Skip Traffic with EcoBici
In 1992, Mexico City was dubbed “the most polluted city on the planet” by the United Nations. Ever since, city officials have been struggling to lose that tag. One of their most innovative (and successful) ideas is a bicycle-sharing program called EcoBici. Not only is EcoBici, launched in February 2010, the largest bikeshare system in … Read more
World Creole Festival
The Caribbean island of Dominica is known as Nature Island for its natural beauty, quiet and rich ecology, but this month it will come alive with pulsing rhythms and dance to mark the 17th annual World Creole Music Festival. The October 25–27 festival draws tens of thousands of visitors each year. The music on display … Read more
Prost, Brazil!
Grab a stein-full of caipirinha and stroll down to Ipanema beach in your lederhosen—it’s Germany-Brazil Year in Brazil. The yearlong festival, aimed at deepening German-Brazilian relations, kicked off in May with the opening of the German-Brazilian Economic Forum in São Paulo. “Brazil is one of the most successful new centers of power in the world,” … Read more
Dispatches: El Alto, Bolivia
Blazing sun, freezing nights, roads clogged with traffic, and a vast maze of adobe houses populated by nearly a million people. This is the Bolivian city of El Alto. Once an outlying neighborhood on the high plains above La Paz, El Alto has today surpassed its population. Matching El Alto’s growing profile, the city is … Read more
Protecting Truth from Power: 15 Years of The Special Rapporteur For Freedom of Expression
Guarding freedom of expression serves as both a safeguard and a catalyst for all other human rights. The Inter-American System enshrined the right to freedom of thought and expression in Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights and Article IV of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. In 1998, … Read more
Squeeze Play
From the high-profile cases of the Wikileaker U.S. Army Private Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley) and the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden to a series of lesser-known cases, the U.S. government has increased the investigation and prosecution of officials who have leaked government information. In many of these cases, the recipient of the … Read more
Impunity & the Multiple Facets of Violence in Brazil
In June and August of this year, millions of Brazilians took to the streets in 120 cities across the country to protest public transportation fare hikes, political corruption and excessive public spending on the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. Dozens of these demonstrations ended in confrontations between police and protesters. Over the … Read more
Breaking Up is Hard to Do
Media concentration remains a crucial challenge for democracy in Latin America. There are no media monopolies, strictly speaking, in the sense of a single corporation owning all media offerings, but media market concentration remains high. Legacy media properties, as well as the majority of advertising expenditures, are controlled by a small number of companies. Some … Read more
Journalists Speak Out
In this issue of AQ, we are proud to spotlight six journalists, all past winners of the Maria Moors Cabot Gold Medal, whom we asked to reflect on how their profession and the environment for reporting have changed in recent years, and what it will mean for future generations of journalists. Click below to view … Read more
Eight Popular (& Misleading) Myths About Energy And Green Technology
Whether the issue is global warming, carbon footprints, energy security, or shale oil, energy is very much front and center in the region’s public policy agenda. Nevertheless, discussion has been riddled with suspicions, accusations and wishful thinking on all sides. Here are some of the biggest myths and fallacies to look out for. Click on … Read more
From the Think Tanks
The World Bank Latin American countries have made substantial progress toward reducing poverty and increasing equality, yet the region still faces significant hurdles to achieving prosperity across the board. In a recent report, “Shifting Gears to Accelerate Shared Prosperity,” the World Bank concludes that GDP and job growth have had the greatest impact on reducing … Read more
Ask the Experts: Energy
Pedro Joaquín Coldwell answers: We should appreciate first the progress we have already achieved in the region. Mexico now has a legal framework—non-existent just six years ago—for promoting renewable energies, which establishes goals for cutting down on emissions and contemplates that 35 percent of all power used in the country will be produced through clean … Read more
La integración de las tecnologías digitales en las escuelas de América Latina y el Caribe: Una mirada multidimensional by Guillermo Sunkel, Daniela Trucco and Andrés Espejo
The rising use of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) in education—including distance learning, online courses and Internet-based curriculum and testing—has become a hotly debated topic. Some educators, experts and policymakers believe that technology has the potential to increase not just access to education, but its quality. Others respond that technology is too often imposed as … Read more
Reforma fiscal e equidade social by Fernando Rezende
For over a decade, Brazil has been a model of fiscal responsibility. Brazil’s success makes it easy to forget that it once suffered from one of the worst fiscal performances in Latin America, complicated by hyperinflation, short-lived currencies, and massive debt-to-GDP ratios. Today’s economic stability also makes it easy to assume that Brazil’s fiscal house … Read more
Blogging the Revolution: Caracas Chronicles and the Hugo Chávez Era by Francisco Toro and Juan Cristobal Nagel
Venezuela has been on a wild ride since Hugo Chávez was elected president in 1998. Now that the Comandante—as he liked to be called—has left us, things could get loonier a lot faster. That’s one reason why Caracas Chronicles, an English-language blog that has provided a running narration since 2002 of the Chávez era, will … Read more
