Venezuela just launched a campaign to revive its moribund tourism industry. And the timing couldn’t be worse. The country is suffering one of the world’s highest inflation rates — topping 40% last month — and South …
Latin America
Mexico’s Looming Oil Battle: Bid to Bring in Foreign Investment Sparks Protests
To get a sense of the deep emotions linked to oil in Mexico, travel up the capital’s imperious Reforma Avenue to the towering petroleum monument. Using 14 tons of bronze, the statue portrays huge, muscular oil workers in heroic …
Cuba’s Journey on the Internet: There’s a Long March Ahead
As far as the Internet goes, Cuba is the Western Hemisphere’s last frontier. Despite the island nation’s proximity to Florida — just 90 miles away — and the existence of a fully functioning fiber-optic cable linked up to Venezuela, only 25% of the population is online, according to last year’s government statistics, which are …
In Paraguay, the Spread of Soy Strikes Fear in Hearts of Rural Farmers
Emilio Arce lives in fear of the soy plantations that edge ever closer to his home in eastern Paraguay, the landlocked nation’s heartland of grain production. “They’re just seven miles away now,” he says. Arce, 54, is a …
Brazil Seeks Answers in ‘Amityville’ Copycat Murders
It was a tragic incident, as inexplicable as it was shocking. According to local police, Marcelo Pesseghini, a 13-year-old Brazilian boy in Sao Paulo, took his father’s pistol late Sunday night and shot his policemen parents, …
High Times in Montevideo: Uruguay Entering Brave New World of Pot Legalization
Freddy gets on his knees and points excitedly at the bright green sprout growing discreetly in the shade under a bench in the middle of Sarandí Street, the exclusive pedestrian walkway lined with art galleries and expensive …
Uruguay’s Marijuana-Legalization Bid Opens New Chapter in Global Pot Debate
Legislators in Uruguay’s lower house today narrowly voted to legalize marijuana in an ambitious effort to target the illegal drug trade that has plagued the region. The bill, which President José Mujica has strongly
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The Mexican Drug Cartels’ Other Business: Sex Trafficking
Narco gangs, including the Zetas, have diversified their portfolio to include buying and selling women as slaves
As Communist Cuba Reforms, Capitalism Slowly Takes Hold of Its Real Estate Market
The Pope of the Poor: Francis Makes Brazil’s Favelas His First Stop
Pope Francis visits Brazil, once a stronghold of Catholicism but now a country where the faith is very much at a crossroads
Cover Story: A Pope for the Poor
Next week, Pope Francis, the first of his name, returns to the continent of his birth. The first Latin American Pope—elected earlier this year—will call on the world’s most populous Catholic country, Brazil. Francis, formerly …
North Korea Gets the World in a Panic, Even Without Trying
The cargo of weaponry seized by Panamanian officials en route from Cuba to North Korea has caused an international uproar, but revealed nothing new about the East Asian pariah. Cuba’s foreign ministry has dismissed …
A Luta Continua: Brazil’s Protest Movement Sputters, but It’s Far From Dead
In Brazil, demonstrators closed highways, shut businesses and brought large parts of the country to a standstill once more this past week. But unlike in June, when the government was shaken by an almost unprecedented wave of …