Tag Archives: Latin America & The Caribbean

Class + Socioeconomics, Ideology + Affiliation

Peru Feature | Farmers

Big Victory for a Small Farmer in Peru

Peruvian Máxima Acuña de Chaupe may have seemed like an unlikely agent for the deterrence of a major international company’s mining project, but the 47-year-old farmer and mother of four was able to halt U.S.-based Newmont and Peru-based Buenaventura’s joint development of a mine on her 60-acre farm with the help of social media and international organizations. Despite physical violence, arson, lawsuits, and fines, Acuña fought to stop the expropriation of her land and stave off eviction attempts that began back in 2011. A recipient of the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize, Acuña has brought global attention to ongoing rights battles as private development encroaches upon territory small, often poor farmers depend on for their livelihoods. The Guardian and El País have profiled Acuña and the centrality of international solidarity in efforts to protect land and environmental rights.

“No sé si la situación se calmará, voy a seguir defendiendo mi tierra, tengo fe y seguiré pidiendo justicia.”

Translation: “I don’t know if the situation will calm down, I’m going to keep defending my land, I have faith and will continue demanding justice.”

Read:
“Peruvian farmer wins David-and-Goliath battle against US mining giant” (The Guardian)
“La vuelta a la lucha de Máxima Acuña” (El País, in Spanish)

Additional:
Máxima Acuña: Goldman Environment recipient (The Goldman Environmental Prize)
“Peru’s Goldman Prize Winner Maxima Acuña’s Life is in Danger” (teleSUR English)

(Image Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize, via The Guardian)

Class + Socioeconomics, Ideology + Affiliation, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Brazil News | Farmers & Indigenous

Increasing violence plagues Brazilian land rights activists
  • After 50 died in 2015, at least six activists were killed in the first two months of 2016 as land rights groups report increased intimidation, criminalization, and violence committed against them.
  • Activists have sought reform to protect the at times conflicting land rights of small farmers and indigenous communities, particularly in rural states.
  • Brazil has some of the highest land-proprietary inequality in the world, with 1% of the population owning nearly 50% of the land and single families subject to payments from as many as tens of thousands of property owners thanks to a colonial-era law.

Read more:
“Brazil land activists facing ‘increased intimidation’ with six killings in 2016” (The Thomson Reuters Foundation)
“Indigenous Continue to Face Violence in Reclaiming Territory in Brazil” (Indian Country Today)
“Journalist survives shooting at his home in northwestern Brazil” (Journalism in the Americas)

Additional reading:
“For Brazil’s 1 Percenters, The Land Stays In The Family Forever” (NPR, August 2015)

Class + Socioeconomics, Ideology + Affiliation

Argentina News | Workers

Thousands from Argentina’s main unions protest economic policies in Buenos Aires
  • Demonstrators took to the streets to protest currency devaluation, inflation, and massive layoffs stemming from new President Mauricio Macri’s economic policies.
  • Union leaders delivered speeches accusing the government of shifting the burden of economic stabilization onto workers and demanding measures to protect job security.
  • The mass demonstration took place ahead of International Workers’ Day, with leaders threatening to strike if the government ignored their concerns.

Read more:
“All five umbrella unions hold massive demonstration against Macri’s policies” (Buenos Aires Herald)
“En un multitudinario acto, las centrales obreras reclamaron por los despedidos, inflación y Ganancias” (La Nación, in Spanish)
“Argentine unions flex muscle in anti-government street protest” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: via La Nación)

Nationality + Migration

Costa Rica News | African Migrants

Costa Rica looks to deport hundreds of African migrants
  • An estimated 600 African migrants have become stranded in the country in an attempt to reach the U.S., and the Costa Rican government is attempting to deport them despite the high costs of repatriation or resettlement in a third country.
  • The country is dealing with an ongoing crisis involving thousands of stranded Cubans, who because of border closures have found themselves unable to continue on their trek to the U.S.
  • The government has reportedly received around 200 applications for asylum since late March and denied all of them.

Read more:
“600 US-bound Africans stranded in Costa Rica after officials block route” (The Guardian)
“Deporting 600 migrants back to Africa could be expensive, and impossible” (The Tico Times)
“Deportation Will Be The Final Solution For African Migrants Who Re-enter Costa Rica IllegallyDeportation Will Be The Final Solution For African Migrants Who Re-enter Costa Rica Illegally” (QCostaRica)

(Image Credit: Public Security Ministry, via The Tico Times)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Colombia News | LGBT

Colombia’s Constitutional Court opens door to marriage equality in 6-3 ruling
  • The Court voted against a proposal to establish marriage as between “one man and one woman” and declared that public employees could not refuse to perform same-sex weddings.
  • Colombian couples won their first partnership rights in 2007 and, in 2015, adoption without full marriage rights, which the Court had ordered the legislature to enact by 2013 in a 2011 ruling.
  • Colombia will join Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and parts of Mexico in permitting marriage for same-sex couples in Latin America.

Read more:
“Colombia’s highest court paves way for marriage equality in surprise ruling” (The Guardian)
“El matrimonio igualitario gana espacio en América Latina” (teleSUR, in Spanish)
“Una década de lucha de los LGBT por la igualdad” (El Espectador, in Spanish)

(Image Credit: John Vizcaino/Reuters, via The Guardian)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Brazil News | Indigenous Peoples

Study shows 90% of indigenous peoples in Amazonian Brazil suffering from mercury poisoning
  • Illegal gold mining in northern Brazil has contaminated the water and food sources of at least 19 different Yanomami and Yekuana communities along with Nahua tribes in Peru.
  • In addition to the rise of illegal mining over the last three decades, uncontacted Yanomami communities have faced environmental crises and decades-old controversies over the status of their blood used for genetic testing by American anthropologists.
  • The study was a joint project of Brazilian health foundation Fiocruz, the Hutukara Yanomami Association, the Yekuana Association, and Brazilian NGO Socio-Environmental Institute.

Read more:
“Mercury poisoning of Amazon Indians: alarming new statistics revealed” (Survival)
“90% of Indigenous in Brazil’s Amazon Suffer Mercury Poisoning” (teleSUR English)
“Indigenous tribe’s blood returned to Brazil after decades” (BBC)

(Image Credit: Fiona Watson/Survival)

Class + Socioeconomics, Gender

Brazil Feature | Women

The Coerced Pregnancies of Brazilian Women

As cases of Zika infection and newborn microcephaly have exploded in heavily Catholic and evangelical Brazil, the country’s tough abortion laws—preventing the procedure except in cases of rape, maternal health endangerment, and child inviability—have come back into the international spotlight. Legislators have proposed the possible prison sentence for women who undergo an abortion from one to three years to four-and-a-half for women who abort because of detected microcephaly, with doctors facing up to 15 years. Brazil’s class divide has exacerbated healthcare restrictions, constraining women of less means to life-threatening procedures (including black market pills, Internet-advised intervention, acid injections, and self-attempted extraction)  while wealthy women enjoy access to overseas healthcare and hidden networks of clinics and doctors. Vocativ takes a look at the dire straits Brazilian women seeking an abortion find themselves in and attempts to gain reproductive rights.

Read more:
“From Sketchy Pills To Upscale Clinics: Illegal Abortion In Brazil” (Vocativ)

Additional reading:
“Brazilian Legislators Look to Increase Abortion Penalties in the Wake of Zika Outbreak” (TIME)
“Illegal abortions claim lives of Brazilian women” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Chrisophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images, via Vocativ)

Ideology + Affiliation, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Honduras News | Indigenous Activists

Indigenous activist murdered days after famous campaigner in Honduras
  • Nelson García, member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), was gunned down on his way to his family home.
  • His murder follows that of fellow activist Berta Cáceres, the co-founder of COPINH killed in her home after having received threats from police and anonymous individuals.
  • The deaths come as government officials have subjected COPINH affiliates to illegal surveillance and coercive detention, part of an anti-environmentalist environment in Honduras that saw more than 100 killed between 2010 and 2014.

Read more:
“Fellow Honduran activist Nelson García murdered days after Berta Cáceres” (The Guardian)
“Another Member of Berta Caceres’ Group Assassinated in Honduras” (teleSUR English)
“Berta Cáceres, Honduran human rights and environment activist, murdered” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Ideology + Affiliation

Mexico News | Journalists

Sharp uptick in attacks on journalists in Mexico in 2015
  • There were 397 attacks against journalists reported in Mexico in 2015, a 22% increase over 2014 and the most violent year on record, according to a report by an international media advocacy group.
  • Most prevalent in Mexico city and the southern state of Veracruz, the attacks, which included seven murders, involved public officials 41.5% of the time.
  • The year was also a record for attacks on women journailsts, with 84 incidents having been reported.

Read more:
“A Mexican Journalist Is Attacked Every 22 Hours: Report” (teleSUR English)
“Mexico’s Media Faced a Record Number of Violent Attacks in 2015” (VICE News)
“Media group: Attacks on Mexico journalists up 22 pct in 2015” (AP via Yahoo! News)

(Image Credit: Reuters, via teleSUR English)

Ideology + Affiliation

Cuba News | Dissidents

Protesters arrested as Cuban government “cleans house” ahead of Obama’s historic visit
  • Dozens of members of the dissident group Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) were arrested in the hours before President Barack Obama’s historic visit to the Caribbean nation, protesting the lack of democratic reform as Castro’s Cuba reconnects with the U.S.
  • Although the group holds weekly protests, this week’s drew a large pro-government counter-demonstration as foreign media descended on Havana ahead of Obama’s visit.
  • Obama is expected to meet with dissident leaders during his visit and raise human rights issues, including free expression, during his meeting with President Raúl Castro.

“Everyone wants to know how we Cubans feel about Obama coming. … I’m frankly just happy that giant pothole finally got filled in, so if I have him to thank for it, thanks Obama!”

Read more:
“‘The oppression is high’: Cuban police break up protest ahead of Obama’s visit” (The Guardian)
“Cuba’s Message to Its People: Be on Your Best Behavior for Obama” (The New York Times)
“Cuba breaks up weekly dissident march hours before Obama visit” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Ernesto Mastrascusa/EPA, via the Guardian)

Age, Class + Socioeconomics

Brazil News | Children

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Brazil sheds 43% of child workers over last decade
  • Brazil’s number of child workers decreased to 2.8 million in 2014 from 5 million in 2004.
  • The demographics of child workers also shifted from predominantly uneducated children from low-income families to teenagers from economically stable families.
  • The Brazilian constitution bans children under the age of 13 from working, while youth aged 14 and 15 can work under apprenticeship programs and those aged 16 and older can have formal day jobs.

Read more:
“Brazil reduces child labor by 43 percent in decade” (Xinhua)
2014 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor: Brazil (U.S. Department of Labor)
“Brazil halves the percentage of children working” (The Guardian, 2010)

Class + Socioeconomics, Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Cuba Feature | Afro-Cubans & Women

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Those Whom Revolution Left Behind

As Cuba’s economy continues to experience a significant boost from normalized relations with the U.S., many black Cubans and women have yet to see the benefits. Structural inequality and ongoing discrimination have shuttled the disadvantaged into an underclass of limited opportunity despite persistent and high-profile government attempts to eradicate the problem. While a significant number of white Cubans were able to flee abroad to the U.S. and send remittances back to their families, many Afro-Cubans were tied to what opportunity they could get in low-paying government jobs. Women have found themselves disproportionately shouldering domestic tasks, disappearing jobs, and lack of social capital relative to men. Boston Review, The Root, and the Thomson Reuters Foundation examine how political, social, and economic developments have re-marginalized Cuba’s black minority and women over the last two decades.

“Prejudice never disappeared. It was simply concealed under the table. And silence allowed all the problems to grow, under the table.”

Read more:
“Cuba After the Thaw” (Boston Review)
“One-on-One With Afro-Cubans: What It Means to Be Black in Cuba” (The Root)
“In Cuba, racial inequality deepens with tourism boom” (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

(Image Credit: Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

Nationality + Migration

Central America News | Cuban Migrants

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Cuban asylum-seekers bound for U.S. stranded in Costa Rica and Panama as Nicaragua refuses entry
  • As the influx of Cuban asylum-seekers increases to levels not seen since 1994’s “raft exodus,” more than 6,000 have found themselves stranded in Costa Rica and Panama for the last six weeks after having been refused entry to Nicaragua, whose government is allied with Raúl Castro’s.
  • As Costa Rica has reversed its open transit policy for Cuban migrants, the Central American Integration System has arranged a massive airlift to El Salvador, allowing refugees to bypass Nicaragua, although thousands who began their journey in Ecuador are unaccounted for.
  • Emigrant Cubans, fearing a revision of the U.S.’s “wet foot, dry foot” immigration policy allowing Cubans who land in the U.S. a path to permanent residency, have taken to Central American land routes in addition to well-known routes by sea.

Read more:
“Central American countries agree airlift of Cuban migrants seeking to enter US” (The Guardian)
“Central American nations announce deal on Cuban migrants” (Miami Herald)
“Costa Rica deports Cubans amid ‘transit crisis’” (Deutsche Welle)

(Image Credit: Marcelino Rosario/EPA, via the Guardian)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Colombia News | LGBT

Colombian high court legalizes adoption for same-sex couples
  • Colombia’s constitutional court ruled 6-2 in favor of opening adoption up to same-sex couples, drawing on both constitutional and international law as justification.
  • The Court struck down the prohibition against adoption by same-sex couples by affirming the rights of children to a family, arguing that parental gender and sexual diversity has no negative impact on a child.
  • The country joins regional neighbors Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay in allowing same-sex couples to adopt.

Read more:
“Corte Constitucional da vía libre a adopción gay en Colombia” (El Tiempo, in Spanish)
“Colombia joins growing group of countries that allow adoption by same sex couples” (Fusion)
“Colombia Rules in Favor of Same-Sex Adoption” (teleSUR English)

(Image Credit: El Tiempo)

Gender, Nationality + Migration

Central America & U.S. News | Central American Women

UN: Ongoing gender-based violence in Central America threatening to create another refugee crisis
  • The UN has warned in a recent report that as femicide and sexual and domestic violence showing no signs of abating in parts of Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, the region (and the U.S.) needs to prepare another refugee surge.
  • Gang violence has exploited women in the region as governments have failed to address the region’s drug cartel problem, while escaping women become vulnerable to trafficking.
  • Advocates for women refugees have argued that the Mexico’s crackdown on migrants–with U.S. backing–has heightened insecurity for women escaping violence.

Read more:
“UN agency warns of ‘looming’ refugee crisis as women flee Central America and Mexico” (UN News Service)
“Women Refugees Are ‘Running For Their Lives’ In Central America” (BuzzFeed News)
“Mexico’s migration crackdown escalates dangers for Central Americans” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: Amy Stillman/IRIN, via the UN News Agency)