· May, 2006

Stories about Latin America from May, 2006

The Week That Was – Bolivian Blogs

  31 May 2006

Bolivians have long resigned themselves to the fact that their football national team will also be home watching the upcoming World Cup on television. For the third straight tourney, Bolivia has failed to qualify for the world’s most important sporting event and have left this tiny nation saying, “maybe in...

Peru: Voters Safety

  31 May 2006

Fabiola Bazo describes the measures being taken to ensure peaceful elections this coming Sunday.

Mexico: Preview of Open Source Movie Elephants Dream

  31 May 2006

Eduardo Arcos informs his readers that a preview showing of the film “Elephants Dream,” which was made using only open source software and is licensed with a Creative Commons 2.5 attribution license will be shown on Friday, June 2 at Non solo bar in Mexico City.

Argentina: Music: Travesti

  31 May 2006

Fernando Casale introduces readers to Travesti: “It means ‘transvestite’ and it’s the name of an Argentinian duo that came out from within the suburbs of Buenos Aires (by the way, neither of them are actual transvestites).” Several of the songs are available in mp3 format.

Peru: Creative Commons Launch

  31 May 2006

With exclamation marks of enthusiasm, Derecho y Cultura Libre desde Perú announces the planned launch date for Creative Commons licenses to be June 27th at the iLaw Peru workshop.

Venezuela: Luis Velásquez Scandal

  30 May 2006

Francisco of Caracas Chronicles calls the Luis Velásquez Alvaray affair the “mother of all scandals.” Two days later, however, he wonders where all the coverage went.

Venezuela: Former Yaracuy Governor detained

  30 May 2006

Commenting on the detention of Former Yaracuy Governor Eduardo Lapi who was Miguel Octavio opines: “Reportedly he will be charged with misuse of funds. Thus, as the robolution robs, steals and charges commisions, opposition figures are detained for subtle charges of misuse of funds. If the same criterai were applied...

Mexico: AMLO Back in the Lead?

  30 May 2006

Goleech cites the May 29 poll by María de las Heras, which has leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrado back in the lead with half a percentage point over Felipe Calderón and three points ahead of Roberto Madrazo.

Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, US: Border Frustrations

  30 May 2006

In a summary of Latin American news, Western Hemisphere Policy Watch describes tension over the militarized border … the Costa Rica-Nicaragual border. Isopixel is upset [ES] by an offensive song posted on the website of the US anti-immigration group, the Minutemen, which calls President Vicente Fox – among other things...

Caribbean: What blogging is for

  30 May 2006

“Blogging … challenges the elitism that pervades the Caribbean and is a great experiment in the democratization of data,” says Geoffrey Philp in a thoughtful essay on the potential role of blogging in the region. “Blogging provides the kind of freedom that is anathema to many gatekeepers who want to...

Colombia: President Uribe Reelected in Landslide

  30 May 2006

In a landslide decision (66% compared to runner-up Carlos Gaviria's 22%), Colombians went to the polls on Sunday and reelected President Álvaro Uribe. Here is a selection of what Colombian bloggers had to say about his victory. Gabriel Goldo is ecstatic [ES]. La Democracia habló, esperemos la pronta paz en...

Bolivia: “The Evo and Hugo Show”

  29 May 2006

Jim Shultz, referring to the recent media coverage on the relationship between Evo Morales and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, writes: “One of the interesting things about having lived in and written about Bolivia for eight years is watching the foreign press that parachute in for a week or two, declare...

Global Food Blog Report

  28 May 2006

#1: Viaggi & Sapori, an Italian living in Sweden, goes home in Venice for the weekend. She was invited  to a wedding of a friend: Matrimonio al profumo di muggheto. You Will LOVE every photo and description of the menu, everything looks and sounds incredibly delicious! #2: Peru Food reviews...

What Salvadoran bloggers are saying — violence and generals

  27 May 2006

The high levels of violence in the country continue without solutions. Much of the violence is tied to gang activity. Blogger Hunnapuh notes that pressured by the business sector, which fears that foreign investment will avoid a country with high levels of violence, president Tony Saca has finally recognized that...

Guatemala: Video of Hurricane Stan and the Weekend's Orange Alert

  27 May 2006

Patrick of the Guatemala Solidarity Network Blog has posted a 13 minute video of “what it was like in Panajachel when Stan struck last year.” In a followup post, he quotes a recent report that cited “current concerns include that the planting of this year's crops will be affected by...

Mexico: “Friki”

  26 May 2006

“Friki [ES],” defined by Wikipedia as someone interested in or obsessed by a topic, is a must-know word for the reader of Spanish-language blogs. As Eduardo Arcos points out [ES], it's also one of the most searched for words on Technorati. And who is the friki of the year?

Argentina, Chile: El Chaltén

  26 May 2006

“Just when you thought nationalism had nothing good to offer the world, along comes a wonder like El Chaltén. A town with no conceivable economic or geographic purpose other than sticking it to the nearby Chileans, El Chaltén (Spanish for The Chaltén) is an accidental hikers’ paradise in what used...

Argentina: The 25th of May

  26 May 2006

Yesterday was Día de la Patria in Argentina, which From Bmore to BA explains commemorates the end of Spanish rule. Jeff Barry describes the rally held in the Plaza de Mayo as “clearly a pro-Kirchner political rally paid for by the government” and even remarks that “according to the news,...

About our Latin America coverage

Gabriela Mesones Rojo
Gabriela Mesones Rojo is the Latin America Spanish-language editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.

Fernanda Canofre
Fernanda Canofre is the Brazil editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.