Stories about Latin America from November, 2011
Cuba: News, 24/7
Cuba will apparently soon have a 24-hour news channel; Regina Coyula says: “Despite so much supposed information, we are the most disinformed people in the world.”
Latin American Students March for Education
Inspired by the student movements in Colombia and Chile, students across the continent marched on November 24, 2011 to demand free, high-quality education. El Ciudadano [es] links to the Facebook events organized in each country; Kena Lorenzini posts pictures of the Chilean protests in her blog, and Mike shares pictures...
Cuba: Photos of Violent Arrests
Uncommon Sense weighs in on photos showing the violent arrest of “two Cuban female activists, Yris Pérez Aguilera and Donaida Pérez Paseiro, as they tried to leave Yris’ home in Placetas so she could see a specialist for treatment of head injuries she suffered during a beating by a police...
Chile: Report Examines Media Coverage of Indigenous Peoples and their Struggle
The Instituto de la Communicación e Imagen (ICEI) has released a report analyzing how Chilean media covers indigenous peoples and the “indigenous conflict.” Ryan Seelau in Indigenous News explains “the data revealed, among other things, that Indigenous issues tend to be underreported and that Indigenous voices are underrepresented in the...
Costa Rica: Environmental Activists Denounce Repression
Diego Molina in Dame un campo [es] summarizes the experiences shared by environmental activists and lawyers during a conference on “Criminalization of the social-environmental protest” held in the University of Costa Rica. Participants denounced the repression they face as a consequence of their activism.
Paraguay: Insecurity and Corruption
Juan Edgardo Lezcano Benitez [es] blogs about insecurity and corruption in Paraguay. He says that the increasingly serious situation “makes it lawful to take any sort of actions to ‘defend what's ours’ because the institutions in charge are not properly fulfilling their role”
Nicaragua: The Poor State of Roads in Nueva Guinea
Ronald Hill [es] denounces the poor state of roads in Nueva Guinea, “the largest, most densely populated municipality and biggest economic hub of the Autonomous Region of the Southern Atlantic” in Nicaragua.
Latin America, USA: GOP Presidential Candidates on Latin America
Bloggings by boz recaps the comments made by U.S. Republican presidential candidates on Latin America policy during the GOP debate held on November 22, 2011.
Peruvian Amazon: The Challenges of a Wonder of Nature
The Amazon rainforest has been declared as one of the provisional 7 new wonders of nature, a recognition that is expected to benefit the Peruvian region of Loreto and the city of Iquitos by incrementing tourism. But is the region actually prepared for this?
Cuba: Giving Thanks, Cuban Style
This Thanksgiving, My Big Fat Cuban Family “opted to take a traditional Thanksgiving side dish (corn) and added a Cuban spin to it” – check out the mouth-watering recipe, here.
Cuba: Siding with Syria
Bloggers comment on Cuba's opposition against a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning Syria for human rights violations, here and here.
Cuba: Blogger and Scholar Ted Henken on New Media in Cuba
Ellery Biddle interviews City University of New York (CUNY) Professor of Sociology Ted Henken, a Cuba expert who is the author of El Yuma, a blog that explores social currents in contemporary Cuba and closely follows the Cuban blogosphere.
Brazil: Maximum Fine After Silence on Chevron's Oil Spill
On 7 November, an oil platform operated by Chevron-Texaco and located 350km off coast from Rio de Janeiro, began spilling crude oil. Two weeks after, the spill is believed to be under control and Chevron has been fined the maximum amount allowed by Brazilian environmental authorities. But not all is clear concerning the intricacies and coverage of the environmental disaster.
Cuba: Censoring “El Chupi”
Generation Y blogs about El Chupi Chupi, a hugely popular song in Cuba right now, which has been panned by the Cuban Music Institute, saying: “Controversy will arise, of course, and generate debate, but no public official will be able to erase it with the stroke of a pen, because...
Puerto Rico: Who's Running the Medical School?
Gil the Jenius is calling for the firing of those who were allegedly responsible for the San Juan Bautista School of Medicine's recent loss of accreditation (which has since been reversed, pending probation), saying that leaving those involved in charge “would be very much like locking the door after the...
Mexico: Looking Beyond the Violent Portrait of Ciudad Juárez
Richard Boren in the blog Border Wars shows that there's a lot more to Ciudad Juárez than the violence portrayed in the media. “The city is becoming increasingly more isolated from the world. […] The collateral damage from Juarez's one-sided portrait in the media is enormous, and one of the...
Guatemala's Alarming Femicide Statistics
“According to official statistics, seven hundred women have been murdered so far this year in Guatemala (see here and here). According to CONAPREVI, 838 women were murdered in 2010. Therefore, if women continue to be killed at the same rate in November and December as they have been all year (an average of 70...
Colombia: Bogota's Ignored Street Art
After participating in the ‘Bogotá Graffiti Tour‘, blogger Vicki Kellaway from the Banna Skin Flip Flops writes about the “other” street art in Bogotá, “the kind that’s moulding and rusting away as we speak. Yes, I’m talking about sculpture and, for that matter, statues. When was the last time you...
Chile: Domestic Workers Protest Demanding Dignity at Work
Domestic workers protested demanding dignity at work on Sunday, November 20, in Santiago. The blog Centros Chilenos en el Exterior [es] posted a video of the march produced by Prensa Opal [es].
El Salvador: Calle 13 Performs for Rice and Beans
Puerto Rican music duo Calle 13 performed in El Salvador on Saturday, November 19; the ticket fee, as Voices from El Salvador reports, “was a donation of rice, beans or other grains that will be distributed to flood victims.” Hunnapuh [es] blogged about Calle 13 and the controversy around their...
Peru: Rain Causes Flooding in Iquitos
Rains have once again caused flooding in the city of Iquitos in the Amazon Rainforest. The blogger behind De la Selva [es] attributes the flooding to sewage works and posts Facebook pictures of the flood.
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