Quibdo, Colombia. “Our will for peace can never be kidnapped.” Photo by Anna Vogt
Mining for smartphone minerals is eating up farmland
The problem for many food-producing communities in developing countries is that extraction industries can encroach on lands that they rely on, but don’t always hold legal titles for. Female farmers, pastoralists and those who rely on forests are all particularly vulnerable.
How Organized Crime & Corruption Intersect in LatAm
However, ranking corruption within a country based on the power of organized crime groups may result in a very different list. It is one thing to have officials asking for bribes to get permits granted, make speeding tickets disappear and secure government contracts. It is something else to have entire municipal police forces on the payroll of drug cartels, as in Mexico; to have money from drugs traffickers or illegal gold miners fund political campaigns on a massive scale, as in Peru; or to bribe and intimidate an entire Constituent Assembly to outlaw extradition, as Pablo Escobar did in Colombia.
Women Occupy 48% of Incoming Legislative Seats in Bolivia
Bolivia is reportedly the second country in the world to reach this level of representation of women in national legislative body.
Haiti’s Political Crisis Is About to Get Worse
No elections, an empty Senate, violent protests on the streets of Port-au-Prince — and Haiti’s unrest is just getting started.
Having consulted several trusted sources after the students disappeared, Father Solalinde was the first person to announce that they had been murdered and incinerated – weeks before the government admitted this was the most likely outcome. Since then, he has been the loudest dissenter in a nation that has suddenly found its voice.
Mexico approves constitutional change banning street protests
Legislators and police may be able to control what’s happening on Mexico’s streets. But they haven’t been able to impose their will on any protester who has access to social media. Already taking the law as a given, Mexicans have taken to Facebook and Twitter, which are ablaze with commentary and clever, acerbic new memes. Among them is a series of photos upon which text is superimposed, asking “What? Taking to the streets to [celebrate sports wins/make the pilgrimage to the Virgin of Guadalupe/run a marathon] will also be a crime? Or is it only when we say what we think?”
Gildan workers in Haiti, Honduras complain of harassment, pay too meagre to live on
Many workers are driven into debilitating debt, borrowing from co-workers or street lenders at high interest rates. One former worker at the Genesis plant is 32-year-old Marie-Bénie Clerjo, a mother of three sons who lives in Solino, a slum of tottering shacks and crumbling apartment blocks. Clerjo’s home is one small room where she and her children sleep on two beds. There’s no kitchen, toilet or sink, and she is two months behind in her rent. “We are not treated like humans, we are treated like animals,” she says. “I am living a miserable life.”
Unit to Monitor Journalists’ Safety Set up in Guatemala
While Guatemala is one of the most violent countries in the world, journalism is among the country’s most dangerous professions. With this recently-announced initiative, Guatemala will become the third country in the region to create a specific unit for the safety of journalist, following Colombia (2000) and Mexico (2012).
As Talks Resume, “De-escalation” Is on the Table
Either way, though, verifiable de-escalation of the conflict would be a positive step at this stage in the talks. It would allow them to go forward in an environment of reduced tensions. It would build public support for the negotiations as Colombians feel the first real benefit of the Havana process: an increase in their own security. De-escalation would also offer formal recognition of some de facto conditions for talks to proceed, like “it is prohibited to capture a general.”
Colombia y México: el dolor sabe a lo mismo
This Spanish article is well worth the read: a comparison between the 43 disappeared students in Mexico, and 43 disappeared in Colombia. “Este relato es apenas un pincelazo de la lucha por los 43 desaparecidos de Ayotzinapa y los 43 desaparecidos de Pueblo Bello. Resume el amor inagotable que los padres les profesan a sus hijos, y la herida honda que se forma en el alma de la gente buena cuando el Estado deja de estar de su lado y se convierte en su enemigo.”