Why Amazon Tribes Are Losing the Fight Against New Dams – Again
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here Versão em português As our boat nudged down the Tapajós river, the hypnotic sameness of the Amazon was shattered by the splash of small bodies. A half-dozen children from the local Munduruku tribe had been dangling from … 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.
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
How Twitter Activism Made Violence Against Women a Campaign Issue in Argentina
Whoever wins Argentina’s presidential runoff on November 22, they will be expected to deal with the country’s staggering rates of gender violence. A femicide occurs in Argentina on average once every 30 hours. But it isn’t just the scope of the problem that has the candidates scurrying to suggest solutions. It is also thanks to the … Read more
What an Economic Recovery in Brazil Might Look Like
Now might seem like an odd time to look for signs of hope in Brazil. Dilma Rousseff has an approval rating of just 10 percent, she faces possible impeachment proceedings, scandal has frozen activity at the country’s biggest companies, inflation runs around 10 percent and the economy is expected to shrink 3 percent this year. … Read more
How Students Turned the Tables on Corruption in Paraguay
Add Paraguay to the growing list of Latin American countries where citizen protests are successfully holding public officials accountable for alleged abuses of power. In the past month, a student-led response to revelations of corruption within Paraguay’s largest university has landed the institution’s highest official behind bars and disrupted the status quo in a country … 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
No End in Sight for Brazil’s Petrobras Scandal
Brazil’s current political crisis began at a gas station in Brasília. When federal police raided a currency exchange booth in the station on March 17, 2014, they stumbled upon a network of political corruption that has cost state oil giant Petrobras at least $2 billion. Since then, more than 50 politicians have come under federal … Read more
AQ Interview: Heraldo Muñoz
Correction appended below AMERICAS QUARTERLY: What are Chile’s views on bringing together the Pacific Alliance and Mercosur? HERALDO MUÑOZ: Chile has proposed and led an initiative to strengthen the different integration schemes of Latin America with the idea of improving consultation and dialogue—an effort we have called “convergence in diversity.” True, there are different economic … Read more
Edgardo Ortuño, Uruguay
First black member of parliament, undersecretary and interim minister of industry and energy, champion of Afro-Uruguayan culture—those are Edgardo Ortuño’s historic achievements in a country where the marginalization of Afro-descendants, comprising approximately 10 percent of Uruguay’s population, remains a major challenge.1 Ortuño, 45, who grew up in a working- class neighborhood in Montevideo, leveraged his … Read more
AQ Afro-Descendant Innovators: Alessandra Ramos, Brazil
As a black trans woman in Brazil, Alessandra Ramos fights discrimination on two fronts
Festival: Tango Buenos Aires Festival y Mundial
Tango is loved the world over, but if you’re looking for a city to host a competition for the world’s greatest dancers, there’s really only one candidate: Buenos Aires. Every August, Argentina’s capital draws thousands of dancers, musicians and enthusiasts from around the world for the Tango Buenos Aires Festival y Mundial from August 17 … 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
This Week in Latin America: U.S. and Cuba Establish Ties—Venezuela’s Opposition Blocked—Another FARC Ceasefire—Argentina’s Elections
Here’s a look at some of the stories we’re following this week: U.S. and Cuba Establish Ties: The U.S. and Cuba re-established official diplomatic relations today for the first time since 1961. Bruno Rodríguez, Cuba’s foreign minister, is in Washington DC to mark the occasion, and will meet with Secretary of State John Kerry … Read more
