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Bolivia captured international attention with the 2005 election of President Evo Morales, the country’s first indigenous president. Since then, many books and articles have explored Bolivia’s place in the regional turn toward new Left politics—with some defining the election as part of a broader global struggle against the excesses of neoliberalism, and others celebrating the … Read more

On April 26, 2004, the municipality of Ilave, Peru, a town with a majority of indigenous Aymara people in the Peruvian altiplano (highlands), was the scene of a tragedy that sent shock waves through the nation and abroad. Then-mayor Cirilo Robles Callomamani, elected less than two years earlier, was beaten to death by a mob … Read more

The relatively recent trend of tourism in the favelas, the huge slums of Rio de Janeiro, perplexes many middle-class Brazilians who would rather leave the reality of poverty hidden from the eyes of foreign visitors. Gringo na laje: Produção, circulação e consumo da favela turística (Gringos on the Rooftop: The Production, Circulation and Consumption of … Read more

China’s expanding role in Latin America has sparked a cottage industry among academics and think tanks that are focused on the potential for geopolitical competition with the United States. R. Evan Ellis’ China in Latin America: The Whats and Wherefores represents an important—although in some aspects, overly alarmist—contribution to the growing literature in the field. … Read more

Step aside, sunbathers. From December 3 to 6, 2009, Art Basel Miami Beach, the most prominent art fair in the U.S., will again transform the city into the country’s temporary art capital. The show, founded in 2002 as the winter version of Switzerland’s famed Art Basel, is expected to attract the work of artists from … Read more

The growth of emerging economies like China and India offers real opportunities for some of the hemisphere’s exporters. A May 2009 book published by the Center for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth (CIPPEC) focuses on what Argentina must do if it wants to reach the new global middle class. Market Hunters: … Read more

Santiago a Mil: January 3-31, 2010 Summertime in Santiago, Chile, means all the world’s a stage—or at least all the city. For three weeks every January, Chile’s capital hosts Santiago a Mil, a mix of mainstream, experimental and street theater performed in various locations. The city-sponsored festival was launched in 1994 with five plays performed … Read more

Latin America has yet to bring home a Winter Olympic Games medal. Could the February 12–28, 2010, games in Vancouver, Canada, be a historic turning point? Although teams have yet to be officially announced, a good indicator of the region’s chances is the number of athletes who competed in the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, … Read more

Adrián Pérez was only 12 when former Argentine President Raúl Alfonsín came to power in 1983. But Pérez remembers it as a moment of promise for his generation, a time when the country seemed prepared to finally turn the page on its near half century of fractured politics and military rule. Pérez has not lost … Read more

In 2006, high-school students in Chile took to the streets to protest the country’s education system, sparking President Michelle Bachelet’s first major crisis. Known as the Penguin Revolution (a term that refers to the students’ white and black uniforms), the protests accomplished what decades of public debate had failed to do: force a political agreement … Read more