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 Chávez, 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 Inácio 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 Álvaro 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 Fernández 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. ...

Honduran court defiant on Zelaya
Honduras' high court rejects a demand by the Organization of American States to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

US soldiers killed in Afghanistan
The US military says two of its soldiers have been killed in a sustained attack on a military base in eastern Afghanistan.

Jackson tickets via internet draw
Tickets for a memorial service for Michael Jackson in Los Angeles will be made available via the internet, organisers reveal.

Alaska Governor Palin to resign
Republican ex-vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin is to quit as Alaska governor amid speculation about a possible presidential bid.

Dreaming of a Tour de France windfall
Residents of Tonnerre hope tourism will grow in the days and months that follow the arrival of the Tour de France for the first time in the sleepy French town, says the BBC's Sean Fanning.

Russia 'agrees US troop transit'
An Obama administration official says Russia has agreed to let US troops bound for Afghanistan fly through its airspace.

Putin urges Obama to scrap shield
Russian PM Vladimir Putin urges the US to shelve its missile defence shield, as Barack Obama prepares to visit Moscow.

WHO warns swine flu 'unstoppable'
The UN's top health official tells a swine flu forum in Mexico that the spread of the virus worldwide is now unstoppable.

Regulators eye Google book deal
US anti-trust regulators are to examine Google's $125m deal with book publishers to settle copyright issues, reports say.

Researcher turns his baby into CCTV star in the name of science
A newborn baby has been filmed for three years to understand how he learns to talk.

Pakistan and Michael Jackson
Matt Frei on Pakistan and Michael Jackson

Obama's Iran challenge
Matt Frei, presenter of BBC World News America, reflects on how the Iranian diaspora in the US is reacting to events in Iran.

Venus and Serena through to final
Serena Williams will face sister Venus in Saturday's Wimbledon final after prevailing in a marathon tussle with Russian Elena Dementieva.

Vital hours
Why was Air France crash search delayed?

Flu risk for indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples, such as Aborigines and Native Americans, have a higher risk from swine flu, experts warn.

MySpace 'suicide bully cleared'
A woman accused of "cyber-bullying" a 13-year-old girl who later committed suicide sees her conviction provisionally thrown out.

Afghan rebels capture US soldier
A US soldier is captured by militants in eastern Afghanistan, as the US launches a major anti-Taliban offensive in the south.

Madoff's luxury penthouse seized
US marshalls seize the $7m Manhattan penthouse of imprisoned fraudster Bernard Madoff, forcing his wife to move.

GM awaits US ruling on sale plans
A new General Motors could emerge from bankruptcy protection soon if a US judge approves its plans to sell assets.

US job losses worse than expected
The number of jobs lost in the US last month came in at 467,000, which is much more than had been expected.

Hitachi to sell batteries to GM
Hitachi says it will supply lithium-ion batteries to General Motors to power the company's hybrid cars from next year.

US musicians demand radio royalties
The BBC's Philippa Thomas reports on US musicians' attempts to claim royalties when their performances are played on the radio.

US gay uprisings, 40 years on
The riot that changed America's sexual politics

African Americans' roots
DNA testing helps African Americans find their origins

Mexico's green gamble
Can Mexico have a green energy policy and feed its poor?

Welcome again
Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to visitors

Custody battle
Legal wrangles may lie ahead over Jackson's children

Wetland threat
Brazil's challenge to protect its unique Pantanal

Kidnapping curse
Mexicans battle back against drug-gang abductions

Q&A: Budget woe
The consequences of California' budget crisis

Space ambitions
US moonwalker Buzz Aldrin looks to new frontiers

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.

 

Envoy Seeks Ousted Honduran President’s Return
As José Miguel Insulza arrived in Honduras, thousands rallied for and against the president’s ouster.

Palin Resigning Governor’s Job; Future Unclear
Gov. Sarah Palin’s move shocked Republicans and fueled renewed speculation about her presidential ambitions and criticism of her political competence.

Swine Flu Death Toll in Argentina Climbs
Argentina’s president said she would not rule out closing major public venues where swine flu could spread more quickly.

Argentines Question Vote During Outbreak
Health officials said canceling last weekend’s elections would have allowed the country to declare a state of emergency for the swine flu epidemic.

Mexican Official Seeks Arrest of Day Care Center’s Owners
A month after a fire in a day-care center killed 48 children, Mexico’s attorney general is seeking the arrest of the nursery’s politically connected owners.

Scientist at Work: Steve Lekson: Scientist Tries to Connect Migration Dots of Ancient Southwest
Steve Lekson’s new book offers a kind of unified theory of the Native American population movements that have puzzled Southwest archaeologists for many years.

News Analysis: Rare Hemisphere Unity in Assailing Honduran Coup
The responses from governments both revealed and disguised fissures over different forms of democratic government that are taking root in the region.

War Without Borders: Mexican Cartels Lure American Teens as Killers
Drug cartels operate their smuggling and murder-for-hire rings on both sides of the the U.S.-Mexican border.

Envoy Prepares to Visit Honduras, Warning of Obstacles
The head of the Organization of American States said he was prepared to call for sanctions if he failed during a visit to the country.

Leader’s Ouster Not a Coup, Says the Honduran Military
The chief lawyer of the Honduran armed forces insisted that what soldiers carried out over the weekend when they detained President Manuel Zelaya was no coup d’état.

World Briefing | Middle East: Businessman Sentenced in Weapons Plot
A Palestinian-born man was sentenced in New York to 25 years in prison for his conviction on charges that he conspired to sell weapons to terrorists.

Compromise Is Sought to Honduras Standoff
A flurry of negotiations began on Wednesday to lay the groundwork for a possible return of the nation’s ousted president, Manuel Zelaya.

World Briefing | The Americas: U.S. to Donate Drug to Combat Swine Flu
The United States will donate 420,000 packets of the antiviral drug Tamiflu to the Pan-American Health Organization to help fight the swine flu pandemic in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Transportation Secretary Resigns in Argentina
Ricardo Jaime became the second Cabinet member to quit since the president’s party suffered a crushing defeat in congressional elections.

World Briefing | The Americas: Bolivia: President Denounces Obama Over Trade
President Evo Morales’s comments came a day after the United States ended trade benefits in a move that could cost thousands of jobs in Bolivia’s export industries.

World Briefing | The Americas: Mexico: Migrants’ Money Sent From U.S. Fell in May
The decrease — comparing the same month in two consecutive years — is the largest since Mexico’s central bank began tracking remittances in 1995.

After Losing Honduras, Ousted Leader Wins International Support
The United Nations marshaled an unusually broad effort to condemn the military seizure of power in Honduras, turning over the podium to Manuel Zelaya.

News Analysis: Obama’s Stance Deflects Chávez’s Finger-Pointing
President Hugo Chávez’s insinuations of U.S. involvement in Honduras’s coup are being deflected by the U.S. response.

World Briefing | The Americas: Argentina: Swine Flu’s Spread Leads to School Closings
Authorities in Buenos Aires announced that they were canceling classes for thousands of students to try to contain a fast-spreading outbreak of swine flu.

National Briefing | Southwest: Texas: Arrests in Raids on Street Gangs
Federal immigration agents arrested dozens of gang members in days of raids throughout Texas.

Kirchner Resigns as Party Leader in Argentina
The move by Néstor Kirchner, the former president, was a stunning admission of defeat for an often stubborn politician.

In a Coup in Honduras, Ghosts of Past U.S. Policies
The crisis in Honduras, where the U.S. has a history of backing rival political factions, is pitting President Obama against the legacy of American foreign policy.

French Continue Search for Clues to Jet’s Loss
Ships off the Brazilian coast are seeking the voice and data recorders from Air France Flight 447, which went down June 1.

Argentina: Health Minister Resigns Over Handling of Flu Cases
Graciela Ocaña, Argentina’s health minister, resigned Monday amid an outbreak of swine flu that has killed 26 people in the country, government officials said.

In Charming Argentine Voters, TV Show and Impersonator May Help a Candidate
The focus of the most popular entertainment show on Argentine television Thursday was Néstor Kirchner, the former president now running for Congress.

World Briefing | The Americas: Brazil: Search Ends for Crash Victims
Brazil’s Air Force and Navy called off the search on Friday for additional victims and wreckage from Air France Flight 447, which crashed on June 1 carrying 228 people.

The Saturday Profile: A Pentagon Trailblazer, Rethinking U.S. Defense
Michèle A. Flournoy, the undersecretary of defense for policy, is considered the “brains� of the Pentagon building.

Canadian Chefs Serve Seal, With a Side of Controversy
Restaurants in Canada that serve seal have been thrust into the spotlight now that the European Union has banned imports of Canadian seal products.

World Briefing | Americas: Brazil: A Cellphone Carrier Is Thwarted
For the second time in four months, prison guards foiled an attempt to smuggle a cellphone into a prison by carrier pigeon, the authorities said Friday.

World Briefing | The Americas: Venezuela: Radio Stations Threatened
Diosdado Cabello, a top aide to President Hugo Chávez, said the government would revoke the licenses of 240 radio stations across the country.

NYT > Americas

 

Honduras Coup D'état
The coup in Honduras that removed President Zelaya poses a threat to Latin America as a whole, a region that does not want to return to an era of military dictatorship.

Mexico: Obama's 'House Call'
President Obamas visit to Mexico has been compared to a quick doctors check up on Felipe Calderon.

Jamaica: Corporate Exploitation by the Bauxite Ore Industry
The decades-long mining of Jamaicas bauxite, an essential component of aluminum, has ecologically ravaged a tropical paradise.

Obama's Budget Plan
Comment and analysis on Obama's budget plan from South Africa, India, Pakistan, China, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

U.S. Stimulus Bill
Comment and analysis from South Africa, Saudi Arabia, China, Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the Philippines.

Guantanamo's Manipulators Leading the New Jihad
Jihadism as an ideology does not respond to the political culture of democracy nor are the indoctrinated Jihadists impacted by the moral and legal debate within what they see as the sphere of the infidels.

Obama: Waiting on the Black President
No election of any Black president anywhere has been as historic as his election as the 44th president of the United States of America.

Documenting an Uprising, a Photographer is Charged with a Murder Coverup
Events in Mexico seems to be adding up to a popular uprising: poverty, lack of opportunity, corruption, impunity.

The Great Black Hajj of 2009
They were pilgrims, one million African Americans, committed to a once in a lifetime trek to Washington to bear witness to The Biggest Black Event in History.

Obama Administration And Africa: Great Expectations, Practical Realities
Barack Obama election and assumption of office has raised extraordinary expectations. No where are these expectations more stratospheric than in Africa, the continent of birth of the 44th Presidents Father.

Global HIV/AIDS: Five Leadership Issues
The 2008 World AIDS Day focused on leadership issues, which is very appropriate as the future looks uncertain regarding a continued global resolve to contain the defining health challenge of our time.

A way out of Guantanamo
One of President-elect Barack Obama's top priorities will be following through on his campaign promises to close the US military prison at Guantánamo, which would be a major symbolic achievement.

New York City Nightlife
The lobby of the Royalton Hotel is tres chic with spacious velvet couches and high-back chairs, providing the perfect setting for New York professionals and European visitors to enjoy appetizers and drinks, noon and night.

The Future of UNAIDS
As a new leadership of UNAIDS begins on January 1, 2009, it is important to review unavoidable issues that UNAIDS will face in the future.

This Hour Governs
It is not the duty of a head of state to be a permanent candidate. The holder of this post needs to understand that he governs for the benefit of all.

US President-elect Barack Obama crafts a home in History
As we venture into the future with Obama at the drivers seat giving the orders ... motivating us toward the right direction of a new America, where everyone has a voice.

Geopolitical Diary: The 'World Electoral Map'

United States Elections

120 Years of Non-Concluded Abolition
Slavery was officially abolished more than a century ago, but there has never been a social inclusion policy for Brazils blacks. Therefore, prejudice and racism are still a problem in this nation that will have more blacks than whites until the end of 2008.

US-Muslim relations at stake in US election?
Based on examples of media mania about Islam, one may have the impression that the future of American relations with the Muslim world depends on the outcome of the 2008 elections.

Change is Unlikely Despite Blair Leaving
U.K-U.S. relations will remain intact with the new man-in-charge at 10 Downing Street.

Muscle to Fight Malaria Receives a $3 Billion Surge
When in September 2008, the United Nations Summit on the Millennium Development Goals converged in New York, world leaders espoused to raise the bar very high in the aggressive war against Malaria.

Rethinking National Security
National security involves the perceptions that other countries have of us, the strength of the economy, and the quality of our leadership. It is time for us to rethink national security to address twenty-first century issues.

Paraguay: New Government Faces Elite Resistance
Reflecting a growing shift to the left across Latin America, the April 20 election of Lugo put an end to the rightwing Colorado Party's six-decade-long grip on power.

Mapuches and Students Bear Brunt of Violence by Carabineros
Eighteen years after the end of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, cases of police abuse—far from being an issue of the past—appear to be on the rise in Chile.

The Next Cuban Missile Crisis?
In a move that undoubtedly set off alarm bells in Washington, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced that Venezuelan and Russian ships could soon hold joint naval exercises in the Caribbean.

U.N. Military Base Expanding: What Is Washington Up to in Cité Soleil?
The U.S. government plans to expropriate and demolish the homes of hundreds of Haiti's most impoverished by expanding the U.N. military occupation force's outpost in the giant shantytown of Cité Soleil.

Latin American and Canadian News from World Press Review
World News Review

 

Wives left behind in Mexico by migrants suffer 'poorer mental health'
Mexican women left behind by husbands who migrate to the United States in search of work were one of the focuses of the documentary "Los Que Se Quedan," or "Those Who Remain," by Carlos Hagerman and Juan Carlos Rulfo, which we've mentioned a number of times here on La Plaza. In response to those posts, Jared Wilkerson, one of the authors of a recent study on that subject, got in touch with us about the findings he recently made with his colleagues at Brigham Young University. The study, called "Effects of Husbands’ Migration on Mental Health and Gender Role Ideology of Rural Mexican Women," found that those women generally have a poorer state of mental health than a comparison group. The study attributes this condition largely to the nontraditional gender roles that are forced upon the women because of their husbands' absence. As Wilkerson explained to us via e-mail: "For most of the women, a shift in ideology comes as a necessity, not a choice. This necessity is brought on when their husbands leave and their duties of livelihood and community representation increase. As the women see themselves doing things traditionally associated with male success — which happens to be...

Reggaeton shakes up Cuba
Cuba's underground reggaeton artists are causing a stir on the Caribbean island, according to this report from Reuters. Rising star Michael "El Micha" Sierra, 27, records his songs into his neighbour's old computer, and then burns them onto CDs or USB Flash drives and spreads them around town. "With little official support or air time on state-controlled radio, the songs Cuban reggaeton artists record in makeshift studios lined with egg cartons for sound insulation are mostly transmitted though homemade CDs and on computer flash memory sticks. "That is how the tropical fever of reggaeton is sweeping communist-ruled Cuba, captivating its youth and enraging a cultural establishment alarmed by the vulgarity of some of its lyrics, which include phrases like 'Coge mi tubo' ('Grab my pipe') and 'Metela' ('Stick it in')." You can watch El Micha letting loose with another reggaeton artist, Pipey, in a video here on YouTube. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Prepare for the Guillermo del Toro decade
"One of the gentle souls in the movie business is Guillermo del Toro, and I always look forward to my interviews with him," writes Geoff Boucher on our Hero Complex blog. Boucher wrote about Mexican fiction mastermind Del Toro in today's Calendar section, and an extended version of the article runs on the blog. Fantasy and horror fans, prepare yourself for the Decade of Del Toro. On the far side of the globe, in New Zealand, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is now in his seventh month of labor on “The Hobbit,� a $300-million epic that will be told over two films in 2011 and 2012. But you can also find the Guadalajara native on the shelf of your local bookstore with his just-released debut novel, “The Strain,� the opening installment of a vampire trilogy he already has mapped out. That’s only the beginning. The 44-year-old Del Toro, who was nominated for an Oscar for the dark fairy tale “Pan’s Labyrinth� and showed his crowd-pleasing sensibilities with the “Hellboy� films, also has plans to reanimate some musty and monstrous literary classics. He plans to make a “Frankenstein� film as well as an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s epic “At the Mountains of...

Hector Tobar: An unforgettable graduate continues his journey
We need Luis Peñate, a thinker and a fighter, and others going away to college to come back to L.A. to help solve our many problems, writes Hector Tobar. "We need Luis and all the other college-bound members of the class of 2009 to come back to Los Angeles one day. We need their brain power to sort out the messes we older generations are leaving them. "Luis is one of those young people who was gifted to us by El Salvador, a little Central American republic that has lost too many of its brightest and most ambitious people to the United States. "His mother, a legal U.S. resident, had spent much of her life traveling back and forth between the two countries. When she brought Luis to the United States, at age 11, he was already a precocious reader. He had just read 'The Lord of the Rings' in Spanish." Read Hector Tobar's complete column. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City Photo: Luis Peñate, second from right, with sister Brenda, left, mother Sonia and father Rogelio. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Plunge in Mexico remittances is worst on record
Remittances from Mexicans living and working in the United States are continuing to fall. "Money sent home by Mexicans working abroad fell by 19.9 percent in May, the biggest monthly decline on record as the U.S. recession slashed jobs," reports the Associated Press in Business Week. "Remittances dropped to $1.9 billion from $2.4 billion in May 2008, the central bank said on Wednesday. The amount of money sent home in the first five months of 2009 fell 11.3 percent to $9.2 billion compared with the same period last year. "Remittances are the second-biggest source of foreign currency after oil exports in Mexico, and their decline has contributed to the country's own economic downturn." Read the full Business Week report -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

New flights begin from LAX to Cuba
L.A. Now reports: Angelenos with family in Cuba will have another option for travel today, when a Long Beach-based company kicks off nonstop flights from LAX to Havana. The five-hour flight, which will run every Tuesday and can accommodate 150 people, takes off from L.A. at 11 a.m. and is the only Cuban flight for Cuba Travel since July 2004, when the Bush administration tightened rules governing travel to Cuba, according to the company. Since 1962, travel from the U.S. to Cuba has been banned, but Cuban Americans have been allowed to visit family under various policies. Obama repealed the 2004 travel restrictions in April. According to Cuba Travel, 1.5 million Cubans live in the United States. About 55,000 reside in Los Angeles County. For details, see The Times' Daily Travel & Deal Blog. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Che Guevara images withdrawn from auction for lack of buyer
Five photo negatives of the Cuban revolutionary figure Ernesto "Che" Guevara that went on sale at the Mexican auction house Louis C. Morton over the weekend were withdrawn from the auction after failing to attract a buyer, Milenio newspaper reports. Mexican students might love the Argentine now credited as one of the most important figures in the Cuban Revolution, alongside Fidel Castro, but it doesn't appear that art and antique buyers feel the same way. One of the negatives up for auction was an image of Guevara addressing the First Latin American Congress of Youth in 1960. The bidding for the negatives started at 80,000 pesos (around $6,075) but were withdrawn due to the lack of interest, reports the newspaper. As we reported in January, when the first part of Steven Soderbergh's film "Che, the Argentine" premiered here, Guevara is popular among the sprawling student population in Mexico City, where he and Castro, then an exiled lawyer, planned the Cuban Revolution over dinner and cigars on July 3, 1955. The myth and heroic image of Che have replaced a real understanding of the complex man that he was. His face is often seen emblazoned on flags and T-shirts at student...

Hector Tobar: Striking a nerve on racism
The time has come to fight hate speech against Latinos as we have against blacks, writes Los Angeles Times columnist Hector Tobar. I struck a nerve two weeks ago when I suggested that all Americans, Latinos especially, owe a collective thank you to black people for their struggles for equality. Recognizing this truth, and teaching our children that black people fighting for their own freedom helped free all of us, I argued, can help combat intolerance in communities where blacks and Latinos live side by side. I got more than 300 messages [you can see some of the comments on that column here], mostly positive. Dozens of black people thanked me for "saying what someone ... in the Latino community needed to say." But others launched into a refrain I hear whenever I write the word "Latino." Read the rest of Tobar's column here. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Finland's tango fever
Though half a world away from Argentina, the shy Finns have a passion for the melancholy music and dance, writes the Christian Science Monitor's Stacy Teicher Khadaroo. "Finland. A nation of reindeer, saunas, Nokia cellphones, and its own special version of ... tango? "Yes. It seems the melancholic music is a perfect match for the typical Finnish soul. 'It's a little bit sad, and it's beautiful,' a woman tells me at a dimly lit Helsinki restaurant that regularly hosts dances. Paradoxically, when she moves to these sad melodies, she feels happy. (She didn't want to be named, her reason being another national trait: shyness.) "When Finns first laid their eyes on performances of the Argentine tango nearly 100 years ago, they latched on and soon made it their own. By the 1930s, songwriters were penning original Finnish lyrics, setting the stories in their own snowy landscape." Read more about the Finnish passion for Tango here. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Movie about Mexicans left behind by migrants is shown in L.A. Film Festival
"Los Que Se Quedan" (Those Who Remain), a film made by Mexican directors Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman, gets another look, this time from Patrick J. McDonnell, due to its presence at the Los Angeles Film Festival. "Few topics inflame political passions like immigration, but don't expect polemics from 'Los Que Se Quedan' (Those Who Remain), a Mexican documentary screening Saturday evening at the Los Angeles Film Festival in Westwood, writes McDonnell here. "The film examines the phenomenon of those left behind in the home countries, in this case the countless families enduring the emptiness and melancholy that inevitably follows the departure of loved ones for el norte." You may remember our video and report about the film from earlier this year, when it was showing at the Guadalajara Film Festival in Mexico and scooped the prize for best Mexican documentary. You can watch an interview with the two directors in the video above. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City Video by Deborah Bonello

Guatemalan journalists in jeopardy, lack support from authorities and media owners
The dangers for journalists in Latin America continue, and the latest report is about Guatemala. Reporters, media directors and human rights defenders say the greatest risk for journalists is exposure to violence combined with a lack of protection and a lack of commitment to investigate crimes against them, Inter Press Service and Cerigua report. "It is definitely dangerous to work as a journalist in Guatemala," radio reporter María Teresa López tells Inter Press Service. Journalists outside the capital are especially vulnerable, she says, because "everyone knows us and knows what we’re doing." The blog of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas reports that "the prosecutor's office for crimes against journalists took legal action on only one of the 36 complaints it received in 2008. But Walter Juárez of the Guatemalan Journalists Assn. says media owners share the responsibility. They "make the reporters stick their necks out by forcing them to sign their stories, while failing to do anything" to protect them, he says. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Director describes process of making 'Tracing Aleida'
The reunion of Aleida Gallangos with her long-lost brother Lucio is a long and painful story. The two siblings were separated in Mexico after their parents and uncle were "disappeared" during the country's dirty war in the 1970s. The Times' Richard Boudreaux reported in January 2005: "In a rare story of closure to the conflict, Gallangos traced her brother to Washington, D.C., found him living under the name Juan Carlos Hernandez, and convinced him of his identity, making the immigrant construction worker the first of Mexico's more than 500 desaparecidos, the disappeared ones, to be found alive since the "dirty war." Aleida's search for and reunion with her brother was documented by the filmmaker Christiane Burkhard over a series of years. The result of that project -- the documentary "Tracing Aleida" -- is showing in theaters across Mexico and is out on DVD in the United States. We visited the German director in her Mexico City home to talk about the process of making the film. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Mexico's 10 most romantic honeymoon hideaways named
The San Francisco Chronicle has some advice for honeymooners planning a trip to Mexico, and has listed what it thinks are the top 10 places for the recently wed to hang out and celebrate. Quintana Roo state's Riviera Maya and the Yucatan, both on the Caribbean coast, have the most places on the list, but Nayarit, Jalisco and Michoacan states also get a mention. Check the list here. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City Photo: Ruins in Tulum, in Quintana Roo state, overlook incandescent blue seas. Credit: Deborah Bonello / Los Angeles Times.

Anti-gang activist accused of gang crimes
An anti-gang activist known nationally in the United States was arrested Wednesday on federal racketeering and conspiracy charges stemming from his alleged involvement in one of the most violent street gangs in the U.S., Scott Glover and Richard Winton report. Alex Sanchez, executive director of Homies Unidos, a gang-intervention nonprofit with offices in Los Angeles and El Salvador, was among two dozen alleged members or associates of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, also known as MS-13, charged in a 66-page indictment that was unsealed Wednesday. The defendants, with monikers such as Creeper, Grinch, Pain and Tears, were involved in a variety of crimes, including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, extortion and drug trafficking, over a 15-year period, the indictment alleges. Among the alleged crimes was a plot to kill a Los Angeles Police Department detective who specialized in investigating the gang, authorities said. Gang members had gone as far as choosing a handgun with which to kill Det. Frank Flores, authorities allege, but police thwarted the plot. Read more of the report here. Click here to see more recent posts on the Mara Salvatrucha gang. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City Photo: Alex Sanchez is executive director of Homies Unidos, a...

Journalists reporting, and surviving, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Coverage of the challenges for journalists working in Latin America continues today on La Plaza. Mike O'Connor, representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists here in Mexico, filed the following report about journalists working in the northern border town of Ciudad Juarez (see a December dispatch from Mexico correspondent Ken Ellingwood on the violence gripping the city): For the press, Ciudad Juarez is among the most dangerous cities in one of the deadliest countries in the world. CPJ research shows that 27 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000, at least 10 in direct reprisal for their work, and that seven more have disappeared. In November, veteran police reporter Armando Rodriguez was shot dead in front of his home in Ciudad Juarez. State investigators told CPJ they have identified drug cartel members as suspects in the killing, but federal authorities in charge of the case have not acted on the information. The federal attorney general’s office declined comment on the status of its probe. Listen to the audio report below, or click here to read the full article on the CPJ website. For more recent posts on the dangers journalists face in Mexico, go here, here and here. Photo:...

Henry Ford's utopian adventure in the Brazilian rain forest
Historian Greg Grandin has taken what heretofore seemed a marginal event -- Henry Ford's failed attempt to establish a gigantic agricultural-industrial complex in the heart of Brazil's Amazon Basin -- and turned it into a fascinating historical narrative that illuminates the auto industry's contemporary crisis, the problems of globalization and the contradictions of contemporary consumerism. For all of that, this is not, however, history freighted with political pedantry. Grandin is one of a blessedly expanding group of gifted American historians who assume that whatever moral the story of the past may yield, it must be a story well told. "Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City" is precisely that -- a genuinely readable history recounted with a novelist's sense of pace and an eye for character. It's a significant contribution to our understanding of ourselves and engrossingly enjoyable. Read the rest of Tim Rutten's review of Greg Grandin's book Fordlandia. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Journalists protest elimination of degree requirement in Brazil
Journalism students, professionals and union members protested Monday in several parts of Brazil against the Supreme Court's ruling to eliminate the degree requirement for journalists, reports the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas blog. Demonstrations occurred in the cities of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Aracaju, Caxias do Sul, Brasília and Teresina, among others, according to the report. (See a map of the protest sites.) In Rio, the demonstrators, dressed in black and wearing clown noses, marched to the headquarters of the Brazilian Press Association, O Globo reported. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo gallery: Gustavo Dudamel's learning curve
A photo gallery on the Los Angeles Times website follows Gustavo Dudamel, the 28-year-old Venezuelan incoming music director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, ending his second season as the Gothenburg Symphony's music director last month. Dudamel will take up his new role in Los Angeles in October. The Venezuelan conductor is the most illustrious graduate of El Sistema, or the System, Venezuela's 34-year-old music tuition program that many regard as a model not only for music instruction but for helping children develop into productive, responsible citizens. You can watch below a video shot by Reed Johnson last year of El Sistema in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. See the full photo gallery of Dudamel here. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City Image: Gustavo Dudamel. Anna Hult / For The Times

Hector Tobar: Historic South-Central is flowering
Practical dreamers are creating a diverse community -- nurturing gardens, opening a business, extending goodwill and respect, writes columnist Hector Tobar. Jose Luna doesn't see the blight around him in his neighborhood in Historic South-Central. That old apartment building with the shuttered windows? Not a problem. The graffiti on the sidewalk? He's too busy building the home of his dreams to notice. He's not one to brag, so I'll do it for him. Luna, a garment worker, has created a gorgeous front garden, by far the best-looking one on his block of Woodlawn Avenue. The gnarled columns of an old cactus are the centerpiece. Rose bushes and begonias provide a flash of color. And in one corner there's a bird of paradise that has a sentimental little story attached to it. For Luna, a 42-year-old native of Mexico, owning a home is the proudest accomplishment of three decades in the United States. I look at his home and garden and see something more. Read on here. Image: Garment worker Jose Luna has been in the U.S. for 30 years. He has transformed the home and property he bought in South-Central not long after the 1992 riots. Barbara Davidson / Los...

Mexico City's 31st annual gay pride march
The 31st annual gay pride march took place in Mexico City on Saturday afternoon, starting at the Angel of Independence on Paseo de la Reforma and ending in the Zocalo, or grand central plaza. Around 350,000 people attended, according to La Jornada newspaper, many urging tolerance and an end to discrimination against homosexuals, lesbians, transvestites, bisexuals and transsexuals. You can see images from the march above, in a video made by the Reforma newspaper. Click here for a recent article by McClatchy newspapers on being gay in Mexico City. -- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

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

 

UN-Caribbean partnership crucial amid today's crises, says Ban
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has hailed the collaboration between the United Nations and the countries of the Caribbean in tackling the various crises impacting the region and the world at large, including the global financial turmoil and climate change.

Human rights experts join chorus of UN condemnation over coup in Honduras
Four independent United Nations human rights experts today voiced serious concern over the situation in Honduras following last weekend's coup d'état, calling for the immediate restoring of democracy in the Central American country and the lifting of curbs on fundamental freedoms.

General Assembly condemns coup in Honduras
The General Assembly today condemned this weekend's coup d'état in Honduras, calling for the restoration of the democratically-elected President and constitutional Government.

Honduras: Ban voices concern over arrest of President
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed his deep concern over the situation in Honduras, voicing his strong support for the nation's democratic institutions and speaking out against the arrest of its constitutional President.

Ban urges restraint to avoid escalation of political tensions in Honduras
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today voiced his concern about the political and institutional tensions in Honduras and urged restraint by all concerned to prevent any further escalation.

Assembly President strongly condemns 'attempted coup' in Honduras
General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto today deplored an "attempted coup" against the Government in Honduras, and called on all parties to resolve their differences through peaceful dialogue.

UN operation in Haiti welcomes ‘calm' Senate elections
The United Nations mission in Haiti has paid tribute to the people of the impoverished country and its security forces for holding well-run Senate elections yesterday.

Haiti: UN mission denies responsibility for death of demonstrator
The United Nations mission in Haiti has categorically denied allegations that its forces had fired on a demonstration in the capital, during which one person died.

Ban urges Guatemalan authorities to support UN-backed probe into illegal militia
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on the authorities in Guatemala and civil society to support the independent body set up with United Nations help to investigate the activities of illegal armed groups in the Central American nation.

Cocaine output slashed in Colombia, slight rise in Bolivia, Peru - UN report
Colombia witnessed a dramatic fall in coca cultivation and cocaine production in 2008, thanks in large part to the destruction of over 200,000 hectares of fields growing the illicit drug, according to a United Nations report released today.

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

 

Costa Rica tops good life survey
The Latin American nation tops a new global ranking that combines measures of life expectance, happiness and ecological footprint. The UK languishes midway down the table while the US is placed 114th

World Bank sees signs of LatAm bounceback
Latin America is showing early signs of emerging from the global economic crisis, although any recovery is likely to be 'slow' and "unsynchronised", according to the World Bank.

Hondurans fear crisis will turn 'ugly'
Micheletti's government remains adamant that the ousted Mr Zelaya would spend his first night in a prison cell if he dared to return to the country – something that he has promised to do on Saturday

Honduras warns on breaks to credit flows
Honduras has warned that any interruption of multilateral credit flows to the impoverished Central American country would cause serious problems for the government's spending plans and several infrastructure projects

Honduras coup leaders under international fire
The European Union tells its ambassadors to 'avoid all contact' with Roberto Micheletti's interim government that took power following a military coup

Helping hand makes homeowners of poor
Families in Brazil are taking advantage of a new government incentive scheme that will pour R$60bn into the country's housing market

Wal-Mart endorses Obamacare
America's largest employer has reversed course and endorsed universal employer-provided health insurance in what seems a shrewd shift

Brazil extends sales tax cuts
Brazil has extended cuts in sales taxes on 70 capital goods and reduced long-term interest rates to stimulate the economy. The long-term interest rate charged by...

World Bank pauses lending to Honduras
The World Bank said it will pause lending to Honduras as Manuel Zelaya, the deposed president, announced plans to return to the Central American country on Thursday after Sunday's military coup

Mid-term polls leave Fernández a lame duck
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, president of Argentina, loses the majority in Congress she needs for economic reforms as the ruling party suffers defeat in mid-term polls

Honduras coup feeds leftist leaders' fear
Hugo Chávez, the radical Venezuelan leader, fiercely condemned the military coup and called for the immediate reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya as president of Central America's second largest nation

Ruling on Stanford bail request delayed
'Stanford has the motive, means and opportunity to leave the United States prior to trial,' claim prosecutors

Ontario suspends nuclear reactor plan
Canadian province cites cost overruns and uncertainty over the future of AECL, the government-owned nuclear agency, that was in line to build the reactors in its decision to cancel the project

Cashless California
The unthinkable may be on the verge of happening in California, but America's largest state is nowhere near default on its $70bn in debt

Swine flu deaths top bird flu toll
The latest figures from the WHO show there have now been 311 confirmed deaths around the world from the H1N1 virus and just over 70,000 infections in 113 countries

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

 

"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

Danger Lurks in America's Backyard
American foreign policy is concentrated on the Middle East, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, a deadly threat lurks much closer to home.

Russia and Cuba Cooperate on Caribbean Oil Exploitation
Countries unfriendly to the United States are setting up to take the oil the U.S. passed over.

Disorder South of the Border
A cauldron of crises is bubbling over in Mexico; economic and social collapse could affect more than just America’s southern neighbors.

A Key to Winning the Drug War
Exposing the empty, violent, seedy wasteland that is substance abuse.

The Threat From Latin America
As South America unifies, it is increasingly looking to Europe rather than the United States.

Is Germany Conquering Latin America?
Economic ties that German corporate agents have been actively establishing in Latin America are about to give the European Union a network of colonies.

Let Them Eat Cake
Famine and revolution go hand in hand.

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

 

Honduras Defies Global Demands to Restore Deposed President
Honduras' interim government reiterates Mr. Zelaya will be arrested if he sets foot in the country

US Warns Honduras of Cascade of Consequences if Coup is Not Reversed
Obama administration is backing mediation on situation by Organization of American States

New Honduran Government Defies OAS Ultimatum
Interim President Roberto Micheletti says his government will not bow to outside pressure

US Puts Honduras Aid on Hold Following Coup
State Department's legal team is all but certain to determine that overthrow of President Zelaya does fit definition of a military coup, thus mandating a US aid cut-off

Diplomats, OAS Press for Resolution of Crisis in Honduras
Organization of American States is expected to lead diplomatic effort to resolve political crisis sparked when President Manuel Zelaya was deposed and flown out of country on a military plane this week

Coup d'Etat in Honduras Highlights Zelaya's Relationship with Chavez
Chavez said to be capitalizing on coup

US Conservatives Support Ouster of Honduran President
Conservatives argue that Manuel Zelaya violated constitution by planning to hold illegal referendum

Venezuela Nationalizes Country's Third Largest Bank
Government agrees to pay more than $1 billion for Banco de Venezuela

Honduras Court Rebuffs OAS on Zelaya's Return 
Interim government plans to hold power until elections in November

Honduras Pulls Out of OAS
OAS was to vote Saturday on suspending Honduras after country topples elected president

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

 

Mexico’s mid-term election: Tilting to the PRI

Felipe Calderon’s battle for relevance

FOR 70 years the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was synonymous with the state in Mexico, before it was finally booted out of the presidency in an election in 2000. It has since tried hard to reinvent itself as a competitive political party operating in a democracy. In the campaign for a mid-term election on July 5th involving all 500 seats in the lower house of Congress, PRI candidates across the country have solemnly trooped into public notaries’ offices to turn their campaign promises into formal pledges. These mix opposition to national reforms such as taxing food and medicines with local issues such as paving roads.

The PRI is also touting its experience and a new focus on honesty and accountability. Some Mexicans question how far this goes, since it continues to close ranks around corrupt officials rather than expel them. But after finishing a distant third in a presidential election in 2006, opinion polls now give it a slim but stable lead over the conservative National Action Party (PAN) of President Felipe Calderon. That would translate into a near-doubling of its current 105 seats in the lower house of Congress, and give the party the power to make or break the rest of Mr Calderon’s presidency. It also hopes to make gains in six gubernatorial elections to be held on the same day. ...

Brazil’s licensed thinker: A sage exits, maybe left

The government’s in-house philosopher returns to Harvard

ONE of the mysteries of Brazilian politics these days is what the governing Workers’ Party (PT) believes in. It was born in 1980 with an ideology that mixed Marxism and liberation theology and promised nationalisation, land redistribution and debt default. In power under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, it has done none of these things.

Enter into the government, as minister for strategic affairs, two years ago Roberto Mangabeira Unger, a Harvard law professor and philosopher. Mr Unger is not a member of the PT, but he is the author of expansive books with titles like “What Should The Left Propose?” Could he fill the vacuum? ...

Argentina’s mid-term election: Walloped

The Kirchners lose a referendum on their rule

WHEN Argentines last voted in a national election two years ago they chose Cristina Fernandez as their new president with 45% of the vote and no need for a run-off. They gave the political block controlled by her and her husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, healthy majorities in both houses of Congress. In a mid-term election on June 28th not only did the first couple lose those majorities but they also lost the political dominance they have exercised over Argentina since 2003. They show few immediate signs of heeding the demand for change.

In the lower house, where half the seats were in play, the Kirchners’ supporters now have just 115 of the 257 seats. They lost three seats in the Senate, which is now evenly balanced. Across the country, their vote sank to around 30% in an election that Mr Kirchner had framed as a referendum on the first couple’s leftist, populist version of Peronism. He stood himself in Buenos Aires province, where nearly 40% of Argentines live, but came second, beaten by a group of dissident, centrist Peronists headed by Francisco de Narvaez, a wealthy businessman. ...

Conservation in Ecuador: Trees or oil

An ambitious scheme to save pristine forest starts to take shape

THOUGH half of Ecuador lies in the Amazon basin, its rainforest is shrinking faster than in neighbouring countries (by 1.67% a year). It has been ravaged by logging, poachers and oil extraction. Settlers have streamed in to carve out a precarious life. Over the past decade they have been joined by thousands of refugees fleeing violence in Colombia, as well as guerrillas and drug traffickers who inflict it. Native tribes have been uprooted, forced deeper into the forest or have disappeared.

The government of President Rafael Correa now wants help to keep pristine one of Ecuador’s most important remaining jungle areas, in the Yasuni national park. In a corner of the park known as ITT (after the Ishpingo, Tambococha and Tiputini rivers) lies an oilfield which preliminary seismic studies show holds almost 846m barrels of oil, or around 20% of Ecuador’s reserves. The ITT area is unusually biodiverse. It is thought to be home to several hundred tribesmen who shun the modern world and whose way of life is protected under a new constitution promoted by Mr Correa. ...

The coup in Honduras: Defying the outside world

Hondurans are pleased that an old-fashioned coup has installed a new president; the rest of Latin America is appalled

HE IS an unlikely figure to have become an international cause celebre. Manuel Zelaya is a moustachioed timber magnate who won Honduras’s presidential election in 2005 as a law-and-order candidate for the mainstream Liberal Party only to alienate most of the country by allying himself with Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s leftist president. His overthrow in a military coup on June 28th was followed by calls for his restoration of striking unanimity and vehemence, from Barack Obama, Mr Chavez, the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the United Nations General Assembly, among others.

The only people who don’t seem to want the president back in his job are Hondurans. On June 30th thousands of them filled the main square in Tegucigalpa, the capital, to show their support for Mr Zelaya’s removal and his replacement by Roberto Micheletti (pictured above, with microphone), the head of Congress. “We don’t want Mel! Out, Mel!” they screamed, using Mr Zelaya’s nickname. “It was legal! It wasn’t a coup!” The previous day only a few hundred pro-Zelaya protesters had taken to the streets, burning tyres and throwing stones at soldiers before being dispersed with tear gas. ...

Municipal corruption in Canada: Water and grime

Montreal’s mayor under pressure

BACK in the 1940s and 1950s Montreal was notorious in Canada for municipal graft. Recent allegations in Quebec’s largest city remind some of those days. The police have five separate investigations under way into suspected fraud, kickbacks and favours involving tens of millions of dollars. Two of the probes touch former sidekicks of Gerald Tremblay, the mayor since 2002. Few suspect that Mr Tremblay, with a long previous career in Quebec’s Liberal party, is crooked, and there is no evidence of that. But La Presse, the main federalist paper in Montreal and once a staunch supporter of the mayor, has twice called for him to resign. He shows no sign of doing so.

The scandals centre on construction firms thought to have underworld ties. The mayor’s chief of staff was suspended last year over allegations that he organised the sale of municipal property for a fraction of its real value. One 38-hectare site, valued at C$31m ($27m), was sold for C$4.4m to a developer who not long before had been photographed by police with Nicolo Rizzuto, an octogenarian mobster and father of Canada’s top mafioso. (The developer also has a record of evading taxes, issuing false bills and bribing officials.) ...

Venezuela's media: Chávez's bugbear

The harassment of Globovision

TO CRITICS who call him an autocrat, Venezuela’s leftist president, Hugo Chavez, responds by pointing to a largely uncensored opposition media. Yet it is an argument that is wearing thin. Mr Chavez recently vowed to curb what he sees as the excesses of Globovision, a 24-hour news channel that is his main bugbear. Closing it down may be the only way to do so.

Globovision is the last remaining national channel that is critical of the government. It was one of four such channels that during Venezuela’s political conflict of 2002-04, to varying degrees, egged on an opposition that was determined to oust Mr Chavez. Two have since capitulated, firing controversial talk-show hosts and adjusting their news coverage. In 2007 the government’s broadcasting regulator refused to renew the licence of the fourth—Radio Caracas Television, which is now subscription-only. ...

Drug policy in the Americas: At last, a debate

And an intemperate defence of prohibition

EVER since George Bush senior launched “the war on drugs” in earnest two decades ago, Latin American governments have been more or less willing belligerents. That was partly because of the carrot and stick of American aid and bullying, but mainly because they suffer the brunt of the violence and corruption inflicted by trafficking mafias. Yet now there are signs of a rethink.

The clearest came in February when the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, a group headed by three former presidents—Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Cesar Gaviria of Colombia and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico—published a report arguing that the violent crime and corruption generated by drug prohibition is undermining democracy and that the drug war has “failed”. They called for a public debate on alternatives, including treating drug use as an issue of public health rather than criminal law, and decriminalising marijuana. ...

Coca and cocaine in the Andes: Mixed signals among the coca bushes

An apparent fall in cocaine production conceals the remarkable resilience of an illegal industry

A YEAR ago when the United Nations’ annual survey showed a rise of 27% in the area planted with coca in Colombia in 2007, the government expressed “serious doubts” about the reliability of the estimate. On June 19th Colombian officials were so proud of the UN’s finding of an 18% decrease last year that they rushed to announce it five days ahead of its scheduled release. Although cultivation of coca, the hardy shrub from which cocaine is refined, is reported to have increased in Peru and Bolivia (see chart), the UN claims that lower yields mean that 28% less cocaine was produced in Colombia. Taken together with an estimated fall of 19% in opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) calls the results “encouraging”.

That is surely welcome for UNODC, especially because it comes as the agency’s worldwide policy of drug prohibition, reaffirmed at a ministerial meeting in April, is being increasingly questioned in Latin America and beyond (see article). In fact, there may be less to the headline figures than meets the eye. ...

Venezuela's oil-dependent economy: Socialism on the never-never

Hard times on the streets of Caracas

GLOBAL capitalism may be in crisis, but thanks to “21st-century socialism” Venezuela’s economy is “armour-plated” and the country’s poor have nothing to fear. That has been the message from Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s president, and his ministers in recent months. If anyone is to suffer from the lower price of oil, the country’s mainstay, they insist it will be only “the oligarchy”. And serve them right: according to Mr Chavez, the rich are merely “animals in human form”.

The oil price has doubled from its December trough (although it is still only half its peak of a year ago), so one might expect Mr Chavez’s fighting talk to be reflected in resilient living standards. But inflation is close to 30%, real wages are falling and welfare schemes have suffered big cuts in their budget. The mood on the streets of poorer suburbs of Caracas, the capital, is glum. ...

Canada's troubled nuclear industry: Ending a dream, or nightmare

The government opts not to pour more money down the nuclear “sinkhole”

NO ONE should have been surprised when Canada’s elderly nuclear research-reactor near Ottawa sprang a leak last month, prompting a prolonged shutdown that removes two-fifths of the world’s supply of a medical isotope widely used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. After all, the government-owned reactor was fired up in 1957, the same year that the Soviet Union launched Sputnik and Elvis Presley starred in “Jailhouse Rock”. But the reactor’s second unscheduled shutdown in as many years left health officials in Canada and the United States scrambling to find alternative sources of the isotope. Hospitals in both countries rescheduled thousands of tests and treatments.

This debacle has stirred Stephen Harper’s Conservative minority government into a decision. It says it will divide AECL, the state-owned atomic-energy company, into two, privatising all or part of its division that makes and services nuclear-power stations while winding down the research reactor. Eventually, says Mr Harper, Canada will get out of making isotopes altogether. His spokesman used blunter language, saying that AECL was “dysfunctional” and a “sinkhole” that has cost the Canadian governments C$30bn ($26.5 billion) since its creation in 1952. ...

Argentina's mid-term election: The glass empties for the Kirchners

Recession and political mistakes by the first couple point to a change in the balance of power. But will Argentina at last acquire a more coherent opposition?

UNTIL about three months ago, as the southern-hemisphere summer drew to a close, Argentines had expected an autumn of relative calm. Then President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who governs with her husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner (pictured above), suddenly decided to bring forward to June 28th a mid-term legislative election that was not due until October. The switch prompted a flurry of fund-raising from across the political spectrum. “This time there’s a chance of a return on any investment,” says Nicolas Ducote, a political analyst. After six years in which the Kirchners have had Argentine politics in their grip, change is in the now-wintry air.

Polls suggest that the first couple will lose their majority in the lower house of Congress, where half the seats are up for election. Mr Kirchner, who is standing in Buenos Aires province is neck-and-neck with Francisco de Narvaez, a businessman who heads a dissident group within the ruling Peronist movement. Mr Kirchner will be elected, but a failure to beat Mr de Narvaez to the top of the poll in the province, home to 40% of the electorate and of the rustbelt suburbs that have been his main base, would be a humiliation. ...

Mexico's drug war: All in the family

Suspicion falls on politicians

Clarification to this article

FELIPE CALDERON has bet his presidency on fighting Mexico’s drug-trafficking syndicates and their penetration of his country’s institutions. Yet for the first two and a half years of his administration, not a single elected official was arrested for complicity with the traffickers. That encouraged some of his Mexican critics to claim that his efforts were half-hearted. Now the government has started to answer them. ...

Canadians abroad: Some are on their own

The judges clash with the politicians

FOR the past year Abousfian Abdelrazik, who is a citizen both of Canada and of Sudan, his country of origin, has lived in the lobby of Canada’s embassy in Khartoum, unable to travel home and too frightened to venture outside. The Sudanese government, which twice imprisoned and released him without charge, wants him gone and even offered at one point to foot the bill. The Canadian government professes publicly that he is free to come home and is providing him with food and shelter. But each time he has seemed to be about to return, ministers have come up with further obstacles.

On June 4th a federal judge, drawing a parallel between Mr Abdelrazik’s predicament and that of the main character in Franz Kafka’s novel “The Trial”, ordered Stephen Harper’s Conservative government to help him return to his family in Montreal within 30 days. ...

Waste disposal in Colombia: Muck and brass plates

Entrepreneurs, not scavengers

FOR more than 20 years Carmen Lasso has scrabbled a living of sorts for herself and her eight children by scavenging at a rubbish dump in Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city. Her life has brought the occasional pleasant surprise, such as the silver ring crowned with a tiny light-blue stone that she gleaned from the trash, and now wears. Another came in April when Colombia’s Constitutional Court ruled that she and tens of thousands of her fellow wastepickers should be officially recognised as “entrepreneurs”.

The ruling has a practical effect. The court ordered Cali’s city government to suspend the tender for a waste-management concession to give co-operatives of recicladores, as they are known, time to organise themselves and bid for the contract. The dump they worked at was shut down last year, as part of a reorganisation of waste disposal that has already seen three contracts given to private firms. ...

Brazil's recovering economy: Ready to roll again

Among the last to fall into recession, Brazil may be among the first to grow out of it

“NEVER before in the country’s history” is the catchphrase of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that most annoys his opponents. The president, in his selective amnesia, would have voters believe that everything good about Brazil dates from his election in 2002. Even more infuriating for the previous government, which provided the precursors for progress but got no credit for it, he is often right. Take interest rates: on June 10th the central bank cut its benchmark SELIC rate to 9.25%, the first time the figure has been in single digits since the 1960s.

A host of measures, from the value of the stockmarket to the creation of credit, are now nearly back to their level before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September last year. The economy performed less badly than expected in the first quarter: GDP shrank by only 0.8% compared with the last three months of 2008. Many analysts believe that Brazil is now starting to grow again, and will return to annual growth of 3.5% to 4% next year. If so, that would mean that the country has escaped with only a brief recession. ...

Brazil's poor schools: Still a lot to learn

Brazil’s woeful schools, more than perhaps anything else, are what hold it back. They are improving—but too slowly

GOD may be Brazilian, as citizens of South America’s largest country like to say, but he surely played no part in designing its education system. Brazil has much going for it these days—stable politics, an open and fairly harmonious society, an economy that has remembered how to grow after decades of stagnation—but when it comes to the quality of schools, it falls far short even of many other developing countries despite heavy public spending on education.

In the OECD’s worldwide tests of pupils’ abilities in reading, maths and science, Brazil is near the bottom of the class (see chart). Until the 1970s South Korea was about as prosperous as Brazil but, helped by its superior school system, it has leapt ahead and now has around four times the national income per head. World domination, even the friendly and non-confrontational sort Brazil seeks, will not come to a place where 45% of the heads of poor families have less than a year’s schooling. ...

Mexico tackles drug abuse: Breaking the habit

Increasingly, the country is not just a distributor of drugs but a user too

MEXICAN government officials rarely miss a chance to point to America’s demand for illegal drugs as the cause of their violent struggle with traffickers. But the notion of the country as an innocent victim of geography is increasingly outdated. Although Mexico is still a middleman between Colombian growers and American consumers, it is fast becoming a destination for narcotics in its own right. In the past six years drug use is reckoned to have risen by nearly 30%, and the trend shows no signs of abating. President Felipe Calderon has mainly treated drugs as a national-security issue, but the consequences for public health may be almost as severe.

Mexican consumption began to take off in the mid-1990s. Tight economic conditions and increased government scrutiny of large financial transactions prompted the cartels to shift to payments in kind. Instead of giving cash to local operators on trafficking routes, they would allot them a share of the shipment. The glut of drugs in the country grew further after the September 11th 2001 attacks, when the United States redoubled its border controls. ...

Argentina's Kirchners and the media: Bad news for some

The president and her husband offer carrots and sticks to the news media

WHEN Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Argentina’s president, said on May 27th that she will cancel the tax debts of five private media companies, she couched her generosity in an argument about the importance of a free press. It was lofty talk from someone who often snaps back at criticism from the news media. Ms Fernandez went her entire presidential campaign and most of her first year in office without giving a press conference. Her husband, Nestor Kirchner, who governs with her, gave none in his four years in the top job. Rather than warming to the Fourth Estate, though, the Kirchners are becoming more adept at media manipulation. The five firms in question have agreed to repay the debts by giving space for official advertising that paints the Kirchners in a positive light. Such propagandising is not new to Argentina but its growth under the Kirchners has been extraordinary.

The central government spent 395m pesos ($125m) on advertising in 2008, more than eight times its spending in 2003, when Mr Kirchner became president. The tax-debt swap wins the government propaganda on the cheap that will not show up in this year’s total. The first couple say these ads will not appear until after June 28th, when they face mid-term elections. However, the deal lets them spend more freely now, “knowing they have this on credit”, says Roberto Saba, a law professor. ...

The Economist: The Americas
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