Southern Cone & Brazil Archives - Page 53 of 90

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

What Brazil Can Learn From the Terrorist Threat to the Rio Olympics

Brazil may be the world’s seventh-largest economy and highly visible on a global scale, but it is, in many ways, remarkably isolated from the rest of the world and from global threats like terrorism. At least most thought it was. The arrests in recent days of 12 Brazilians suspected of plotting to carry out attacks during the … Read more

Attack on America: How Justice Finally Came in Chile

On the misty morning of September 21, 1976, a dust-blue Chevrolet Malibu made its way down Embassy Row in Washington, D.C. At the wheel was Orlando Letelier, who had been ambassador to the United States and minister of foreign relations, interior, and defense under Chile’s Marxist president, Salvador Allende. Following the 1973 coup by Augusto … Read more

Here’s What Latin Americans Want to Tell the Next U.S. President

“Heal the relationship with Mexico.” “Fix the war on drugs.” “Help us lead the Fourth Industrial Revolution.” We asked Latin Americans: If you could tell the next president of the United States anything, what would it be? Those are just a few of the responses we’re publishing in the new issue of Americas Quarterly, entitled … Read more

AQ Top 5 Latin American Academics: María Teresa Ruiz González

Reading Time: 3 minutes

This stargazer is blazing a trail for a new generation of Chilean scientists.

AQ Top 5 Latin American Academics: Artur Avila

See the rest of the AQ Top 5 “I can’t talk right now” Brazilian mathematician Artur Avila murmured into the phone. “I’m in Brasília to carry the Olympic torch.” When AQ contacted him the next day, he warned the conversation would have to be short because he was running late for the screening of a … Read more

This Week in Latin America: Brazil’s New Speaker

Sign up here to get This Week in Latin America delivered to your inbox every Monday. Brazil’s New Speaker: Brazil’s lower house will elect a new speaker on Wednesday, following the tearful resignation of Eduardo Cunha on July 7 amid an ethics investigation. Accused of taking up to $40 million in bribes and lying about an offshore bank account linked to the vast … Read more

Podcast: The Threats to Brazil’s “Car Wash” Corruption Probe

Also available for download for Apple iOS and Android. There are several threats facing the probe into corruption at Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras, according to José Ugaz, global chairman of Transparency International. Ugaz, who is based in Peru but visited Brazil last week, said some Brazilian politicians are trying to obstruct the investigation – although they likely … Read more

Help Brazil Preserve the Amazon

In the new issue of Americas Quarterly, we asked people, “What would you tell the next U.S. president about Latin America?” To see other authors’ responses, click here. Dear Mister / Madam President, Last June, Presidents Barack Obama and Dilma Rousseff, meeting in Washington, jointly declared that addressing climate change requires “continued, robust financial support.” … Read more

Podcast: Brazil’s Economy Under Temer

Also available for download for Apple iOS and Android. Interim President Michel Temer’s economic team has the unique challenge of attempting to fix Brazil’s worst economic crisis in decades – while also trying to ensure they survive a critical vote in August. Much needed reforms are unlikely to be passed until the conclusion of Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment trial, … Read more