Latest posts by Silvia Viñas from December, 2013
Indie Voices: Connecting Investors With Journalism Entrepreneurs in Developing Countries
In the Knight Center's Journalism in the Americas Blog, Alejandro Martinez writes about a new crowdfunding platform for independent journalism projects called Indie Voices: Indie Voices seeks to become a meeting ground between entrepreneuring journalists and investors, where the former can find different sources of funding and put together their...
Coffee Blight in El Salvador Leads to Dramatic Drop in Exports
Coffee export revenues fell 40% in October and November of 2013 in El Salvador. Tim's El Salvador Blog reports on the blight affecting coffee farms throughout the country: Last week El Salvador's National Assembly finally established a fund for combating the coffee blight known as “la roya” and the ministry...
PHOTOS: Remains of Exhumed Guatemalan War Victims Returned to Families
In a new photo essay on MiMundo.org, photojournalist James Rodríguez follows residents of Pambach, Guatemala, as they receive the skeletal remains of six wartime victims who were “taken by the army after a military incursion to the village on June 3rd, 1982, during the de facto government of Efraín Ríos Montt,...
‘Negreo Inc.’ Tumblr Blog Exposes Demeaning Job Offers in Argentina
Negreo Inc. [es] is a Tumblr blog dedicated to compiling the harsh working conditions and low wages which Argentine companies currently offer potential employees. This ad [es], for example, is looking for “an ambitious salesman who wants to work 12 hours a day” for an income “based on results.” You...
Uruguay Becomes First Country to Legalize Marijuana Market
Uruguay's Senate voted 16 to 13 to legalize the production and sale of marijuana. President Mujica is expected to sign the law, which would become effective starting next year. Estoy a favor de legalizar la Marihuana pero estaria bueno ser noticia en el mundo por nuestra Seguridad y Educacion —...
Bolivian Feminist Organization is the ‘Little Rock in the Government's Shoe’
This is a very conservative government as far as gay rights and abortion or anything having to do with women or women’s rights. […] This government doesn’t really see us as an enemy, but rather we’re like a little rock in the shoe, a constant irritation. Benjamin Dangl and April...
Venezuela's Municipal Elections: “Both Sides Lose”
Although the ruling PSUV party won the majority of mayoral races in the country's municipal elections, Boz from Bloggings by Boz says that Venezuela “remains divided and neither side has a clear majority.” According to the results announced by The National Electoral Council (CNE), the ruling party won 196 municipalities, while...
Guatemalan Q'eqchi Indigenous Face Ongoing Violations of Their Rights
The threatening, violation and denial of the undeniable rights the Q'eqchi [indigenous Maya community] have over the land they acquired by their own means so many years ago, together with the stunning violation of basic human rights by evidence of abuse of force, not possibly rested on legal means, are...
5 Places in Santiago, Chile to Remember the Pinochet Dictatorship and Say “Never Again”
Blogger Lillie Langtry takes us on a tour of monuments and sites related to the 1973 military coup d'état and its aftermath in Chile's capital, Santiago.
Electoral Authority Agrees to Recount Vote Tallies in Honduras Presidential Election
Honduran presidential candidate Xiomara Castro from left-wing LIBRE party has been calling for a recount of the votes from the country's recent presidential election. According to official results Castro won 29% of the votes, placing her second after conservative candidate Juan Orlando Hernandez with 37%. RNS in Honduras Culture and...
New Museum in Medellín to Create Historic Memory About Colombia's Armed Conflict
The museum, the first in Colombia dedicated solely to the armed conflict, was designed as a space to reconstruct a history shrouded in violence and promote peaceful co-existence, according to [museum director Lucía] Gonzalez. “Remember to not repeat,” she said, is the guiding principle behind the museum. […] “We think...