Blog entries

What a difference a week can make. Only days before Peruvian cabinet minister Carmen Vildoso resigned in protest at the government’s handling of indigenous land rights protests, she was touring Huancavelica, the country’s poorest province, showcasing anti-poverty initiatives. Listening to campesinos’ stories of growing papaya and salad greens at elevations of 12,300 feet (3,750 meters) … Read more

President Barack Obama is zipping along with nominations and appointments related to all things Latin America. I am not going to share a laundry list of every post coming from the administration, but here are some highlights and what people are saying.  First, Arturo Valenzuela. As I wrote here months ago, he was nominated as … Read more

Trade unionists in Colombia continue to face intense harassment, despite government efforts to increase protection.  The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) published a report yesterday, citing Colombia as the world’s most dangerous place for trade unionists.  The death toll in 2008 rose to 49 union-related deaths, up from 39 in 2007.  At a meeting in … Read more

From the 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. Political Fallout in Peru after Bloody Clash Indigenous protesters and police forces … Read more

Antonio Salido and Alfonso Escalante—officials in Mexico’s Sonora state government—resigned yesterday as the investigation continued after Friday’s massive fire at a local day care center owned by their wives. The men resigned to “avoid any type of speculation [and] to allow for a better clarification of events,” according to a statement read by Salido. Witnesses … Read more

Last Wednesday, to much fanfare, the Organization of American States’ (OAS) annual meeting of the hemisphere’s foreign ministers issued a resolution calling for a dialogue to readmit Cuba to the region’s premier diplomatic body. Despite all the atmospherics, the statement sealed the OAS’s irrelevance and the most promising chapter in the regional organization’s history. Both … Read more

The Brazilian economy officially entered into recession today after IBGE, the national statistics agency, reported that the economy contracted at a rate of 0.8 percent in the first quarter of 2009.  Economists define a recession as a contraction lasting two or more consecutive quarters.  Despite the official announcement, the contraction was more modest than many … Read more

An estimated 100,000 Puerto Rican workers and students marched on the capitol last Friday to protest a government plan to lay off 30,000 public sector employees. The plan, which also calls for a temporary hike in income taxes and increased sales taxes on wine, is intended to close an annual budget deficit of $3.2 billion. … Read more

Mexico’s recent swine flu scare (H1N1) made evident the country’s lack of an efficient system for health information. Although the government acted promptly once it understood the potential danger of having the new virus being spread from human to human, the problem had actually begun weeks before. Some experts now believe that the series of … Read more

In Peru, seven police officers are dead and 20 people are wounded after indigenous protests in Bagua Grande Amazonas turned violent on Wednesday. The protestors, at it since April 9, are pressuring President Alan García to “modify or strike down” decrees issued last year that facilitate commercial investment in, and access to, the Amazon basin. … Read more

An Argentine judge has ruled that former President and current Senator Carlos Menem used funds slotted for national security improvements to overpay government employees, and froze over 100 million pesos ($26.5 million) on his assets. It is only the latest legal trouble for Menem, who in November 2008 was charged with authorizing the sale of … Read more

From the 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. OAS on Overturning 1962 Rule Suspending Cuba Ecuador’s Minister of Foreign Relations … Read more

The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense, EAAF) made a breakthrough this week by identifying 42 corpses pertaining to Argentine citizens who had disappeared during the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983. The findings were made possible by matching the DNA of 598 different remains with 5,000 blood … Read more

The $5.25 billion expansion of the Panama Canal is soon to be awarded to one of three international construction conglomerates, including one led by San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., Mitsubishi Corp. and Hochtief Agand. The expansion, which will take at least five years to complete and may double the canal’s capacity, will go forward despite a … Read more

Costa Rican politician Ottón Solís was nominated by his Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC) last night to compete in the February 2010 presidential election, drawing over 70 percent of the vote. It is his third consecutive presidential nod from the PAC, which saw Solís lose by just over 1 percent of the vote in the 2006 … Read more