Stories about Latin America from January, 2007
CAFTA and WiMax in Costa Rica
Three articles stand out this week: The first describes events that are a glimpse of what we will see once the CAFTA discussions begin, the second denounces the newspapers for failing to report accurately on these same events, and the third stumbles upon a discovery of virtual private network (VPN)...
Cuba: Fidel's video
Alejandro Armengol attempts to make sense (ES) of the reaction of Miami's Cuban exiles to the video of Cuban president Fidel Castro released yesterday.
Bolivia: Advice From and For Morales
While Bolivia Rising posts the translated text of Evo Morales speech at the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Jim Shultz of The Democracy Center publishes “three messages that Morales and MAS need to hear.”
Colombia: Same-Sex Unions
Andres Duque of Blabbeando documents the various political paths that GLBT advocates and activists in Colombia are using to gain the rights of same-sex unions.
Argentina, Spain, USA: Technorati to Launch WTF?
Argentinian native and Spanish citizen Martin Varsavsky writes on his Spanish blog [ES]: “[Technorati founder, David Sifry] showed me what he is really going to do and how he is going to launch it. And I suggested a modification that he liked a lot, but that it will take a...
Cuba, Mexico, USA: Reflections on Immigration
“In mid-January I went back to Mexico for meetings with clients and academics, as well as colleagues from IBM. As you might imagine, the immigration debates going on in the US are being closely followed in Mexico. The people I spoke to were generally very critical of the Mexican government...
Bolivian Bloggers Give Their Verdict
This time last year, Bolivia and the rest of the world was buzzing about the inauguration of President Evo Morales and the novelty of it all. With approval ratings at sky-high levels, many wondered and were hopeful about the upcoming year. Would he follow through with all of his campaign...
Peru: Racism at the Beach
They say that to work is no offence, that there is no job that one should be ashamed of. It sounds logical, but not everyone seems to think that way. Many Peruvians, some think too many, leave their motherland to look for a better job opportunity abroad, where they often...
Guatemala: Unearthing the Future
Xeni Jardin, best known for her writing at BoingBoing has also been blogging her recent travels in Guatemala including a five-part series for NPR called ‘Guatemala: Unearthing the Future.’ Patrick of the Guatemalan Solidarity Network expands on Jardin's first piece titled, “Group Works to Identify Remains in Guatemala.”
Colombia: Paramilitary Leader's PowerPoint Presentation
Héctor Mondragón on the failures of “Plan Colombia” and Adam Isacson on “the world's most evil PowerPoint presentation” which was used by top paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso when confessing to his past human-rights crimes two weeks ago.
Argentina: On the Bus in Buenos Aires
“This post inaugurates a new category – On the bus – an occasional series of anecdotes from travels on the city buses.” Buenos Aires-based Jeffy Barry starts the new series with tales from bus #17.
Bolivia: Promoting Quechua and Aymara
Bloggings by boz links to a report from today's Washington Post reporting that “Bolivian President Morales’ government is making a major push to teach students Quechua and Aymara, Bolivia's two main native languages.” If you'd like to learn a little Quechua why not start with this lesson [ES] on bringing...
Venzuela: Translations from Spanish
Guillermo Parra of Venepoetics has published a slew of recent translations including Eduardo Vásquez's “Postmodernity Once Again,” which proposes two distinct foundations for Chavez's so-called “21st Century Socialism.” Parra also introduces his readers to award-winning poet and novelist Alberto Barrera Tyszka whose biography of Hugo Chavez will be published in...
Nicaragua: Blogging in Granada
Our Man in Hanoi is soon to become Our Man in Granada and starts off with two introductory posts as he prepares for the move.
Peru: Personal Vs. Erotic
Noting the recent rise in popularity of erotic and sex blogs at the Blogs Perú directory (the three most popular blogs are Peru Macho, Naked Peruvians, and A Little Wet), Juan Arellano wonders [ES] if they should be separated into a category of their own.
Cuba: Praying for Fidel
It's unlikely that Cuban president Fidel Castro will be any less of a polarising figure in death than he's been over the course of his long and colourful political career. Since the announcement of his illness and the passing of power to his brother Raúl at the end of July...
Puerto Rico: Whither reggaetón?
Puerto Rican blogger Norenid Ramírez posts an article (ES), originally written for the journal La Voz, on the current state of reggaetón.
Cuba: A walking (photo) tour of Havana
“Havana is a city best appreciated on foot,” writes (ES) FotoCuba in a post presenting photos from a walking tour of the city.
Chavez Plans to Revoke Station's Broadcast License in Venezuela
Los Amigos Invisibles con Patricia [at RCTV] by Alfredo Izaguirre F. Hugo Chavez, shortly after his re-election in December for a term of 6 more years of governance, announced that the license of a television channel, whose editorial line tends toward opposition, will not be renewed. Channel RCTV, with 52...
Brazil Again: Blogs Banished from 2007 PanAm Games in Rio
The Brazilian blogosphere is becoming one of the main fronts in the battle against Internet censorship. The reason for that can be the growing audience created by the amount of time local internauts devote to web surfing, which was once again rated as the highest in the world. But it...
Chilean Senator Explores World of Warcraft: Scholastic Team Building or Time Wasting?
Online, multi-player games like Second Life and World of Warcraft have attracted some authentic popularity in the form of subscription-paying registered users and a disproportionate amount of hype from techno-utopian bloggers, the-next-big-thing media futurists, and sociology professors turned computer geeks. So much hype as a matter of fact that New...
About our Latin America coverage
Melissa Vida is the Latin America Spanish-language editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.
Fernanda Canofre is the Brazil editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.
