What Went Wrong in Rio’s Favelas?
Correction appended below This article is adapted from AQ’s most recent issue, “Fixing Brazil.” To receive the print edition at home, subscribe here. Standing in the doorway of her mud-and-bamboo cottage at the very top of a favela called Babilônia, Maria Regina Luiz peers out cautiously. She was born and raised on this steep hillside … Read more
Uruguay Is Latin America’s Social Inclusion Leader. Here’s Why.
Leer en español This article is adapted from AQ’s most recent issue, “Fixing Brazil.” To receive the print edition at home, subscribe here. A small country sandwiched between larger neighbors has claimed the number-one spot in Americas Quarterly Social Inclusion Index TM — for the third year in a row. So, what does Uruguay keep getting right? Simply … Read more
Temer and Refugees in Brazil: Off the Mark
At a United Nations summit in New York last week, Brazil’s President Michel Temer proudly declared that his country was home to more than 95,000 refugees. The revelation stirred admiring nods from diplomats in attendance at a time when the number of global refugees has surpassed that of World War II, creating a serious threat … Read more
Brazil’s ‘Car Wash’ Probe: Tell Me How This Ends
During their first year in the spotlight, the young federal prosecutors leading the “Operation Car Wash” corruption probe seemed to handle themselves with an eerie, almost cinematic grace. From the case’s obscure roots of money laundering at a gas station, to its eruption into an unprecedented scandal that helped bring down Dilma Rousseff’s presidency, the … Read more
Brazil Finds Remnants of Its Dictatorial Past in a Radio Show
If you’re driving in Brazil on a weekday evening and want some music for your drive, you should probably pack a CD. Chances are you’ll catch A Voz do Brasil, the country’s longest-running radio show, if you turn on the radio between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. This is because Brazilian law mandates that radio … Read more
Why Brazil’s Olympic Gold Could Boost Its New President
The year was 1994, and a depressed Brazil was desperately in need of a lift. Recent years had seen a president impeached for corruption, inflation in excess of 2,500 percent, horrendous massacres of innocents inside a prison and outside a church, and a general feeling the country couldn’t do anything right. As June approached, so … Read more
Chile’s Unlikely Energy Success Story
Just five years ago, Chile was in the midst of an energy crisis. Argentina had stopped sending natural gas across the Andes, and the threat of blackouts and energy rationing was real. Energy prices were among the highest in the region, the sector was dominated by a handful of monopolistic utility companies, and the private … Read more
Argentina’s Quiet (Giant) Step Against Corruption
With anti-corruption efforts making noise throughout the hemisphere, Argentina is quietly on the brink of a major victory. A draft bill that would change the way the country prosecutes malfeasance seems like a simple fix. But if passed, the legislation could have a major effect on the way businesses treat – and crackdown on – … Read more
Why the LGBT Community Will Remember Rio 2016
If you’re looking for signs that LGBT inclusion in the sports world is on the rise, the Rio 2016 Olympics are a good place to start. Despite concerns surrounding the host city, the competition itself has gone off (mostly) without a hitch; for LGBT people in Brazil and around the world, it’s been downright monumental. … Read more
BNDES Helped Save the Olympics. But Is it Hurting Brazil?
Corrections appended below Updated 8/17/2016 New leadership atop Brazil’s massive national development bank is unwinding a decade of rampant lending that fed large conglomerates and strained the country’s finances. Over the past half-century, Brazil’s Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social (BNDES) built huge power plants and highways through the industrial southeast, aided social programs in the … Read more
A ‘School of Rock’ in Rio’s Biggest Favela
Kids from Rio de Janeiro’s largest favela are reaching new heights – literally. Equipped with grippy shoes, hand chalk and encouragement from renowned climbers worldwide, young people from the Rio neighborhood of Rocinha are increasingly taking to the city’s tallest mountains in search of recreation, thrills and, for some, a way to avoid the pitfalls … Read more
Eight Ways to Not Enjoy Rio During the Olympics
An amazing city, Rio de Janeiro can also be exasperating if you’re not prepared. The 500,000 foreigners visiting this month for the Summer Olympics will soon discover the challenges of life in the self-proclaimed cidade maravilhosa, from its world famous congestion to its quirky social norms. Here are eight ways for visitors to not enjoy … Read more
Hey World, Let’s Cut Brazil Just a Little Slack
After being kidnapped by uniformed police in Rio on the eve of the Olympic Games, a young New Zealander proclaimed on Facebook that Brazil “is well and truly f***ed in every sense of the word imaginable.” Many others agreed, from the Australian athletes who arrived in their dorms to find overflowing toilets (and a fire, … Read more
Speaking Guaraní, Don Quixote Rides into Paraguay
Don Quixote is riding into Paraguay, but he’s not just tilting at windmills. The idealistic knight from La Mancha has a new quest: to defend the indigenous Guaraní language. The first-ever Guaraní translation of Miguel de Cervantes’ classic novel Don Quixote was completed in June by a team of four Paraguayan scholars who labored eight years … Read more
The Chilean Completo
In the acclaimed Chilean web series “Gringolandia,” comedian Koke Santa Ana plays a befuddled visitor to New York who tries a hot dog from one of the city’s ubiquitous sidewalk vendors — only to recoil in disgust. A plain sausage enclosed in a tasteless bun seems underdressed by Chilean standards. The series then follows his … Read more
