Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean had...

Drought and disease hit Peru
You may remember a report earlier this year on a drought in Mexico and how it was affecting both country and city-dwellers. Farther south, inhabitants of the Andean mountains of Peru are also being hurt. Al Jazeera reports on how rising temperatures caused by climate change mean that diseases originally only seen in tropical areas are spreading to the mountains. Watch the video, from Al Jazeera, for more. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Dole withdraws lawsuit against Swedish filmmaker
The Associated Press reports that Dole Food Co. is withdrawing a defamation lawsuit against a Swedish filmmaker after complaints in Sweden that it was trying to limit free speech. Dole had sued filmmaker Fredrik Gertten for showing the documentary "Bananas!" despite a court ruling that the case on which the film was based had been part of a massive extortion plot against the company. The documentary shows the alleged plight of Nicaraguan workers who say they were made sterile by a pesticide used at Dole banana plantations during the 1970s. Dole's lawsuit sparked protests in Sweden, where critics said the food company was trying to interfere with freedom of speech. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Joint U.S.-Mexican police patrols among proposed fixes for the border
Mexican and U.S. police patrolling the border together? That radical idea is one of the recommendations made by a blue-ribbon panel of scholars, diplomats and other experts that spent most of the year searching for “a new vision” in dealing with cross-border issues as diverse as migration, security and water. “It’s time to do something different, even if it is provocative and controversial,” said Andres Rozental, a former deputy foreign minister of Mexico and co-chair of the so-called Binational Task Force on the United States-Mexico Border. The task force was put together by the Los Angeles-based Pacific Council for International Policy and the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations. It presented its findings at a conference in a Mexico City hotel Tuesday night. Recommendations included an urgent, comprehensive reform of immigration laws in the U.S.; creation of a binational border-development administration; establishment by Mexico of a federal police force for the border; and the easing of monopolies in Mexico to spur competition and private investment. But the point that really got the room buzzing was a recommendation to “cross-deputize” Mexican and U.S. border police for joint operations. Rozental and fellow co-chair Robert C. Bonner, former Drug Enforcement Administration chief, were quick...

Tougher rules on policing illegal immigrants
Luz Maria Diaz knew what happened to illegal immigrants at the Wake County jail. But her teenage daughters didn't. So when the girls were arrested after fighting on their high school campus in September, they freely admitted that they were born in Mexico. Detention officers at the jail checked their immigration status and promptly handed them over to federal authorities. Now Diana, 16, and her sister, Yolanda, 18, are battling to stay in the country. "I never thought this could happen ... for a simple fight," their mother said. "I was in shock."Read more of this report from Anna Gorman here. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City. Photo: Luz Maria Diaz, 35, worries about what will happen to daughters Yolanda, 18, left, and Diana, 16, right. The two were arrested after a fight on their school campus, then processed for possible deportation under a program known as 287(g). The program has drawn criticism after reported civil-rights violations, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has called for an end to it. In July, the Obama administration announced that participating agencies must focus their efforts primarily on serious and violent criminals. Credit: Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

Three lives and a literate city's shame
Julia Rodriguez, Juan Contreras and Mercedes Meza couldn't read or write. For years they got by with the help of friends and good memories for the sorts of sights that differentiated streets, reports Hector Tobar. There is a neighborhood in L.A. where you can hear people converse in the language spoken by the Aztec emperors Montezuma and Cuauhtémoc.Julia Rodriguez lives there -- in Pico-Union, just west of downtown. She spoke only Nahuatl when she arrived in Los Angeles 15 years ago. In L.A., she quickly taught herself to speak Spanish. But when she was growing up in a small village in Mexico's Guerrero state, she never went to school. So she'd never been taught to read in any language. "They never sent me," she told me. "That's how it is in the ranchos. People say, 'What's the use?' But the truth is, it really is important." In Los Angeles, Julia found a job as a garment worker and eventually realized that bettering her future depended on learning to read and write. So did Juan Contreras, a cook at a downtown restaurant, who didn't go to school as a child because his peasant father "rented" him out as a farmhand starting...

Latinos and education: Survey examines 'attainment gap'
The schooling of Latinos in the U.S. has long been characterized by high dropout rates and low college completion rates. The problems have lessened over time, "but a persistent educational attainment gap remains between Latinos and whites," according to the latest report from the Pew Hispanic Center: Nearly nine-in-10 (89%) Latino young adults ages 16 to 25 say that a college education is important for success in life, yet only about half that number -- 48% -- say that they themselves plan to get a college degree, according to a new national survey of 2,012 Latinos ages 16 and older by the Pew Hispanic Center conducted from Aug. 5 to Sept. 16. The biggest reason for the gap between the high value Latinos place on education and their more modest aspirations to finish college appears to come from financial pressure to support a family, the survey finds. Read more here on the Pew Hispanic Center website.-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Verification of immigrants' legal status scrutinized amid healthcare debate
Los Angeles County health worker Leonardo Rincon lifts the birth certificate up to the light and expertly scrutinizes it. Do faint watermarks show up? Yes. He rubs his thumb over the official seal to see if it is raised. It is. He checks the number of digits in the document number. Perfect. Ruth Torres, he decides, has brought in valid U.S. birth certificates for her six children, a valid U.S. passport for her husband and a valid green card for herself, a legal immigrant from Mexico. The family will continue to receive public healthcare benefits, as least for the next year. Since July 2008, when Los Angeles County began implementing tougher federal verification rules, Rincon and his colleagues have gone back to check the documents of more than 100,000 recipients of Medi-Cal, the public healthcare program for low-income residents, reports Teresa Watanabe.Read more on verifications for immigrants here. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

'Family Guy' offends in Venezuela
The animated series "Family Guy" is the latest American media export to offend the Venezuelan government. Global Post reports that Stewie Griffin, one of the characters in the show, caused outrage by singing a ditty lauding marijuana’s restorative properties. "The Venezuelan government highlighted the clip as an example of how the U.S. government promotes pot smoking and the legalization of drugs. Venezuela resented a recent U.S. Congress report that said a fourfold increase in cocaine smuggling through Venezuela has been aided by police corruption and a refusal to work with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration." Read more about it here. "Family Guy" is not the first cartoon to ruffle officials' feathers in Venezuela. Last year, "The Simpsons" was banned from broadcast television after it was ruled “unsuitable” for children. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Making an example of American Apparel
American Apparel is in the process of firing all of its undocumented workers, under pressure from the Department of Homeland Security -- a move that will cause as much real harm to Los Angeles as it will imaginary good. Taking away as many as 1,800 jobs that pay $10 to $12 an hour plus benefits will probably drive those workers into an underground economy or into sweatshops, maybe into crime, maybe homelessness. They and their children will be more susceptible to poverty and hunger and more likely to require public assistance, argues this Los Angeles Times editorial.Read on here. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Latino TV personalities juggle a bilingual stage
They say things like "Antes de la break" and "Mira que cute." One is a clownish, Puerto Rican-born 28-year-old who ditched studying engineering to pursue a career in entertainment, another is an outspoken SoCal native who once had a penchant for crashing cars. The Spanglish? It just comes naturally, reports Yvonne Villarreal. They're a new generation of Latino television personalities: attractive, plugged in and conversant not only in Spanglish argot but in a complex, shifting culture. Their employers believe they are offering young viewers a cool, and marketable, connection to this culture. Don Francisco, cuidado. Read more here. Photo: Yasmin Deliz, Yarel Ramos and Melissa "Crash" Barrera dish out programming that bridges a cultural gap. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Filmmakers document consequences of U.S. immigration raid
Back in May 2008, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials rounded up 389 undocumented workers in the Agriprocessors Inc. kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. The raid was the largest in U.S history. Two weeks later, filmmakers Jennifer Szymaszek and Greg Brosnan started filming "In the Shadow of the Raid," a documentary film showing at the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico. A 15-minute edit of the film was recently broadcast on PBS "Frontline's" website. "In the Shadow of the Raid" delves into the consequences of the ICE raid for Postville and for some of the the migrants who were arrested and deported back to their homes in two rural villages in Guatemala. Following the closure of the meatpacking plant, Postville businesses failed and livelihoods were destroyed. In Guatemala, migrant Willian Toj returned to his wife and parents. Awaiting him was a massive debt that he accrued from his trip to the U.S. He had been working in the Postville plant for 20 minutes before the ICE raid. Toj can barely earn enough to pay the monthly interest on the $7,000 debt, let alone get the funds to treat his mother's worsening cancer. The tone of the documentary is observational...

Guerrilla filmmaking, Dominican style
It isn't easy making a movie in the Dominican Republic. When Michael Mann tried shooting part of "Miami Vice" there in 2005, a gunfight broke out near the film set, prompting costar Jamie Foxx to leave the country and forcing further filming to Miami. The filmmakers who made "La Soga," which recently earned several standing ovations at the Toronto International Film Festival, managed to finish their movie without anyone being killed, though they do have colorful stories, which include hiring a machete fighter to handle security. As "La Soga" director Josh Crook put it: "Our motto when we wrapped each day was, 'We didn't die!' " As it turns out, "La Soga" isn't just the best film from the Dominican Republic ever to play in Toronto. Apparently, it's also the only Dominican film ever to play there. I'd say it was worth the wait. Even though the Dominican Republic is best known for spawning baseball players, judging from "La Soga," the country could be a potential goldmine for actors and filmmakers as well, writes Patrick Goldstein. Read more here. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Majority of Mexicans think life would be better in the U.S., survey finds
Most Mexicans think their lives would be better in the United States, and one in three said they'd move to the U.S. if they could, according to the latest findings on Mexican attitudes from the Pew Global Attitudes Project. Half of those who said they'd migrate north of the border said they would do so without permission, although recent data on immigration suggests that the flow of Mexicans north is slowing. President Felipe Calderon's military-led campaign against the country's drug lords and organized-crime networks is "overwhelmingly endorsed" by the majority of Mexicans, although large majorities describe crime (81%) and illegal drugs (73%) as very big problems, according to the study. Calderon's offensive against organized crime is now in its third year amid rising drug-related violence, but the Pew project reports that most Mexicans believe those anti-crime efforts are effective. A hefty majority, 66%, say the army is making progress against the traffickers, while only 15% think it is losing ground. Calderon also is well regarded. The popularity of the tough stance against drug gangs seems to be bolstering support for Calderon. Roughly two-thirds (68%) have a favorable opinion of the president, while only 29% express an unfavorable view. You can...

L.A. Times - Latin America Blog
Latin American news from L.A. Times correspondents

 

Top UN human rights official to embark on first official visit to Brazil
The United Nations human rights chief will begin her first official visit to Brazil on Saturday during which she will discuss a range of issues with Government officials, members of civil society and others in three major cities.

Latin America making important progress towards development, UN official says
The head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has spotlighted the slow global progress towards reducing gender inequality and violence against women on the first day of a three-day official visit to Chile.

John Lennon's sons and Yoko Ono revive ‘Give Peace a Chance' to help UN
Celebrating the 40th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono recording the anti-war anthem Give Peace a Chance with the Plastic Ono Band, the United Nations announced today that the proceeds from the release of a commemorative single will garner funds for its peacebuilding efforts in countries emerging from conflict.

Ban congratulates US leader for lifting entry restriction based on HIV status
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today congratulated United States President Barack Obama for announcing that travel restrictions for people living with HIV from entering the country will be removed.

Haiti: UN calls for speedy new government after premier's ouster
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti today appealed to all sides to cooperate in ensuring stability and speedily install a new government team after the impoverished country's Senate voted the Prime Minister out of office.

Secretary-General encouraged by deal resolving political crisis in Honduras
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today said that he is encouraged by news that an agreement has been reached to resolve the political crisis in Honduras that began when President José Manuel Zelaya was ousted from power in June.

UN welcomes United States removal of entry restriction based on HIV status
The United Nations agency spearheading the world body's efforts to tackle the HIV/AIDS pandemic today welcomed the decision of the United States to remove 22-year-old entry restrictions based on HIV status.

General Assembly again calls for lifting of United States embargo against Cuba
The General Assembly has voted for the 18th consecutive year to condemn the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba for the past half century and called for it to be lifted.

UN rights expert voices concern over use of unmanned drones by United States
The use of pilot-less drones by the United States to target militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan will be regarded as a breach of international law unless Washington can demonstrate that it follows the appropriate precautions and accountability mechanisms, an independent United Nations human rights expert warned.

Renewed multilateralism order of the day, Ban tells graduates in Seattle
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today highlighted the need for greater collaboration among nations to address common challenges, including the global economic slowdown, the flu pandemic and climate change, adding that the United States is central to these efforts.

UN News Centre - Americas
A world of news from the world organization.

 

Honduras pact crumbles over unity government
An agreement to end a four-month political crisis in Honduras collapsed after two rival leaders failed to form a government of unity to heal the damage from a June coup

Lula calls on leaders to attend climate talks
Brazil's president has challenged other world leaders to attend next month's climate talks in Copenhagen to break the deadlock in negotiations to cut greenhouse gas emissions

US health insurers
For the managed care companies at the centre of America's health system, the political horse-trading has sent their shares gyrating

Chávez fails to deliver power to the people
Venezuelans in the capital are bracing themselves for drastic rationing as public services in the oil-rich nation sink ever deeper into crisis, threatening to undermine President Hugo Chávez's support

Honduran rivals agree a deal to end crisis
Honduras's de facto government has bowed to US pressure, accepting a deal that stands to end the four-month political crisis and possibly even reinstate Manuel Zelaya as the country's president.

IMF official warns on risk of LatAm bubble
Latin America had weathered the financial crisis so well that several countries were paying the price of success with rapidly appreciating currencies and an influx of foreign capital that could raise the spectre of future bubbles, said Nicholas Eyzaguirre, western hemisphere director of the International Monetary Fund

Cetip's debut fails to impress
Shares in Cetip, the first company to go public in Brazil since the government introduced a 2 per cent tax on foreign investments in securities, fell sharply in early...

Venezuela arrests Colombian 'spies'
Venezuela's capture of Colombian 'spies', which it accuses of being part of a US-backed plot to undermine its socialist government, has escalated a simmering conflict between the neighbouring Andean nations

US envoy rules out climate deal with Beijing
China and the US will not sign a landmark agreement on climate change policies when Barack Obama visits Beijing next month, the US president's climate change envoy said, in spite of high hopes this year among US officials

Leftist Uruguay regime faces run-off
Uruguayans will have to wait a month to resolve who will be their next president after polls left José Mujica of the Frente Amplio party short of the required majority for an outright win

Efficiency tops agenda for Chile's Piñera
Sebastián Piñera looks set to end 19 years of left-wing rule as he runs on a platform of improving and 'maintaining the network of social protection' built by previous governments

Protests after 42 are killed in a week
Residents of Rio de Janeiro protested on Copacabana beach after 42 people were killed in a week of drug-related violence, including three policemen who died after their helicopter was brought down by gunfire

Brazil keeps economic excitement in check
Everyone is excited about the emergence of Brazil as an economic power, but with uncertainty about the transition to the next government there are reasons to be wary

Argentina signals return to credit markets
The country's intention to settle outstanding debts worth more than $29bn with holders of default sovereign bonds comes in the wake of an offer by international banks on behalf of the so-called 'holdouts'

Mexican cartel hit in US drugs swoop
The US justice department said its operation against the narcotics organisations south of the border involved 3,000 agents, more than 1,000 arrests and law enforcement actions in more than 19 states

FT.com - World, Americas
FT.com - World, Americas

 

Now Venezuela Wants to Go Nuclear

Venezuela Recognizes Pro-Russian Breakaway Provinces of Georgia
Russian influence expands in America’s backyard.

Defending Dictators
U.S. response to Honduras crisis is beyond shameful.

Venezuela and Iran Continue to Boost Ties
The two petroleum economies sign more energy deals.

Russia Returns to America's Back Door
As the struggling U.S. administration thrashes around to save a sinking U.S. ship, an old enemy sails up to its back door.

World Prepares to Dump the Dollar
American economists think the world can’t afford to let go of the dollar’s reserve currency status. The world is about to teach them differently.

China Stepping Up Trade Presence in Latin America
Business is booming between China and Latin America as the competition for resources continues.

"Stand With Democracy" in Honduras
Right alongside Hugo Chávez and other champions of freedom

Argentina Wages Economic War on the Falklands
Is Great Britain too weak and too distracted to respond?

Report: Drug Cartels, Terrorist Organizations Cooperating
More than just drugs could be crossing the border.

Venezuela, Bolivia Accused of Sending Uranium to Iran
Uranium flows out, and terrorists flow in.

China Flexes Economic Muscle
Beijing seizes the global economic crisis as an opportunity to assert its influence.

Reaching Out to Our Enemies
While the new U.S. administration cuddles up to confirmed enemies at its back door, other nations have already sealed vitally strategic alliances with Cuba and Venezuela destined to threaten U.S. security.

Hezbollah Agents Flood Into America
Iran is using the Mexican drug cartels to smuggle terrorists onto American soil.

The Drug Cartels Are on Our Payroll
A vivid illustration of how America’s sins are becoming curses

Is a Trade War With Mexico Imminent?

China Reaches Out to Africa and Latin America

Mexico: Bordering on Collapse
The United States faces a number of serious crises. Here’s one many Americans haven’t yet considered.

Iran Sends Explosives Lab to Venezuela
The Islamic Republic tries to send a suspicious package containing “nothing important” to Latin America.

Will Mexico Fail in 2009 or 2010?
A brilliant oil bet may pay off for Mexico. But time is running out.

Mexican Drug Cartels Growing Problem for U.S.

Vatican Set to Turn Against America
A Catholic backlash against America is on its way.

America's Enemies Flock to Venezuela
A neighbor of the U.S. dallies with America’s most dangerous enemies.

Russia Infiltrates Latin America
Russia’s dalliance in Latin America is part of the Kremlin’s broad campaign to undermine and oppose the United States.

Russian Navy Coming to Caribbean for War Games With Venezuela

theTrumpet.com: Latin America
theTrumpet.com -- Understand your world.

 

ICANN Vote Paves Way for More Multilingual Internet
Non-profit corporation agrees to introduce what it calls 'internationalized domain names' to the Web

Honduras: Power-Sharing Government Expected by Nov. 5
Officials say they are confident Congress will approve deal to reinstate ousted president just weeks ahead of November 29 presidential election

Castro Says Increased US Visits Helped Spread H1N1 in Cuba
Mr. Castro says he does not believe US purposely spread virus to his country

Honduran Lawmakers Study Deal on Zelaya Reinstatement
Mr. Zelaya has taken refuge at Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa since returning to Honduras in September

Honduran Congressional Leaders to Discuss Plans for Ousted President
Lawmakers say they will discuss possible timetable for submitting to full Congress, proposal for Manuel Zelaya's return to power

Castro Criticizes Obama for US-Colombia Deal
US-Colombia deal gives US troops access to 7 Colombian bases for anti-drug operations

H1N1 Virus Goes Global
Health officials say it could ebb and flow for up to 3 years, with more than 30 percent of world's population affected

Hurricane Ida Comes Ashore in Nicaragua
Ida's winds reached 120 kilometers per hour early on Thursday, making it a Category One hurricane

Zelaya Aide Says Honduran Agreement Has Failed
Interim leader Roberto Micheletti announced he is installing a national unity government without the participation of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya , who has declined to name any cabinet members

US Disappointed at Breakdown in Honduras Political Talks
Deadline Thursday for setting up national unity government passed without agreement by rival parties

VOA News: Americas
Up to the minute news from Voice of America

 

Chile's Mapuches: The people and the land

A fight over history and poverty

HOW far can the clock be turned back? That is the question facing Chile’s government in the Araucania region, the homeland of the Mapuche Indians in the country’s forested south. Under a law approved in 1993, soon after democracy was restored, Chile has gradually been returning land to its indigenous peoples. Far from satisfying the Mapuches, the largest of them, this has fuelled further claims, land seizures and, recently, violence.

Some 600,000 of Chile’s 15m people are Mapuches. Three-fifths of them now live in the cities rather than their traditional rural communities. But all are united in demanding the restitution of their former lands—for them, a matter of religious significance as well as custom. In their own, still widely spoken, language, Mapuche means “people of the land”. ...

Honduras's political conflict: Zelaya's scrap of paper

Unless outsiders continue to press, a deal to end a stubborn political conflict risks coming unstuck even before it is implemented

EVEN before it was signed on October 30th, the Tegucigalpa-San Jose Accord was hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough. For four months after Manuel Zelaya was roused from bed at gunpoint, flown to Costa Rica and replaced as president of Honduras by Roberto Micheletti, outsiders failed to reverse what they universally saw as a coup. Despite the withdrawal of foreign aid, the severing of diplomatic ties and the cancellation of dozens of American visas, Mr Micheletti refused to contemplate Mr Zelaya’s restoration. Yet diplomats from the United States took just two days to get the two men to strike a deal that, on paper, ends Honduras’s political stalemate. “I cannot think of another example of a country in Latin America that, having suffered a rupture of its democratic and constitutional order, overcame such a crisis through negotiation and dialogue,” said Hillary Clinton, the American secretary of state.

In fact it is too soon to declare victory. The agreement requires Mr Zelaya to drop his plan for a referendum on constitutional reform, which his foes saw as a bid to allow him another term. A national-unity government is to be formed by November 5th. Next year a truth commission will be set up to look at the coup. Another committee, of four people, will oversee the accord’s implementation; Ricardo Lagos, a former president of Chile, and Hilda Solis, Barack Obama’s secretary of labour, were named as its international members. ...

Rebuilding Haiti: A step backward

The dumping of the prime minister raises fears of drift

FIVE years after the United Nations set out to build a nation in the poorest territory in the Americas, and after three years of relative political stability under President Rene Preval, outsiders have begun to express modest optimism about Haiti. Bill Clinton, a former American president and now a UN special envoy for the country, last month took a large group of foreign businessman to Haiti and told them that political risk there was “lower than it has ever been in my lifetime”.

Then came a swift reminder that Haiti’s democracy is still precarious. On October 30th the Senate voted to dismiss the prime minister, Michele Pierre-Louis, claiming that in a year in office she had done too little to solve Haiti’s miseries. Ms Pierre-Louis, who formerly ran an NGO promoting education, was widely seen as honest and capable. Appointed after food riots toppled her predecessor, she sought to cut unnecessary spending, raise tax revenues and make government more open and efficient. This checked corruption but caused political frustration. She was “refreshingly critical of the selfishness of Haiti’s political class,” says Robert Maguire, a Haiti analyst at Trinity University in Washington, DC. ...

Venezuela's energy shortage: Losing power

Communism is a cold shower

THE economy is in recession but sales of at least two items are booming in Venezuela: water-storage tanks and portable generators. A country that has claimed the world’s biggest oil reserves and is home to its fourth-mightiest river, the Orinoco, has recently been forced to ration both water and electricity. Hugo Chavez, the leftist president, blames the profligacy of consumers and a drought caused by El Nino weather. Certainly, lower rainfall has cut the flow to the country’s main hydroelectric dam (which provides three-fifths of its electricity) by a tenth. But the opposition, and several independent experts, say the underlying cause is the government’s failure to plan, maintain and invest in the necessary infrastructure.

Only a quarter of the funds budgeted for power generation have in fact been spent on it, says Victor Poleo, who was deputy minister for electricity early in Mr Chavez’s decade in power. In 2007 the president compounded the problem by nationalising what remained of the private power industry. Since then there have been half-a-dozen national blackouts. Meanwhile, demand for electricity has grown by an annual average of 4.5%. ...

Argentina's debt negotiations: Settling up

The government seeks a deal on its remaining defaulted bonds

FOR more than a year Argentina has been mulling an offer put forward by three big foreign banks. It would let the government settle up with the holders of around $20 billion in bonds, part of about $95 billion-worth on which Argentina defaulted in its economic collapse in 2001. The holders of the rest reluctantly agreed to a debt swap in 2005 in which they got just 35 cents on the dollar. So far the terms of the deal being proposed for those who held out against the 2005 swap are unclear—but they are likely to be slightly worse than that. This week Amado Boudou, the economy minister, signalled the government’s keenness by asking Congress to repeal a law that bans negotiations with those who rejected the 2005 deal.

Investors representing about half of the remaining debt, on whose behalf the three foreign banks are mediating, have privately agreed to the proposed settlement. Many of the original holders of the bonds, weary of waiting for a deal, have sold them to others for as little as 12 cents on the dollar, so the purchasers of these bonds stand to make a tidy sum. Some others may choose, once again, to refuse a deal, betting that they will get a better one after 2011, when a more business-friendly candidate is likely to pick up the presidency from Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the unpopular incumbent. Miguel Kiguel, a financial consultant in Buenos Aires, judges this a poor bet. ...

Canada and the monarchy: Heir not so apparent?

A royal visit as republicanism rises

WHEN Michaelle Jean, the governor-general of Canada, was described as “head of state” on her website earlier this month, the government issued a quick and very public correction. “All Canadians know that Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state,” huffed Dimitri Soudas, the prime minister’s spokesman. However, in a poll last December only 24% of Canadians did know this. Almost double that number thought that the prime minister was head of state; and one-third thought it was the governor-general, who is in fact the queen’s representative in the country.

Whereas monarchists condemn such ignorance, republicans believe it is a natural consequence of keeping what they see as an archaic and increasingly meaningless link to Canada’s colonial past. Both sides think the ten-day visit of Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, beginning on November 2nd, will help their cause. ...

Panama's financial industry: Shades of grey

The unfinished job of cleaning up the country’s financial reputation

UNDER Manuel Noriega’s dictatorship in the 1980s the world saw Panamanian banks as synonymous with suitcases stuffed with drugs money. So there was little surprise when in April the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a rich countries’ club, included Panama on its “grey list” of countries that show insufficient financial openness. Since then, once-notorious tax havens like the Cayman Islands and Liechtenstein have reluctantly accepted reforms to get off the list and escape the threat of sanctions. In contrast, Panama has not budged, reinforcing its reputation as Latin America’s leading financial miscreant.

The country’s business and political leaders insist its financial system has become a paragon of integrity, and that Panama is being unfairly targeted by rich countries starved of revenue by the recession. “The US is the biggest tax haven in the world,” says Juan David Morgan, a lawyer, noting that America exempts foreigners from levies on interest. “But they want to scapegoat us because we’re visible and have a canal. It’s a double standard.” ...

Colombia's paramilitaries: Militias march again

The “justice and peace” process the Colombian government offered to right-wing paramilitaries is at risk of falling apart

ONE of the most horrifying testimonies to Colombia’s gruesome internal conflict is a video sent to prosecutors that shows a paramilitary fighter in the northern town of Aguachica wielding a machete to hack off the hands of a victim who is still alive. The town was in one of the areas hardest hit by militia violence in the late 1990s and early 2000s. On October 24th former members of the same paramilitary forces donated blood at a local hospital in a public act of contrition. The 120 donors are among 32,000 members of right-wing paramilitary groups who laid down their weapons in a demobilisation deal with the government that began in 2005, raising the hopes of war-weary Colombians that such unbridled violence would end.

The paramilitaries were set up in the 1980s by ranchers to protect them from attacks by the country’s main left-wing guerrilla group, the FARC, but they turned into a powerful federation of bandit gangs, accused (like the FARC) of thousands of indiscriminate killings as well as rape, torture and drug-trafficking. Since coming to power in 2002, President Alvaro Uribe has treated the two sides differently, waging war on the FARC with some success, but no final victory, while offering a “justice and peace” process to the paramilitaries. ...

Uruguay's elections: The mystery behind Mujica's mask

The ruling Broad Front’s flower-growing ex-revolutionary is well ahead in the presidential race. But how far left would he push Uruguay if elected?

THE son of a dictator, neoliberalism’s booster-in-chief and a roly-poly former guerrilla, who, after 14 years in prison, grows flowers on a small farm and swears by vegetarianism. That is how some Uruguayans characterise the options they will face on October 25th when they choose a new president and Congress. The latest presidential polls show Pedro Bordaberry of the Colorado Party and the unfortunate family background trailing far behind Luis Alberto Lacalle of the centre-right National Party. In turn Mr Lacalle, who was president in 1990-95, trails the green-fingered Jose Mujica of the ruling, soft-left Broad Front coalition by 18 points. Weeks ago, a run-off between the two main candidates looked inevitable; now there is a chance Mr Mujica will win in one round.

That is because the pool of undecided voters has swollen. Mr Lacalle has lost support since the primary elections in June. Uruguayans are a traditional, well-mannered bunch. Some have taken offence at the way Mr Lacalle refers to those claiming welfare benefits. Mr Mujica has also let his tongue slip, but has nevertheless retained his popularity. In a long interview published as a book, for instance, he calls Argentina “a nation of morons”—forgetting that without the votes of Uruguayans living in Argentina, his party would have faced a run-off in 2004. They could prove as influential this time. Such unpresidential comments may hurt him more in a second round, in which Mr Lacalle can expect the backing of the Colorados. ...

Canada's terrorism laws: Dead certs

One succeeds, another hits problems

CANADA’S top judges have never been comfortable with the government’s use, since the attacks on September 11th 2001 in the United States, of “security certificates” to detain and expel, without disclosing evidence, non-citizens suspected of terrorism. In 2007 the Supreme Court declared this use of security certificates unconstitutional and gave the government a year to come up with something resembling a fair judicial process. In the eyes of the judges, it has not succeeded. (Britain’s judges have likewise had qualms about the government’s use of “control orders” to restrict terror suspects’ movements.)

On October 14th a judge quashed a certificate against a Moroccan suspect issued under the revamped law, after government lawyers refused on grounds of national security to provide information the court had requested. Six days later another judge ordered Canada’s intelligence agency to hand over secret evidence it had used to obtain a security certificate against an Algerian man. Should the agency refuse, that certificate too is probably in doubt. Unless the government rewrites the law again, which the justice minister says it will not do, this particular tool is unusable. ...

Drugs and violence in Rio: The bottom line

Why a tight market for drugs may be contributing to recent violence

ALL of Brazil’s big cities have a vigorous market in illegal drugs. If surveys of drug use are to be believed, consumption of cocaine, crack and cannabis per head in Rio de Janeiro is near the median when compared with other state capitals. So why is the city that has just won the 2016 Olympics so prone to paroxysms of drug violence, as seen on the weekend of October 17th-18th, in which about 25 people were killed (including three policemen), ten buses were set on fire and a police helicopter was shot down?

The city is pockmarked by a history of bad government. Past mistakes include making accommodations with drug-dealing factions in the hope of keeping them peaceful. Rio’s police force is also part of the problem. Some of the weapons used by drug dealers are sold to them by the police, and officers still execute too many people on the spot rather than bother with prosecuting suspects, making favela-dwellers regard them as no more a source of justice than the drugs gangs. ...

Belize and Lord Ashcroft: Crossed lines in the Caribbean

Belize’s prime minister is attacking one of Britain’s most powerful political figures

AT THE end of August the prime minister of Belize, Dean Barrow, rushed through the nationalisation of his country’s dominant telecommunications company, Belize Telemedia. The following day a new, state-appointed board was in control of the company. There were few dissenters. Only three of the six opposition members of the 31-seat lower house of parliament voted against.

Mr Barrow is no Hugo Chavez. Unlike Venezuela’s president he is a pragmatist, not an ideological firebrand. When the dust settles, he wants to see the company privatised again, but with a more diverse and mainly local shareholding. “It is plain and simple, a special measure for a special case,” he told parliament. ...

Trade unions in Canada: All struck out

Weaker than they look

AS STRIKING workers assembled for a protest march in front of DriveTest, a privatised government agency that conducts driving tests for Ontario, Marie Derane, a strike leader, grabbed a megaphone to say that the march would not start until all the journalists present had finished their interviews. Too few people were paying attention to the strike by 550 members of the United Steelworkers that began on August 21st, she explained later. And not all of those who did were supportive. “They tell me: ‘This is a recession, get back to work’.”

These are hard times for Canada’s trade unions. When car plants and factories close, union jobs go. The public has turned hostile, even in traditional blue-collar towns. When municipal workers in Toronto and Windsor went on strike this summer, leaving rubbish piled up in the streets and head-high weeds in parks, residents had little sympathy. Some have lost their own jobs, or their savings. The union’s image was further harmed when a striker in Windsor was caught on video dumping rubbish and berating a family picking up litter in a park. In an opinion poll taken in Toronto during the strike by the Strategic Counsel, a survey firm, only 13% of respondents supported it. ...

Ecuador's president: Family fallout

An unexpected foe for Rafael Correa

TO FACE striking teachers and protests by indigenous groups, as Rafael Correa has done this month, is all in the course of a day’s work for an Ecuadorean president. To face sniping from within your own family is more unusual. Yet the attorney-general’s office has begun to investigate several of Mr Correa’s closest aides. The reason? Allegations by Fabricio Correa, the president’s older brother, who is himself the subject of scandal.

Fabricio Correa, who has an engineering business, acted as his brother’s fund-raiser during his election campaign in 2006. After Rafael entered the presidential palace, Fabricio gained government contracts, mainly for roadbuilding and oil services, worth $167m, according to the comptroller-general’s office. That was far more than he had received under any previous government. Fabricio skirted a rule forbidding relatives of public officials from gaining government contracts by registering companies in Panama in which he was the main shareholder. ...

Colombia's resilient economy: No recession here

But difficult to return to rapid growth

WHEN the figures are finally tallied, Colombia may prove to have weathered the world recession better than any other of the larger Latin American countries. After a slight contraction at the end of 2008, the economy has been growing modestly this year. This resilience stems from continued foreign investment, an increase in government spending on public works and easier money: since December the central bank has cut interest rates by six percentage points, to 4%, a steeper drop than anywhere in the region outside Chile.

But recovery risks being almost as gentle as the downturn. Whereas Brazil is bouncing back strongly (see article), Colombia can expect growth of just 2.5% next year and 3% in 2011, reckons Oscar Zuluaga, the finance minister. Whereas Brazil, Chile and Peru benefit from China’s hunger for commodities, Colombia’s exporters face difficulties. Their biggest market, the United States, is depressed; Venezuela and Ecuador, which take many of their manufactures, have imposed trade barriers. ...

Brazil's recovering economy: Juggling technocrats and party hats

With the return of growth comes a different set of problems. They include the political ambition of Henrique Meirelles, the governor of the Central Bank

IN MOST countries the dogged pursuit of an inflation target is not a help in seeking high elected office. But it seems Brazil may be different. On September 29th Henrique Meirelles, the governor of the Central Bank, announced that he was joining the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement, a coagulation of regional barons that is the country’s largest political outfit. In a general election next October he is expected to run for governor of his home state of Goias, although he may try for the senate or even the vice-presidency.

Mr Meirelles, a former boss of BankBoston, had been elected to congress for an opposition party before being plucked to head the Central Bank in 2002 by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to satisfy investors that a left-wing president would not shy from monetary rigour. Mr Meirelles promptly raised interest rates to painful levels to scotch inflation and settle financial markets. It is a sign of the times that this did not destroy his political ambitions. ...

Mexico's monopolies: Power to the people

Breaking an overmighty union

WHEN Felipe Calderon declared in his annual report to Congress last month that Mexico needed to pursue “fundamental” change, the country’s political establishment yawned. Almost all of the reforms he proposed during the first three years of his presidency were diluted in the legislature, and his conservative National Action Party (PAN) has just lost a midterm election. But on the evening of October 10th, while Mexicans were celebrating their football team’s qualification for the World Cup finals, Mr Calderon began to make good on his word.

Without warning, he dispatched over 1,000 federal policemen in riot gear to occupy the offices of Luz y Fuerza del Centro, the state-owned electricity distributor for Mexico City and its surroundings. He issued a decree closing the company and transferring its responsibilities to the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE), another state firm that supplies electricity to the rest of the country. ...

Brazil and the Olympics: Rio's expensive new rings

Winning the contest to stage the Olympics in 2016 was the easy part

PLAYED by heads of state, marketing jocks and heavyweight lobbyists, the game of winning the Olympic games has become just as fierce as any contest on the track or in the pool. To win the 2016 games for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil spent some $50m. It fielded the likes of Pele, Paulo Coelho, a bestselling author, and the entire Brazilian diplomatic corps. Whereas Barack Obama, on behalf of Chicago, breezed into the meeting of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Copenhagen minutes before the decision was taken on October 2nd, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, spent two days there, having earlier written personal letters to the 106 voting members and had each hand-delivered by an ambassador. Why did Rio win? “We wanted it more,” said Carlos Roberto Osorio, of Brazil’s Olympic committee.

That was the easy bit. Holding the games will require effort and expense on a scale that Rio, a problem-studded metropolis of 12m (half of whom live in the city itself), has never seen. Apart from new stadiums and other sports facilities of all kinds, the plans call for new bridges and roads, and a doubling in the number of hotel rooms. To revamp a chaotic transport system, engineers will blast through granite mountains to extend the metro from Ipanema to Barra da Tijuca, 13.5km (8.4 miles) away. Tens of thousands of athletes must be squired to scattered events through some of the worst traffic in the Americas. ...

Easter Island: Rapa Nui déjà vu

Tourism threatens to trigger another ecological collapse

STEPPING off the plane, tourists are welcomed to Easter Island with a garland of flowers. They find themselves on a tiny dot in the Pacific Ocean, 3,700km (2,300 miles) west of Chile, to which the island belongs, and 2,000km east of Pitcairn Island. All around are the white-flecked waves of the Pacific. “What perfect peace,” exclaimed Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian explorer and author when he arrived in the mid-1950s.

He might not say so today. Some 70,000 visitors now arrive each year, up from just 14,000 in the mid-1990s. Apart from the island’s utter remoteness, what attracts the tourists are the moai, the mysterious giant stone statues erected by the ancestors of the indigenous Rapa Nui people. They are testament to a complex society of up to 20,000 people which later shrank to a shadow as a result of calamitous environmental stress and deforestation, a cautionary tale narrated in “Collapse”, a book by Jared Diamond, a polymath at the University of California, Los Angeles. ...

The Economist: The Americas
The Americas

 

Tour Group Travel in Mexico

One of the first things you might consider when planning a trip Mexico is whether to travel independently or with a group. Travel with a tour group may be a good option for you if: it's your first trip to Mexico; you're going on your own and you would prefer the companionship that you would have as part of a group; you don't speak Spanish and you're concerned about being able to communicate and get your basic needs met; or you want to cover a lot of distance but you want to avoid the hassle of having to make travel arrangements for buses and hotels.

Traveling with a tour group has advantages and disadvantages, and you should give some thought to how you like to travel before deciding whether to travel as part of a group and what type of tour is right for you. About.com's Guide to Senior Travel, Nancy Parode, has a great resource for exploring the pros and cons of tour groups.

If you do decide to take a tour group trip to Mexico, there are different types of tours to choose from. Some groups are geared towards senior travelers, some toward younger travelers, and some have a mix of ages. Some group tours are coach tours and others are backpacking groups with a leader who will take you on public transportation.

Here's a list of tour companies offering multi-day group tours in Mexico: Group Tour Companies Operating in Mexico.

More Mexico travel planning resources:

• Mexico Travel Planner
• Best Mexico Guide Books
• Top Mexico Destinations

_{Photo Tim Hall/Getty Images}

Tour Group Travel in Mexico originally appeared on About.com Mexico Travel on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 20:14:42.

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Yucatan Bird Festival
The 8th annual Yucatan Bird Festival is taking place this month, from November 19 to 22. This festival aims to promote the rich diversity of bird species found in the Yucatan and develop a conservationist culture among tourists and tour providers. Activities will include field trips, conferences, photographic exhibits and a "bird-a-thon." Events will be held in Merida, Celestun and the archaeological site of Uxmal.

The Yucatan Peninsula is home to over 500 bird species, and besides being an excellent destination for birdwatching, visitors can also enjoy beautiful beaches, water parks and ecological reserves.

Read up about other events taking place this month: Festivals and Events in November.

Yucatan Bird Festival originally appeared on About.com Mexico Travel on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 09:44:13.

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Day of the Dead: In the Cemetery

_{&copy Suzanne Barbezat}

A woman lights candles on the grave of a family member during Day of the Dead.

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Day of the Dead: In the Cemetery originally appeared on About.com Mexico Travel on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 14:20:11.

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Day of the Dead Treats
With Day of the Dead just a few days away, you may want to make a few treats to get into the spirit of the holiday. Just like turkey is associated with Thanksgiving, Day of the Dead has certain foods that are considered an essential part of the celebration. Chelsie Kenyon, About's guide to Mexican Food has put together some recipes and instructions for making these special foods. You can learn how to make pan de muertos, candied pumpkin or chocolate coffins and skulls.

Day of the Dead Resources:

• What is Day of the Dead
• Where to celebrate Day of the Dead
• Day of the Dead photo gallery

_{Photo of pan de muertos &copy Suzanne Barbezat}

Day of the Dead Treats originally appeared on About.com Mexico Travel on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 10:00:48.

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Mexico Trivia Quiz

Think you know Mexico? I've put together a quiz to test your knowledge of Mexican geography, history and culture. It's a difficult quiz, so don't feel bad if you don't score very high. When you finish you'll see the correct answers and links to more information.

Take the Mexico Trivia Quiz and then come back here to let us know how you did in the comments section, below.

Mexico Trivia Quiz originally appeared on About.com Mexico Travel on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 10:31:49.

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Sugar Skulls

_{Photo by Glen Van Etten, licensed under Creative Commons}

Sugar skulls, or calaveras de azucar, are made for Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations, and used to decorate Day of the Dead altars.

Learn how to make sugar skulls from About.com's Guide to Mexican Food, Chelsie Kenyon.

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Sugar Skulls originally appeared on About.com Mexico Travel on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 11:50:05.

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Thanksgiving in Mexico Getaways

Thanksgiving is five weeks away and there's just enough time to plan a getaway to Mexico for the holiday. Some resorts are offering special packages to entice you to head south. Although Thanksgiving is not officially celebrated in Mexico, if you decide to spend the holiday at one of Mexico's resorts, you're sure to find plenty to be thankful for!

Las Velas Resorts in Puerto Vallarta, Riviera Nayarit and the Mayan Riviera will be showing their gratitude to Thanksgiving guests by offering Thanksgiving night (November 26) free with a minimum stay of 4 nights. Guests at the luxury, all-inclusive Velas resorts will also enjoy a special Thanksgiving dinner. Rates for this package start at $190 per person, per night, double occupancy, at Velas Vallarta, $275 per person per night at the adults-only Casa Velas Hotel Boutique, and $390 per person per night at both Grand Velas Riviera Maya and Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit. For more information and to book, visit www.velasresorts.com.

Casa Dorada Resort and Spa in Los Cabos is also offering a discounted Thanksgiving package, which includes three nights of ocean-view suite accommodations, along with a complimentary Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings, discounted golf and family activities, transfers and more. Rates for this Thanksgiving in Mexico package are $875 for a junior suite, $950 for a one-bedroom suite and $1,750 for a two-bedroom suite. Package available from November 24 to 28, 2009. To book your Thanksgiving getaway at Casa Dorada, call 1-866-448-0151, or visit www.casadorada.com.

Check out our Mexico Travel Deals page for more packages and deals in Mexico.

Thanksgiving in Mexico Getaways originally appeared on About.com Mexico Travel on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 11:17:02.

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Xcaret's Festival of Life and Death

For the fourth year in a row, Xcaret theme park in the Mayan Riviera is hosting their Festival de la vida y la muerte, "Festival of Life and Death," in honor of the Day of the Dead. The festival will run from October 30th to November 2nd, and will include theater and dance performances, concerts, conferences, parades and special tours, as well as a few special Day of the Dead rituals.

For more information about Xcaret's Festival of Life and Death, visit the festival website.

More about Day of the Dead:

• Day of the Dead in Mexico
• Top Places to Celebrate Day of the Dead
• Make a Day of the Dead Altar
• See photos of Day of the Dead Celebrations

Xcaret's Festival of Life and Death originally appeared on About.com Mexico Travel on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 13:05:11.

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Infinity Pool

_{Photo by Brett Wood, licensed under Creative Commons}

The infinity pool at the CasaMagna Marriott Puerto Vallarta

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Infinity Pool originally appeared on About.com Mexico Travel on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 12:01:46.

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CasaMagna Marriott Puerto Vallarta Holiday Packages

The CasaMagna Marriott Puerto Vallarta is making it easier for you to take a family getaway during the holidays this year, offering special packages that feature discounted rates, as well as allowing kids to stay and eat for free.

The Pure Magic Family Holiday package includes deluxe accommodations, complimentary breakfast, lunch and dinner daily for children 12 and under when eating with parents. You can also enjoy two-for-one spa treatments at the resort's Ohtli Spa, Puerto Vallarta's most spacious complete service resort spa. Rates start at $179 per room, per night for guests traveling between December 19 and December 22, 2009; rates start at $439 for travel December 23 through January 2, 2010. Book this package by October 31, 2009.

The Sand Dollar package offers holiday travelers a fourth night free, daily breakfast for the whole family, free lunch and dinner for children aged 12 or younger, and discounted rates starting at $299 nightly between December 19 and December 22, 2009. Rates start at $459 for stays between December 23 and January 2, 2010. Available for booking now through Jan. 2, 2010.

• CasaMagna Marriott Puerto Vallarta: Book now
• More about the CasaMagna Marriott Puerto Vallarta
• More Mexico travel deals

_{Photo courtesy Marriott hotels}

CasaMagna Marriott Puerto Vallarta Holiday Packages originally appeared on About.com Mexico Travel on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 11:24:56.

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Mexico Travel

 

Seven Cheap Destinations

Want to travel in South America, avoid the over-visited and expensive destinations and/or tourist traps?

Plan your trip to explore
a few of the cheap destinations in South America that Rough Guides suggests.

Choose your destination carefully and your budget will stretch just that bit further - allowing you to spend longer eating great food, relaxing in a hot spring, doing a bit of skiing, or just marvelling at the incredible landscapes that stretch away in every direction from these Best on a budget - a selection of seven cheap destinations in South America.

This view of Brazil's Valle do Capao invites you to follow the path, wherever it leads. Photo is displayed with the kind permission of Peter and Jackie Main.

Seven Cheap Destinations originally appeared on About.com South America Travel on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 13:56:02.

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Traveling in Ecuador: One visitor's experience

A Tale of Two Cities: Traveling in Ecuador(wesleyanargus.com): "There are many ways to get to places in Ecuador, and I have experienced almost all of them, except for the plane and llama. This is a summary of transportation in Ecuador, in case this column has inspired you to visit."

The author describes her experiences with taxis, local and long distance buses.

Comments from readers show an unfavorable reaction to her comments.

How about you? Have you travelled in Ecuador? What's your experience?

Photo of the road to Baños is displayed with the kind permission of David Berzins.

Traveling in Ecuador: One visitor's experience originally appeared on About.com South America Travel on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 06:00:58.

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Viewing South American Wildlife: Two Recommendations

It's not surprising that the Galapagos and the Amazon rainforest are listed in The Best Places to View Wildlife (gadling): "The Amazon Jungle in South Africa (sic) is so vast that it it covers parts of eight countries. It is also the home to the highest concentration of birds and freshwater fish on the planet, and more than one third of the world's animal species call the Amazon home. Highlights of these species include jaguars, anacondas, giant anteaters and a variety of monkeys. The Amazon River contains plenty of interesting creatures as well, such as electric eels, freshwater dolphins, pirarucu, which grow to more than 2 meters in length, and of course the piranha."

"The Galapagos Islands may have made yesterday's list for great places to view penguins too, but they have plenty more to offer as well. Located 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, the small volcanic archipelago is home to a host of animals that are found no where else on Earth, such as marine iguanas the only lizard in the world that lives in the ocean. There are plenty of lizards that live on land as well, along with several breeds of turtles and sea tortoises, an array of distinct birds, and a large colony of sea lions and fur seals."

Photos of cougars in the Amazon basin and marine iguanas in the Galapagos thanks to ClipArt.com. For more views of the wide variety of wildlife, browse the South American Wildlife Photo Gallery.

Viewing South American Wildlife: Two Recommendations originally appeared on About.com South America Travel on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 16:46:16.

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Dia de Todos los Santos

November 1 is celebrated throughout the Catholic world as Día de Todos Santos, or All Saints Day, to honor all the saints, known and unknown, of the Catholic faithful. Every day of the year has its own saint or saints, but there are more saints than calendar days, and this one major holy day honors them all, including those who had died in a state of grace but had not been canonized. And, to keep things fair, November 2 is celebrated as the Day of All Souls.

Dia de Todos los Santos originally appeared on About.com South America Travel on Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at 12:47:37.

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Panama Hats: Made in Ecuador

Ecuador: Ancient source of a shady business (nzherald.co.nz): " I've had a Panama hat for years but I have to confess that until I visited Ecuador, I had no idea it had such colourful origins.

The hat's story begins with the toquilla palm which grows on the warm coastal lowlands - I saw one growing on the Galapagos islands - where its leaves are harvested for their fibres.

In a process which pre-dates the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in 1532 and even the arrival of the Incas about 1450, the leaves are sent up into the Andes, to the villages around the city of Cuenca, where they are boiled, dried and split into narrow strips. Then the fibres are passed to local women, descendants of the indigenous Quichua people, to be woven into hats.

The Panama hats are sold at markets throughout Ecuador, such as at the famous Otavalo market.

Panama Hats: Made in Ecuador originally appeared on About.com South America Travel on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 06:14:35.

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Travel Photo of the Year Competition

Photography competition: Win a trip to Ecuador: Fantastic prizes in the Travel Photo of the Year competition (independent.co.uk): "The Independent Traveller and Wanderlust magazine have again teamed up to present the Travel Photo of the Year competition, with the winners getting the chance to see their shots printed in Traveller and Wanderlust, as well as receiving a photo commission to Ecuador, plus Nikon camera equipment.

The shortlisted photographs will be exhibited at the Destinations: The Holiday & Travel Show 2010 at London's Earl's Court (4-7 February) and Birmingham NEC (5-7 March). For details of the show, visit destinationsshow.com.

See wanderlust.co.uk/photocomp for more details of the competition, including full terms and conditions. The closing date for entries is 28 November 2009. "

Panoramic view of Quito, Ecuador is displayed with the kind permission of Jacqueline Garcia.

Travel Photo of the Year Competition originally appeared on About.com South America Travel on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 06:00:27.

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Punta del Este for Investors

Uruguay Real Estate: Why Its The Perfect Location For Expatriates (nuwireinvestor.com): "The picturesque, sleepy Uruguay town of Punta del Este represents a unique opportunity for savvy investors. Boasting affordable real estate, a remarkably high standard of living, and a party season each summer that transforms the town into a prime spot for South America's rich and famous, Punta del Este is primed for a real estate boom."

The author describes the off-season times as quiet, mentioning that "For full-time residents, Punta del Este is a sleepy seaside town. Three-quarters of the houses and apartments are empty. Most of the restaurants are closed. And they disconnect the traffic lights. The standard of living for these folks is extraordinarily high..."

In high season, Punta del Este is transformed into an international playground.

View of sailboats at Punta del Este is displayed with the kind permission of Gary John Norman / Getty Images.

Punta del Este for Investors originally appeared on About.com South America Travel on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 15:44:46.

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Reservations for 2010 Rio Carnaval

Rio's 2010 Carnival begins February 13, but if you plan to be there to enjoy the festivities, you'd better be making your plans now.

You'll get more than just tickets from the online reservation service for Rio Carnival Tickets . You'll also get information about samba schools, how to join one along with costume information and hotel reservations.

Photo of a Carnival dancer in Rio is displayed with the kind permission of Paul Viant / Getty Images.

Reservations for 2010 Rio Carnaval originally appeared on About.com South America Travel on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 22:27:45.

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Colombia's Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín: Trip Highlight

Colombia pictures (irishtimes.com): "Colombia now seems like the Australia of South America, as so many backpackers are on the road here. Large numbers of them are Irish. Given its poor press during its drug-war years, the country is extremely keen to promote itself as a tourist destination, so the slogan on billboards everywhere is: 'Colombia, the only risk is wanting to stay.'"

The author details some of her backpacking adventures in Colombia, including a visit to San Agustín which "is effectively a staggeringly impressive open-air archaeological park. It is almost impossible to describe how beautiful, strange and potent the place is. Hundreds of huge, mysterious statues stand around the village, for a radius of about 15km. Nothing is known about the people who carved them, but archaeologists estimate they date from 3,300 BC; they were discovered only 80 years ago."

The Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín isn't easily accessible, but well worth the effort.

View of some of the statues of San Augustin thanks to UNESCO.

Colombia's Parque Arqueológico de San Agustín: Trip Highlight originally appeared on About.com South America Travel on Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 14:06:48.

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Sightseeing in Villa de Leyva, Colombia

Villa de Leyva, a Graceful Window on Colonial Colombia (NYTimes): "Villa de Leyva, founded in 1572, meets contemporary life on its own terms. Declared a national monument in 1954, it's an aggressively preserved colonial city, so the clank of the modern rarely interrupts the séance with the past. Long a weekend destination for Bogotá residents seeking a less-frantic respite, Villa de Leyva has become a place where Europeans and the occasional American visit to see what made the Spaniards plant a flag there in the first place.

Situated in a high mountain valley, the city of 4,000 or so also serves as a base camp for outings in the surrounding hills. And, indeed, many Colombians are fond of nighttime horseback rides and mountain biking. The tranquil comforts of Villa de Leyva, with its mix of people in traditional hats and ponchos walking next to kids in jeans and T-shirts, are especially welcoming upon return."

The article describes some of the local highlights, things to do and see and includes a recommendation or two for places to stay and eat.

View of the famed plaza seen from the doorway of the Villa de Leyva church is displayed with the kind permission of Mark Siders. The parochial church in this colonial town near Bogota is located on the cobble-stoned plaza, considered the largest in Colombia. Built at the beginning of the XVII century, the church was funded by the King of Spain and local parishioners.

Sightseeing in Villa de Leyva, Colombia originally appeared on About.com South America Travel on Saturday, October 24th, 2009 at 13:58:04.

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