The Food World’s Hottest Ingredient Has “Roots” in Seduction
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here What began as an aromatic oil used by indigenous tribes in the art of seduction has quickly become one of the Brazilian Amazon’s most popular exports. At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss the priprioca, a grass-like … Read more
Turning a Slash-and-Burn Capital into One of the Amazon’s Greenest Places
In 2007, the Brazilian government named the municipality of Paragominas, in Pará state, one of the biggest culprits for deforestation of the Amazon. Ranchers there were responsible for the loss of 156 square miles of forest per year. But just a few years later, Paragominas was being hailed as a model for sustainable development in … Read more
Vamos reduzir o desmatamento a zero. Saiba como.
Read in English Quando Theodore Roosevelt explorou a Amazônia um século atrás, ele ficou encantado com o poderoso rio que corria “de oeste a leste, do poente à aurora, dos Andes ao Atlântico”. No diário de viagem do ex-presidente americano, Nas selvas do Brasil, de 1914, ele descreve poeticamente “as frondosas árvores, o emaranhado de … Read more
Let’s Cut Amazon Deforestation to Zero. Here’s How.
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here Versão em português When Theodore Roosevelt explored the Amazon a century ago, he was enthralled by the mighty river that ran “from west to east, from the sunset to the sunrise, from the Andes to the Atlantic.” … Read more
Brazil Progressing in Fight Against Deforestation, Says Environment Minister
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here A milestone has been reached in the fight against deforestation in the Amazon. Over the last five years, Brazil has seen the lowest deforestation rates since measurements began in 1988 — capping more than 10 years of … 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
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
