Archive for the ‘Latin America’ Category
Mexico is Not the Most Dangerous Latin American Country
10:12 am By Maegan La Mala · El Salvador|honduras|Latin America|mexico|Violence|Women · 19 Comments
7 Jan 2011The mainstream media, the United States government, and even some commenters here want to paint Mexico as the biggest danger to the United States since hmmm communism/the Russians/ Cubans…ay you get the point. Some stats tell a different story though.
The country currently with the highest murder rate is Honduras, followed closely by El Salvador.
There is no analysis as to why, although many will point to the drug war and gangs which really are crimes based in poverty. Much of the poverty in Latin America can be linked to inequity which can be linked in part to United States intervention ( a la NAFTA and more direct military interventions).
What I have not seen is much analysis about how many of these deaths are that of mujeres and under what circumstances. In El Salvador, 562 women were killed. We do know that in Honduras, for example, post-coup (because we can call it a coup now) there has been an increase in violence against women.
Via / The Mex Files
What’s Ahead for Latin America in 2011 : Elections
7:43 am By Maegan La Mala · Argentina|Guatemala|Latin America|Nicaragua|Peru|Politics · 1 Comment
5 Jan 2011The last year on VivirLatino was really dominated by the immigration debate in the United States. While I will continue to cover the issue of immigration, especially with the likelihood of anti-immigrant / anti-Latino measures being pushed by the Republican led House of Representatives, it would be naive of me to function as if U.S. policy towards Latin America has nothing to do with how Latinos are treated inside the U.S. It would be equally naive to act as if we as Latinos in the United States have no ties to our countries of ancestry and as if policy inside of those countries don’t matter to us, our families, and our communities.
So one of my new year’s resolutions for the site (among many) is to make more of an effort to cover what is happening in Latin America and attempt to make the connections between that and comunities here inside the United States.
There are several elections in Latin America slated to take place this year. The countries with presidential elections this year include Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru, and Argentina.
Read more…
In what is being described as an aftershock of the massive 8.8 quake that occurred early last year, a quake measuring 6.9 (or 7.1 depending on the source) shook the south of the long, thin country yesterday. No injuries or deaths have been officially reported.
Yesterday’s quake, which included several strong aftershocks, was centered just west of Temuco, in the 9th Region. Coastal towns like Tirúa, Puerto Saavedra and Toltén auto-evacuated, not waiting for official instructions from the government, which was widely criticized for not issuing evacuation orders following the February 2010 quake for coastal areas which suffered death and damages due to tidal waves and flooding.
P.S : Temuco was my home for many months in Chile, so I pray everyone is safe and taking care of each other especially la familia Hermosilla and la familia Huechan.
Via / El Diario
Brazil, Meet Your New President
2 Jan 2011
Today in Latin American Historia : Dia de la Revolucion en Cuba
10:09 am By Maegan La Mala · Cuba|history · 4 Comments
1 Jan 2011
On January 1st 1959, U.S. backed dictator of Cuba, Fulgencio Batista fled the island for the Dominican Republic following the Battle of Santa Clara. This ushered in the communist government, led by Fidel Castro, that remains in power today.
While we can and should debate and question the Cuban revolution, as we should all revolutions, including the ones we actively participate in,
a quote from Grace Lee Boggs, from a conversation at the U.S. Social Forum last year, that I recently read is echoing within as I think about the Cuban revolution, U.S. interventions in Latin America, and the idea of democracy. Boggs was talking specifically about Chinese democracy but it’s applicable here as well.
“What is important is not our critique if the Chinese vertical democracy, but the understanding that democracy is now a concept in contention and that we are all participants in creating what we think should be the democracy of the future”
Image Via / Wikipedia
Grace Lee Boggs Quote Via / A Conversation Grace Lee Boggs, Immanuel Wallerstein, U.S. Social Forum 2010
After the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners, Chile was even more lauded as a model democracy in region still portrayed in the media (and U.S. Cables as per Wikileaks) as run by power hungry and perhaps mentally unstable leaders.
What isn’t being covered, except in a few select outlets (namely orgs out of Chile, independent radio here in U.S. and through social media) is how the Chilean government is at this moment terrorizing two Indigenous nations.
VivirLatino has covered a little of what has been happening in the south of Chile regarding the Mapuche community (full disclosure, my elder child is Mapuche). Recently released cables have shown that while former Chilean Michele Bachelet may have been a victim of the U.S. sponsored coup/dictatorship of Pinochet, she had no qualms about reaching out to the U.S. to investigate the Mapuche as “terrorists” when they have been merely defending their lands.
From the L.A. Times:
One leaked cable, dated February 2008, tells of a meeting between U.S. Ambassador Paul Simons and Bachelet’s interior minister, Edmundo Perez Yoma, in which officials discussed the possibility that the Mapuche might be receiving aid from the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, or the FARC guerrilla army in Colombia, or even the ETA, the Basque separatist group in Spain.
The implications are powerful, for if indeed a connection was made (or rather invented) this certainly could place more U.S. anti-terror funds into Chile to suppress the Mapuche nation.
Then people question why I called Bachelet’s socialism “lite”.
Three South American Nations Recognize Independent Palestine
8:31 am By Maegan La Mala · Argentina|Brazil|Chile|israel|Palestine|Uruguay · 4 Comments
7 Dec 2010Yesterday, both Argentina and Uruguay announced that they recognized Palestine as an independent state, following Brazil’s lead, who recognized Palestine on Friday. The countries recognize Palestine as it was in 1967 , before the so-called “Six-day War” between Israel and Palestine when Israel took Gaza and the West Bank.
“The Argentine government recognizes Palestine as a free and independent state within the borders defined in 1967,” Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said, adding that this decision was made after a general agreement between the South American and Mercosur trade blocs.
Uruguay went a step forward as its Deputy Foreign Minister Roberto Conde vowed to open a diplomatic representation in Palestinians’ Ramallah region after announcing to recognize it as a state next year.
WikiLeaks and Honduras
10:49 am By Maegan La Mala · honduras|Latin America|Politics|Women · 2 Comments
6 Dec 2010
While the focus of the latest round of WikiLeaks release of secret cables has focused on the impact of U.S. national security, WikiLeaks also clarifies what happened in Honduras last year. In what now has been spun as “not a coup” as President Porfirio Lobo is set to mark his one year anniversary as President, a released cable from the U.S. Embassy shows that when Manual Zelaya was ousted it was indeed considered an illegal act.
From the cable :
..The Embassy perspective is that there is no doubt that the military, Supreme Court and National Congress conspired on June 28 in what constituted an illegal and unconstitutional coup against the Executive Branch…
…There is equally no doubt from our perspective that Roberto Micheletti’s assumption of power was illegitimate…
The cable also called the resignation letter that Zelaya presented as a “fabrication”.
Read more…
Newly Revealed Documents Confirm U.S. Role in 1973 Chile Coup
10:48 am By Maegan La Mala · Chile|history|Politics · 1 Comment
22 Nov 2010Documents recently declassified and released to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights in Chile’s capital, Santiago, confirm that the U.S., specifically then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, were behind the 1973 coup that violently overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende and threw Chile into 17 years of dictatorship marked by summary disappearances and deaths.
Peter Kornbluh, director of the Chile Documentation Project of the National Archive, from George Washington University said:
These documents should contribute to advance justice and dignity in Chile. Obviously these documents have a special value in terms of official investigations into open cases. Now there is a base of information that could help those who seek more details.
Translated from : La Prensa Latina
The Chilean Miner Celebs vs. The Realities of Chilean Mining
1:26 pm By Maegan La Mala · Chile · 2 Comments
10 Nov 2010This weekend the mainstream media in the U.S. was enamored with Edison Peña, the 12th miner to be rescued after being trapped in a mine in the Atacama Desert of Chile for 69 days. There were stories on how Peña wasn’t all that impressed with the Statue of Liberty or hot dogs in NYC (I have to agree that Chilean completos are better). TMZ attempted to ask Peña about conditions in the mine in broken Spanish and Peña happily belted out his best Elvis impression on Late Night with David Letterman. Parts of my own family braved the NYC cold on Sunday in the hopes of catching Peña finish the NYC marathon in a little over 5 hours.
Hell, as the parents of two ChileRicans, I don’t want to deny a miner his time in the spotlight but I am concerned with how the celeb spotlight blinds how in Chile conditions for the not Edison Peñas continue to be dangerous and deadly.
Via Reuters :
Two men died after an explosion at a small mine in the Chilean desert, local authorities said on Monday, near the site were 33 miners were pulled from the depths in a months-long rescue that attracted world attention.
The National Emergency Office said the men died after an explosion triggered a cave-in at the mine, located about 40 miles east of the city of Copiapo.
Five other men were able to escape the explosion with one of them later hospitalized for injuries.
Looks like Chilean President Sebastián Piñera wasn’t able to keep his promise of never again.
Hola!
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by Mamita Mala Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse Latin@ diaspora.
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