Mexican marines arrested the boss of the country’s cruelest drug cartel early Monday, a triumph for the Mexican government even as the bloody drug war shows few signs of slowing. Miguel Angel Treviño Morales, the notorious …
Latin America
In Colombia, an Alleged American Land Grab Sets Off a Political Storm
Was it a good-faith investment by a U.S. multinational in Colombia? Or a flagrant land grab?
That’s what Colombians are debating following revelations that the Minneapolis-based food giant Cargill Inc. acquired nearly …
How the West Enabled Snowden’s Bid for Latin American Asylum
Let’s say, as Bolivian President Evo Morales insists, that the U.S. did urge European officials to deny Morales their air space on his flight home from Moscow last week because fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden was rumored …
A Whistleblower in Ecuador: The Belarusian Dissident Who Found Asylum in Quito
Alexander Barankov’s story has echoes of a Cold War spy thriller. “When I saw so many secret service cars coming for me,” the softly-spoken 31-year-old says as he sits in a Quito shopping mall, “I realized they would …
Brazil’s World Cup Protests Intensify as Country’s Politicians and FIFA Squirm
Nearly 1 million Brazilians took to the streets on June 20 as anger over social inequity and corruption has sparked the biggest scenes of dissent in the country in more than two decades
What Brazil’s Protests Say About Latin America’s Fumbling Elites
It’s a delusion harbored by ruling classes the world over, but especially in Latin America. It’s the bogus belief that even if people get richer, they don’t get smarter. Ask Chile’s Carménère-sipping elites where that …
Brazil’s Protests: Social Inequality and World Cup Spending Fuel Mass Unrest
Last Thursday, police violently waded into ranks of protesters and fired rubber bullets into crowds amassed in Brazil’s financial capital, sparking days of unrest. On Monday night, some 200,000 to took to the streets of this
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Edward Snowden, NSA Whistle-Blower, Wins Unusual Sympathizers in Latin America
Ecuador is no human-rights darling. Left-wing President Rafael Correa has built a decidedly authoritarian reputation that includes a yen for prosecuting journalists who irk him. This week he won passage of a media bill that …
Nicaragua’s Chinese Canal: Behind the Audacious $40 Billion Bid to Build a Rival Panama Canal
The Nicaraguan government muscled into law a 50-year concession allowing a Chinese company to handle the Great Nicaragua Canal megaproject, which is estimated to cost $40 billion
Mexico Is on the Rise, But What About Its Middle Class?
When President Obama visited Mexico in May, he spoke a few words of Spanish, praised the paintings of Frida Kahlo and quoted author Octavio Paz. Then he hit his key message: “Because of the sacrifices of generations, a majority …
Political Fallout Over Colombia’s Peace Talks With FARC Rebels
President Juan Manuel Santos is facing criticism for his peace talks with Colombia’s FARC rebels, and he may soon find his path to re-election blocked by a wayward relative: his cousin Francisco Santos
The ‘Miracle’ Tongue Patch: Beauty-Conscious Venezuela’s New Extreme Diet
“I don’t have the willpower to go on a diet, so this was the only way,” says Yomaira Jaspe, a Venezuelan woman whose eating decisions are currently dictated by a plastic patch sewn onto her tongue. A new form of extreme …
Simón Bolívar: The Latin American Hero Many Americans Don’t Know
Simón Bolívar lived a sweeping, epic life. The Latin American independence hero swanned around the salons of revolutionary-era Paris, skulked in the Guyanese jungle and enlisted the aid of roughriding cowboys and mercenary …