Hello! from the Amazon’s Noise Capital
A visitor to the Amazon rain forest might expect to hear the call of birds, the buzz of insects and the screech of monkeys — but probably not car horns and roaring motors. Yet those are the predominant sounds echoing through the streets of Iquitos, a metropolis deep in the Peruvian Amazon. Iquitos has a … Read more
Three Innovations That Might Save the Amazon
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here With each passing day, we lose more of our world’s forests to deforestation and degradation. But the good news is that in recent years, we’ve become considerably more sophisticated in how we try to protect the Amazon … Read more
Goodbye to the Status Quo: Why Change Is Coming to South America
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here I first met Dilma Rousseff in the hallway of a dingy hotel in Juiz de Fora in August 2010. She was in the homestretch of the presidential race and she, like Brazil, could seemingly do no wrong. … Read more
Bolivia’s Evo Morales in Hot Seat Over Climate Policy
An estimated 3,000 climate activists will arrive in the Bolivian town of Tiquipaya this weekend for the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and Defense of Life. Also in attendance: Some 3,000 police officers, tasked with “securing” the conference in a sign of the increasingly troubled relationship between Bolivia’s President Evo Morales and the indigenous and … Read more
Leopoldo López’s Prison Treatment Amounts to Torture, His Wife Says
In September 2015, a Venezuelan judge sentenced opposition leader Leopoldo López to nearly 14 years in prison for his role in anti-government protests that swept the South American nation in early 2014. On October 1, AQ sat down with Lilian Tintori, a human rights activist and López’s wife, to talk about conditions in Venezuela, her … Read more
Colombia’s Next Challenge? A Psychologically Traumatized Society
Following a breakthrough in negotiations with FARC guerillas on Wednesday, President Juan Manuel Santos suggested that peace in Colombia was closer than ever. But even if a deal is signed, the task of coming to terms with the psychological effects of the decades-long conflict will remain. Colombian economist Andrés Moya is studying what that might … Read more
The Trump-ification of Venezuela
Welcome to the Trump-ification of Venezuelan politics. By closing one of the busiest sections of the border with Colombia, and launching mass deportations of citizens from that country, the government of President Nicolás Maduro has actually implemented what the Republican presidential candidate only dreams of doing. Indeed, Maduro’s policies constitute a low point in the … Read more
Despite Early Prison Releases, Venezuela’s Opposition is Still Under Pressure
Retired General Raúl Baduel, a former Venezuelan defense minister and vocal government critic, was granted an early release from prison this morning after serving six years of an eight year anti-corruption sentence. His release comes just 24 hours after Daniel Ceballos, an opposition leader and former mayor, was granted house arrest due to poor health stemming … Read more
In Ecuador, Broken Promises and Calls for an “Indigenous Uprising”
August 9 marks the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. In Ecuador, hundreds will mark the day in protest, as a march convened by CONAIE, the country’s chief Indigenous organization, is making its way to Quito from the far southwestern corner of the country. CONAIE, or the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, has … Read more
The Peruvian Success Story
Trade and investment are vital for a middle-income economy like Peru, which requires access to export markets and a steady supply of external capital flows in order to thrive. Peru’s foreign trade of goods and services measured by value is equivalent to 48 percent of its GDP.1 For over a decade, Peru has sustained an … 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
Marco Antonio Ramírez, Peru
“In Peru, blacks are soccer and volleyball players, musicians, dancers, or policemen, but they never become doctors, mayors or presidents,” says Marco Antonio Ramírez. “We need to change the mindset.” At just 23, Ramírez is the president of Ashanti— an Afro-Peruvian youth organization dedicated to combating racism and discrimination against Afro-descendants—and believes his community can … Read more
José Santos Caicedo, Colombia
Ethnicity is more than just an identity issue; it’s an ethical one. José Santos Caicedo, a national coordinator of the Proceso Nacional de Comunidades Negras (Black Communities Process— PCN)—an umbrella group of more than 110 Afro-Colombian grassroots organizations that seek to defend the territorial, cultural and human rights of Afro-Colombians—is a vivid example: “You do … 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
Why Indigenous Groups in Latin America Need Better Access to Health Care
Colombia’s National Health Superintendant fined six health care providers over $1 million each, last week, after finding that their failure to provide adequate medical and vaccination services to Indigenous communities in the northern department of La Guajira contributed to the 2013 deaths from malnutrition of 12 Wayuu children. La Guajira is home to the … Read more
