Cattle drive in Sonora, Mexico. Photo: Anna Vogt
Women are still scarce in Latin American boardrooms. Not in politics, however. A quarter of legislators in the region are women, compared with one in seven in 2003. Yet Latin Americans are less likely than people in any other region to say that women are treated with dignity. Only a third say women are respected, around half the share who think so in the Middle East and Africa, according to a Gallup poll. In Peru and Colombia (where corporate bosses are more likely to be female than in any other Latin American country), just a fifth of people say women are appreciated.
The Unwelcome Return of ‘Illegals’
Advocates for immigrant rights see the relationship between how people talk and how the government acts and have proposed replacing ‘‘illegal immigrants’’ with ‘‘undocumented workers’’ or ‘‘undocumented immigrants.’’ ‘‘In an increasingly diverse society in which undocumented immigrants are integrated in all walks of life, language belongs to the people whose stories are being told,’’ Jose Antonio Vargas, a journalist and activist wrote in Time. ‘‘To be an undocumented person in the U.S., after all, is to live a life dictated by getting the proper documents.’’ If immigrants are principally defined by their missing papers, their path to legal status becomes far more tenable. Imagine if we started calling all immigrants ‘‘dreamers,’’ which is how many of us think of our own ancestors. The word has been adopted by young adults who came to the United States as children from the Dream Act, a bill that would give them a path to permanent residency, if it is ever passed.
Four women were also raped and killed in Mexico journalist murder—but media calls them promiscuous
This case of Nadia Vera, Alejandra Negrete, Yesenia Quiróz, and Colombian Mile Virginia Martín provides a clear example of how violence against women is often treated as less important than violence against men in Mexico. The women in this case were made completely invisible until citizens pointed out that they too, had been victims—victims treated as lesser members of society. As Francisco Goldman reported in the New Yorker on August 14, Nadia Vera’s mother, Mirtha Luz Pérez, wrote a poem published by online newspaper Aristegui Noticias dedicated to her daughter: “Don’t leave me sugar girl / to dissolve inside weeping skin / Don’t leave me free bird / for the cold moorlands of absence.” Vera’s parents have been outspoken about the treatment of their daughter and the other female victims by government officials and the media.
Mexico City murders put defenders of women’s rights on high alert
The problem isn’t confined to Mexico: at least 20 women were killed in the same period in the dangerous triangle of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador amid a toxic mix of gender violence, organised crime, corruption and impunity, where rights defenders are under constant threat. In 2012 alone, 414 other attacks, including threats, psychological harassment, excessive force and sexual violence, were registered in the region, a study by the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders found (pdf). State forces – police, soldiers, and government officials – were responsible for almost 90% of attacks.
‘Our Central American spring’: protesters demand an end to decades of corruption
“Our tolerance for corruption has to end,” Ariel Varela one of the organizers of the marches in Honduras, adding that corruption is at the root of many of Central America’s problems. “Corruption generates poverty and poverty leads to violence,” he said. As people began to gather at a small traffic circle in front of the IHSS for a recent Friday night march, Varela likened the movement to uprisings in the Arab world in 2011. “This is our Central American spring,” he said.
In Guatemala, Exhuming Children to Make Room for Death (photo essay)
Whatever its origins, the results are evident in the Cementerio General — the General Cemetery — with its unending daily funeral processions. Mr. Martinez, 34, started going there in search of a story and was stunned when he heard about the burial spots that were being cleared out for new corpses. He said that if survivors went 14 years without paying the upkeep fee, about $24 for four years, they were notified. If no answer was forthcoming, the grave was emptied. A local news report estimated that the process, which began in 2014 and will continue for up to another year, will free up 3,000 spaces that once were used to bury children and adults.
Strengthening El Salvador’s rule of law
Even if the FMLN does not go the route of an international commission, it must work with the country’s other political actors and elect an attorney general committed to strengthening the rule of law so as to support existing economic and security plans and consolidate educational and healthcare improvements. President Salvador Sanchez Ceren and the FMLN need to act in the interests of the Salvadoran people and stop dismissing all those who criticise their governance as “golpistas” (coup plotters) who wish to destabilise the government. The FMLN is no longer the opposition. It is the governing party that Salvadorans put their faith in to help resolve the country’s most pressing problems.
Dominican Republic resumes patrols to deport migrants
Dominican authorities on Friday resumed patrols to detain and deport migrants, the majority of them Haitians, who lack documents after a more than yearlong hiatus. The move came weeks after the government ended a one-year period for migrants to apply for legal residency under a program that has drawn international criticism.
FARC ceasefires caused decrease in violence in Colombia: UN
A unilateral ceasefire declared by Colombia’s FARC rebels during peace talks with the government has reduced conflict-related violence to its lowest level in 30 years, the United Nations said on Wednesday. The UN representatives also said there had also been a decline in displacement of individuals, attacks on civilians, victims of mine explosions and kidnapping.
How Bolivia Got Smart and Convinced Poor Farmers to Grow Less Coca
According to figures released this week by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), cultivation of coca in Bolivia declined by 11 percent in 2014, the fourth straight year of decreases. UNODC’s Coca Crop Monitoring Survey, a joint undertaking with Bolivia’s government, found that the area under cultivation fell from 23,000 hectares in 2013 to 20,400 hectares last year. Bolivia’s recorded coca cultivation is at its lowest point since the UN began monitoring the crop in 2003, and authorities are aiming for further decreases in line with a national law that currently sets aside no more than 12,000 hectares for planting. The country’s government is hashing out a final allowance that could permit up to 20,000 hectares of coca. Whatever the final target, observers say Bolivia has been unique in its ability to reduce coca cultivation while avoiding violence and the alienation of poor farmers that has plagued more orthodox eradication efforts in the region.
Don’t forget about Days of Prayer for the Displaced in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Aug 31 to Sept 6. Here is more information and resources.