Central America Is As Violent As Ever. What Would it Take to Change?
Leer en español The first time I tried to visit Suchitoto, it was a town under siege. Left-wing guerrillas who held the nearby Guazapa volcano were trying to drive the military out. Three-quarters of the town’s 40,000 population had fled or been killed – and life was miserable for those who remained, as sabotage attacks … Read more
Life in Venezuela’s – and the World’s – Most Violent City
Leer en español Already the most dangerous city in the world, Venezuela’s capital is only getting more dangerous for people like city councilman Jesús Armas. Since the 29-year-old was first elected in December 2013, he has seen the Caracas’ murder rate rise to 120 homicides per 100,000 people – and he expects this to worsen further amid … Read more
Anger Management and Gun Control? New Ways to Reduce Violence in Latin America
Reducing violence is not about controlling violent neighborhoods or even about controlling violent people. It is about inducing people to control themselves. That’s it. The best policing comes when no police are required. The question is how to achieve this in Latin America, the most violent region in the world and home to countries like … Read more
This Week in Latin America: Obama in Havana, Venezuela in Crisis
Sign up here to get This Week in Latin America delivered straight to your inbox every Monday. Cuba, Argentina Host Obama: Cuba and Argentina each play host to U.S. President Barack Obama this week, with human rights issues shading both visits. Today, Obama will hold a working meeting with Cuban President Raúl Castro, who will then host a state dinner … Read more
Uribe: Colombia Peace Deal Is “a Capitulation” to FARC
It’s been a challenging few years for Álvaro Uribe. His 2002-10 presidency of Colombia is still credited with a historic drop in violence and robust economic growth rates. But since leaving office with an approval rating upward of 75 percent, Uribe has watched the country move in a different direction. His chosen successor Juan Manuel … Read more
The Real Reason Behind Rising Violence in Mexico City
Until recently, Mexico City was considered an oasis in a country beset by skyrocketing violence. Even though one in two Mexican adults said they stopped going out at night for fear of being mugged or worse and one fourth of all adult Mexicans were victimized in 2014, the capital was largely exempt. In posh neighborhoods like … Read more
Brazil, Heaven and Hell in the Same Day
Last Thursday began beautifully, deep in the Brazilian Amazon, with a walk through a lush city park. I strolled among bougainvillea and castanha do Pará and samaúma trees. I saw a large red and blue macaw ambling down the sidewalk, and had just sat down to take a selfie with him when the little jerk … Read more
The Long View: How Argentina and Brazil Stepped Back from a Nuclear Race
In AQ’s feature on Latin American history, how Argentina and Brazil ensured their rivalry remained limited to the soccer field.
La pobreza en Latinoamérica esta bajando, pero la violencia sube. ¿Por qué?
Versão em portuguêsRead in English Con la pobreza en América Latina y el Caribe en sus niveles más bajos en décadas, ¿por qué la violencia está disparada? Aunque algunos países están peor que los demás, la región cuenta con las tasas de homicidios más altas del mundo. Esta relación es desconcertante y contradictoria. Los investigaores … Read more
Na América Latina, enquanto diminui a pobreza, aumenta a violência. Por quê?
Read in English Os índices de pobreza na América Latina e no Caribe atingiram seus níveis mais baixos em muitas décadas; por que, então, a violência continua acima do esperado? Embora alguns países estejam em situação pior que outros, a região como um todo apresenta as mais altas taxas de homicídio do mundo. Tal relação … Read more
What’s Happening on Rio’s Beaches?
A civil society group is resisting government efforts to restrict access to some Rio de Janeiro beaches, announcing a plan for thousands of the city’s favela residents to travel en masse to a popular Ipanema beach on October 4. Papo Reto Coletivo, an independent media group based in Rio’s expansive Complexo do Alemão favela, is coordinating the event to … Read more
Gangsta’s Paradise: How Brazil’s Criminals (and Police) Use Social Media
Rio de Janeiro´s most wanted drug trafficker, Playboy, died in a hail of police gunfire at his girlfriend´s apartment this month. Photographs of his bullet-riddled body began circulating on the Internet within minutes of his demise. So did an audio recording suggesting that he “left the scene alive, but arrived to the hospital dead.” His assassination is yet another pixel … Read more
FARC Seeks Helping Hand from the Pope in Peace Process
It seems we can add the FARC leadership to the growing list of unlikely admirers—including Cuban President Raúl Castro and Bolivian President Evo Morales—of the Roman Catholic pontiff. Speaking from Havana, Iván Márquez, the chief negotiator for the FARC in the Colombia peace talks, called the possibility of meeting with Pope Francis “something extraordinary.” “Imagine the … Read more
Searching for the ‘Disappeared’ in Medellín’s Most Notorious Slum
On Monday, a team of Colombian officials began an excavation of what some believe may be the “world’s largest urban mass grave” in La Escombrera, a landfill in Medellín’s Comuna 13 slum. As many as 300 people are thought to have been buried there between 1999 and 2004, a period when the surrounding neighborhood was plagued … Read more
The Unsettled Legacy of the Candelária Massacre
On this day in 1783, one of Latin America’s most significant figures, Simón Bolívar, was born in Caracas. While many in the region will celebrate the occasion, today also marks the anniversary of a more chilling episode in Latin American history. Shortly after midnight on July 24, 1993, nine hooded men, including several off-duty police officers, opened … Read more
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