Americas Archives - Page 144 of 160

Social Movements and Progressive Governments: The Current Veins of Latin America

Claudia Acuña, Translated by Kirsten Daub April 24, 2006 Claudia Acuña, Translated by Kirsten Daub

Bolivia has Evo Morales. Mexico has the Zapatista movement. Argentina is Kirchner's. Where do social movements stop when facing progressiveness that restores power? Are these governments the triumph, or the downfall of these movements? Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, a Mexican with vast experience in Bolivia, visited Buenos Aires to talk about these themes with local movements and with LaVaca.org, offering a deep look to look at the continent in its own mirror.

The Two Party System and the Urgent Need for Change

Tom Crumpacker April 18, 2006 Tom Crumpacker

Linear or one-dimensional thinking considers the object thought of from only one narrow perspective, thus failing to discern its essence because most things, like coins, can be looked and understood from at least two, usually more, dimensions.

Bolivia, Evo Morales and the Progressive Mandate in Latin America

Benjamin Dangl & Mark Engler April 12, 2006 Benjamin Dangl & Mark Engler

Photo: J. Bigwood

On January 21, on a hill outside of La Paz, a traditional ceremony marked both a major shift in Bolivian politics and a milestone for the growing New Left in Latin America. At Tiwanaku, a site of pre-Incan ruins significant to the country's indigenous populations, Evo Morales, barefoot and dressed in a red tunic, received a silver and gold staff from leaders of the Aymara people.

There IS Such a Thing as a Free Lunch in Buenos Aires

Mneesha Gellman April 3, 2006 Mneesha Gellman

The afternoon sun shines on the narrow strip of Puerto Madero, a trendy Buenos Aires, Argentina neighborhood situated near the banking district's sky scrapers. Tourists stroll down cobble stone streets, admiring a bank-sponsored art exhibit of decorated cow statues. Argentines with money to burn sip lattes on shaded patios. At first glance, the prosperity is overwhelming. Yet in Buenos Aires, particularly since Argentina's financial collapse at the end of 2001, poverty and wealth have become unlikely neighbors.

Bad Blood on the Border

Laura Carlsen March 29, 2006 Laura Carlsen

Guillermo Martinez was only 20 years old when he was shot in the back at close range by an agent of the U.S. Border Patrol in the state of California on December 30, 2005. Scores of migrants have been shot by U.S. immigration enforcement officers. Most fail to make the headlines. But Martinez's death comes at the same time as a series of measures to further criminalize migrants-measures that are likely to increase the chances that more young men and women lose their lives on what has become the world's most contradictory border.

A Nation Divided

Eric Tsetsi March 27, 2006 Eric Tsetsi

For anyone who watches television, surfs the Internet or reads a newspaper these days it's nearly impossible to avoid. Deconstructive, divisive rhetoric spews forth from almost every major media outlet without fail. Thanks to Internet chat rooms and discussion boards you even have the chance to anonymously insult others in real-time.