Blog entries

As part of a plan to improve the state of the country’s finances, the Argentine government announced yesterday that it will cut over $800 million in utility subsidies that homes and businesses receive. The subsidies for water, natural gas and electricity would be removed only for high-income families, and the natural gas and power subsidy … Read more

From Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online’s news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup. Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email. Helicopter Crash Claims Mexico’s Second Most Powerful Official Mexico’s Interior Minister Francisco Blake … Read more

On weekend evenings in Buenos Aires´ upscale Palermo neighbourhood, newly washed sedans and SUVs line up along the wide Libertador Avenue, creating a shimmering cascade of lights as their occupants eagerly await valet parking. The restaurant of choice is a fashionable American-style bistro, aptly named Kansas. It has become a staple for well-heeled Porteños whose … Read more

A coalition of Mexico’s left-leaning political parties has chosen Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) stalwart Andrés Manuel López Obrador to run against near-certain Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) candidate Enrique Peña Nieto in the race to replace current Mexican President Felipe Calderón. The decision to nominate López Obrador—who also ran in the hotly contested 2006 … Read more

It is often said that the FARC is the oldest guerrilla group in the world. That may be true. It also may be true that, along with Hezbollah, the FARC exhibits the most sophisticated organizational design of any irregular armed group in the world. This is one of the reasons –a crucial one, though—why the … Read more

Colombian Minister of Education María Fernanda Campo announced today that the ministry will scrap the controversial higher education reform, Ley 30, which is currently in the hands of Congress. The government’s concession on the issue marks a major victory for public university and high school students and labor unions that have banded together to stage … Read more

Washington Nationals player Wilson Ramos was found alive and unharmed on Friday, two days after being kidnapped at gunpoint from a family home in the provincial city of Valencia. The 24-year-old rookie had returned to Venezuela just a few days before his abduction to begin training with the Tigres de Aragua team, for whom he … Read more

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report in which it denounced human rights violations at the hands of security forces in Mexico, as well as impunity for drug-related violence. In the Mexico chapter of its 200-page World Report 2011, the human rights organization says it found “strong evidence to suggest that members of … Read more

¡Bang! ¡bang!. Viene un tipo, viene otro, luego serán más. Drogas, dólares y mucha sangre. Aquí todos matan a todos. ¡Bang! ¡bang! Una típica película hollywoodense del hampa chicana. Aunque esta vez el escenario es Panamá, la película es panameña y su autor es Panamalo. Panamalo no cuenta su película. La actúa. Tiene ese idéntico … Read more

From Americas Society/Council of the Americas. AS/COA Online’s news brief examines the major—as well as some of the overlooked—events and stories occurring across the Americas. Check back every Wednesday for the weekly roundup. Sign up to receive the Weekly Roundup via email. Former General Wins Guatemalan Election Otto Pérez Molina, a former general who promised … Read more

The author also wrote “Dilma’s Education Dilemma” in the Fall 2011 issue of AQ. When Dilma Rousseff assumed the Brazilian presidency in January 2011, she inherited perhaps Brazil’s most challenging socioeconomic issue to date: improving its education system. In recent years, Brazil has registered low rankings in international standardized assessments of topics like writing, reading … Read more

An article in the fall issue of Americas Quarterly, released today, explores the record of Chinese state-owned mining corporations on labor and the environment. In “Do Chinese Mining Companies Exploit More?” three researchers from the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) explore the impact of China’s foreign direct investment in natural resource extraction in Peru—underlining … Read more

Yesterday President Sebastián Piñera signed a bill to create the Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones, an agency expected to supervise Chile’s $30 million-telecommunications industry. Accompanied by the Minister of Transporation and Telecommunications Pedro Errázuriz, Piñera said the goal of the bill—which will now be sent to Congress—is to “ensure a deeper control that allows the protection of … Read more

Guatemala and Nicaragua went to the polls yesterday to (re)elect their presidents; Otto Pérez Molina was declared the victor in Guatemala, while Nicaragua is still tabulating its votes. Pérez Molina, of the Partido Patriota (Patriot Party–PP) defeated Manuel Baldizón of the Libertad Democrática Renovada (Renewed Democratic Freedom–LIDER) party in Guatemala’s runoff election. Neither candidate had … Read more

What a difference a decade makes.  The successful operation on Friday by Colombian armed forces that killed Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla kingpin Guillermo León Sáenz—known by his nom de guerre Alfonso Cano—represents another in a series of victories for President Juan Manuel Santos and his counterinsurgency strategy. Santos’s security policy, built on … Read more