Silvia Viñas · November, 2011

Latest posts by Silvia Viñas from November, 2011

Bolivia Holds its First ‘PressCamp’

  30 November 2011

The first PressCamp Bolivia [es] will be held on December 3, 2011 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. With a similar dynamic to BarCamp conferences, participants at PressCamp Bolivia will discuss online journalism, creative commons, and citizen journalism, among other subjects. Hugo Miranda provides more information in his blog [es].

Chile: Mapuche Protest Militarization and Project to Build Airport

  30 November 2011

On November 23, Mapuche protested against the militarization of their communities and a project to build an airport south of Temuco, in southern Chile, in a territory they claim as their ancestral land. Montserrat Nicolas, from the blog Curvas Políticas, shares a video [es] with speeches and testimonies by Mapuche...

Colombia: Internally Displaced People Tell Blogger their Stories

  30 November 2011

According to the Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES) Colombia has 5.2 million internally displaced people. Mike Ceaser talked “to several of the displaced people who've been demonstrating daily in Plaza Bolivar [in Bogota], demanding that the government give them land and other benefits.” Read some of their stories...

El Salvador: ‘Encachimbados’ Lead Occupy Movement

  29 November 2011

Danielle Mackey writes about the Encachimbados (meaning “indignant”), El Salvador's occupy movement: “They call the attention of both the U.S. and Salvadoran governments to the free trade model, regional militarization strategies, and environmental destruction and climate change—all policies that the Encachimbados see as designed by a transnational elite, and which...

Guatemala: Survivors’ Testimonies Help Define Genocide in Online Documentary

  28 November 2011

Mike shares Spanish-language documentary “Our Voice, Our Memory: The genocide in Guatemala,” which is available in full on YouTube. He adds: “The documentary […] uses survivor and expert testimony to explain the concept of genocide, demonstrating how the atrocities committed by the Guatemalan military against indigenous Maya communities satisfy the...

Venezuela's Slow Internet

  28 November 2011

Luis Carlos Díaz blogs [es] about Venezuela's slow internet broadband, reporting that Venezuela ranks 163 out of 174 countries in download speed. Luis Carlos argues that Venezuelan netizens are settling for too little, and that anyone who aspires to the presidency for the 2012 elections should add this issue to...

Latin American Students March for Education

  25 November 2011

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...

Chile: Report Examines Media Coverage of Indigenous Peoples and their Struggle

  24 November 2011

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

  24 November 2011

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

  23 November 2011

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”

Peruvian Amazon: The Challenges of a Wonder of Nature

  23 November 2011

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?

Mexico: Looking Beyond the Violent Portrait of Ciudad Juárez

  22 November 2011

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

  22 November 2011

“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

  22 November 2011

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...

El Salvador: Calle 13 Performs for Rice and Beans

  21 November 2011

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...