tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/latin-america-3325/articlesLatin America – The Conversation2024-03-28T12:50:35Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259912024-03-28T12:50:35Z2024-03-28T12:50:35ZThe amazing story of the man who created the latest narco-state in the Americas, and how the United States helped him every step of the way − until now<p>When Juan Orlando Hernández was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/honduras-president-juan-orlando-hernandez-corruption-trial-7c43423f12ff71859c370be2fc6ac5b0">convicted by a federal jury</a> in Manhattan in early March 2024, it marked a spectacular fall from grace: from being courted in the U.S. as a friendly head of state to facing the rest of his life behind bars, convicted of cocaine importation and weapons offenses.</p>
<p>“Juan Orlando Hernández abused his position as President of Honduras to operate the country as a narco-state where violent drug traffickers were allowed with virtual impunity,” said <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hernandez-former-president-honduras-convicted-manhattan-federal-court">U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland</a> following the jury conviction. <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hernandez-former-president-honduras-convicted-manhattan-federal-court">Anne Milgram</a>, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, added: “When the leader of Honduras and the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel work hand-in-hand to send deadly drugs into the United States, both deserve to be accountable.”</p>
<p>The conviction was a victory for the Justice Department and the DEA. During Hernández’s two terms in office, from 2014 to 2022, he and his acolytes transported more than 400 tons of cocaine into the United States, <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hernandez-former-president-honduras-convicted-manhattan-federal-court">according to U.S. prosecutors</a>. The former head of state now faces a mandatory sentence of up to 40 years in prison; sentencing is scheduled for June 26. </p>
<p>But there’s more to this story. </p>
<p>As I explore in the book “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/21st-Century-Democracy-Promotion-in-the-Americas-Standing-up-for-the-Polity/Heine-Weiffen/p/book/9780415626378">21st Century Democracy Promotion in the Americas: Standing Up for the Polity</a>,” written in collaboration with the <a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/people/bw4844">Open University’s Britta Weiffen</a>, Honduras is a tragic example of what happens when a country becomes a narco-state. While its people suffer the consequences – the World Bank reports that about <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/honduras/overview">half the country currently lives under poverty</a> – its leaders grow rich through the drugs trade.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the way Hernández came to power and maintained that position for so long could provide “Exhibit A” in any indictment of U.S. policy toward Central America – and Latin America more generally – over the past few decades. </p>
<h2>Growing ties with cartels</h2>
<p>Up to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-arrests-united-states-honduras-extradition-207d739fe73c844ad5cf182eec030a8a">Hernández’s arrest in Tegucigalpa</a>, the Honduran capital, and extradition to the United States in January 2022, his biggest enabler had been none other than the U.S. government itself. </p>
<p>Presidents <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/15/president-obama-announces-presidential-delegation-honduras-attend-inaugu">Barack Obama</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/honduras-president-narcotrafficking-hernandez/2021/02/11/1fa96044-5f8c-11eb-ac8f-4ae05557196e_story.html">Donald Trump</a> <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/06/18/readout-vice-president-bidens-meeting-honduran-president-juan-orlando">and Joe Biden</a> all backed Hernández and allowed him to inflict enormous harm to Honduras and to the United States in the process.</p>
<p>How so? To answer this question, some background is needed. </p>
<p>On June 28, 2009, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jun/28/honduras-coup-president-zelaya">a classic military coup took place</a> in Honduras. In the wee hours of the morning, while still in his pajamas, President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya was unceremoniously escorted by armed soldiers from his home and <a href="https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-lt-honduras-divided-070709-2009jul07-story.html">flown to a neighboring country</a>. The coup leaders alleged that, by calling for a referendum on reforming the Honduran Constitution, the government was moving toward removing the one-term presidential term limit enshrined in the country’s charter and opening the door to authoritarianism.</p>
<p>Initially, then-President Barack Obama <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE55S5J2/">protested the coup</a> and took measures against those responsible – the right-wing opponents of Zelaya. </p>
<p>But the administration eventually relented and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN07503526/">allowed the coup leaders to prevail</a>, largely due to pressure from Republicans, who saw Zelaya as being <a href="https://www.cfr.org/interview/honduran-politics-and-chavez-factor">too close to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez</a>, whose leftist agenda was deemed by the GOP as a threat to U.S. interests. </p>
<p>The coup-makers simply ran the clock against the upcoming election date and installed their own candidate in the presidency, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/30/honduras-lobo-president">Porfirio Lobo of the National party</a>, whose son Fabio was also later convicted of cocaine trafficking. </p>
<h2>Washington looks the other way</h2>
<p>Lobo laid the foundations of Honduras as the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56947595">new century’s first narco-state</a>, allowing drug cartels to infiltrate the highest echelons of government and the security apparatus as cocaine trade became an increasingly central plank of the country’s economy.</p>
<p>All the while, the U.S. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/08/american-funding-honduran-security-forces-blood-on-our-hands">pumped tens of millions of dollars</a> <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/should-the-u-s-still-be-sending-military-aid-to-honduras">into building up Honduras’ police and military</a>, despite widespread allegations of being engaged in corruption, complicit in the drugs trade and engaged in <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/honduras">human rights abuses</a>.</p>
<p>The dollars continued to flow when Lobo was succeeded in 2013 by his buddy and fellow National party member, Juan Orlando Hernández.</p>
<p>In 2017, Hernández – an ardent supporter of the 2009 coup – ran for a second term after the Supreme Court of Honduras <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0NE2T9/">pronounced this to be perfectly legal</a>.</p>
<p>Many Hondurans believe Hernández <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-honduran-government-is-trying-to-steal-an-election/">stole the November 2017 elections</a>. The vote count was suspended in the middle of the night as Hernández was running behind, and when the polls opened in the morning, he <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/the-honduran-government-is-trying-to-steal-an-election/">miraculously emerged as a winner</a>.</p>
<p>Despite widespread allegations of election fraud, the U.S. quickly recognized the result, congratulating <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/22/politics/us-honduras-election-results/index.html">Hernández on his win</a>.</p>
<p>Emboldened by his success, Hernández continued to build up Honduras as the new century’s first narco-state of the Americas.</p>
<p>In 2018, the president’s brother, Juan Antonio “Tony” Hernández, a former member of the Honduran Parliament, was arrested in the United States for his association with the Cartel de Sinaloa, the Mexican drug cartel. This entity valued his services so much that <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-honduran-congressman-tony-hern-ndez-sentenced-life-prison-and-ordered-forfeit">they named a particular strain of cocaine after him</a>, stamping the bags as “TH.” Tony Hernández was convicted on four charges in 2019, sentenced to 30 years in prison, and has been in U.S. federal prison ever since. </p>
<p>President Hernández denied any association with the cartel, but the evidence pointed to the contrary. As <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2021/03/18/a-court-case-rocks-the-president-of-honduras">reported in The Economist</a>, in a New York City trial, one accused drug trafficker alleged that Hernández took bribes for “helping cocaine reach the United States.” Another witness testified that the president had taken two bribes in 2013, before being elected; a former cartel leader testified that the president had been paid $250,000 to protect him from being arrested.</p>
<h2>‘Complicit or gullible’</h2>
<p>Given Hernández’s history in Honduras, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/08/juan-orlando-hernndez-honduras-convicted/">repeated claims of U.S. government officials</a> that they simply didn’t know of his crimes ring hollow.</p>
<p>Honduras became a narco-state, in part, because U.S. policymakers looked the other way as it did so. They embraced Hernández because he was ideologically more palatable and subservient to Washington’s wishes compared with his rival, Zelaya. But as the trial verdict in Manhattan makes clear, it was a decision with disastrous consequences.</p>
<p>As one State Department official put it, “Today’s verdict makes all of us who collaborated with (Hernández) <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/08/juan-orlando-hernndez-honduras-convicted/">look either complicit or gullible</a>.” </p>
<p>The latter may be the more charitable assessment. But the truth is more uncomfortable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225991/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I am a member of the Party for Democracy in Chile and and affiliated with the Foro de Political Exterior, a Chilean foreign policy think tank.</span></em></p>Washington looked the other way as coup leaders and drugs cartels conspired to turn Honduras into a center of the cocaine trade.Jorge Heine, Interim Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2232662024-03-28T12:50:01Z2024-03-28T12:50:01ZOne year ago, Pope Francis disavowed the ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ – but Indigenous Catholics’ work for respect and recognition goes back decades<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583533/original/file-20240321-24-zghkkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C5289%2C3618&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tzotzil women line up for Holy Communion during a Catholic Mass in Chiapas state, Mexico, in 2016. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXMexicoPopeIndigenous/0e5d46785792469db2511651be315c40/photo?Query=609821321857&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been more than 500 years since Vatican decrees gave European colonizers permission <a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/doctrine-discovery-1493">to carve up the “New World</a>” – and just one since Pope Francis disavowed them.</p>
<p>On March 30, 2023, Francis <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/03/30/230330b.html">repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery</a>”: a set of ideas the Spanish and Portuguese, in particular, used to justify seizing land they had “discovered” and colonizing Indigenous people in the land they came to call the Americas. <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2023/03/30/230330b.html">The Vatican’s statement</a> not only rejected the doctrine, but also apologized for historical atrocities carried out by Christians and affirmed the rights and cultural values of Indigenous peoples. </p>
<p>The repudiation can hardly undo centuries of oppressing Indigenous people and stealing their lands. Yet the statement is monumental in ways that signal cultural and political shifts within the Catholic Church. It recognized decades of work by Indigenous Catholics to demand that their very own church respect their history, culture and faith – a focus of my work <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oC3uu6YAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">as a historian of Mexico and religion</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An older man in white wears a crown of yellow flowers, standing amid other men, and near a hat covered in brightly colored ribbons." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583535/original/file-20240321-28-uhg7rv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope Francis wears a crown of flowers, gifted to him by Indigenous Mexicans, as he arrives in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MexicoPope/820da54fa77c4b70820f7a84dead3c4d/photo?Query=francis%20flowers%20indigenous%20mexico&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=3&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘New World,’ new owners</h2>
<p>The Doctrine of Discovery has its roots in 15th century papal documents, called “papal bulls,” which were issued amid Spain’s and Portugal’s colonial expansion in Africa and the recently “discovered” Americas.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/doctrine-discovery-1493">Inter Caetera</a>,” for example, which was issued in 1493, drew a line 100 leagues, or around 350 miles, to the west of the Azores and Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean. The document declared that all lands west of that line were free to be discovered, colonized and Christianized by the Kingdoms of Castile and León – modern-day Spain. </p>
<p>In other words, the Catholic Church gave Spain a monopoly on the New World, on the condition that the natives be converted to Christianity. Soon after, however, Spain and Portugal negotiated the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2967633">Treaty of Tordesillas</a>, settling Portuguese claims over modern-day Brazil.</p>
<p>More broadly, the Doctrine of Discovery shaped European kingdoms’ approach to colonizing the Americas, Asia and Africa. It was, simply put, the legal foundation of their claims over non-Christian peoples and territories.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An old-fashioned map of the world with several sections in vivid green and blue." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583550/original/file-20240321-18-iwy51i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Cantino planisphere, made by an unknown Portuguese cartographer in 1502. A line on the left shows the Americas divided into Spanish and Portuguese territories.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cantino_planisphere_(1502).jpg">Biblioteca Estense Universitaria/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Three centuries later, the Supreme Court of the newly independent United States cited the doctrine in a significant decision, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/21/543/">Johnson v. McIntosh</a>. According to this 1823 ruling, Indigenous peoples had no permanent right to the territory they lived on.</p>
<h2>Seeds of change</h2>
<p>Despite forced Christianization, church leaders repeatedly despaired that Indigenous Latin Americans had <a href="https://theconversation.com/latin-americas-colonial-period-was-far-less-catholic-than-it-might-seem-despite-the-inquisitions-attempts-to-police-religion-214691">not fully become Catholic</a>. The Spanish reluctantly tolerated Indigenous Catholic practices, such as worshipping the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/history/regional-history-after-1500/mexican-phoenix-our-lady-guadalupe-image-and-tradition-across-five-centuries">Virgin of Guadalupe</a>, an apparition of Mary in Mexico, and associating her with the Nahuátl mother goddess, Tonantzin. They reasoned that the Indigenous were novice Christians who would learn in time – an attitude that persisted for centuries.</p>
<p>The Catholic Church addressed multicultural questions in the 1960s, during <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-catholic-church-resists-change-but-vatican-ii-shows-its-possible-102543">the Second Vatican Council</a>. Over four years, in thousands of hours of meetings and consultations, the church embarked on its first major reforms in centuries. </p>
<p>The council approved using vernacular languages in Mass instead of Latin, promoted cooperation with other faiths and signaled a shift toward tolerating the diverse ways Catholics expressed their faith around the world. One of the resulting documents, “<a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651207_ad-gentes_en.html">Ad gentes</a>,” promoted missionary activity among unconverted peoples. However, it recognized that all cultures contained “seeds” of Christianity and that cultural diversity in the church would strengthen the body of the Catholic Church as a whole.</p>
<h2>Building a movement</h2>
<p>Almost immediately, Indigenous Catholics throughout Latin America began organizing to make these possibilities real. </p>
<p>In Mexico, a group of young priests and seminarians organized the <a href="https://www.amerindiaenlared.org/uploads/adjuntos/1349836940_attach52.pdf">Movement of Indigenous Priests</a>. Spearheaded by a young Indigenous priest, Eleazar López Hernández, they pushed back against the notion that men entering the priesthood had to choose between their Indigenous and priestly identities.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A boy in a red headdress and bright blue shirt stands holding a small brass instrument." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583553/original/file-20240321-30-dvx3us.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young Indigenous musician waits ahead of a Mass that Pope Francis celebrated in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXMexicoPope/7a8d960f2bd240ddba65d1e2566b455c/photo?Query=730687673175&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo</a></span>
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<p>At the core of their demands was the insistence that multiple Catholicisms could exist within the same Catholic Church. For instance, in 1971, <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/4a55a5e688ec5dc2862ecae0a7ca1de5/">López Hernández</a> testified about the importance of having Indigenous priests in Indigenous communities. These Catholics, he argued, deserved clergy who spoke their language, could participate meaningfully in traditional rituals, understood their roots, and who could honor Indigenous spirituality in addition to Catholicism’s message of salvation.</p>
<p>Their demands inspired new Catholic institutions. In 1969, several dioceses founded the Regional Seminary of the Southeast, called SERESURE. The seminary’s <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/4a55a5e688ec5dc2862ecae0a7ca1de5/">explicit mission</a> was to train priests to work in poor Indigenous areas, and it became a hub for Indigenous Catholicism. SERESURE developed an innovative structure that drew on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/644412">Indigenous traditions of governing their communities by assembly</a>, challenging strictly hierarchical church practices.</p>
<p>Yet SERESURE was <a href="https://www.sinembargo.mx/21-02-2016/1626817">shuttered in 1989</a> over <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/4a55a5e688ec5dc2862ecae0a7ca1de5/">allegations of incorrect doctrine</a>, Marxism and supporting <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501750755/reagans-gun-toting-nuns/">armed revolutionary movements</a>. There was some truth to the first two allegations, but the third had little basis in truth.</p>
<p>It spoke, however, to the types of work some church agents were doing with Indigenous people in the region. Young priests, religious sisters and lay Catholics were fanning out to work with communities living in desperate poverty, trying to both provide economic opportunity and preserve local cultures and languages. This poverty had given birth to <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/specters-of-revolution-9780199936595?cc=us&lang=en&">armed movements in Mexico</a>, Guatemala and beyond during the Cold War.</p>
<p>For many of these Catholics, salvation did not only mean going to heaven, but building a more just world.</p>
<h2>Steps forward – and back</h2>
<p>By the early 1990s, conflicts between the Vatican and Indigenous peoples had bled into the public sphere.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo shows several seated men in white watching two men in headdresses dance with their arms raised." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583546/original/file-20240321-24-s2zr9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope John Paul II watches a performance of the Mayan Creation dance during a 1993 visit to Mexico, where he apologized for Christian colonizers’ abuses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/POPEMEXICOVISIT-/7945d4eed7e4da11af9f0014c2589dfb/photo?Query=930811034&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Mosconi</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>John Paul II <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1987/september/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19870920_indigeni-fort-simpson.html">increased attention to</a> Indigenous Catholics with <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/travels/1990/travels/documents/trav_messico.html">his visits to southern Mexico</a>. During his papacy, however, the Vatican celebrated 1992 as <a href="https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/ROA-Times/issues/1990/rt9005/900508/05080701.htm">the 500th anniversary</a> of bringing Christianity to the New World.</p>
<p>Indigenous movements across the Americas rejected such a rosy depiction of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1571458">colonization, enslavement and forced conversion</a>. Instead, they organized protests under the banner of “500 Years of Resistance,” celebrating Indigenous resilience, culture, language and spirituality. In Tehuacán, Mexico, Indigenous Catholic priests led a march of nearly 20,000 Nahua people that culminated in an open-air Mass <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/4a55a5e688ec5dc2862ecae0a7ca1de5/">conducted in Nahuátl</a> – the language of the Mexica, or Aztecs.</p>
<p>It was not until 2013, after Francis’ election as pope, that <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-25445819">the Vatican approved Nahuátl</a> as an official language of the Catholic Church – meaning it can be used to conduct Mass inside churches. In addition, the Vatican ordered Mexican bishops to translate Catholic liturgy and texts into Nahuátl. </p>
<p>This was a large first step in recognizing the decades of work of Indigenous Catholics to insist that multiple Catholicisms can and should exist side by side.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TQ8l9__cS3M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The first official Catholic Mass held in the Nahuatl language, in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since 2015, the Mexican Catholic Church has hosted an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8l9__cS3M&t">annual Nahuátl Mass</a> in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Mass opened with traditional rural Indigenous music, and the offerings and decorations evoked the sights, sounds and smells of an Indigenous community parish – an open embrace of Indigenous Catholicisms.</p>
<p>Across the Catholic world, the Vatican has been <a href="http://secretariat.synod.va/content/sinodoamazonico/en/documents/final-document-of-the-amazon-synod.html">opening to multicultural Catholicisms</a> in recent years. The Nahuátl Mass is but one example, as is the repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery. </p>
<p>Francis’ statement was important as an institutional recognition of historical atrocities. More profoundly, it was a validation of Indigenous Catholic activists’ demands for <a href="https://adn.celam.org/seminaristas-indigenas-a-menudo-queremos-ir-al-seminario-pero-la-gente-piensa-que-no-tenemos-capacidad/">inclusion on their terms</a>, even while disputes over multiculturalism continue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223266/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eben Levey received funding from a Fulbright Fellowship and from the University of Maryland, College Park for his dissertation research. </span></em></p>Indigenous Catholics have long argued they should be able to embrace both sides of that identity.Eben Levey, Assistant Professor of History, Alfred UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2247492024-03-27T19:07:18Z2024-03-27T19:07:18ZHow Spanish conquistadors, and a tiny cactus-dwelling insect, gave the world the colour red<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584655/original/file-20240327-20-rtqbex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=45%2C45%2C3021%2C1995&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the <a href="https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/the-crown-jewels/#gs.601fv7">Queen’s crown</a>. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such as <a href="https://www.businessoffashion.com/podcasts/luxury/the-bof-podcast-how-christian-louboutin-turned-red-soles-into-a-status-symbol/">Christian Louboutin</a> have cemented our association of the colour red with power and wealth. </p>
<p>But what if I told you this connection has been pervasive across time and cultures? In fact, the red pigment has fascinated humans for millennia. </p>
<h2>Prickly pear blood</h2>
<p>The vibrant red we often see in cosmetics, food and drinks is actually derived from a tiny insect called the cochineal, which lives on prickly pear cacti and today is <a href="https://www.livescience.com/36292-red-food-dye-bugs-cochineal-carmine.html">harvested mainly</a> from Peru and the Canary Islands. The cochineal’s ubiquitous crimson dye is also known as Carmine, Natural Red or <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-7-2013-007471_EN.html">E120</a>.</p>
<p>The links between red and esteem and power can be traced back to the <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Inca_Civilization/">Inca civilisation</a> that flourished in the Andean region of South America from around 1400 to 1533.</p>
<p>Red carries profound symbolism in Inca mythology, intertwined with the legendary story of Mama Huaco – the inaugural warrior queen – who was often envisioned as emerging in a <a href="https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/mama-huaco-the-j-paul-getty-museum-collection--343469909087671035/">resplendent red dress</a>.</p>
<p>The historical journey of the cochineal mirrors the journeys of several other global staples – such as potatoes, chilli and tomatoes – <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/news/extension/history-tomatoes">that</a> <a href="https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CH041#">originated</a> from pre-Columbian Mexico and South America. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584664/original/file-20240327-24-uoh2t6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A close up view of cochineals (<em>Dactylopius coccus</em>) on a prickly pear cactus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The cochineal insect was brought to Europe by Spanish conquistadors in the 15th century, and held a worth akin to gold and silver. It strengthened Spain’s economic influence, provided support for the Spanish empire’s expansion, and stimulated <a href="https://hmsc.harvard.edu/online-exhibits/cochineal1/color-power/">global trade</a>. </p>
<p>Cultivation and harvest were carried out by the Indigenous Mesoamerican peoples living under Spanish rule, who had already been doing this <a href="https://www.loc.gov/ghe/cascade/index.html?appid=a4fb6d38afd64e3ebe4618c776b70e7f">for centuries</a>. They were <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180202-the-insect-that-painted-europe-red">paid in pennies</a> while their labour allowed Spain to maintain its monopoly on the valuable red dye.</p>
<h2>The king’s shoes</h2>
<p>Before the conquistadors began the cochineal trade, achieving a rich red hue was a challenge, which meant European nobility had to use purple and blue instead. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Tyrian_Purple/">But by the 1460s</a>, the cochineal gained such popularity in Europe that it <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/column/52831/the-color-purple">superseded Tyrian purple</a> as the traditional colour of the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church. This red was unmatched in vibrancy. Its depth and rarity eventually made it among the most expensive dyes of the time. </p>
<p>It became a prominent feature in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Baroque-art-and-architecture">European Baroque art</a> – characterised by its intensity and drama. And its widespread uptake by European royalty further solidified its connection with power and wealth.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584668/original/file-20240327-16-ssozzz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Return of the Prodigal Son by Dutch Master Rembrandt is a famous example of a dramatic baroque work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_(Rembrandt)#/media/File:Rembrandt_Harmensz_van_Rijn_-_Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In France, King Louis XIV’s (1638-1715) penchant for red was evident in his lavish décor choices, which included 435 red beds in his palace at <a href="https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/history/great-characters/louis-xiv">Versailles</a>. He displayed red in the <a href="https://www.thevoiceoffashion.com/intersections/famous-wardrobes-then-and-now/the-emperors-red-shoes-4155">soles of his shoes</a>. He even instituted a law in 1673 restricting the coveted red heels to aristocrats who were granted permission by the monarch himself, effectively making them a hallmark of royal favour. </p>
<h2>Spiritual significance</h2>
<p>The colour red holds significant spiritual symbolism across various religions. In Judeo-Christian traditions, an <a href="https://ornagrinman.com/2020/04/28/adom-dam-adama-adam/">intriguing connection exists</a> between the Hebrew word for “man” (Adam), “red” and “blood”, all stemming from a common etymological root. </p>
<p>According to Biblical accounts, Adam, the first man, was formed from the Earth – and the colour red could symbolise the richness of the soil or clay from which Adam was created. This interplay of language and symbolism underscores a profound interconnectedness between red and spiritual belief systems.</p>
<p>This spiritual significance reverberates across cultures. In <a href="https://www.ipl.org/essay/Hindu-Symbolism-Analysis-PKXBJ336JE8R">Hindu tradition</a>, red is imbued with sacred meaning symbolising fertility, purity and prosperity. In Chinese culture, it is considered auspicious, and signifies joy and prosperity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584667/original/file-20240327-28-fkv4gq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In Hinduism, red represents love and prosperity, which is reflected in the bindi – a small red dot applied between the eyebrows.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Red hues have also been viewed as a symbol of vitality <a href="https://asia.si.edu/explore-art-culture/art-stories/colors/red/">across spiritual and cultural groups</a>, as they emulate blood, our life force. In <a href="https://www.terrasanctamuseum.org/en/green-white-red-black-how-to-understand-the-colours-of-the-catholic-christian-liturgy/">Roman Catholic tradition</a>, red is symbolic of martyrdom, the spirit and the blood of Christ. </p>
<h2>The colour of champions</h2>
<p>In terms of visibility, red has the <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/ems/09_visiblelight/">longest wavelength</a>. This might help explain our longstanding cross-cultural attraction to it: studies show it stimulates excitement and energy when viewed, which can cause physical effects such as an increased heart rate. It has even been shown to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7658407/">increase our appetite</a>. </p>
<p>Psychologically, red seems to have more influence on humans compared with other colours in the spectrum. In an experiment at the 2004 Athens Olympics, athletes across four contact sports were randomly clad in either red or blue. Those who wore red were <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/435293a">more often victorious</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18344128/#:%7E:text=No%20significant%20differences%20were%20found,over%20a%2055%2Dyear%20period.">Another study of</a> English football teams over a 55-year period found wearing red shirts was associated with greater success on the field. That’s because red is linked to a heightened sense of determination and endurance, which can translate to better focus. From this angle, red seems to be the colour of champions. </p>
<p>The “red carpet” tradition itself is thousands of years old. The <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/an-unexpected-history-of-the-red-carpet/index.html">first known reference</a> to it comes from the ancient Greek play Agamemnon, written in 458 BCE, in which a red path (said to be reserved for the gods) is laid out for King Agamemnon by his wife as he returns from the Trojan war. The twist is that Clytemnestra seeks to lead him to his death: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Let all the ground be red / Where those feet pass; and Justice, dark of yore, / Home light him to the hearth he looks not for.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This symbol has since morphed into the celebrity red carpet, graced by pop culture “royalty”.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, red also has also garnered some alarming associations in our everyday vernacular, with “red pills”, “red flags” and “seeing red” being just a few examples. </p>
<p>This potent symbol continues to have diverse interpretations, representing not only achievement, but also the power – and sometimes the dangers – that come with it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584669/original/file-20240327-20-td6a7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Besides its links to spirituality and nobility, red is also used to convey more sinister meanings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224749/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Panizza Allmark does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Purple was highly valued and associated with royalty, power, and prestige in various ancient cultures, including the Roman and Byzantine Empires. So how did red creep its way in?Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259412024-03-19T12:31:45Z2024-03-19T12:31:45ZHaiti is in crisis, but foreign intervention comes with an ugly past<p>Haiti is <a href="https://news.miami.edu/stories/2024/03/haiti-is-close-to-becoming-a-failed-state.html">fast becoming a failed state</a>. </p>
<p>Armed gangs <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/16/overthrow-the-system-haiti-gang-leader-cherizier-seeks-revolution#:%7E:text=The%20UN%20has%20estimated%20that,foreign%20troops%20from%20entering%20Haiti.">control most of the capital, Port-au-Prince</a>, and have forced the <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/nation-world/2024/03/16/haitis-airports-are-closed-those-with-money-there-is-still-way-out/">shutdown of the capital’s international airport</a> and gasoline refinery. Most <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/18/world/haiti-crisis-militias-battle-intl-latam/index.html">businesses are closed or are being extorted by the gangs</a>.</p>
<p>Ordinary Haitians fear for their safety without the umbrella of law and order that only the government can provide. But there is not much government left: Elections have not been held <a href="https://www.electionguide.org/elections/id/2985/">since 2016</a>; the last president, Jovenel Moïse, was <a href="https://theconversation.com/haitis-president-assassinated-5-essential-reads-to-give-you-key-history-and-insight-164118">assassinated in 2021</a>; and the current prime minister and acting president, Ariel Henry, is <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/06/1236288645/haiti-crisis-prime-minister-henry-puerto-rico">stuck in Puerto Rico</a>, unable to fly back to Haiti.</p>
<p>It is increasingly becoming clear that Haiti has neither the means nor the ability to <a href="https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/whatsinblue/2024/03/haiti-private-meeting-2.php">pull itself out of this quagmire on its own</a>, raising the prospect of – and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/21/haiti-un-international-specialized-support-force">calls for</a> – foreign intervention. So far, to that end, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/01/world/africa/haiti-kenya-police-security.html">Kenya has offered</a> 1,000 armed policemen; other countries may chip in. The United States and Europe have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-aid-chief-announce-25-million-humanitarian-assistance-haiti-2024-03-15/#:%7E:text=The%20additional%20aid%20comes%20after,the%20U.S.%20since%20October%202022.">pledged millions of dollars</a> in aid. </p>
<p>But can a multinational security mission provide Haiti with a way out of its current crisis? My experience <a href="https://www.libarts.colostate.edu/people/esagas/">studying authoritarianism and democratization in Latin America and the Caribbean</a> tells me that international intervention will only take care of Haiti’s immediate security crisis – but it does not guarantee any long-term solutions to Haiti’s challenges. Moreover, history shows that in the case of Haiti, a multinational security mission may create problems of its own.</p>
<h2>Occupational hazards</h2>
<p>This is not the first time that talk has turned to sending foreign troops to Haiti. Since their hard-fought <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/86417/the-black-jacobins-by-c-l-r-james-with-a-new-introduction-by-david-scott/">independence from France in 1804</a>, the Haitian people have seen their country’s sovereignty disrupted many times.</p>
<p>From 1915 to 1934, <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1914-1920/haiti">U.S. Marines occupied</a> Haiti <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/haiti-history-of-crises-present-unrest/">to impose order in the riot-struck republic</a>, create a professional military force and secure U.S. strategic interests in the process.</p>
<p><iframe id="HZR7k" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/HZR7k/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The lengthy military occupation was a humiliating affair for the <a href="https://www.aaihs.org/the-black-republic-the-meaning-of-haitian-independence-before-the-occupation/">world’s first Black republic</a>, which had to endure being ruled by white foreigners. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of the U.S. occupation, the new Haitian military <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1823">became the main force</a> in the country’s politics, either ruling directly or as the power behind the throne.</p>
<p>In 1994, <a href="https://time.com/5682135/haiti-military-anniversary/">U.S. troops once again landed in Haiti</a>, this time to return to power the democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been ousted by the military just seven months into his term.</p>
<p>This second U.S. occupation led to the dissolution of the Haitian military, setting the stage for the current security crisis. Since then, Haiti has lacked a national security force capable of imposing order without being challenged by insurgents, paramilitaries and gangs.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/minustah">United Nations eventually took over</a> and sent several missions to stabilize the country starting in 1994. But the U.N. mission eventually left in 2019 once its mandate expired. U.N. troops were accused of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1YM27V/">sexually exploiting poor women</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/world/americas/united-nations-haiti-cholera.html">being responsible for a major cholera outbreak</a> that killed thousands of Haitians.</p>
<h2>Routes of transition</h2>
<p>This sorry history with foreign intervention means that Haiti faces a conundrum now: The country desperately needs outside help to rein in the gangs and provide order, but at what cost? </p>
<p>With the U.S., U.N. and the Ariel Henry administration seemingly in agreement over the <a href="https://ht.usembassy.gov/secretary-blinkens-call-with-haitian-prime-minister-henry/">need for outside assistance</a>, it seems like foreign intervention is increasingly likely.</p>
<p>Henry has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/haitian-leader-says-he-will-quit-after-transitional-council-formed-gang-violence-2024-03-12/">promised to step down</a> as soon as a transitional administration is set up. Any multinational security mission mandate is likely to be pretty straightforward: provide a modicum of security to assist the transitional administration.</p>
<p>But disarming the gangs is a major challenge. They will likely either resist, leading to a potential bloodbath, or, more likely, hide and wait until foreign troops leave Haiti and then reemerge. </p>
<p>That was one of the major failures of previous security missions in Haiti. U.N. peacekeepers kept the peace, but the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/14/haiti-gang-violence-us-guns-smuggling">flow of arms</a> coming <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/widespread-gang-violence-in-haiti-continues-bolstered-by-weapons-trafficked-from-the-u-s">into the country</a> from the United States continued unabated. Once the peacekeepers left, the violence resumed. Any international mission sent to Haiti will have to tackle this problem head on, or it will ultimately fail. </p>
<p>Gangs hold so much power over <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-63707429">vast swaths of the country</a> that any mediated solution to the Haitian crisis will likely have to include them. Moreover, there is a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/15/opinions/haiti-gangs-violence-pierre-pierre/index.html">working relationship</a> between the Haitian political elites and the gangs, with the former arming the latter and using them to pursue their short-term goals. Ignoring the political power of the gangs is, I believe, engaging in wishful thinking about the nature of the Haitian political system.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A tank painted white with UN written on it drives down the street." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582600/original/file-20240318-20-o5lry1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Haitians have bitter memories of U.N. troops in their country.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/troops-ride-in-an-armored-personnel-carrier-while-news-photo/1543529746?adppopup=true">Thony Belizaire/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And what about Haiti’s other challenges, such as holding free elections, organizing a functioning, legitimate government and improving the lives of its citizens? </p>
<p>None of these goals can realistically be achieved until peace is restored. Only in the conditions of stability and order can a transitional caretaker government start planning the arduous task of holding free, fair and competitive elections. </p>
<p>It may be years before Haiti can organize such elections or restore trust in democracy among the populace. If this process is rushed, Haiti runs the risk of ending up with an illegitimate administration – <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/04/11/haiti-democracy-relations-united-states-gang-violence/">as Henry’s is seen to be</a> – heightening the chances of the resumption of violence. </p>
<p>This has been the case over the past two decades: Haiti’s elections and authorities have became less legitimate, to the point where the country was unable to hold free elections after 2016. </p>
<h2>The challenge ahead</h2>
<p>If a multinational security mission is in Haiti’s immediate future, then the chances of it having lasting success will hang on whether the international community can provide enough support to the country after foreign troops leave.</p>
<p>A new police force will have to be recruited and trained, institutions such as the judiciary have to be reinforced, and the new administration will need time to earn the trust of the people. This is a difficult task considering <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/haiti-in-2023-political-abyss-and-vicious-gangs/">Haiti’s political polarization</a>.</p>
<p>To overcome these challenges, the international community will have to pump funds into Haiti. While history has shown that this risks exacerbating governmental corruption, I believe it is a small price to pay for the maintenance of peace.</p>
<p>Without sustained funding from the international community, Haiti will again become a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/immersive/haiti-forgotten-crisis?id=100287588">forgotten crisis</a>. For example, in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake, US$4.5 billion dollars were promised in aid, but only <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/11/haiti-earthquake-promised-aid-not-delivered">a little over half of it was delivered</a>. </p>
<p>The fear is that now an international community distracted by crises elsewhere, such as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, may soon lose interest in Haiti’s plight.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ernesto Sagás does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Can a multinational security mission provide Haiti with a stable future? Not without sustained funding for after the troops leave.Ernesto Sagás, Professor of Ethnic Studies, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2254222024-03-13T12:41:26Z2024-03-13T12:41:26ZWhat is the Darien Gap? And why are more migrants risking this Latin American route to get to the US?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581331/original/file-20240312-22-hvlt6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C140%2C3347%2C2084&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Migrants wade through the Tuquesa River as they traverse the Darien Gap.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PanamaMigrants/2c51a3fc202e44459d50d668897f80eb/photo?Query=Darien%20Gap&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=288&currentItemNo=62">AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Much of the discussion over illegal immigration to the U.S. has in recent weeks <a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-latin-america-venezuela-ukraine-mexico-712d00c90114568fe8a1b5c9e26fdadd">moved its focus south to the Darien Gap</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>This treacherous route that spans parts of Central and South America has seen an increasing number of people attempting to pass on their way to claiming asylum in the U.S.</em></p>
<p><em>To explore the reasons why, The Conversation turned to Sara McKinnon, an <a href="https://commarts.wisc.edu/staff/mckinnon-sara/">immigration scholar at University of Wisconsin-Madison</a>, who knows the region well and has interviewed people who have traversed the jungle crossing.</em></p>
<h2>Where is the Darien Gap?</h2>
<p>The Darien Gap is a stretch of densely forested jungle across northern Colombia and southern Panama. Roughly 60 miles (97 kilometers) across, the terrain is muddy, wet and unstable.</p>
<p><iframe id="QA5lJ" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/QA5lJ/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>No paved roads exist in the Darien Gap. Yet despite this, it has become a major route for global human migration.</p>
<p>Depending on how much they can pay, people must walk anywhere from <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/dari%C3%A9n-gap-migration-crossroads">four to 10 days</a> up and down mountains, over fast-flowing rivers and through mud, carrying everything they have – and often carrying children who are too young to walk – to make it through the pass. Those who make it through then take buses through most of Central America and make their way north through Mexico to the U.S. border zone.</p>
<p>Cellphone service stops once people enter the dense forest; migrants rely on the paid “guides” and fellow migrants to make it through. </p>
<p>In the decade prior to 2021, <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/dari%C3%A9n-gap-migration-crossroads">10,000 people annually</a> took this route on their way north to seek residence in the United States and Canada. </p>
<p>Then, in 2021, the Panamanian government documented <a href="https://www.iom.int/news/number-migrants-who-embarked-dangerous-darien-gap-route-nearly-doubled-2022">133,000 crossings</a>, a dramatic increase in human movement in such a volatile stretch of land. In 2023, more than <a href="https://www.datosabiertos.gob.pa/dataset/migracion-irregulares-en-transito-por-darien-por-pais-2023">half a million people</a> transited through this part of the Isthmus of Panama.</p>
<h2>Why is it so dangerous?</h2>
<p>The route, and really the entire trajectory that people take when they migrate from South America to North America, is controlled by criminal organizations that <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/immigration-crisis-migrant-smuggling-darien-gap-cfb40940">make millions, if not billions of dollars</a>, annually in the human migration economy.</p>
<p>It is impossible to cross this stretch of land without the help of a smuggler, or guide, because the criminal organizations who control the territory demand payment for passage.</p>
<p>Payment does not, however, assure safe passage. Sometimes the very people paid to facilitate the journey extort migrants for more money. There are also <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/andes/colombia-central-america/102-bottleneck-americas-crime-and-migration">reports of armed groups</a> ambushing those in transit to seize their belongings and steal what money they may have stowed away and sewn into clothing seams.</p>
<p>Extortion and kidnapping are common occurrences, and the medical aid charity Doctors Without Borders recently reported a surge in instances of <a href="https://www.msf.org/lack-action-sees-sharp-rise-sexual-violence-people-transiting-darien-gap-panama">mass sexual assault</a> in which hundreds of people have been captured, assaulted and raped – often in front of family members. In December 2023, one person was sexually assaulted <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/feb/05/darien-gap-sexual-attacks-panama-colombia-migrants">every 3½ hours</a> while crossing, according to Doctors Without Borders.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cfr.org/article/crossing-darien-gap-migrants-risk-death-journey-us">extreme nature of the swamplike jungle</a> also makes the journey dangerous.</p>
<p>The paths can be very muddy, especially in the rainy season. In mountainous sections, it is often necessary to climb over steep rocks, or cling to a rope to not slip and fall off a cliff. </p>
<p>The Missing Migrant Project reported <a href="https://missingmigrants.iom.int/sites/g/files/tmzbdl601/files/publication/file/MMP%20Americas%20briefing%202022%20-%20ES_3.pdf">141 known deaths</a> in the Darien Gap in 2023, which is likely a fraction of the actual number due to the challenges in reporting and recovering bodies.</p>
<p>Many of the people I interviewed who had made the journey talked about seeing bodies along the path covered in mud, likely the result of slipping or falling to their death. </p>
<p>Fellow migrants left markers close to the bodies, such as pieces of fabric tied to a tree, and took photos of the dead in the hopes that this evidence might someday help recover the bodies.</p>
<p>The rivers are also dangerous. Flash floods and rushing rapids mean that many people are swept away and drown in the muddy waters. Bruises, cuts, animal bites and fractures are common. The high humidity and heat each day, combined with a lack of clean drinking water, mean that many fall sick with symptoms of severe dehydration. </p>
<p>Vector-borne, water-borne and fungal-related illnesses are <a href="https://www.unocha.org/news/migration-through-darien-jungle-7-things-know-about-perilous-trek">also quite common</a>.</p>
<h2>What is behind the recent surge in crossings?</h2>
<p>Violence, insecurity and instability in their home countries cause many people to move. They may move to elsewhere in their region. But when the level of violence and insecurity is similar in that country, they keep moving to find a safer place to live.</p>
<p>Options for legally allowed immigration are increasingly limited for those in low-income countries. For example, when governments implement travel visa restrictions for certain nationalities, it impacts the options available to the people of that country for movement. </p>
<p>In 2021, with pressure from the United States, Mexico started requiring <a href="https://www.wola.org/analysis/mexico-restrictive-visa-policy-limits-venezuelans-ability-flee-us/">Venezuelans traveling to Mexico to carry travel visas</a>. This meant that Venezuelans hoping to seek asylum in the United States could no longer first fly to Mexico as a tourist and then present themselves at the border to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent to express their fear of returning to their home country.</p>
<p>Venezuelans had to find another route to move, and for many, that was and continues to be irregular transit through the Darien Gap without travel documents. </p>
<h2>Who is making the journey?</h2>
<p>In 2023, of the 520,085 people who moved through the region, <a href="https://www.migracion.gob.pa/images/img2023/pdf/IRREGULARES_X_DARIEN_2023.pdf">Venezuelans counted for over half at 328,650</a>. But the total also included 56,422 Haitians, 25,565 Chinese, 4,267 Afghans, 2,252 Nepali, 1,636 Cameroonians and 1,124 Angolans.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A child is hoisted onto an adult's shoulders as a woman and man wade through water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581334/original/file-20240312-28-i0czkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581334/original/file-20240312-28-i0czkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581334/original/file-20240312-28-i0czkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581334/original/file-20240312-28-i0czkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581334/original/file-20240312-28-i0czkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581334/original/file-20240312-28-i0czkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581334/original/file-20240312-28-i0czkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Haitian migrants wade through water as they cross the Darien Gap.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/YEMigration/4294f14f09a24ca0beeba0b14dc0120f/photo?Query=Darien%20Gap&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=288&currentItemNo=95">AP Photo/Ivan Valencia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Human migration in the Americas is a global phenomenon.</p>
<p>It is also increasingly gender and age diverse, as <a href="https://www.migracion.gob.pa/images/img2023/pdf/IRREGULARES_X_DARIEN_2023.pdf">figures from the Panamanian government</a> show. Adult men made up just over half of those moving through the Darien Gap in 2023, and adult women counted for 26% of the population. </p>
<p>Children under 18 constituted 20% of those crossing, with half of those children under the age of 5. Parents may be carrying children for long stretches of the journey, or children may have to walk even though they are tired. The stress and fatigue add to the likelihood of injury along the way. </p>
<h2>How have authorities responded?</h2>
<p>The travel visa restrictions of many governments has only pushed more people to attempt this dangerous route. Governments have also been lukewarm to the presence of humanitarian groups who assist migrants in transit. On March 7, 2024, <a href="https://www.msf.org/msf-forced-suspend-medical-care-people-move-panama">Doctors Without Borders reported</a> that the Panamanian government would no longer permit the organization to provide medical support to those in transit through the Darien Gap. This reduced access to health care will certainly mean a more dangerous passage.</p>
<p>In May 2022, countries across the Americas jointly announced the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/06/10/fact-sheet-the-los-angeles-declaration-on-migration-and-protection-u-s-government-and-foreign-partner-deliverables/">Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection </a> to improve regional coordination to manage migration.</p>
<p>Through this, the U.S. government implemented a series of <a href="https://migrationamericas.commarts.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2087/2023/09/MIAP-Policy-Report-0923-1.pdf">new legal programs to move to the U.S.</a> and <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/04/27/fact-sheet-us-government-announces-sweeping-new-actions-manage-regional-migration">application processing offices</a> in South American and Central American countries that give people the opportunity to apply for U.S. refugee resettlement, humanitarian parole and family reunification, and have the visas processed while waiting abroad. </p>
<p>But these programs are not available to people of all nationalities. And some of the programs also require official documents like passports, a requirement that excludes many of those who make their way through the Darien Gap.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225422/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara McKinnon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More than half a million people made the treacherous crossing in 2023 – far higher than in previous years.Sara McKinnon, Professor of Rhetoric, Politics & Culture, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248802024-03-11T17:18:50Z2024-03-11T17:18:50ZVenezuelan migrants are boosting economic growth in South America, says research<p>Venezuela is engulfed in a political and economic crisis, which has forced over <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9870179/">6 million people</a> – some 20% of the population – to flee the country since 2015. The mass exodus began when Venezuela’s economy collapsed, giving rise to rampant inflation, political turmoil and pervasive violence. </p>
<p>Over 80% of those who have left Venezuela have set up a new life in <a href="https://www.iom.int/venezuelan-refugee-and-migrant-crisis">17 countries</a> across Latin America and the Caribbean. According to a <a href="https://www.acnur.org/sites/default/files/2024-02/spotlight-note-socioeconomic-integration_ibd-oecd-unhcr.pdf">recent report</a>, these displaced migrants are having a positive effect on the economies of their host countries. </p>
<p>Between 2017 and 2030, migrant workers will boost the economies of their host countries by 0.10%–0.25% on average each year. The report, which was published by several leading international financial institutions and the UN Agency for Refugees, focuses on Venezuelan migrants but also covers Cubans and Salvadorans, among others.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/venezuelas-soaring-murder-rate-has-plunged-the-nation-into-a-public-health-crisis-116771">Venezuela's soaring murder rate has plunged the nation into a public health crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The economic impact of migrants in Latin America is significant. But their <a href="https://www.acnur.org/sites/default/files/2024-02/spotlight-note-socioeconomic-integration_ibd-oecd-unhcr.pdf">integration</a> into local job markets and society is poor. The economic benefits derived from migrants across Latin America could be even greater if they are given better access to jobs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A crowd of Venezuelan protestors blocking a highway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580921/original/file-20240311-22-dwm91w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580921/original/file-20240311-22-dwm91w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580921/original/file-20240311-22-dwm91w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580921/original/file-20240311-22-dwm91w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580921/original/file-20240311-22-dwm91w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580921/original/file-20240311-22-dwm91w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580921/original/file-20240311-22-dwm91w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters closed a highway in Caracas, Venezuela, while demonstrating against the government of Nicolás Maduro in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/caracasvenezuela04262017-protesters-closed-highway-caracas-while-1093703018">Edgloris Marys/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Boosting economic growth</h2>
<p>Migration has clear <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2020/06/19/blog-weo-chapter4-migration-to-advanced-economies-can-raise-growth">economic benefits</a> for local economies. It leads to an <a href="https://www.frbsf.org/research-and-insights/publications/economic-letter/2023/02/role-of-immigration-in-us-labor-market-tightness/">expansion</a> of the workforce, thereby <a href="https://data.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/en/labor-market-forecast-2022/?_gl=1*1afuj9x*_ga*MTk0Nzk1NjQzNS4xNzA5NTUzNTg3*_ga_W0MSMD2GPV*MTcwOTU1MzU4Ni4xLjAuMTcwOTU1MzU4Ny4wLjAuMA.">alleviating labour shortages</a> and enhancing economic output.</p>
<p>Migrants bring a diverse range of skills and specialised knowledge to their host countries, which can improve the overall skill level of the local workforce. Their <a href="https://www.cato.org/cato-journal/fall-2021/effects-immigration-entrepreneurship-innovation">productive capabilities</a> bridge skill gaps in local labour markets and heighten overall productivity. </p>
<p>Most migrant workers will also pay <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23056953">income tax</a>, which increases government revenues. In <a href="https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/7277e925bdaa64d6355c42c897721299-0050062023/original/WDR-Colombia-Case-Study-FORMATTED.pdf">Colombia</a>, for instance, the income tax contribution of Venezuelan migrants in 2019 was approximately US$38.7 million (£30.1 million), equivalent to 0.01% of Colombia’s GDP.</p>
<p>And when migrants gain employment, they will spend their wages in the host country and create new demand in various other sectors. Greater demand leads to <a href="https://www.mercatus.org/research/policy-briefs/benefits-immigration-addressing-key-myths">higher growth</a>, which in turn attracts more investment and increases employment opportunities both for local people and migrants.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/colombia-gives-nearly-1-million-venezuelan-migrants-legal-status-and-right-to-work-155448">Colombia gives nearly 1 million Venezuelan migrants legal status and right to work</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Underemployed</h2>
<p>However, xenophobia and discrimination prevent many migrants from finding jobs in Latin America and integrating into society. According to the report, roughly 30% of the migrants residing in Chile, Colombia and Peru experience discrimination because of their nationality. </p>
<p>Thus, many migrants are forced to take jobs within the <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2020/12/what-is-the-informal-economy-basics">informal sector</a>. Over <a href="https://www.undp.org/latin-america/publications/how-do-migrants-fare-latin-america-and-caribbean">50% of migrants</a> in Latin America work informally compared to 44.5% of locals. </p>
<p>Migrant workers also often earn lower wages than their local counterparts. In <a href="https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099022024085522704/p17578013f69d804019f8516ffbb072fc34">Colombia</a>, the average monthly salary of locals with post-secondary school education is US$1,140. Venezuelan migrants with the same level of education earn just US$644 per month. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man cleaning a car's windshield as it stops at a traffic light." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580924/original/file-20240311-20-jwh460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580924/original/file-20240311-20-jwh460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580924/original/file-20240311-20-jwh460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580924/original/file-20240311-20-jwh460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580924/original/file-20240311-20-jwh460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580924/original/file-20240311-20-jwh460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580924/original/file-20240311-20-jwh460.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man cleaning a windshield at a traffic light in Lima, Peru.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lima-peru-may-12-2020-poor-1729866145">Myriam B/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite this, immigrants still <a href="https://www.undp.org/latin-america/publications/how-do-migrants-fare-latin-america-and-caribbean">outperform</a> the native-born population in their labour force participation and employment rates. Yet many of the migrants who are in formal employment are overqualified for their roles. In <a href="https://www.acnur.org/sites/default/files/2024-02/spotlight-note-socioeconomic-integration_ibd-oecd-unhcr.pdf">Chile</a>, for instance, 34% of highly educated locals are overqualified for their jobs, compared to over 60% of migrants. </p>
<p>Migrants are often <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/article/abs/pii/S2049879923000360">mistakenly assumed</a> to be exclusively low-skilled workers. But the Venezuelan migrant crisis has seen many highly skilled people flee the country too. For example, <a href="https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099022024085522704/p17578013f69d804019f8516ffbb072fc34">65% of the Venezuelans</a> living in Chile and 48% residing in Ecuador have post-secondary school education.</p>
<p>However, most Venezuelans have not officially <a href="https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099022024085522704/p17578013f69d804019f8516ffbb072fc34">validated</a> their academic credentials in their host countries. In fact, only 10% of those residing in Chile have completed the certification process.</p>
<p>Many migrants are <a href="https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099022024085522704/p17578013f69d804019f8516ffbb072fc34">unaware</a> of the process so lack sufficient documentation about their qualifications. And the complexity of the process also demands investment that many migrants may not have the resources to cover.</p>
<p>To further enhance productivity in Latin America, it is essential to <a href="https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099022024085522704/p17578013f69d804019f8516ffbb072fc34">integrate migrant workers</a> into professions that allow them to use their skills.</p>
<h2>Access to services</h2>
<p>Several other factors hinder the integration of migrants into society across Latin America. The report indicates that migrant workers have significantly lower access to health insurance relative to the native-born population. In Colombia, for example, 96% of local workers have access to health insurance, compared to just 40% of migrants.</p>
<p>Similarly, there are often <a href="https://www.undp.org/latin-america/publications/how-do-migrants-fare-latin-america-and-caribbean">barriers</a> limiting access to education for migrants. Foreign-born residents and their family members have the right to access public primary and secondary education in the majority of South American countries. But school attendance rates are lower among displaced children than among native children, while the propensity for dropping out of school early appears to be significantly higher among migrant children.</p>
<p>Some people argue that immigration comes with costs, such as the perceived notion that migrants deprive locals of jobs. Nevertheless, the contribution of migrants to Latin American economies underscores the potential benefits. Improving their access to labour markets is thus a crucial tool for fostering long-term growth in Latin American economies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224880/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jose Caballero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>More than 6 million people have fled Venezuela seeking better living conditions – now they are boosting economic growth in their host countries.Jose Caballero, Senior Economist, IMD World Competitiveness Center, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2251162024-03-11T09:26:55Z2024-03-11T09:26:55ZHow Haiti became a failed state<p>The US military started <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/10/us-report-airlift-embassy-staff-haiti-gangs-fighting-port-au-prince">airlifting</a> embassy staff out of Haiti overnight as the Caribbean island descends further into chaos. Rival gangs have joined forces to overrun the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, in an attempt to force the resignation of the acting president, Ariel Henry. </p>
<p>The gang leader behind the violence, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/06/haiti-gangs-prime-minister">warned</a> there will be a “civil war that will lead to genocide” if Henry does not step down.</p>
<hr>
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<hr>
<p>Over the past week, Haiti’s gangs have carried out a series of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68507837">coordinated attacks</a> on prisons and police stations, breaking more than <a href="https://apnews.com/article/haiti-prison-break-2788f145b0d26efc2aa199e923724e0f">3,800 criminals</a> out of Haiti’s two biggest jails, while also laying siege to the country’s port and airport. </p>
<p>Haiti is already facing a humanitarian crisis. It is among the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/haiti/overview">poorest countries</a> in Latin America and the Caribbean, with <a href="https://www.unicef.org/media/135966/file/Haiti-2022-COAR.pdf">90% of the population</a> living below the poverty line. And following the recent wave of violence, around <a href="https://www.rescue.org/eu/press-release/haiti-violence-grows-ensuring-sufficient-funding-available-key-deliver-humanitarian">15,000 people</a> who were already housed in internal displacement camps have been forced to leave again. </p>
<p>Henry came to power in 2021 under a deal agreed with the opposition following the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/07/haiti-president-jovenel-moise-reportedly-assassinated">assassination</a> of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse. Henry is widely considered illegitimate by the Haitian public and was due to stand down by February 7. But he seems to be <a href="https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/in-haiti-crisis-has-roots-in-history-of-foreign-interference/">extending his stay</a>. </p>
<p>The country last went to the polls in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/29/haiti-presidential-election-result-protest-jovenel-moise">2016</a> and there is no timetable for new elections. Over the past six years, the Haitian parliament has ground to a halt: no major laws have been passed and only one budget was voted on.</p>
<p>The regime is weak and lacks control over the country’s territories, leading to a situation where Haiti finds itself hostage to its criminal gangs. US officials have said they will not pressure Henry to leave, but they are urging him to facilitate the transition to a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/6/us-denies-pressuring-haiti-pm-henry-to-resign-urges-political-transition">democratic government</a>.</p>
<h2>Turbulent history</h2>
<p>Violent gangs are not new to Haiti. Between 1957 and 1986, Haiti was ruled as a dictatorship by the Duvalier family. Following an unsuccessful military coup in 1958, François Duvalier sought to bypass the armed forces by creating a private and personal militia called the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/23/archives/papa-doc-a-ruthless-dictator-kept-the-haitians-in-illiteracy-and.html">“Tonton Macoutes”</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://coha.org/tonton-macoutes/">Macoutes</a> consisted of illiterate fanatics-turned-reckless gunmen acting as a paramiltary force. They were not accountable to any state body or court and were fully empowered to dispose of the paranoid president’s enemies. </p>
<p>The group was dismantled in 1986, but its members continued to terrorise the population. Gangs have been <a href="https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/GITOC-Gangs-of-Haiti.pdf">involved</a> in massacres, attacks on labour strikes or peasant uprisings, and politically motivated assassinations ever since. </p>
<p>Haiti took its first step toward a full democratic transition in 1990, electing Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president. But the Aristide government was overthrown by a <a href="https://nacla.org/news/2021/political-anatomy-haiti-armed-gangs">military coup</a> the following year and the Haitian army was subsequently dismantled. The Haitian army was a highly corrupt force, but doing away with it meant the country could no longer fight organised crime. </p>
<p>By that time, Haitian drug traffickers were <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/extradition-drug-smuggler-underscores-haitis-historical-cocaine-transit-hub-status/">working closely</a> with Colombia’s Medellín Cartel. They were corrupting officials and the police while shifting hundreds of tons of cocaine from Colombia to secluded docks in Haiti and onwards to the US. Drug trafficking became a little known, yet significant source of income for Haiti’s political and business elites who provided protection and logistical support for drug traffickers.</p>
<p>Efforts aimed at disbanding certain armed groups and even the armed forces never fully succeeded. They never disarmed and have converted themselves into far-right vigilantes such as community defence groups and paramilitaries.</p>
<p>Haiti was then struck by an earthquake in 2010. This allowed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/20/haiti-escaped-prisoners-cite-soleil#">thousands of inmates</a> to escape from crumbling jails and take over these self-defence groups. These younger, less politically affiliated and loosely organised gangs are developing into the criminal organisations that are wreaking havoc across Haiti today.</p>
<h2>A state run by gangs</h2>
<p>Gangs have grown rapidly in number over the past few years. An estimated <a href="https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/haiti-gangs-organized-crime/">200 criminal gangs</a> now exist in Haiti, and around 95 in the capital, Port-au-Prince, alone. This has resulted in massive insecurity, kidnappings, and large-scale attacks on the police, politicians, journalists and civilians. </p>
<p>Gangs now tend to be affiliated to two groups. The most prevalent gang structure is that of “G-9 and Family”, a federation of nine gangs led by alias “Barbecue”. Founded in 2020, the G-9 has been <a href="https://insightcrime.org/haiti-organized-crime-news/g9-family-profile/">linked</a> to Moïse and Henry’s Haitian Tèt Kale Party (Parti Haïtien Tèt Kale – PHTK), for whom the federation is alleged to have ensured votes.</p>
<p>The G-9’s focus is mostly on extortion and kidnappings. It has taken taken control of key economic activities, including the main entry and exit points of Port-au-Prince, and critical infrastructure such as ports and oil terminals, charging “protection payments” for any institutions that operate in these areas.</p>
<p>The recent jailbreaks were a joint operation with “G-Pep”, another gang federation that was previously linked to PHTK’s political opponents.</p>
<h2>No end in sight</h2>
<p>To bring this crisis to an end, Haiti needs an elected government. But holding elections in this climate won’t be an easy task, nor will it solve the deep-rooted causes of lawlessness.</p>
<p>The conditions for free and fair elections do not currently exist, and the infrastructure that would make them possible is absent. Equally, any free and fair election should take place in a context where gangs do not intimidate voters to vote in a particular way. </p>
<p>In October 2023, the UN Security Council <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/02/haiti-un-security-force-kenya-gangs">voted</a> to send a Kenyan-led multinational security force to Haiti to reign in the gangs and their spiralling violence. However, the peacekeeping mission has been delayed and no other countries have come forward to provide the resources required to restore peace. </p>
<p>But an election is long overdue, and the status-quo will not solve anything.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicolas Forsans does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Haiti is facing a wave of chaos as gang violence grips the country.Nicolas Forsans, Professor of Management and Co-director of the Centre for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, University of EssexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210612024-03-05T14:00:11Z2024-03-05T14:00:11ZHispanic health disparities in the US trace back to the Spanish Inquisition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578113/original/file-20240226-18-qx2l6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=346%2C479%2C3693%2C2076&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Class, gender and religion influenced health care in early modern Spain and Latin America.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/diego-velazquez-christ-in-the-house-of-martha-and-mary">Diego Velázquez/The National Gallery</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many of the significant <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/06/14/hispanic-americans-experiences-with-health-care/">health disparities and inequities</a> Hispanic communities in the United States face are tied to a long history of health injustice in the Hispanic world.</p>
<p>The health landscape of early modern Hispanic societies, particularly from the late 15th to 18th centuries, was a <a href="https://history.wisc.edu/publications/The-Gray-Zones-of-Medicine-Healers-and-History-in-Latin-america/">complex interplay</a> between professional and nonprofessional providers shaping health care. The convergence of Indigenous, African and European practices, both in Spain and the Americas, affected how clinicians treated their patients.</p>
<p>This all played out against the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CHO9781139032698.009">backdrop of the Inquisition and colonization</a>, when the Catholic Church prosecuted heresy. Consolidating religious norms promoted health care through charitable activity, such as the creation of hospitals, but also created challenges between the authority of the Catholic Church and competing health care initiatives. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bowdoin.edu/profiles/faculty/mboyle2/index.html">My research</a> focuses on how health and medical practices in early modern Latin America and Spain are represented through cultural artifacts, including literature, recipe books, the Inquisition and convent records. In our book, my colleague <a href="https://charleston.edu/spanish/faculty/owens-sarah.php">Sarah Owens</a> and I explore how <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781487505189/health-and-healing-in-the-early-modern-iberian-world/">gender norms affected</a> medicine and health care. We also consider how popular representations of health and medicine in culture inform widely held beliefs and biases about these experiences.</p>
<p>Understanding the historical roots of health disparities in Hispanic communities can <a href="https://salud-america.org">help address them</a> both locally and globally today. </p>
<h2>Interplay of medical practices</h2>
<p>Latin America and Spain in the late 15th to 18th centuries were home to a <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Medical-Cultures-of-the-Early-Modern-Spanish-Empire/Slater-Lopez-Terrada-Pardo-Tomas/p/book/9780367669225">number of medical practices</a>, including traditional medical knowledge and remedies and the professionalization of medicine through new universities and licensing systems. </p>
<p>Early modern <a href="https://doi.org/10.4000/aes.3633">medical humanists</a>, or Renaissance clinicians, took up medical treatises by the ancient Greek and Roman physicians, including those of Galen and Hippocrates, and revived them in the context of “learned” medical instruction through European universities. The study of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139027649.015">Paracelsianism</a>, or the theories of Swiss physician Paracelsus, though more contested among practitioners because of its connections to the supernatural and occult, also affected a variety of health practices across early modern Spain and colonial Latin America. With the publication of anatomical treatises at the start of the 16th century, including the work of Renaissance physician <a href="https://lccn.loc.gov/2021667096">Andreas Vesalius</a>, the study of anatomy slowly and dramatically changed medical practice.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578303/original/file-20240227-28-t93eef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black and white engraving of four people surrounding the bedside of a man lying prone, with one of the people tending to a wound on his back by candlelight" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578303/original/file-20240227-28-t93eef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578303/original/file-20240227-28-t93eef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578303/original/file-20240227-28-t93eef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578303/original/file-20240227-28-t93eef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=797&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578303/original/file-20240227-28-t93eef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578303/original/file-20240227-28-t93eef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578303/original/file-20240227-28-t93eef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1002&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 18th century engraving depicts a woman soothing a wound on Don Quixote’s back.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/yca32vbf/images?id=j557f5kw">William Hogarth/Wellcome Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Traditional healing practices varied significantly but often provided accessible and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/heq.2021.0099">culturally compatible care</a>, including reduced language barriers. Many people in Hispanic communities still rely on these practices today. Discussions about the legitimacy and health effects of folk remedies in Latin America, such as varieties of herbal and holistic medicine and other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-7-9">animal-based remedies</a>, are ongoing.</p>
<h2>Gender and medicine</h2>
<p>As health care became more professionalized during the early modern period, some women found ways to practice medicine in more formalized contexts, while others continued to work as healers or herbalists. These practices alternated between <a href="https://iberian-connections.yale.edu/articles/healing-in-madrid/">success and suspicion</a> during the Spanish Inquisition. Accusations of sorcery and witchcraft along with sexualities outside heterosexual norms often collided with practices of health and medicine. </p>
<p>But just as pregnancy and child–rearing are not the only medical events that shaped early modern women’s lives, women medical providers <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781487505189/health-and-healing-in-the-early-modern-iberian-world/">weren’t only witches</a>. Nuns in Arequipa prepared treatments in convents, and mothers and daughters made medicine within households in Madrid.</p>
<p>From Fernando de Rojas’ 1499 tragicomedy “<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/1xhs-0330">La Celestina</a>,” about the go-between who crafts love potions and repairs hymens, to the 2019 Colombian TV series “<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80205595">Siempre Bruja</a>,” about a 17th century Afro-Colombian witch who finds herself in present-day Cartagena, the cultural legacy of witchy women healers in the Hispanic world continues to be deeply felt.</p>
<h2>Class, race, geography and language</h2>
<p>The transfer of plants, animals and diseases across the Atlantic also profoundly affected health outcomes. </p>
<p>European diseases <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/latamcaribbean/2020/08/07/the-history-of-epidemics-in-latin-america-has-much-to-tell-us-about-covid-19/">such as smallpox</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-smallpox-devastated-the-aztecs-and-helped-spain-conquer-an-american-civilization-500-years-ago-111579">devastated Indigenous populations</a>. Meanwhile, plants from the Americas offered <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/34839?language=en">novel treatments</a> for a number of illnesses globally. Peruvian <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-10-144">cinchona bark</a> is a natural source of quinine that proved effective against malaria, a disease prevalent in both Europe and the Americas. Other plants <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781487527204/chocolate/">such as cacao seeds</a> found various medicinal and ritual uses, including relieving exhaustion or anxiety or improving weight gain.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5FpPpn086eI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Columbian Exchange was not mutually beneficial.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But access to this range of treatment methods was unequal, especially <a href="https://nursingclio.org/2018/02/22/health-care-in-colonial-peruvian-convents/">across social class and geography</a>. Wealthier nobility in urban centers often had much greater access to scarce resources across the Iberian empire. </p>
<p>Health outcomes were also often linked to <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469630878/the-experiential-caribbean/">racial and ethnic hierarchies</a>. Patients were classified as Spanish, mestizo – mixed European and Indigenous – or African slaves in treatment records. These documents show evidence of uneven access to care, while there is also evidence that some exchanges in care practices <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0424.12553">across these hierarchies</a> were possible.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578307/original/file-20240227-20-vpjsg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Yellowed manuscript with written text inscribed in ink down the page" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578307/original/file-20240227-20-vpjsg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578307/original/file-20240227-20-vpjsg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578307/original/file-20240227-20-vpjsg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578307/original/file-20240227-20-vpjsg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=915&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578307/original/file-20240227-20-vpjsg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1149&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578307/original/file-20240227-20-vpjsg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1149&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578307/original/file-20240227-20-vpjsg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1149&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Grammar of the Castilian Language’ codified Spanish.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667003">Antonio De Nebrija/World Digital Library via Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Forced displacement as well as language discrimination also affected health access and outcomes. Spanish wasn’t <a href="https://www.publicbooks.org/whose-spanish-anyway/">standardized as a language</a> until the publication of Antonio de Nebrija’s “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44015843">Grammar of the Castilian Language</a>” in 1492, inscribed to Queen Isabel with the reminder that “language has always been the companion to empire.” </p>
<p>For example, while Arabic and Hebrew were widely spoken throughout the Iberian Peninsula before the forced expulsions of the Inquisition, politics around language resulted in centuries of stereotypes and discrimination against Muslim and Jewish medical providers, who had to navigate <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Medicine-Government-and-Public-Health-in-Philip-IIs-Spain-Shared-Interests/Clouse/p/book/9781138246379">alternative licensing methods</a> to practice medicine in Spain and its colonial territories. </p>
<h2>Understanding the story of medicine</h2>
<p>More than 400 years later, inequities in and commodification of Hispanic health and wellness continue. </p>
<p>Luxury travelers are sold wellness via <a href="https://oursoulfultravels.com/wellness-spas-in-mexico/">Mayan purification rituals</a>, among other assorted local remedies and practices that can be purchased, marketed and monetized. Wood from the Palo Santo tree, which healers have used for centuries for spiritual cleanings and pain relief, continues to be grown all over the Americas, including Mexico, Peru and Ecuador, and is now bought and sold globally to bring “<a href="https://www.womenshealthmag.com/life/a30793415/what-is-palo-santo/">good vibes</a>.”</p>
<p>Considering these early modern health practices and inequities allows for deeper engagement with health care systems today. Informed critical thinking about medicine and health care <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/10/16/2018-jefferson-lecture-focuses-contribution-humanities-medicine">across disciplines</a> is a powerful way to consider how these histories continue to shape current values and practices, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.5744/florida/9781683402619.001.0001">ongoing disparities in health care</a>.</p>
<p>One such discipline is <a href="https://theconversation.com/literature-inspired-my-medical-career-why-the-humanities-are-needed-in-health-care-217357">narrative medicine</a>. Using the tools of the humanities, physicians can broaden their view of their patients from simple metrics to human beings with stories to tell. This process involves perceiving and incorporating patients’ personal experiences, valuing narration of the past and recognizing the significance of the encounter between doctor and patient. While much of this research focuses on English-language narratives, cross-cultural and bilingual research <a href="https://www.lclark.edu/live/news/48656-neh-grant-to-support-bilingual-materials-for">in Spanish</a> is expanding the field. </p>
<p>It is estimated that by 2060 there will be more than <a href="https://latino.ucla.edu/research/latino-population-2000-2020/">111 million Latinos</a> in the United States. Understanding the historical legacies that have shaped wellness and care practices, including the factors that determine care quality and access, can promote more equitable and culturally nuanced health outcomes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221061/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margaret Boyle received funding from the Fulbright Program and the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship for this research.</span></em></p>Early modern societies in Latin America and Spain saw a convergence of traditional medical knowledge and the professionalization of medicine. The resulting differences in access to care endure today.Margaret Boyle, Associate Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Director of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies Program, Bowdoin CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2237812024-02-23T16:56:58Z2024-02-23T16:56:58ZJavier Milei: Argentina’s new president presses ahead with economic ‘shock therapy’ as social unrest grows<p>Only weeks into his term, Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei, seems to be making good on his promise to <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-argentinian-president-javier-milei-promises-to-take-a-chainsaw-to-countrys-crippled-economy-218155">put a chainsaw</a> to the country’s crisis-ridden economy. In his inaugural address, Milei <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/11/argentinas-javier-milei-tells-nation-to-brace-for-painful-economic-shock">told the nation</a>: “There is no alternative to shock.” He dissolved half of the country’s ministries days later, and implemented a 50% devaluation of the peso.</p>
<p>But amid massive spending cuts, prices <a href="https://buenosairesherald.com/economics/argentina-starts-2024-with-a-20-6-monthly-inflation-rate#:%7E:text=Argentina%27s%20monthly%20inflation%20rate%20reached,the%20peso%20on%20December%2012">continue to spiral</a>. Argentina’s annual rate of inflation has <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3bee368d-6b02-4659-85dd-e63eb1f224b6">reached</a> a three-decade high of 254.2%. Milei blames the poor economy on years of mismanagement, and has warned his compatriots to <a href="https://buenosairesherald.com/economics/oecd-argentina-inflation-projected-to-hit-251-in-2024">expect more pain</a> before any gains will be felt. </p>
<p>While many support his measures, there are clear signs of disconnect. His government suffered the earliest general strike in history, conceding the streets to masses of protestors. More alarming for Milei, his all-reaching “omnibus law”, which ranged from economic policy to the privatisation of state entities, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/02/argentinas-lower-house-votes-for-javier-mileis-sweeping-reform-package">failed to get sanctioned</a> by a divided National Congress in which he lacks a majority.</p>
<p>However, this resistance seems only to be emboldening the president. His plan to dollarize the currency, which some dismissed as mere electoral strategy, now seems likely to come <a href="https://www.ambito.com/finanzas/dolar-los-gurues-argentina-va-camino-una-dolarizacion-y-advierten-caida-salarios-n5948359">sooner than expected</a>. Milei has also launched a “cultural war” against his critics including Lali Espósito, a well-known <a href="https://english.elpais.com/people/2024-02-17/why-argentinas-president-hates-pop-diva-lali-esposito.html">Argentine pop star</a>. But unless the economy picks up soon, he may be fighting a growing mass of unhappy citizens.</p>
<h2>Echoes of the past</h2>
<p>Shock therapy – involving the sudden removal of trade barriers and labour protection, and the implementation of drastic fiscal policies – is not new in Argentina. It was integral to the last dictatorship’s economic plan (1976-1983), who had learned from the pioneer in shock therapy: Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. In both cases, an eventual debt crisis followed. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, the then-Argentinian president, Carlos Menem, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-07-10-mn-2611-story.html">announced</a> “major surgery without anaesthesia” on the economy. Failing to curb escalating inflation, it took currency “convertibility” – pegging the peso to the dollar – to break that cycle. But this generated new public debt, chronic stagnation, high levels of unemployment, and provoked the largest sovereign <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41800185?seq=2">default</a> in history.</p>
<p>Shock therapy is not only a Latin American phenomenon. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-painful-post-soviet-transition-from-communism-to-capitalism-recovery-podcast-series-part-five-141718">collapse of the Soviet Union</a> led to a rapid transition from state-based to free market economies for a large part of the world’s population. </p>
<p>In Poland, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Balcerowicz-Plan">Balcerowicz Plan</a> provoked an initial hike in inflation before eventually stabilising the economy based on free market capitalism – although <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=676661">new inequalities</a> and social problems were on the way.</p>
<h2>Milei’s challenge</h2>
<p>Two features distinguish Milei’s shock therapy. First, he has a comparatively <a href="https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/argentinas-new-congress-will-condition-mileis-bid-for-reform.phtml">weak political position</a> – particularly in Congress. Second, it is unclear how much of Argentina’s population is prepared to <a href="https://pulsar.uba.ar/en-que-creemos-los-argentinos-segundo-informe/">support his measures</a>, as memory of the crisis looms close in the public imagination. </p>
<p>Milei has already introduced massive spending cuts, including a reduction of salaries and pensions via both inflation and suspending funding to subnational governments to pay salaries and subsidies. He has also launched an ambitious project to reset the Argentine economy, which includes the privatisation of all public companies, liberalisation of trade, and deregulation of labour.</p>
<p>Social opposition was immediate. Despite the government discouraging mobilisation by banning road blocks and large public gatherings, spontaneous protests took place in cities across the country. Labour organisations and trade unions have <a href="https://theconversation.com/workers-in-argentina-face-the-biggest-blow-to-their-employment-rights-since-the-military-dictatorship-of-the-1970s-220611">provided the largest resistance</a>, through declarations, protests and legal claims. </p>
<p>Then, on January 24, when Milei was barely a month into office, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/24/world/americas/argentina-union-strike-javier-milei.html?searchResultPosition=6">general strike</a> was called. The strike, which included even Argentina’s more conservative unions, brought the country to a standstill.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Milei has faced <a href="https://buenosairesherald.com/politics/traitors-milei-rails-against-deputies-who-rejected-omnibus-bill-articles">resistance in Congress</a>. His omnibus law was expected to collect support from centre-right parties and subnational governors in need of national funding. However, Milei’s dogmatism prevented the government from accepting the changes requested by its potential allies, and the bill collapsed. </p>
<p>Since taking office, Milei has had a fragile relationship with governors and deputies, calling lawmakers a “delinquent cast set out to get bribes and perpetuate the decadent status quo”.</p>
<p>Instead of taking advantage of his strong electoral victory and fragmented opposition parties, he has provoked <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/07/argentina-milei-lashes-out-at-governors-after-key-reform-bill-setback.html">confrontation</a> and ever-unified resistance. <a href="https://zubancordoba.com/portfolio/informe-nacional-febrero-2024/">Public opinion</a> also seems to be turning, as the proportion of people living in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/more-more-hunger-argentinas-soup-kitchens-brink-collapse-high-inflation-2024-02-14/">poverty</a> has shot up from 45% to <a href="https://www.pagina12.com.ar/713507-mas-de-la-mitad-de-los-argentinos-son-pobres">almost 60%</a>. </p>
<p>With a sluggish economy, it is difficult to imagine how the president will find the necessary support for his shock therapy. </p>
<h2>Dollarization: Milei’s big gamble</h2>
<p>The most ambitious, yet unpredictable, element is Milei’s well-publicised <a href="https://www.forbesargentina.com/today/javier-milei-estamos-857-chances-poder-dolarizar-n48017">plan to dollarize</a> the currency. He claims this will generate hope and reboot a competitive economy, with the middle class able to travel and buy imported goods at ease. </p>
<p>But, based on current exchange rates, the <a href="https://www.argentina.gob.ar/trabajo/consejodelsalario">average wage</a> is set to be just US$218 (£171) per month, and this is likely to fall further following <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-22/investors-bet-argentina-crawling-peg-to-speed-up-to-6-by-april">expected devaluations</a> in the coming months.</p>
<p>If the plan fails, Milei can expect resistance to be mighty. Argentina has a deep history of popular uprisings. In 2001, five presidents <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1470-9856.00072">resigned</a> in the space of two weeks, with one of them escaping the Pink House (the president’s official workplace) in a <a href="https://www.telam.com.ar/notas/202112/577661-helicoptero-de-la-rua-derrumbe-convertibilidad.html">helicopter</a>. </p>
<p>Since then, despite regular protest and crisis, all governments have finished their terms and pursued their economic policies. Will Milei break the mould and be thrown out of office early? Or will he be able to show Argentinians a real economic turnaround before patience runs out?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Argentina is already feeling the sting of its new president’s policies – but Javier Milei is pressing ahead with ever-more radical plans to overhaul the economy.Sam Halvorsen, Reader in Human Geography, Queen Mary University of LondonSebastián Mauro, Associate professor, Universidad de Buenos AiresLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2231412024-02-20T13:17:39Z2024-02-20T13:17:39ZHow Lula’s big-tent pragmatism won over Brazil again – with a little help from a backlash to Bolsonaro<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576290/original/file-20240217-26-3ec1u6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C58%2C5473%2C2740&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brazilian President Lula greets journalists, in Brasilia, one year after rioters stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court buildings.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXBrazilRiotsOneYear/ba4ead6af3f84bd587b23503bf8dd425/photo?Query=lula&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=7372&currentItemNo=41">AP Photo/Eraldo Peres</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A year is a long time in Brazilian politics.</p>
<p>When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/01/01/1146518711/leftist-lula-brazil-sworn-in-president">assumed office in Brazil for a third time</a> in January 2023, many <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-02/lula-faces-challenges-in-brazil-after-win-over-bolsonaro?sref=Hjm5biAW">observers were pessimistic</a> about the returning president’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/31/luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva-presidential-victory-brazil-sweet-govern">chances of governing successfully</a>. </p>
<p>The president, now 78 years old, had recently defeated <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/08/world/americas/jair-bolsonaro-brazil.html">Jair Bolsonaro</a>, the hard-right former president, by a narrow margin – <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-votes-heated-bolsonaro-vs-lula-presidential-runoff-2022-10-30/">50.9% to 49.1%</a>. But despite that victory, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-politics-brazil-government-florida-state-south-america-8d7e202b93b6cba7196c4baba32b6452">many Brazilian state governments</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/right-wing-wins-brazils-congress-show-staying-power-bolsonarismo-2022-10-03/">as well as the country’s Congress</a>, remained dominated by followers of Bolsonaro.</p>
<p>Following his electoral loss in 2022, Bolsonaro <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/brazil-president-jair-bolsonaro-declines-to-concede-defeat">refused at first to acknowledge defeat</a>. He <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-bolsonaro-says-no-justification-attempted-terrorist-act-capital-2022-12-30/">declined to take part</a> in the traditional passing of the presidential sash during Lula’s Jan. 1, 2023, inauguration ceremony.</p>
<p>Then a week later, on Jan. 8, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters <a href="https://theconversation.com/democracy-under-attack-in-brazil-5-questions-about-the-storming-of-congress-and-the-role-of-the-military-197396">invaded and vandalized</a> Brazil’s presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court buildings in Brasília, the capital, in an <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/09/1230337023/a-former-president-in-brazil-is-accused-of-trying-to-overturn-his-election-defea">alleged attempt to trigger a state of siege and annul</a> Lula’s win.</p>
<p>The attempted insurrection failed but nonetheless left a lingering gloom about the state of politics in Brazil.</p>
<p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/brazil-bolsonaro-riots-anniversary-one-year-b49854a5bc0c3ee82aefca6b719c51b1">A year later</a>, the pessimism seems to have been unwarranted.</p>
<h2>Political unity</h2>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://www.atlasintel.org/polls/general-release-polls">Atlas Intel poll</a>, 52% of Brazilians said they <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-06/brazil-s-lula-starts-second-year-with-popularity-on-the-rise?sref=Hjm5biAW">approve of Lula’s performance</a>, while 58% responded that they see the government’s performance as “very good,” “good” or “OK.” In contrast, 39% described it as “bad” or “very bad.”</p>
<p>How has Lula’s administration managed, at least so far, to beat expectations?</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TY-ajWEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar of Brazilian politics</a>, I believe his popularity has a lot to do with what happened on Jan. 8, 2023. The attack in Brasilia has apparently <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-08/a-year-after-brazil-capital-riots-bolsonaro-s-right-wing-movement-seeks-rebrand?sref=Hjm5biAW">defused the right-wing threat</a> to Lula’s hold on power. With a police investigation in February 2024 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/world/americas/brazil-police-raid-bolsonaro-attempted-coup-investigation.html">zeroing in on Bolsonaro and his inner circle</a>, the former president appears to be in no position to mount a challenge.</p>
<p>At the same time, Lula has kept his <a href="https://time.com/6226269/how-lula-won-brazil-election/">broad coalition</a> largely intact by working with pragmatic members of Congress who don’t belong to his leftist political party to build and maintain a legislative majority.</p>
<p>The Jan. 8 attack was followed by a <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/01/in-brazil-another-way-to-remember-an-attempted-coup/">show of political unity</a> in Brazil. Most politicians, including many who supported Bolsonaro’s reelection, condemned the assault on democracy. </p>
<p>Similarly, a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/12/americas/brazil-riots-condemned-polling-intl/index.html">large majority</a> of Brazilians condemned the attack and approved of measures to investigate and prosecute those behind the attempted coup.</p>
<p>Here, too, Lula appears to have played his hand well. Rather than use the opportunity to purge Bolsonaro supporters from key positions in the government, he refrained from installing his own loyalists.</p>
<p>For example, when the governor of the Federal District, Ibaneis Rocha, was suspended over his handling of the unrest, his vice governor – a <a href="https://opopular.com.br/politica/conheca-celina-le-o-bolsonarista-goiana-que-assume-o-governo-do-df-no-lugar-de-ibaneis-rocha-1.2592425">Bolsonaro supporter – was allowed to replace him</a>.</p>
<h2>Bolsonaro’s convictions</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, the investigation and prosecution of Bolsonaro and his inner circle have <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/02/13/world/politics/bolsonaro-coup-probe-brazil-opposition/">weakened the political right</a>.</p>
<p>Bolsonaro was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/30/americas/bolsonaro-court-abuse-of-power-ruling-intl-latam/index.html">convicted of abusing political power and misusing public media</a> in June 2023. That case dealt with a meeting before the 2022 elections in which he told foreign ambassadors that Brazil’s electronic voting system was subject to fraud and that the Supreme Court was prepared to favor Lula.</p>
<p>Due to that conviction, Bolsonaro, who is now 68 years old, cannot run for office for the next eight years.</p>
<p>In October 2023, Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court <a href="https://en.mercopress.com/2023/11/02/bolsonaro-and-braga-netto-guilty-of-politically-using-independence-day-celebrations">convicted Bolsonaro again</a>, this time for abusing political power during an independence day celebration.</p>
<p>As of February 2024, Brazil’s Federal Police are investigating the Bolsonaro administration’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/brazil-ramagem-bolsonaro-police-spying-18d039c5e111e18341afe8ee2fb4428d">alleged use of an intelligence agency to spy on its political enemies</a> and the alleged attempt of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/brazil-police-bolsonaro-allies-search-coup-a060e6570a03f9b094ebdcfa2847736d">some Bolsonaro insiders to subvert</a> the results of the 2022 elections. </p>
<p>While such investigations could be perceived as political, Lula’s government has been somewhat insulated from such criticism because Brazil’s government can influence, but not control, its judiciary.</p>
<p>Moreover Lula has stressed the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/22/brazils-incoming-president-lula-unveils-more-cabinet-picks">collaborative nature of his administration</a>, presenting it as a <a href="https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article8106">coalition government that is not ruled exclusively by his party</a>.</p>
<h2>Broad coalition</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://valorinternational.globo.com/politics/news/2022/10/30/with-small-governing-coalition-lula-will-have-to-negotiate-with-opposition.ghtml">center-left coalition of 10 parties</a> that backed Lula’s presidential bid has grown since he took office. Two cabinet positions even went to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-lula-adds-bolsonaro-supporters-to-cabinet/a-66741324">politicians who had supported Bolsonaro in the past</a>.</p>
<p>Lula’s party, the Partido dos Trabalhadores, or Workers’ Party, holds only six of the 31 cabinet positions. And the president has had to exert his influence over his own party to keep dissenting voices within it at bay.</p>
<p>Lula’s willingness to work with Congress and his big tent approach to consensus-building starkly contrast with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/03/25/bolsonaro-return-brazil/">Bolsonaro’s political polarization</a>.</p>
<p>On Feb. 1, 2023, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-brazil-government-caribbean-democracy-02535a22bdeaf2b24e04bb1a20638597">Rodrigo Pacheco, the Senate’s president, and Arthur Lira</a>, who is president of Brazil’s lower house of Congress, were reelected. Lula chose to support their candidacies despite both men being allied with Bolsonaro in the 2022 election campaign.</p>
<p>Once the congressional term began, Lula was able to use his experience and personal relationships with lawmakers to build the majorities that now support his agenda.</p>
<p>Lula has <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2023/12/05/world-bank-to-support-new-phase-of-brazil-s-bolsa-familia-program">revived his signature Bolsa Familia program</a>, which provides 21 million families – more than a quarter of the population – with an average of R$670 reais (US$136) per month. Brazil has <a href="https://wageindicator.org/salary/minimum-wage/minimum-wages-news/2024/general-minimum-wage-revised-in-brazil-from-01-january-2024-january-08-2024">increased the minimum wage</a> in real terms and is <a href="https://apnews.com/article/brazil-economy-lula-tax-congress-522843f46c3b904ed33cf8940785fe46">streamlining and simplifying its tax system</a> in ways that will help individual taxpayers and businesses. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576291/original/file-20240217-20-hmntpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A short man in a suit salutes while surrounded by other men in suits, clasping a tall one's hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576291/original/file-20240217-20-hmntpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576291/original/file-20240217-20-hmntpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576291/original/file-20240217-20-hmntpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576291/original/file-20240217-20-hmntpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576291/original/file-20240217-20-hmntpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576291/original/file-20240217-20-hmntpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576291/original/file-20240217-20-hmntpk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lula waves while shaking hands with Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco in November 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-brazil-government-caribbean-democracy-02535a22bdeaf2b24e04bb1a20638597">AP Photo/Eraldo Peres</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Stability is a big plus</h2>
<p>What makes the popularity and repositioning of Lula as a unity leader all the more remarkable is that the left-wing politican was himself seen as a divisive figure not too long ago. But Bolsonaro’s presidency changed the tenor of Brazilian politics.</p>
<p>Most Brazilians today appear to want to overcome the divisions Bolsonaro promoted and favor stability and predictable policies over seeing their own side dominate the government.</p>
<p>Lula’s popularity has also benefited from <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-05/brazil-economy-grows-slightly-in-third-quarter-as-slowdown-looms?sref=Hjm5biAW">Brazil’s economy, which performed far better in 2023</a> than many economists had expected.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/brazil-inflation-ends-2023-in-target-range-286aa1aa">Inflation fell to 4.6%</a> at the end of 2023, less than half the <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/brazil/core-inflation-rate">pace it was running a year earlier</a>. Gross domestic product <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=BR">grew 3% last year, about the same rate as in 2022</a>. And <a href="https://agenciadenoticias.ibge.gov.br/en/agencia-press-room/2185-news-agency/releases-en/39208-quarterly-continuous-pnad-unemployment-retreats-in-two-fus-in-q4-2023">unemployment fell to 7.4%</a>, the <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.UEM.TOTL.NE.ZS?locations=BR">lowest level since 2014</a>. </p>
<p>The strong economy has helped boost Lula’s popularity because he has been able to assure centrists that he’s governing responsibly.</p>
<p>In politics, as with investing, past performance does not guarantee future returns. But for now, Lula’s pragmatic coalition-building and his careful negotiations with Congress are paying off.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223141/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Pereira has received funding from the Inter-American Foundation and the Organization of American States.</span></em></p>The third-term president has used his experience and personal relationships with lawmakers to build the majorities that now support his agenda.Anthony Pereira, Director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2229592024-02-13T13:21:38Z2024-02-13T13:21:38ZIn the face of severe challenges, democracy is under stress – but still supported – across Latin America and the Caribbean<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575051/original/file-20240212-22-f6zizy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C179%2C5700%2C3615&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters in El Salvador declare 'Yes to democracy. No to authoritarianism' during a demonstration on Jan. 14, 2024.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/women-walk-holding-up-a-sign-with-the-legend-yes-to-news-photo/1925903965?adppopup=true">PHOTOGRAFIA/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Threats to economic and physical security have become persistent and pervasive across Latin America and the Caribbean – and that is affecting the way people view the state of democracy in the region.</p>
<p>Those are among the findings of the latest <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/about-americasbarometer.php">AmericasBarometer</a>, a study of the experiences and attitudes of people across the Western Hemisphere that we conduct every two years along with other members of Vanderbilt University’s <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/">LAPOP Lab</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">2023 round of AmericasBarometer</a>, which includes nationally representative surveys of 39,074 individuals across 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, reveals widespread pessimism and adversity, decreased satisfaction with the status quo, and yet also resilience in popular support for democracy.</p>
<h2>Elevated economic and physical insecurity</h2>
<p>Across the region, just shy of two-thirds of adults (64%) think the national economic situation in their country has worsened. Remarkably, 32% report that they have run out of food in the last three months, an indicator of food insecurity that tracks with <a href="https://www.paho.org/en/news/9-11-2023-new-report-432-million-people-suffer-hunger-latin-america-and-caribbean-and-region">estimates reported by the Pan-American Health Organization</a>.</p>
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<p>Two in five people feel unsafe in their neighborhoods, and nearly one-quarter – 22% – report having been the victim of a crime in the past 12 months. Homicide rates in the region <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/behind-a-rise-in-latin-americas-violent-crime-a-deadly-flow-of-illegal-guns/">have also been rising</a>.</p>
<p>In brief, despite variation among different countries, the average resident of the region has been facing elevated economic and physical security challenges for over a decade, our surveys have found.</p>
<p>The factors generating and sustaining this reality are complex.</p>
<p>In the mid-2010s, a global economic <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres15_e/pr752_e.htm">commodity boom ended</a>, and the region’s economic recovery has been thwarted by <a href="https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/latin-america-economic-growth/">structural issues</a>, including <a href="https://www.undp.org/latin-america/publications/trapped-inequality-and-economic-growth-latin-america-and-caribbean">low productivity and high income inequality</a>. Economic recovery has been further hampered by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/the-corruption-scandal-started-in-brazil-now-its-wreaking-havoc-in-peru/2018/01/23/0f9bc4ca-fad2-11e7-9b5d-bbf0da31214d_story.html">major corruption scandals</a>, <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/REO/WH/Issues/2023/10/13/regional-economic-outlook-western-hemisphere-october-2023">crime and violence</a>, and <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/effects-covid-19-latin-americas-economy">the COVID-19 pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>The implications of a sustained economic slump are stark. In nearly every Latin American and Caribbean country, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">food insecurity has increased in the past decade</a>.</p>
<p>The uptick in crime and insecurity is similarly driven by a range of factors, including <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics/crime/GIVAS_Final_Report.pdf">economic crises</a> and the growth of <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/behind-a-rise-in-latin-americas-violent-crime-a-deadly-flow-of-illegal-guns/">well-armed transnational criminal syndicates</a>. In Ecuador, as one extreme example shows, a shocking <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">36% of adults report having been the victim</a> of at least one crime in the past year, an 11-percentage-point increase from just two years ago.</p>
<h2>Disillusionment is a challenge to democracy</h2>
<p>These problems could spell trouble for democracy in the region.</p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/how-can-latin-america-halt-its-democratic-backsliding-and-how-can-the-us-help/">experts have predicted</a> that financial stress and food insecurity could contribute to political unrest in the region in the coming years. The threat of organized crime and gang violence may also <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/organized-crime-threat-latin-american-democracies">fuel a desire for authoritarian leadership</a>. </p>
<p>Globally, <a href="https://www.v-dem.net/documents/29/V-dem_democracyreport2023_lowres.pdf">democracy appears to be on the defensive</a>. Within the Latin America and the Caribbean, countries such as Brazil, El Salvador, Haiti and Nicaragua have registered <a href="https://www.v-dem.net/documents/29/V-dem_democracyreport2023_lowres.pdf">recent turns toward authoritarianism</a>.</p>
<p>Our results show that disillusionment with the democratic status quo is strikingly high in the region, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">with only 40% thinking democracy is working</a>. This low level of satisfaction has appeared in our surveys for the past 10 years.</p>
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<p>Although the root causes are debated, disillusionment with the status quo <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/opinion/international-world/democracy-latin-america.html">fuels support for populist leaders</a> with autocratic tendencies. El Salvador stands as an example of how disillusionment can undermine democracy. President Nayib Bukele was reelected on Feb. 4, 2024, with what appears to be over <a href="https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-nayib-bukele-president-reelection-ef04e20d901908099f4f787b841aca89">80% of the vote</a> while overtly flaunting democratic norms.</p>
<p>During his first term, Bukele tackled high levels of gang violence with policies that <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/latin-america-erupts-millennial-authoritarianism-in-el-salvador/">undermined checks and balances and civil liberties</a>. He cheekily <a href="https://www.eltiempo.com/mundo/latinoamerica/presidente-bukele-dice-que-es-el-dictador-mas-cool-del-mundo-619795">referred to himself on social media as a “dictator”</a>, while his running mate spoke of their <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/world/americas/el-salvador-bukele-election.html">program to eliminate democracy</a>.</p>
<p>There is no denying that Bukele’s strongman approach has delivered results: Our survey finds that 84% of Salvadorans feel secure in their neighborhood, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/raw-data.php">compared with just 54% in 2018</a>, the year before Bukele was elected. Food insecurity remains a challenge, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">with 28%</a> reporting they have experienced running out of food; yet that statistic is slightly lower in 2023 than it was in 2012, in contrast to the upward trend in nearly all other countries.</p>
<h2>Democracy retains popular support</h2>
<p>Despite general gloom about how well democracy is performing, there is reason for optimism: Support for democratic governance has largely held steady over the last decade of our survey.</p>
<p>Across the region, on average, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">58% say that they believe democracy is the best form of government</a>. This is approximately the same percentage we have recorded since 2016. In all but three countries – Guatemala, Honduras and Suriname – majorities say they prefer democracy.</p>
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<p>Although the <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/how-can-latin-america-halt-its-democratic-backsliding-and-how-can-the-us-help/">possibility of democratic backsliding looms</a>, most countries in the region have yet to undergo significant overhauls to their political or economic systems. And as former U.S. ambassador to Peru, Colombia and Brazil <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/inflection-point-challenges-facing-latin-america-and-us-policy-region">P. Michael McKinley noted</a> in a recent article, a slate of radical proposals by new leaders in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico proved unpopular and were rejected by voters, courts and legislatures. In these cases, democratic institutions are doing their job.</p>
<p>Democratic governance also delivers something that strongman populist governments do not: widespread freedom of speech.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2021/2021_LAPOP_AmericasBarometer_2021_Pulse_of_Democracy.pdf">2021 AmericasBarometer regional report</a> highlighted <a href="https://theconversation.com/support-for-democracy-is-waning-across-the-americas-174992">the value the public places on freedom of speech</a>. Vast majorities say they would not trade away freedom of speech for material well-being.</p>
<p>In 2023, we see that in countries with strongman populist leaders, those who disapprove of the president report strikingly high levels of concern about freedom of speech. In El Salvador, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">89% of government critics say they have too little freedom</a> to express their political views without fear, up from 70% in 2016.</p>
<p>In the face of significant challenges, Latin America and the Caribbean is at a crossroads between the allure of strongman populist leadership and a commitment to democratic institutions and processes. For now, at least, an enduring belief in democracy may facilitate <a href="https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-nayib-bukele-president-reelection-ef04e20d901908099f4f787b841aca89">efforts by leaders in</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/06/us/politics/biden-democracy-threat.html">outside the region</a> to champion and strengthen democratic governance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222959/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noam Lupu co-directs the AmericasBarometer, which has been supported by grants from USAID, the US National Science Foundation, and the Inter-American Development Bank. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or any other funding agency.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth J. Zechmeister co-directs the AmericasBarometer, which has been supported by grants from USAID, the US National Science Foundation, and the Inter-American Development Bank. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or any other funding agency.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Plutowski is a staff member at LAPOP Lab, the lab responsible for the AmericasBarometer, which has been supported by grants from USAID, the US National Science Foundation, and the Inter-American Development Bank. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or any other funding agency.</span></em></p>A survey of people across 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean found widespread concern over the economy and crime.Noam Lupu, Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of LAPOP Lab, Vanderbilt UniversityElizabeth J. Zechmeister, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science and Director of LAPOP, Vanderbilt UniversityLuke Plutowski, Senior Statistician and Research Lead, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210922024-01-29T13:36:08Z2024-01-29T13:36:08ZEl Salvador voters set to trade democracy for promise of security in presidential election<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571693/original/file-20240126-23-8oa48x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C424%2C3165%2C1990&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">El Salvador President Nayib Bukele looks set to be reelected.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-of-el-salvador-nayib-bukele-looks-on-during-the-news-photo/1801400527?adppopup=true">Hector Vivas/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is little doubt who will win the El Salvador presidential election when <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/meet-the-candidates-el-salvador/">voters go to the polls</a> on Feb. 4, 2024.</p>
<p>Incumbent <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0241105c-ab30-40f6-ac87-b879ffb6c84c">Nayib Bukele</a> has the initiative heading into the vote, having made a series of eye-catching decisions <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/04/el-salvador-anti-corruption-candidate-nayib-bukele-wins-presidential-election">since coming to power</a> in 2019, such as making <a href="https://elfaro.net/en/202311/el_salvador/27164/Crypto-Turmoil-Pushes-Bukele-Back-Toward-Traditional-Financial-Institutions.htm">bitcoin legal tender</a>, issuing <a href="https://elfaro.net/tuits/los-tuits-eliminados/">policy through social media</a>, and most significantly, declaring a nationwide “<a href="https://www.wola.org/2022/09/corruption-state-of-emergency-el-salvador/">state of emergency</a>” in response to gang violence.</p>
<p>The Bitcoin experiment has <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/13/el-salvadors-bitcoin-holdings-down-60percent-to-60-million-one-year-later.html">all but failed</a>. But that hasn’t dented his prospects of victory.</p>
<p>The reason: A majority of Salvadorans <a href="https://uca.edu.sv/iudop/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Bol.-Eva-de-anio-2023.pdf">feel safer</a> than they have in years. Under Bukele’s <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/09/12/the-rise-of-nayib-bukele-el-salvadors-authoritarian-president">authoritarian rule</a>, the homicide rate has officially decreased, many street vendors no longer pay a gang tax, and taxi drivers aren’t as worried about hijackings or assault. And that has led to Bukele’s widespread popularity across the country. In an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvadors-bukele-looks-set-cruise-controversial-presidential-reelection-poll-2024-01-16/">early January 2024 poll</a>, the incumbent was ahead by 71%. He is, in other words, a shoo-in.</p>
<p>But this sense of safety has come at a cost. Bukele’s program to curb crime has led to an erosion of civil rights – <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-07-30/bukeles-hell-in-el-salvador-a-country-submerged-in-a-police-state.html">tens of thousands of people have been detained</a> in a crackdown on organized crime, with those imprisoned <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/el-salvador">subjected to overcrowding and alleged human rights abuses</a>, including torture.</p>
<p>Critics also point to the <a href="https://elfaro.net/en/202105/columns/25464/This-Is-How-a-Republic-Dies.htm">breakdown of democratic checks and balances</a> across government since Bukele first took office. He <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvadors-appointment-new-judges-raises-fears-power-grab-2021-06-30/">replaced members of the judiciary</a> with allies, and he is running for president again despite constitutional law banning a <a href="https://www.cispes.org/article/why-consecutive-reelection-unconstitutional-el-salvador">second consecutive presidential term</a>.</p>
<p>So when Salvadorans cast their votes, they’ll be faced with the question: Is the short-term security Bukele is offering worth the <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/latin-america-erupts-millennial-authoritarianism-in-el-salvador/">serious backslide</a> on democracy taking place in El Salvador?</p>
<h2>Presidential abuse of power</h2>
<p>Bukele’s rollback of democratic norms has been relentless. As soon as his political party Nuevas Ideas won a supermajority in the legislature, he <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/el-salvadors-appointment-new-judges-raises-fears-power-grab-2021-06-30/">purged the Supreme Court of five justices</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56970026">removed the attorney general</a>, actions that have allowed him to reinterpret articles of the Salvadoran Constitution that ban him from running in this election.</p>
<p>There are, in fact, six articles of the constitution prohibiting presidents from serving a second consecutive term in office. Bukele specifically took aim at <a href="https://www.cispes.org/article/why-consecutive-reelection-unconstitutional-el-salvador">Article 152</a>, which stipulates that presidents can’t seek immediate reelection if they served in the previous term for more than six months.</p>
<p>Bukele circumvented the rule by going on <a href="https://www.lawg.org/international-organizations-echo-salvadoran-civil-society-bukele-stepping-down-as-president-of-el-salvador-does-nothing-to-change-the-unconstitutionality-of-his-reelection-bid/">leave from presidential duties</a> on Nov. 30, 2023, a move widely regarded as a stunt since he was still campaigning and maintaining the trappings of his office, such as <a href="https://elfaro.net/en/202312/opinion/27182/Fraud-upon-Fraud-Bukele-Is-Not-on-Presidential-Leave.htm">presidential immunity and a security detail</a>. He and members of his administration also pointed to a <a href="https://elfaro.net/en/202312/opinion/27182/Fraud-upon-Fraud-Bukele-Is-Not-on-Presidential-Leave.htm">so-called “hidden article” in the constitution</a> that would allow him to run again, but international <a href="https://www.state.gov/salvadoran-re-election-ruling-undermines-democracy/">legal experts have refuted</a> such a loophole.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://emerson.edu/faculty-staff-directory/mneesha-gellman">scholar who studies comparative politics and violence</a> in the Global South and the U.S, I’ve been following the plight of democracy in El Salvador for many years. My <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y9F6SeYjZUkoF-T4VaDBOXMzQIjQa8WW/view">working paper</a> in 2022 on Bukele’s democratic backsliding notes, in addition to his remaking of the Supreme Court and firing of the attorney general, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/02/el-salvador-new-laws-threaten-judicial-independence">legislation that forced into retirement</a> judges and prosecutors over the age of 60. This <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/el-salvador">stalled the trial of the El Mozote massacre of 1981</a>, a lingering trauma from the Salvadoran civil war. </p>
<h2>El Salvador’s history of violence</h2>
<p>Bukele was elected following two presidents representing the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, or FMLN, a former rebel group that’s now a recognized political party. Like Bukele, both of these presidents tried for years to <a href="https://saisreview.sais.jhu.edu/negotiating-gangs-el-salvador-truce/#:%7E:text=The%20gang%20truce%20in%20El,of%20the%20initiative%20are%20undeniable">negotiate with gangs</a> while cracking down on them, providing <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/evidence-of-gang-negotiations-belie-el-salvador-presidents-claims/">perks for incarcerated gang members</a> in exchange for state input about how and where gang violence transpired. Neither was successful.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man wears a hat showing the image of President Nayib Bukele." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571699/original/file-20240126-15-qw96fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571699/original/file-20240126-15-qw96fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571699/original/file-20240126-15-qw96fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571699/original/file-20240126-15-qw96fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571699/original/file-20240126-15-qw96fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571699/original/file-20240126-15-qw96fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571699/original/file-20240126-15-qw96fq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nayib Bukele has many supporters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-wears-a-headband-with-nayib-bukeles-electoral-campaign-news-photo/1782807423?adppopup=true">Aphotografia/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>In fact, for the majority of Salvadorans, physical violence has been a frequent part of daily life for generations. <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Democratization-and-Memories-of-Violence-Ethnic-minority-rights-movements/Gellman/p/book/9781138597686#:%7E:text=Democratization%20and%20Memories%20of%20Violence%20draws%20on%20six%20case%20studies,consideration%20of%20minority%20rights%20agendas.">I have written</a> about the 1932 massacre of Indigenous and working-class people, and the <a href="https://cja.org/where-we-work/el-salvador/">civil war</a> from 1980 to 1992 as critical junctures that inform contemporary Salvadoran politics. The war forced families to flee to the U.S., where <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/central-america/el-salvador/life-under-gang-rule-el-salvador">boys and young men formed gangs for protection</a> and then were eventually deported back to El Salvador. <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2021/country-chapters/el-salvador">Gang violence, as well as state violence</a>, has made El Salvador unsafe in the 21st century.</p>
<h2>Bukele’s safety agenda and violation of civil rights</h2>
<p>Bukele’s “territorial control plan,” launched in 2019 shortly after he was elected, did little to diminish this gang violence. So after gangs <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/29/1089390179/el-salvador-grabs-1-000-gang-suspects-in-response-to-weekend-killings">murdered 87 people in a single weekend</a> in March 2022, Bukele declared a “state of emergency.” Aimed not only at gangs <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/06/el-salvador-press-censorship-gang-law">but journalists and anyone Bukele considers opposition</a>, the state of emergency has, for the past 22 months, seen the suspension of many constitutional rights – including the right to assemble, due process, and privacy in telecommunications.</p>
<p>By the end of 2023, over <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-07-30/bukeles-hell-in-el-salvador-a-country-submerged-in-a-police-state.html">74,000 people were incarcerated</a> in the crackdown, with less than a third of those arrested during the state of emergency estimated to be gang members. Many others were charged without proper evidence – on the testimony of neighbors, on the basis of prior arrest records, or simply for having tattoos, as many Salvadorans told me in my 2024 fieldwork.</p>
<p>And once in prison, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/el-salvador">human rights abuses abound</a>, including torture, inadequate food supply and poor sanitation, according to human rights groups. Family members of incarcerated people I’ve interviewed say that to keep their loved ones alive, they are expected to send food, clothing and hygiene products via packets into the prison at a cost of $100-$300 per month, despite a national monthly minimum wage of just $365. </p>
<p>Meanwhile women, children, LGBTQ+ people and others across El Salvador continue to be victimized.</p>
<p>My interviews in January 2024 in various parts of El Salvador suggest that police and <a href="https://www.laprensagrafica.com/elsalvador/Procuradora----condena-violacion-de-nina-por-militares-20230929-0082.html">military personnel</a> have <a href="https://www.elsalvador.com/noticias/nacional/sargento-violo-nina-13-anos-amenazo-regimen-excepcion/1092614/2023/">taken over previously gang-held terrain</a>, replacing gang violence with state violence.</p>
<h2>Public opinion and a return to dictatorship</h2>
<p>Many Salvadorans say they <a href="https://insightcrime.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/El-SalvadorsPerpetual-State-of-Emergency-How-Bukeles-Government-Overpowered-Gangs-InSight-Crime-Nov-2023.pdf">feel safer</a> since Bukele instated a state of emergency – now called the “state of exception.” A December 2023 poll found that most citizens are now more <a href="https://uca.edu.sv/iudop/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/PPT-Ev-Anio-2023.pdf">concerned with the economy</a>. Bukele timed announcement of his crackdown well, right after his <a href="https://www.laprensagrafica.com/elsalvador/Encuesta-UCA-regimen-es-el-pilar-de-popularidad-de-Bukele-20230119-0087.html">popularity began to wane</a>.</p>
<p>But more recently, I’ve spoken with dozens of civil society stakeholders – including human rights workers, journalists, former lawmakers and current government employees – who say that the <a href="https://ips-dc.org/report-state-of-deception-human-rights-under-bukele/">picture of an eminently safer El Salvador</a> doesn’t reflect the lives of Salvadorans living behind bars or in communities exploited by police and armed forces. </p>
<p>Still, on Feb. 4, Salvadorans are likely to overlook those abuses and cast their vote in favor of security for the majority. And, to some extent, who can blame them? After years of civil war and then gang war, many Salvadorans are traumatized by violence. The promise of safety is compelling, even if it means living in a dictatorship. </p>
<p>But if and when the international community recognizes the legitimacy of the election, it will do so in the face of severe constitutional and procedural irregularities. Bukele’s efforts to dismantle those safeguards have already left El Salvador’s regime on shaky ground. A fresh mandate by the electorate might push Bukele further down an authoritarian path.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221092/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mneesha Gellman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Mass arrests and the suspension of constitutional rights have been a feature of President Nayib Bukele’s tenure. A fresh mandate from voters will likely entrench his hardline approach.Mneesha Gellman, Associate Professor of Political Science, Emerson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2214292024-01-22T14:55:15Z2024-01-22T14:55:15ZDeep-seated inequality is fuelling an escalation of violence across Latin America<p>For most of the 20th century, Latin America was portrayed as one of the world’s most peaceful regions. Coups and repressive military regimes had long been commonplace but widespread civil disorder and war were relatively rare. Today, however, the world’s media is slowly waking up to a <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/latin-america-erupts-the-danger-of-democratic-delinquency/">very different reality</a>.</p>
<p>Surging levels of violence now mean that mortality rates in Latin America often exceed those seen in the world’s conflict areas. In 2021, Latin America had the <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/gsh/2023/GSH23_ExSum.pdf">highest murder rate</a> in the world at almost three times the global regional average.</p>
<p>Ecuador is one country that has seen a particularly massive spike in violence in recent years. Masked gunmen <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67930452">stormed</a> a live news broadcast on January 9 and the prosecutor investigating the attack was <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68014040">murdered</a> just days later.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ecuadors-crackdown-on-violent-crime-helped-turn-the-country-into-a-narco-state-220920">Ecuador's crackdown on violent crime helped turn the country into a narco state</a>
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<p>The explosion of violence in the region is being caused by a number of mutually reinforcing factors. Notably, deep-rooted inequalities and a weak state have allowed a destabilising narcotics economy to flourish.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Armed gangsters storm TV station in Ecuador.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Forever unequal</h2>
<p>Latin America has long been the most unequal area of the world in terms of income and wealth. But this inequality has worsened over recent decades. In 2021, Brazil’s wealthiest 1% <a href="https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04166852/document">owned</a> 47% of the country’s wealth, up from 45% in 2006. The increase was even greater for the top 0.01%, with their wealth share rising from 12% to 18%.</p>
<p>Unlike other middle-income areas, the economic structure of the region is still based on exporting primary products – something that has remained largely unchanged since colonial times. This dependence has deepened as Latin America feeds the growing <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/specialization-latam-exports-china-shows-worrying-trend-un-report-says-2023-11-02/">demand from China</a> for its minerals and foodstuffs.</p>
<p>Relying on the export of primary products has <a href="https://www.oasisbr.ibict.br/vufind/Record/UNIFAP-1_25b9cf30e04a53a0d1b7befc7f7dd0d7">reinforced inequality</a> because the expansion of large-scale commercial farming and mining has blocked moves towards agrarian reform. </p>
<p>As a result, there has been a surge in the <a href="https://www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/bp-land-power-inequality-latin-america-301116-en.pdf">migration</a> of school-leavers to urban areas in search of work. However, by anchoring this highly capital-intensive economic model, any serious attempt at industrialisation and labour-intensive job creation – akin to what has taken place in much of south and south-east Asia – has been stymied.</p>
<p>The long history of anti-communism promoted by successive US administrations during and after the cold war, coupled with a Catholic church that has become deeply conservative in recent decades, has also hindered attempts at social democratic reform and inclusive development. This has seen the <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/The+New+Latin+America-p-9781509540020">collapse of revolutionary movements</a> with a progressive agenda capable of bringing about the structural reforms the region so desperately needs. </p>
<p>Consequently, <a href="https://www.ilo.org/caribbean/newsroom/WCMS_867540/lang--en/index.htm#:%7E:text=The%20estimated%20average%20regional%20unemployment,level%20of%208%20per%20cent">underemployment</a> is rife – a major factor propelling <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/22/1221006083/immigration-border-election-presidential">soaring illegal immigration</a> to the US. Over half of workers in Latin America are employed informally with job instability, low income and no social protection.</p>
<h2>The illegal drug trade</h2>
<p>But a new factor – the narcotics industry – has emerged in recent decades with a deadly impact. Colombia is now the world’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/20/colombia-cocaine-decriminalize-petro/">largest producer of cocaine</a> and Mexico is fast becoming a global producer of <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10400">heroin and fentanyl</a>.</p>
<p>The emergence of narcotics has built on and reinforced the deep-rooted inequality that affects the region. Young and underemployed migrants to urban areas provide the foot soldiers for the growth of extremely powerful narcotics gangs. The <a href="https://greydynamics.com/primeiro-comando-da-capital-pcc-from-sao-paulo-to-the-world/">Primeiro Comando da Capital</a> in Brazil is now one of the largest gangs in the world with over 30,000 members and a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/20fb5c77-baf1-45ab-a886-51cac68cfd4e">growing global reach</a>.</p>
<p>Narcotics gangs <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/cd9d4d72-1266-4441-81e0-6259cba864ae">now exist</a> in every Latin American country and are driving homicide trends across the region. They seek to co-opt and corrupt rather than challenge the power of the state. But this is <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/aq-podcast-how-organized-crime-is-changing-in-latin-america/">likely to change</a>.</p>
<p>International development organisations that operate in the region have long been lamenting its “institutional fragility” and the falling level of citizen trust. They <a href="https://www.thedialogue.org/analysis/the-pulse-of-democracy-in-the-americas-results-of-the-2023-americasbarometer/">call for</a> governance reforms, but nothing fundamental ever changes.</p>
<p>A main reason for this dismal governance is inequality – a bloated public administration characterised by <a href="https://americasquarterly.org/article/latin-americas-inequality-is-taking-a-toll-on-governance/">“clientelism”</a> (the practice of choosing or promoting people in return for political support).</p>
<p>But the flip side is the virtual absence of a professional ethic and collective memory inside the civil service. Public sector corruption thus remains endemic within the government, police, armed forces and prison system.</p>
<h2>Failing states</h2>
<p>The most striking feature of the weak governance encouraging this gradual slide towards failed states is now rampant corruption from top to bottom of the judicial system, thanks to the infiltration of drug gangs. Personal insecurity has become the daily norm for the urban poor and the rule of law simply does not exist for most citizens.</p>
<p>When a poor person is killed – whether by state repression, settling of scores among narcos, street robbery or extortion – no criminal investigation usually takes place unless relatives have the resources to hire a lawyer. The crime prosecution rate is minimal and the vast majority of inmates in overcrowded prisons are poor people awaiting trial.</p>
<p>As a result, the capacity of the state to counter the gradual spread of narcotics is extremely limited. This vulnerability has already produced the first example of a narco state – Honduras under the presidency of Juan Orlando Hernández (2014–2022). On leaving office in April 2022, Hernández was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/juan-orlando-hern%C3%A1ndez-former-president-honduras-indicted-drug-trafficking">extradited</a> to the US to face charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. </p>
<p>The Latin American elite try to justify the current economic model as providing food security and mineral resources for the growing world population. Yet the elite remain in denial about the violent consequences of this model. </p>
<p>There is a risk that Latin America’s very role as a bread basket will convert it into a basket case of perpetual civil disorder.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221429/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Nickson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Latin America’s spike in violence is the result of systemic problems that have long gone unaddressed.Andrew Nickson, Honorary Reader in the Department of International Development, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2146912024-01-19T13:40:18Z2024-01-19T13:40:18ZLatin America’s colonial period was far less Catholic than it might seem − despite the Inquisition’s attempts to police religion<p>One of the most pervasive myths about colonial Latin American society is that it was Catholic, full stop. </p>
<p>It’s a familiar story: As history books tell it, the Europeans brought their religion to the New World, and none were as zealous in their attempts to convert Indigenous people as the Spaniards. Indeed, in the Spanish view, the quest to spread Catholicism to every corner of the world was a central pillar of colonization.</p>
<p>A quick glance at how deeply Catholic much of the region still is – <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/996386/latin-america-religion-affiliation-share-type/">some 57% of Latin Americans</a> – seems to reinforce the idea of Spanish missionaries’ success.</p>
<p>In truth, Spanish control in the Americas was far from absolute. Despite the sweeping proclamations of missionaries who claimed to convert thousands of souls every day to Christianity, spiritual life in the colonies would have made the pope do a double take. </p>
<h2>Far from the Vatican</h2>
<p>Spain’s colonies were a vast <a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477315835/">patchwork of borderlands</a> built over the smoldering infrastructure of Indigenous civilizations such as <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fifth-sun-9780197577660">the Mexica</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-lived-at-machu-picchu-dna-analysis-shows-surprising-diversity-at-the-ancient-inca-palace-210287">the Inca</a>. Even at the centers of colonial control, like Mexico City and Lima, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2390824">Spanish power was decentralized</a>, meaning that virtually no policy, order or law was consistently implemented. The reach of the Spanish crown depended as much on the whims of low-ranking administrators as on the king’s own advisers.</p>
<p>The unevenness of colonial authority held true <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/tam.2021.46">in the realm of religion</a>, as well – a focus of <a href="https://as.tufts.edu/history/people/faculty/diego-luis">my historical research</a>.</p>
<p>Oftentimes, “conversion” simply meant baptism. Priests would sprinkle water on the convert’s head, give them a “Christian” – i.e., Hispanic – name, and encourage them to attend Mass on Sundays. However, attendance was often spottier than in a post-COVID classroom.</p>
<p>There are many reasons why this was the case. First, the cruelty of some Spaniards hardly made them attractive advertisements for Christianity. The <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/261052/a-short-account-of-the-destruction-of-the-indies-by-bartolome-de-las-casas-edited-and-translated-by-nigel-griffin-introduction-by-anthony-pagden/">legendary last words</a> of Hatüey, an Indigenous Taíno leader who led a rebellion in what is now Cuba, suffice to make the point.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570186/original/file-20240118-28-xind9y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white drawing of a man being burned at a stake as a priest holds out a small crucifix to him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570186/original/file-20240118-28-xind9y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570186/original/file-20240118-28-xind9y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570186/original/file-20240118-28-xind9y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570186/original/file-20240118-28-xind9y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570186/original/file-20240118-28-xind9y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570186/original/file-20240118-28-xind9y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570186/original/file-20240118-28-xind9y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bartolome de las Casas’ writings, such as his description of Hatuey’s execution, helped record colonizers’ violence against Indigenous people in the Americas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://jcb.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/detail/JCB~1~1~4492~7050007:-Man-burned-at-the-stake-?qvq=q:hatuey;lc:JCBMAPS~2~2,JCB~3~3,JCBBOOKS~1~1,JCBMAPS~1~1,JCBMAPS~3~3,JCB~1~1&mi=1&trs=2">Courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the moments before Hatüey was burned at the stake, a priest urged him to convert so that his soul would go to heaven. Hatüey asked if Spaniards went to heaven, too. When the priest responded that “the good ones do, (Hatüey) retorted, without need for further reflection, that if that was the case, then he chose to go to Hell to ensure that he would never again have to clap eyes on those cruel brutes.” </p>
<p>Bartolomé de las Casas, a 16th century missionary,
documented this incident <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/261052/a-short-account-of-the-destruction-of-the-indies-by-bartolome-de-las-casas-edited-and-translated-by-nigel-griffin-introduction-by-anthony-pagden/">to condemn the violence</a> of Spanish colonizers in the Americas.</p>
<p>Second, Indigenous spiritual practices got an unwitting boost from the pope himself. Paul III, pope from 1534-1549, conceded <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667590/">special religious exemptions</a> to Indigenous people in the Americas, since they were new converts, or “neophytes,” in the faith. Effectively, this status meant that they were forgiven for not observing all Catholic practices correctly – not celebrating all holidays, not fasting often, marrying cousins, and so on.</p>
<p>This somewhat flexible – but no less violent – approach to conversion meant that Indigenous spiritual practices often melded with Spanish ones. Perhaps the best example of this <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195176322.001.0001/acref-9780195176322-e-1336">religious syncretism</a> is <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=1104">Our Lady of Guadalupe</a>, whom many Catholics revere as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-virgin-of-guadalupe-is-more-than-a-religious-icon-to-catholics-in-mexico-151251">an apparition of the Virgin Mary</a>, including Indigenous Catholics. Yet many Indigenous people also <a href="https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/tonantzin">identify Guadalupe with Tonantzin</a>. The word means “Our Mother” in Nahuatl, the language of the Mexica, and could refer to multiple goddesses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570135/original/file-20240118-26-nn6aze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A wide, ornate golden frame surrounds an illustration of a woman in a blue cloak with a halo-like ring of light around her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570135/original/file-20240118-26-nn6aze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570135/original/file-20240118-26-nn6aze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570135/original/file-20240118-26-nn6aze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570135/original/file-20240118-26-nn6aze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570135/original/file-20240118-26-nn6aze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570135/original/file-20240118-26-nn6aze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570135/original/file-20240118-26-nn6aze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An altar inside the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Guzman in Oaxaca, Mexico, depicts the Virgen of Guadalupe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/our-lady-of-guadalupe-shrine-royalty-free-image/1207063275?phrase=virgen+de+guadalupe&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">Gabriel Perez/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Third, as the <a href="https://www.slavevoyages.org/">transatlantic slave trade</a> intensified during the 16th century, spiritual systems from West and West-Central Africa entered the mix. For example, many Africans and their descendants used protective amulets <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fc11/e548799876ee8da4c29c2dc6694c248f010a.pdf?_gl=1*k4basm*_ga*MTE1NDExODM4Ny4xNzA1NTI0MDYx*_ga_H7P4ZT52H5*MTcwNTUyNDA2MC4xLjEuMTcwNTUyNDA3NC40Ni4wLjA">called “nóminas</a>” and “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/jaar/article-abstract/88/2/460/5828949?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false">bolsas de mandinga</a>,” and they adapted African healing rituals and medical knowledge to New World environments.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the lesser-known <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-south-asia-to-mexico-from-slave-to-spiritual-icon-this-womans-life-is-a-snapshot-of-spains-colonization-and-the-pacific-slave-trade-history-that-books-often-leave-out-214692">transpacific slave trade</a> brought thousands of Asians to colonial Mexico and further complicated the religious landscape. My 2024 book, “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674271784">The First Asians in the Americas</a>,” demonstrates that Asians used a wide variety of beliefs and practices to navigate and even resist the conditions of their enslavement. They made potions, learned enchantments and even publicly renounced their faith in God, Jesus and the saints in order to call attention to unjust treatment.</p>
<h2>Paperwork and torture</h2>
<p>Spanish authorities were eager to clamp down on these spiritual beliefs and founded new branches of the <a href="https://www.fondodeculturaeconomica.com/Ficha/9786071631657/F">Inquisition in Lima and Mexico City</a> in the late 1500s. The Spanish Inquisition had been around for nearly a century by this point, policing the boundary between accepted and heretical Catholic practices and beliefs. </p>
<p>While the Inquisition in Europe is infamous for having tried and murdered thousands, the Inquisition in Mexico City reserved execution for only <a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/10254/inquisition-new-spain-1536-1820">a few dozen cases</a>. Whippings, exiles, imprisonments and public shaming were the norm. Still, the United States carceral system <a href="https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/executions-overview">executes more people every few years</a> than the Inquisition in Mexico did over more than two centuries. </p>
<p>Most Indigenous people were exempted from being denounced to the Inquisition, since they were considered Christian neophytes and prone to errors. However, Africans and Asians, as well as their descendants, people of mixed ethnicities, “Moriscos” (converted Muslims), “conversos” (converted Jews), Protestants and even Catholic Spaniards frequently ran afoul of inquisitors.</p>
<p>Inquisition trials generated mountains of paperwork, in part because scribes were obsessive in their thoroughness. Occasionally, they even recorded every exclamation a prisoner cried out in the Inquisition’s notorious <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fj6rt.15?seq=1">torture chambers</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570211/original/file-20240118-19-h4x8eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The stone and brick facade of an old, two-story building on a street with tall streetlamps." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570211/original/file-20240118-19-h4x8eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570211/original/file-20240118-19-h4x8eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570211/original/file-20240118-19-h4x8eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570211/original/file-20240118-19-h4x8eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570211/original/file-20240118-19-h4x8eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570211/original/file-20240118-19-h4x8eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570211/original/file-20240118-19-h4x8eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The facade of the colonial Palace of the Inquisition in Mexico City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FacadeInquisDF.JPG">Thelmadatter/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, these cases provide rare insights into the <a href="https://libros.uv.mx/index.php/UV/catalog/book/AB108">spiritual cultures</a> of colonial society’s most marginalized subjects. Non-Europeans were often accused of committing blasphemy and concocting love potions to seduce sailors, soldiers and merchants. They conducted rituals with hallucinogens such as peyote to find stolen objects and lost people. They fashioned charms to shield friends, family and clients from harm.</p>
<p>Though Spaniards punished divination and other unapproved practices, it wasn’t because they considered such rituals pointless or ineffective. Quite the opposite: They believed that they worked but were powered by the devil, and were therefore a force of evil.</p>
<h2>Spiritual mosaic</h2>
<p>One of the most enigmatic cases <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674271784">I have written about</a> is that of an enslaved South Asian man from Malabar, in southern India, named Antón. In 1652, he appeared before the Inquisition in Mexico City for the “spiritual crimes” of palm reading and divination. He was 65 years old and lived in one of the textile mills infamous for its poor working conditions in Coyoacán, just south of the city. </p>
<p>According to multiple witnesses, Antón attracted a large, multiethnic clientele who sometimes traveled a day in each direction to ask him their pressing questions about the future. By reading palms, Antón would predict “if (someone) would find love, when a baby would be born, if a woman would become a nun, and so on.” Each consultation earned him a few coins, which he split with two weavers who translated from Spanish into Nahuatl for him.</p>
<p>When the inquisitors questioned him, Antón claimed to have learned how to read palms in Malabar and insisted that he had done nothing wrong. In all, divination was not considered as serious a religious infraction as, say, practicing Judaism or Islam, so Antón was condemned to the relatively light punishment of proclaiming his sins publicly after 245 days in prison.</p>
<p>Inquisitorial records from the colonial period are filled with vibrant characters like Antón. There was <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469609751/domingos-alvares-african-healing-and-the-intellectual-history-of-the-atlantic-world/">Domingos Álvares</a>, who became a renowned healer in Brazil, and <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469630878/the-experiential-caribbean/">Antonio Congo</a>, who was said to control storms in what is now Colombia.</p>
<p>They created worlds of knowledge and faith often out of alignment with the strictures of Catholic doctrine. Many of these beliefs have persisted against the odds, surviving into the present. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814722343.003.0005">the Afro-Cuban Santería, Palo Monte</a>, <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/ifa-divination-system-00146">Ifá</a> and other religions are <a href="https://cuba.miami.edu/arts-culture/afro-cuban-religion-surviving-and-thriving-underground/index.html">thriving in Cuba today</a> despite centuries of discrimination and repression.</p>
<p>Labeling Latin America and its colonial period uniformly “Catholic” silences this rich history. There were, of course, thousands of Catholics in the colonies, and Catholicism was a central tenet of Spanish colonialism. But that is not the full story: Other beliefs thrived and became new realities of colonial life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214691/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diego Javier Luis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Conversion was often a violent affair, but that doesn’t mean it was 100% successful. Colonial Latin America was home to many different spiritual traditions from Indigenous, African and Asian cultures.Diego Javier Luis, Assistant Professor of History, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210762024-01-18T13:27:58Z2024-01-18T13:27:58ZNicaragua released imprisoned priests, but repression is unlikely to relent – and the Catholic Church remains a target<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569921/original/file-20240117-20-1jrits.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C1%2C1017%2C656&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A priest and Catholic worshippers pray in front of an image of 'Sangre de Cristo,' burned in a fire on July 2020, at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/priest-and-catholic-faithful-pray-in-front-of-an-image-of-news-photo/1242786617?adppopup=true">Oswaldo Rivas/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bad news has been the norm for Catholics in Nicaragua, where clergy and church groups have been frequent targets of a wide-ranging crackdown for years. But on Jan. 14, 2024, they received a happy surprise: The government unexpectedly released two bishops, 15 priests and two seminary students from prison and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/14/nicaragua-bishop-rolando-alvarez/">expelled them</a> to the Vatican.</p>
<p>Those released included <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/religious-prisoners-conscience/forb-victims-database/rolando-alvarez">Bishop Rolando Álvarez</a>, a high-profile political prisoner who was detained in 2022 for criticizing the government and then sentenced to 26 years in prison for <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/nicaraguan-bishop-rolando-alvarez-receives-26-year-sentence/">alleged treason</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/dictatorship-banishes-monsignor-rolando-alvarez-and-18-other-religious-political-prisoners-to-the-vatican/">They also included</a> priests <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-arrests-four-more-priests-intensifies-crackdown-catholic-church-2023-12-30/">detained by</a> President Daniel Ortega’s government in late December 2023 <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2024-01/priest-arrested-in-nicaragua-following-mass-on-new-year-s-eve.html">for expressing solidarity</a> with Álvarez and other political prisoners. Days later, Pope Francis <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/01/world/europe/nicaragua-pope-francis-church.html">criticized the regime</a> in his New Year’s message and then <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/pope-francis-reiterates-concerns-about-crisis-in-nicaragua/">called for</a> “respectful diplomatic dialogue.”</p>
<p>Nearly six years after <a href="https://infobuero-nicaragua.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/PUBLICADO-200908.-FUNIDES.-Nicaragua-en-movimiento-2016-2020-SEI_2020_01-2.pdf">mass protests erupted</a> against Ortega and then were brutally repressed, these prisoner releases offer some hope to Nicaragua’s opposition. As <a href="https://www.global.ucsb.edu/people/kai-m-thaler">my research</a> <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781003197614-16/nicaragua-rachel-schwartz-kai-thaler">has shown</a>, however, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IICx95ZZzKjfHqiU-oVEityK70vwBv5f/view?usp=sharing">the Ortega regime is unrelenting</a> in trying to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2022.0023">retain power</a>, which suggests this is not necessarily a turning point. In fact, the government reportedly <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/dictadura-secuestra-al-sacerdote-ezequiel-buenfil-tras-el-destierro-de-19-religiosos/">took yet another priest into custody</a> on Jan. 16.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Several rows of people seated in church pews, all looking ahead." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569652/original/file-20240116-25-c9w6ji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nicaraguans attend mass in San Juan de Oriente on June 24, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-attend-a-mass-during-celebrations-in-honour-of-san-news-photo/1259026822?adppopup=true">Stringer/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why target the church?</h2>
<p>Ortega first led Nicaragua from 1979 to 1990, after his left-wing revolutionary organization, the Sandinista National Liberation Front, or FSLN, spearheaded the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. In the 1980s, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.16993/ibero.38">FSLN clashed with the Vatican</a> and church hierarchy over the group’s socialist politics, even as many <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3712105">poorer Nicaraguan Catholics embraced them</a>.</p>
<p>When Ortega took office again in 2007, however, he did so <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20788575">with the blessing of Christian leaders</a>. During the 2006 elections, he had turned to <a href="https://doi.org/10.16993/ibero.38">alliances with Catholic</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41603-017-0005-6">Protestant elites</a> to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2017.0032">return to power</a> in exchange for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X08326020">adopting</a> conservative social policies like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61545-2">banning abortion</a>.</p>
<p>Over the next decade, <a href="https://doi.org/10.5129/001041522X16281740895086">Ortega remained popular</a>, presiding over economic growth in collaboration <a href="https://doi.org/10.15517/aeca.v43i0.31556">with business leaders</a> and developing new public infrastructure and services.</p>
<p>Yet he and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-2456.2010.00099.x">FSLN party he controlled</a> were also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/lap.2019.64">consolidating power</a> and <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/regimen-de-ortega-una-nueva-dictadura-familiar-en-el-continente/oclc/967515148">governing in an increasingly authoritarian</a> manner. Ortega won <a href="https://www.cartercenter.org/resources/pdfs/peace/americas/nicaragua_2011_report_post.pdf">reelection in 2011</a> and then retained power in <a href="http://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2017.0032">fraudulent elections</a> in 2016. Opposition candidates were disqualified, and Ortega’s running mate was his wife, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/world/americas/nicaragua-daniel-ortega-rosario-murillo-house-of-cards.html">Rosario Murillo</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3917/pal.112.0083">Unexpectedly</a>, Ortega’s popularity and his relationship with the church came crashing down in April 2018, when the government announced cutbacks in social security benefits for retirees. Nicaraguans from <a href="https://doi.org/10.5129/001041522X16281740895086">all backgrounds</a> <a href="https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=7549585">took to the streets</a>, and Ortega and Murillo responded with a <a href="https://gieinicaragua.org/#section04">furious crackdown</a>, unleashing police and pro-government paramilitaries <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr43/9213/2018/en/">armed with military-grade weapons</a>.</p>
<p>Cathedrals and churches <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/bishops-journalists-attacked-church-nicaragua">tried to</a> <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/41597a7a2b9356e668ff2b579dc7cb1d/1">offer refuge</a> to protesters, but <a href="https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/jsForm/?File=/en/iachr/media_center/preleases/2021/302.asp">over 300 people were killed</a>. Church leaders facilitated a national dialogue between the government and an opposition coalition, <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/nicaraguan-bishops-end-role-mediators-national-dialogue">but withdrew</a> as <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/06/nicaragua-aumenta-la-violencia-y-la-represion-estatal-a-pesar-de-los-multiples-esfuerzos-de-dialogo/">repression continued</a>.</p>
<p>When popular Catholic leaders <a href="http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/38768/">criticized violence</a> against protesters, the regime began viewing the church <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/22/world/americas/nicaragua-protests-catholic-church.html">as a rival</a> threatening Ortega’s waning legitimacy. Police, paramilitaries and FSLN supporters started <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-12-23/exiles-arrests-and-740-attacks-nicaragua-redoubles-its-persecution-of-the-catholic-church.html">harassing and attacking</a> clergy and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-religion-arson-rosario-murillo-latin-america-82bb721aa3ec25e4af34a26e75568599">Catholic institutions</a>.</p>
<p>In 2019, the pope <a href="https://apnews.com/general-news-9016f14a1a9b476ab5cb1d61397fc273">recalled Silvio Báez</a>, the auxiliary bishop of Managua and a prominent critic of Ortega, from Nicaragua. Yet other bishops and priests still found themselves <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/nicaraguan-president-daniel-ortega-goes-catholic-church-latest-effort-rcna44618">in the regime’s crosshairs</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two people in baseball hats hold posters with pictures of a man in clerical robes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569647/original/file-20240116-15-mbn4il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nicaraguan citizens in Costa Rica demonstrate in front of the Nicaraguan Embassy in August 2022 to protest the detention of Bishop Rolando Alvarez.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nicaraguan-citizens-hold-a-demonstration-in-front-of-the-news-photo/1242597067?adppopup=true">Oscar Navarrete/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some <a href="https://apnews.com/article/nicaragua-catholic-priests-exile-ortega-f5ae508a4295f7ae5b359f96064eea46">fled into exile</a> or were blocked <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/sacerdote-desterrado-silencio-de-los-obispos-no-ha-detenido-la-persecucion/">from entering</a> Nicaragua if they traveled abroad. Others who stayed were kept under surveillance. Priests who expressed support for political prisoners or continued to criticize the regime, even in vague terms, could be <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/catholic-clergy-report-surveillance-beatings-amid-nicaraguas-crackdown-2023-07-07/">arrested or beaten</a>. </p>
<p>The government expelled 12 formerly detained priests to the Vatican <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-sends-catholic-priests-rome-after-talks-with-vatican-2023-10-19/">in October 2023</a> after what the regime called “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-sends-catholic-priests-rome-after-talks-with-vatican-2023-10-19/">fruitful conversations</a>.” But Álvarez, the highest-profile political prisoner, was still held by the government and was stripped of his citizenship after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-caribbean-daniel-ortega-rosario-murillo-c7930c6340472867148ca7e79e09f1eb">refusing to go into exile</a> in February 2023.</p>
<h2>Broader patterns of repression</h2>
<p>Attacks on the church <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2022/10/nicaragua-crackdown-religious-actors-further-imperils-return-democracy">are a symptom</a> of the Ortega regime’s absolute intolerance for dissent.</p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/nicaragua">over 3,000 nongovernmental organizations</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/nicaragua-has-kicked-out-hundreds-of-ngos-even-cracking-down-on-catholic-groups-like-nuns-from-mother-teresas-order-190222">shut down</a> since 2018, the church has become Nicaragua’s only <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/23/world/americas/nicaragua-catholic-church-daniel-ortega.html">major nonstate institution</a> with nationwide reach. </p>
<p>In a country where <a href="https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/Nicaragua/#report-toc__section-1">over 40% of the people</a> identify as Catholic, many normally turn to the church in times <a href="https://popolna.org/realidades-municipales-presentadas-en-informe-de-red-local/">of need</a>. Suppressing Catholic institutions means Nicaraguans must turn to the state for aid, which <a href="https://www.divergentes.com/nicaragua-un-espia-en-cada-esquina/">monitors citizens</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/pol.2013.10">has been accused of denying</a> services for perceived disloyalty.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vozdeamerica.com/a/universidad-de-jesuitas-en-nicaragua-suspende-operaciones-tras-ser-acusada-de-ser-un-centro-de-terrorismo-/7227873.html">At least 27</a> Catholic and <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2023/09/group-experts-nicaragua-finds-escalating-persecution-against-dissent-and-crackdown?sub-site=HRC">secular universities</a> have also <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/17/nicaragua-seizes-catholic-university-accused-of-being-centre-of-terrorism">been closed or seized</a> by the government, as have <a href="https://latamjournalismreview.org/news/daniel-ortegas-war-against-journalism-54-media-outlets-have-been-shut-down/">more than 50</a> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-shuts-catholic-radio-stations-led-by-bishop-critical-regime-2022-08-02/">media outlets</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="T-shirts with pictures of a man in a blue jacket making a 'V' sign with his fingers, and shirts that say 'FSLN,' hang on display outside." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569651/original/file-20240116-22672-62jpa1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">T-shirts depicting Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega for sale in Managua in July 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/shirts-depicting-nicaraguan-president-daniel-ortega-are-news-photo/1539099812?adppopup=true">Oswaldo Rivas/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The government’s decision to expel clergy on Jan. 14 is also in line with its tendency to either <a href="https://www.articulo66.com/2022/09/29/estos-son-los-nicaraguenses-desterrados-por-el-regimen-ortega-murillo-en-lo-que-va-de-2022/">block opponents’ reentry</a> into Nicaragua or force them <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/husband-and-son-of-former-miss-nicaragua-director-expelled-and-banished/">into exile</a>. In many cases, Nicaragua has then revoked critics’ citizenship, as when it expelled 222 political prisoners <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/09/nicaragua-frees-222-political-prisoners-flies-to-us">in February 2023</a> to the United States.</p>
<p>When imprisonment or threats have not shaken critics’ resolve, Ortega and Murillo appear to have decided that <a href="https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/nicaraguas-political-repression-will-continue-despite-prisoner-release">keeping them abroad is best</a>. Not only does this reduce the risks of anti-regime action in Nicaragua, but it may diminish international scrutiny of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/10/government-critics-languish-nicaraguan-prisons">political prisoners’ mistreatment</a>.</p>
<h2>Cautious criticism</h2>
<p>Since 2018, repression in Nicaragua has come in waves, with the brutal violence that repressed the protests shifting toward <a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/nicaragua">an environment</a> of <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/five-years-of-police-state-in-nicaragua-ban-on-assembly-protests-free-speech-and-elections/">constant surveillance</a>, legal actions against independent institutions and opponents, and periodic arrests. Moments of seeming calm, however, have often been followed by <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr43/4631/2021/en/">harsh crackdowns</a>, such as <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/20/nicaragua-trumped-charges-against-critics">a slew of arrests</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2022.0023">ahead of the 2021 elections</a>.</p>
<p>Even as repression has mounted, the Vatican has <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/pope-worried-about-nicaraguan-bishop-s-prison-sentence-/6959873.html">been cautious</a> about criticizing Ortega and Murillo, and some Nicaraguans and <a href="https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/why-is-pope-francis-quiet-about-nicaragua">Catholics abroad</a> <a href="https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americas/2022/08/nicaraguan-ngos-urge-pope-francis-to-speak-out-on-oppression">have urged the pope to do more</a>. Yet the Vatican’s restraint has not appeared to decrease <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/ortega-represses-151-priests-and-nuns-imprisonment-banishment-and-exile/">threats against clergy</a> or limits on activities <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-police-ban-catholic-procession-church-crackdown-2022-08-12/">like religious processions</a>.</p>
<p>In January 2024, however, Francis pointedly <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/pope-francis-reiterates-concerns-about-crisis-in-nicaragua/">called attention to the crisis</a> during two speeches, days after <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/nicaragua-arrests-four-more-priests-intensifies-crackdown-catholic-church-2023-12-30/">a dozen priests</a> were arrested. One week later came the release of Álvarez and his colleagues – free to leave Nicaragua, but not to come back. </p>
<p>Catholic leaders remain Nicaragua’s <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/obispos-alvarez-brenes-y-baez-con-mas-alta-opinion-favorable-en-nicaragua/">most popular figures</a>, according to independent polling. This makes them a continued threat to Ortega and Murillo’s quest for <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/ortega-a-nicas-en-redes-sociales-si-publican-contra-mi-van-presos/">total control</a>. Ezequiel Buenfil Batún, the priest detained Jan. 16, belonged to a religious order <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/dictadura-secuestra-al-sacerdote-ezequiel-buenfil-tras-el-destierro-de-19-religiosos/">whose legal status was revoked</a> that same day, along with several other nongovernment organizations.</p>
<p>As many Nicaraguans <a href="https://confidencial.digital/english/luis-haug-nicaraguans-feel-they-are-hitting-rock-bottom/">lose hope</a> of conditions improving and dozens of political prisoners <a href="https://confidencial.digital/nacion/dictadura-mantiene-tortura-a-presos-politicos-que-realizaron-huelga-de-hambre-en-la-modelo/">remain jailed</a>, any positive news like the priests’ release is welcome. But it holds no guarantees of broader change ahead.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221076/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kai M. Thaler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When President Daniel Ortega returned to power in 2006, church figures supported him. Violent repression after the 2018 protests has soured the relationship and made clergy targets for intimidation.Kai M. Thaler, Assistant Professor of Global Studies, University of California, Santa BarbaraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2209202024-01-18T12:14:15Z2024-01-18T12:14:15ZEcuador’s crackdown on violent crime helped turn the country into a narco state<p>An unprecedented surge in violence in Ecuador recently has captured global attention, especially after a gang took control of a television station <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/9/several-police-kidnapped-in-ecuador-after-state-of-emergency-declared">during a live broadcast</a> on January 9. Once considered to be a haven for peace and stability in the region, as of 2023 Ecuador has earned the infamous distinction of being <a href="https://www.nuso.org/articulo/como-ecuador-descendio-al-infierno-homicida/">the most violent country</a> in Latin America.</p>
<p>The recent gang violence in Ecuador is just a symptom of a deeper issue affecting countries across the region. The unrest is rooted in the erosion of state capacity as a result of government austerity measures across Latin America. It has created fertile ground for the growth of criminal gangs. </p>
<p>Austerity, the recipe adopted by recent governments in Ecuador, has enmeshed the country into global financial capital networks, compromising its sovereignty. As the painful consequences of austerity have become evident, the state now is <a href="https://www.planv.com.ec/historias/cronica/el-estatuto-la-permanencia-tropas-eeuu-ecuador-esta-pactado#:%7E:text=Ecuador%20y%20EE.UU.%20firmaron%2C%20el%206%20de%20octubre,si%20este%20debe%20ser%20aprobado%20por%20la%20Asamblea.">inviting foreign military intervention</a> and has signed an agreement with Washington for the permanent deployment of US troops in the country.</p>
<p>But austerity alone does not explain the escalation of violence. There are other variables that should be considered. One of them is financial deregulation as part of increased capital needs of <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/seven-myths-about-dollarization-latin-america">dollarisation</a>. As Ecuador adopted the US dollar as its currency, it made foreign investors more likely to invest in the country. </p>
<p>However, dollarisation facilitated also money laundering, and made Ecuador appealing for drug traffickers and international mafias. It is no surprise that Ecuador is now the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-58829554">primary conduit</a> for the shipment of cocaine to Europe from across the region.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the declaration of an “<a href="https://www.dw.com/en/understanding-ecuadors-internal-armed-conflict/a-67969203">internal armed conflict</a>” by the current administration may align with the Ecuadorean people’s plea for immediate solutions. But this tends to obscure the responsibility for the failure of previous and current governments in dealing with structural violence.</p>
<h2>Looking at the past to understand the present</h2>
<p>Regrettably, the current challenges in Ecuador partly stem from efforts to address criminality. For example, during the administration of Rafael Correa between 2012 and 2017, there was a <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-13/violence-in-ecuador-a-new-long-standing-problem.html">surge in the prison populations</a>. </p>
<p>This had the unintended effect of prisons evolving into focal points for criminal organisations. They have duly become centres for networking between criminals and dubbed <a href="https://www.nuso.org/articulo/como-ecuador-descendio-al-infierno-homicida/">“universities of crime”</a>. They host a spectrum of illicit activities, fostering coordination among various criminal organisations.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, violence decreased, <a href="https://www.primicias.ec/primicias-tv/seguridad/claves-caso-metastasis-ecuador/">the ties between criminal organisations and some state actors</a> grew stronger. Ironically, during Correa’s administration, efforts to combat narco politics coincided with the rise of “<a href="https://insightcrime.org/ecuador-organized-crime-news/los-choneros/">Los Choneros</a>”, Ecuador’s leading drug-trafficking gang.</p>
<p>The escape of the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/who-is-fito-jose-macias-ecuador-gang-leader-rcna133435">Los Choneros leader known as “Fito”</a>“ this month exemplifies the depth of the problem, revealing the power of organised crime both inside and outside prisons. </p>
<p>After the election of Correa’s vice-president, Lenín Moreno, to the presidency from 2017 to 2021, the previous equilibrium with between some state actors and criminal networks seems to have changed. This has resulted in chaos in prisons and violence spilling on to the streets. </p>
<p>The situation was exacerbated by widespread <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2019-10-22-00-people-in-ecuador-have-woken-up-to-a-fragmented-and-polarised-society/">social turmoil</a>. During this period as a result of austerity measures, and the shocks due to the pandemic precarity increased. </p>
<p>Guillermo Lasso’s government -between 2021 and 2023, declared a <a href="https://gk.city/2023/02/22/entrevista-luis-cordova-estados-unidos-guillermo-lasso/">war on drugs</a>, leading to a surge in homicides. This shift towards a militarised approach achieved a <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/ecuadors-explosive-war-on-gangs-lacks-exit-strategy/">limited success</a> in eradicating gang violence, and exhibited <a href="https://www.planv.com.ec/historias/analisis/el-presidente-lasso-el-gobierno-ingenuos-se-va-la-guerra">authoritarian responses</a> against the social protests denouncing the reduction of the social protection in the country.</p>
<p>In declaring an internal armed conflict, the current president Daniel Noboa’s strategy echoes the approach taken by El Salvador’s president <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-10/from-drug-routes-to-bukeles-influence-keys-to-the-security-crisis-in-ecuador.html#">Nayib Bukele</a>. This approach echoes the experiences of <a href="https://criticallegalthinking.com/2022/09/13/politics-in-the-streets-colombian-peoples-resistance-to-the-state-of-exception/#:%7E:text=Between%201949%20and%201991%2C%20the,that%20is%2C%20for%2017%20years.">Colombia’s attempts to</a> to combat violence by using the figure of a state of emergency. </p>
<p>The declaration of "internal war”, aligning with the population’s desperate need for <a href="https://insightcrime.org/es/noticias/analisis-primeros-dias-guerra-contra-pandillas-ecuador/">immediate solutions to tackle insecurity</a>, gives more authority to military forces, but it <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/ecuadors-explosive-war-on-gangs-lacks-exit-strategy/">lacks an strategy</a> beyond the promise to defeat armed groups.</p>
<p>The militarisation of public security can lead to an escalation in the <a href="https://gk.city/2024/01/12/estos-son-muertos-durante-conflicto-armado-interno-ecuador/">violence as criminal groups will more likely respond to violence in kind</a>. This escalation, can lead to a cycle of violence and repression in which civilians will inevitably end up in the crossfire of multiple armed actors. </p>
<h2>Poverty, precarity and the explosion of violence</h2>
<p>The focus on violence overshadows what makes easier for armed groups to recruit cadres: the precarity of marginalised communities. For example, the national <a href="https://www.ecuadorencifras.gob.ec/documentos/web-inec/POBREZA/2023/Junio/202306_Boletin_pobreza_ENEMDU.pdf">poverty rate</a> has been on an upward trend from 24,5% in 2018 to to 27% in 2023. This phenomenon has disproportionately hit historically marginalised groups in the country (Indigenous people, Afro-Ecuadorians, and Montuvians), with almost 50% of these communities living in poverty. Yet, these same marginalised communities and the vulnerable youth are now facing vilification for being more vulnerable to being recruited by gangs.</p>
<p>The COVID pandemic made things much worse for many of these communities, making them even more susceptible to poverty or <a href="https://laperiodica.net/desercion-escolar-forzada-la-realidad-de-ninos-ninas-y-adolescentes-en-esmeraldas/">recruitment into armed groups</a>.</p>
<p>The recruitment of marginalised youth into criminal gangs sheds light on how austerity and external shocks are fuelling the growth of illicit activities. Increased precarity after the pandemic, withdrawing social protection, individualism and the <a href="https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/snai-explica-grabacion-de-corrido-de-alias-fito-nota/">glamourisation of criminal figures in the media</a>, have contributed to the erosion of the social fabric. This in turn has facilitated the recruitment of people into organised crime.</p>
<p>The crisis of violence has unfolded in tandem with the retreat of the state in guaranteeing social and economic rights. While, armed groups emerge where states are seen as less legitimate, we must remember that the source of legitimacy of a state cannot be derived solely from violence. </p>
<p>The response to this crisis necessitates a strong state that can challenge armed groups on multiple fronts: the monopoly of violence and the welfare of the population. Stability entails the commitment to providing protection beyond just meeting violence with violence. In the 21st century, legitimacy cannot be dictated by raw violence alone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220920/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Poverty, insecurity and a naive and misguided drugs policy have led to a virtual civil war in Ecuador.Maria Gabriela Palacio, Assistant Professor in Development Studies, Leiden UniversityFabio Andrés Díaz Pabón, African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research (ACEIR), University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2213122024-01-17T23:06:58Z2024-01-17T23:06:58ZHow Ecuador went from an ‘island of peace’ to one of the world’s most violent countries<p>In 1991, Ecuadorian President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodrigo_Borja_Cevallos">Rodrigo Borja Cevallos</a> uttered a famous phrase, calling Ecuador an “island of peace” in the world. These words were repeated ten years later by President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_Noboa">Gustavo Noboa Bejarano</a> in his 2002 Report to the Nation. Today, however, they have completely lost their meaning – and worryingly so.</p>
<p>Ecuador has unexpectedly become one of the most violent countries in the world, described by the United Nations as a country “under stress”.</p>
<p>According to a study by the independent <a href="https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/ocindex-2023/">Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime</a>, the country ranks as the 11th most violent in the world, alongside Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.</p>
<p>In addition, Ecuador ranks 96th out of 146 countries (23rd out of 32 regionally) in the 2023 <a href="https://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index/">Rule of Law Index</a> (World Justice Project), which evaluates factors such as limits to government power, absence of corruption, political openness, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory compliance, civil justice and criminal justice.</p>
<p>Just five years ago, Ecuador was still considered one of the safest countries in Latin America, with a rate of 6.7 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. Today, it is nearing a rate of 45 deaths.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Video from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime with the results of the Global Organised Crime Index 2023.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Earlier this month, President Daniel Noboa <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/10/1224041752/ecuadorian-president-declares-a-state-of-emergency-amid-gang-violence-outbreak">declared</a> a state of emergency with a curfew throughout the country following the escape of the top leader of the most important criminal group, Los Choneros. This resulted in explosives attacks and kidnappings by criminal groups and the arrests of members of the country’s security forces and prison officials. </p>
<p>It was a clear demonstration of the level of firepower the criminal gangs are able to use against the state’s security forces. And rather than isolated incidents, it’s now clear this violence is becoming a war between criminal groups and the state over territory and control of populations. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Leia mais:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-ecuador-went-from-being-latin-americas-model-of-stability-to-a-nation-in-crisis-220911">How Ecuador went from being Latin America's model of stability to a nation in crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<h2>The economics of drug trafficking drives crime</h2>
<p>The variable most responsible for this rise in violence and insecurity in Ecuador is drug trafficking. And not just cocaine, but also heroin and, more recently, the destructive synthetic drug fentanyl.</p>
<p>This is due to several factors: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>the country’s location next door to the world’s largest cocaine producers </p></li>
<li><p>the dollarised economy, which is attractive for money laundering </p></li>
<li><p>the limited ability of the state to monitor the various air, sea and land drug transport routes into and out of the country </p></li>
<li><p>structural causes, such as unemployment, increasing inequality and lack of development </p></li>
<li><p>and the strong influence of the media, especially social networks, on young people who are increasingly seduced by the culture of drug trafficking and the lure of leadership, power and easy money.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Local drug lords have also formed strategic alliances with transnational drug trafficking cartels. In addition to bringing economic benefits, these connections have led to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a professionalisation in the management of criminal markets in Ecuador</p></li>
<li><p>increased specialisation in criminal tasks (custody, extortion, money laundering, illegal mining, among others) </p></li>
<li><p>better training of hitmen, explosives experts and specialists in criminal intelligence and counterintelligence </p></li>
<li><p>and more effective communication among guerrillas around the country, such as through graffiti art.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Crisis in the penitentiary system</h2>
<p>Another critical underlying factor was the reduction of the central government’s budget for reforming the country’s penitentiary system several years ago. </p>
<p>This led to the dismissal of prison officials and the elimination of directorates in the justice sector. In fact, under the government of former President Lenin Moreno, the Ministry of Justice, Human Rights and Religious Affairs was eliminated and the Secretariat of Human Rights and the National Service for Attention to Persons Deprived of Liberty (which runs the corrections system) were created. </p>
<p>All this has led to a lack of clarity in the management of serious prison problems and an increase in overcrowding in the country’s 34 detention centres. As a result, the prisons have become strategic strongholds for drug lords, beset by crime and violence. In the last three years, there have been 11 prison massacres, resulting in 412 deaths across Ecuador. </p>
<p>The prisons are also contributing to criminal enterprises on the streets. Live internet broadcasts of atrocities have become common, such as dismemberments and decapitations, as well as limbless corpses and vital organs exposed on bridges and in other public places.</p>
<p>In fact, there’s an increasingly popular expression in the country that “it is safer to live in prisons than on the streets”.</p>
<p>When it comes to this kind of violence, the local mafia groups have learned from the practices of Colombian and Mexican cartels. </p>
<p>The crudest displays of violence have come from the groups aligned with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalisco_New_Generation_Cartel">Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación</a>, formerly known as the Mata Zetas. This group has received military training (some members in the United States) and its practices are based in religious cultural beliefs, including cannibalism and the cult of <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/who-is-santa-muerte/">Santa Muerte</a>, which influence their chilling acts of violence.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Leia mais:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/inside-mexicos-war-on-drugs-conversations-with-el-narco-129865">Inside Mexico's war on drugs: Conversations with 'el narco'</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Assassination schools</h2>
<p>When a new executive decree was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ecuadors-lasso-authorizes-civilian-use-guns-citing-insecurity-2023-04-02/">signed</a> by former President Guillermo Lasso in April that made it easier for civilians to carry and use weapons, criminal groups increased their attacks, especially assassinations by hitmen with military weapons purchased on the illicit market.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, the existence of four notorious schools of hired killers, located in the cities of Durán, Manta, Lago Agrio and Esmeraldas, has not been formally denounced by the government</p>
<p>Information from police sources indicates that these schools promote junior, intermediate and senior assassins and, depending on their experience in terms of number of assassinations, strict compliance with orders and the level of importance of the targets, their salaries vary between USD$200 and $10,000 per month.</p>
<p>The training of these assassins is not necessarily done in person, but virtually, through video games which are intended to help recruits lose their feelings of fear and remorse. This is a vital psychological preparation for young people who, due to poverty, unemployment and lack of study opportunities, are easily recruited to work as assassins for the various mafia groups.</p>
<p>The gangs have increasingly powerful mechanisms for attracting those in the most economically desperate areas of the country, who are forced (either by threats or economic necessity) to join the criminal underworld.</p>
<h2>A narco-state under construction</h2>
<p>Increasingly, criminal groups are able to wield influence over local governments, municipalities and mayors’ offices to hide their criminal endeavours in pseudo-legal ways and advance their strategic objectives of ultimately turning Ecuador into a narco-state.</p>
<p>And Ecuador’s citizens are the ones paying the price. The macabre murders, kidnappings and other acts of violence are forcing them to change their routines or adopt lives of complete seclusion. </p>
<p>There is an atmosphere of insecurity and mistrust creeping into society, which is being exacerbated by the traditional and social media, who continue to operate without a real commitment to journalistic ethics and social responsibility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221312/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maria Fernanda Noboa Gonzalez não presta consultoria, trabalha, possui ações ou recebe financiamento de qualquer empresa ou organização que poderia se beneficiar com a publicação deste artigo e não revelou nenhum vínculo relevante além de seu cargo acadêmico.</span></em></p>Just five years ago, Ecuador was still considered one of the safest countries in Latin America. Now, there is a brutal war playing out between criminal gangs and the state.Maria Fernanda Noboa Gonzalez, Doutora em Estudos Internacionais, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) - EcuadorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2209112024-01-12T20:28:23Z2024-01-12T20:28:23ZHow Ecuador went from being Latin America’s model of stability to a nation in crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568975/original/file-20240111-15-p90s4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C85%2C8142%2C5371&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ecuador looks set to entrust its anti-gang fight to the military.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/military-elements-guard-the-car-with-president-of-ecuador-news-photo/1915341584?adppopup=true">Franklin Jacome/Agencia Press South/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-13/once-ecuador-was-a-peaceful-country-now-it-is-one-of-the-regions-most-violent.html">Ecuador was until relatively recently</a> seen as <a href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ecuador-on-Track-to-Become-the-Safest-Country-in-Latin-America-20150621-0009.html">one of the safest countries</a> in Latin America.</p>
<p>That reputation has surely now been destroyed.</p>
<p>On Jan. 9, 2024, images of hooded <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/ecuador-gangs-wave-terror-state-of-emergency">gunmen storming a TV studio</a> were broadcast around the world. It was one of a number of violent incidents that took place that day, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/world/americas/ecuador-gang-prison-emergency.html">prison riots, widespread hostage-taking</a>, the <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/seven-police-kidnapped-in-ecuador-as-president-declares-security-emergency-101704828141894.html">kidnapping of several police officers</a> and a <a href="https://crisis24.garda.com/alerts/2024/01/ecuador-criminal-groups-launch-attacks-jan-9-following-declaration-of-state-of-emergency-and-curfew-update-3">series of car explosions</a>.</p>
<p>I have been <a href="https://pir.fiu.edu/people/faculty-a-z/eduardo-gamarra1/eduardo-gamarra.html">tracking how gang crime has affected states in Latin America</a> for 38 years. When I started, few would have projected that Ecuador would descend into the crisis it finds itself today. But the story of Ecuador reflects a wider story of how countries across Latin America have struggled with organized crime and transnational drug gangs and how they have responded.</p>
<p>Ecuador now looks set to follow the recent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/19/bukele-salvador-gang-crackdown/">path of El Salvador under President Nayib Bukele’s leadership</a> in trying to crack the gang problem through the use of military and the suspension of democratic norms. In the aftermath of the Jan. 9 violence, Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa named 22 gangs as terrorist organizations – a designation that makes them legitimate military targets. He has also <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67930452">imposed a 60-day state of emergency</a>, during which Ecuadorians will be subject to curfews while armed forces try to restore order in the streets and the country’s gang-controlled prisons.</p>
<h2>Ecuador: Victim of geography</h2>
<p>To understand why Ecuador has become the epicenter of gang violence, you need to understand both the geography and history of Latin America’s drug trade.</p>
<p><iframe id="NQYh1" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/NQYh1/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Ecuador, a nation of 18 million people, is situated between Colombia in the north and Peru in the east and south. Colombia and Peru are the <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/colombia-sets-new-cocaine-production-record-un-832dac7c">two top producers of cocaine in the world</a>. Further, Ecuador has a near-1,400 mile (2,237-kilometer) coastline through which drugs from the continent can be <a href="https://insightcrime.org/investigations/ecuador-a-cocaine-superhighway-to-the-us-and-europe/">taken to markets in Europe and the United States</a>.</p>
<p>But it wasn’t until the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/ecuador-war-on-drugs">U.S.-led “war on drugs</a>” put the squeeze on cartels in other countries that Ecuador became the preserve of narco gangs.</p>
<h2>Plan Colombia</h2>
<p>In the 1980s and 1990s, Colombia was the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.013.504">center of the international illegal drug trade</a>. This is hardly surprising, given that it was the <a href="https://www.unodc.org/pdf/andean/Andean_report_Part4.pdf">top producer of coca leaves</a>.</p>
<p>But beginning in 2000, a joint initiative between Colombian authorities and the U.S., known as <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/plan-colombia-a-retrospective/">Plan Colombia</a>, <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R43813">pumped billions</a> of dollars into an effort to clamp down on the Colombian cocaine trade.</p>
<p>While it may have been successful in <a href="https://www.usglc.org/media/2017/04/USGLC-Plan-Columbia.pdf">supressing drug cartels</a> in Colombia itself, it has had a balloon effect elsewhere in the region: Squeeze in one place, the bulge appears elsewhere.</p>
<p>In this case, it was Mexico’s cartels that “bulged” first. Over the past decade, there has been a <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/mexicos-long-war-drugs-crime-and-cartels">massive growth in Mexican cartels</a>, led by the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco Nueva Generación, or Jalisco New Generation. In fact, a study last year found that Mexican cartels were in effect the country’s <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/cutting-cartel-recruitment-could-be-only-way-reduce-mexico-s-violence">fifth-largest employer</a>.</p>
<p>These cartels came to dominate the illegal drug trade in Latin America, not just for cocaine, but also the trafficking of heroin and more lately fentanyl. Aligning themselves with <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/12/terrifying-days-of-terror-under-colombias-gulf-clan-cartel">Clan Del Golfo</a> – a Colombian paramilitary organization formed from the remnants of the gangs dismantled under joint Colombian-U.S. operations – the cartels helped traffic drugs through Ecuador and out of South America.</p>
<p>They were joined by European gangs, <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/ecuadors-crime-wave-and-its-albanian-connection/">notably from Albania</a>, who began to show up in Ecuador.</p>
<p>The impact locally of these outside gangs has been disastrous for Ecuador.</p>
<h2>Prior immunity</h2>
<p>European and Mexican organizations ran local operatives as enforcers and transporters. And these are the people who have become the backbone of Ecuador’s gang problem today.</p>
<p>Ecuadorian gangs such as <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/rise-fall-choneros-ecuador-drug-trafficking-pioneers/">Los Choneros</a> developed as a de facto subsidiary of the Sinaloa and other cartels. The <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240111-what-we-know-about-fito-ecuador-s-notorious-gang-leader-who-escaped-jail">escape from jail</a> of Los Choneros’ leader, Jose Adolfo Macias, on Jan. 7, 2024, set off the latest explosion of violence. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man stands with his hands cuffed behind his back. Two men stand either side of him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568973/original/file-20240111-23-10j7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568973/original/file-20240111-23-10j7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568973/original/file-20240111-23-10j7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568973/original/file-20240111-23-10j7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568973/original/file-20240111-23-10j7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568973/original/file-20240111-23-10j7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568973/original/file-20240111-23-10j7t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police officers arrest a gunman who burst into a studio of the state-owned TC television.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/police-officers-arrest-one-of-the-unidentified-gunmen-who-news-photo/1913161165?adppopup=true">STR/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But Ecuador’s descent into violence and chaos has also been aided by the very fact that for so long it was immune from the worst of the gang violence of the region.</p>
<p>For many years, Ecuador had <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2024/01/10/how-ecuador-became-latin-americas-deadliest-country">one of the lowest homicide rates</a> in Latin America – an indicator of low gang activity. As a result, it hadn’t developed a robust police and military response to gangs. Ecuador, in comparison to Colombia, El Salvador and other countries, was seen as a “soft touch” to organized crime bosses. </p>
<p>This became ever more the case in 2009 when former President Rafael Correa <a href="https://en.mercopress.com/2009/09/19/last-us-forces-abandon-manta-military-base-in-ecuador">closed down the U.S. air base in Manta</a>, from where American AWAC surveillance planes had been monitoring and trying to disrupt drug trafficking.</p>
<h2>Militarizing the response</h2>
<p>Explaining how Ecuador became the epicenter of drug gang violence is one thing. Trying to find a way out for the country now is another.</p>
<p>Across Latin America, countries have employed different models to counter organized crime, with varying degrees of success. Colombia, with extensive U.S. assistance, transformed its military and police and went to war with the cartels. The strategy somewhat successfully dismantled organized crime groups in the country, even if it failed to halt drug trafficking itself or lower the high levels of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/06/08/us-war-drugs-helped-unleash-violence-colombia-today/">violence in Colombia</a>.</p>
<p>Mexican authorities have tried a different approach and have been reluctant to confront the country’s drug cartels head-on. Instead, Mexico has employed a more hands-off approach, allowing drug gangs to essentially govern their states – the state of Sinaloa is <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-the-sinaloa-cartel-rules/">run largely by the cartel</a> that shares its name. </p>
<p>Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has touted this “<a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/amlos-hugs-not-bullets-failing-mexico">hugs not bullets</a>” approach, but under it the power of the cartels <a href="https://cbsaustin.com/news/nation-world/mexican-cartels-grow-in-power-and-influence-with-calls-to-change-tactics-in-fighting-back-kidnapping-killings-murders-homicides-matamoros-border-crisis">has only grown</a>.</p>
<p>And then there is the Salvadoran model.</p>
<p>For many years, El Salvador suffered from organized crime, with the <a href="https://www.bloomberglinea.com/english/who-are-the-maras-the-gangs-that-el-salvador-and-honduras-are-waging-war-against/">Maras gang</a> behind much of the country’s violence. Then in 2019 the electorate voted in Nayib Bukele on a law-and-order platform. Since then, he has <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/gamechangers-2022-el-salvador-gang-crackdown-steep-human-rights-cost/">militarized the country</a>, adopted draconian security measures and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-prison-gangs-bukele-42315f24691e0a3136d005ab7c0bee6a">jailed some 72,000 alleged gang members</a>, often without due process.</p>
<p>As a result, El Salvador is now perceived as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/25/el-salvador-crime-human-rights-prisons/">one of the safest places</a> in Latin America. This has been achieved at the expense of human rights, critics say. But, nonetheless, Bukele’s methods have enormous popular appeal.</p>
<h2>Path of El Salvador</h2>
<p>With an unprecedented wave of violence in Ecuador, it looks like President Noboa is looking to take his country down the same path as El Salvador. He has ordered the Ecuadorian military to “<a href="https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240109-gunmen-burst-into-ecuador-tv-studio-threaten-journalists-live-on-air">neutralize” the criminal gangs</a> that operate in the country.</p>
<p>Whether the approach will work is another matter; Ecuador is in a weaker position than El Salvador.</p>
<p>Whereas many of the gangs were imported into El Salvador – many members of Maras had been deported from the U.S. – in Ecuador, they are homegrown and have become more sophisticated. Further, Noboa – despite taking office in December – has only 15 months of his presidency left before a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/20/world/americas/ecuador-election-assassination-explainer.html">general election takes place in May 2025</a>. </p>
<p>Yet, the adoption of Bukele’s methods might be seen as an election winner.</p>
<p>Like in El Salvador, the majority of Ecuador’s citizens appear ready for an iron fist approach to counter the gangs – even at the expense of some civil liberties. If you speak to the average Ecuadorian, many would no doubt tell you that talk of human rights violations is bogus at a time when they live under the fear of being murdered simply by leaving their homes.</p>
<p>As one man <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-violence-prisons-television-studio-gangs-72a3df45debae4459663c462304bcf91">told The Associated Press</a> in the aftermath of Jan. 9’s violence, the government needs to employ “a firmer hand, to have no mercy, no tolerance or (respect for) the human rights of criminals.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eduardo Gamarra has received funding from foundations, US government agencies, multilateral organizations and private donors. </span></em></p>Widespread violence tied to Ecuadorian drug gangs has left the country looking at a draconian response.Eduardo Gamarra, Professor of Politics and International Relations, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197902024-01-11T21:37:33Z2024-01-11T21:37:33ZHalf a century later, the military junta still haunts Chile<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/half-a-century-later-the-military-junta-still-haunts-chile" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Chileans recently voted to reject a proposed new constitution which critics said was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/16/why-chiles-draft-constitution-reads-like-us-conservative-wish-list/">even more authoritarian and conservative</a> than the 1980 dictatorship-era constitution it sought to replace. </p>
<p>Most notably, the rejected changes sought to strengthen property rights and uphold free-market principles. Roughly 56 per cent of voters rejected the new constitution while around 44 per cent were in favour. Debates about the constitution highlight the political challenges that have plagued Chile since the violent days of the military junta. </p>
<p>Hosted in Santiago, <a href="https://www.panamsports.org/en/news-sport/the-santiago-2023-pan-american-games-left-the-name-of-chile-at-the-highest-level/">the 2023 Pan and Parapan American Games</a>, were seen as an opportunity to signal a new Chile. For Toronto-born Olympian <a href="https://olympic.ca/team-canada/melissa-humana-paredes/">Melissa Humaña-Paredes</a>, daughter of Chilean political refugees, entering the Estadio Nacional (National Stadium) as a <a href="https://olympic.ca/2023/10/20/humana-paredes-wilkerson-to-be-team-canadas-opening-ceremony-flag-bearers-at-santiago-2023/">flag-bearer</a> for the Canadian team, conjured up simultaneous feelings of pride, and the images of the atrocities from 50 years ago. </p>
<p>Under the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet which ruled Chile from 1970 to 1990, many sport stadiums, especially the Estadio Nacional, were used as open-air prisons, where many Chileans were tortured and killed.</p>
<h2>Athlete activism in 1970s Chile</h2>
<p>On Sept. 11, 1973, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/10/1193755188/chile-coup-50-years-pinochet-kissinger-human-rights-allende">a coup backed by the United States overthrew the democratically-elected government of Chilean President Salvador Allende</a>. Allende was the first Marxist president in Latin America and leader of the Unidad Popular (Popular Unity) coalition. He earned a <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20130911-1973-chile-1973-coup-defining-moment-france-left-communist-socialist-party">“mythical status”</a> among leftist political groups globally as a renowned socialist elected in the midst of the Cold War.</p>
<p>The defeat of Chilean democracy had devastating effects on the Chilean people. The violence of Pinochet’s reign was documented by the National Commission on Political Imprisonment and Torture. In 2011, the Commission presented a <a href="https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/resources/collections/truth_commissions/Chile90-Report/Chile90-Report.pdf">final report</a> recognizing a total of <a href="https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2023/09/12/exvicepresidenta-de-comision-valech-acusa-a-diputado-bobadilla-udi-de-ofender-a-las-victimas/">40,018 victims, 3,065 of them dead or missing</a>.</p>
<p>Melissa’s father, sport sociologist and professor, Hernán Humaña, a co-author of this article, recounts his own experiences as a Chilean national volleyball player during that time in his book <em>Playing Under the Gun: An Athlete’s Tale of Survival in 1970s Chile.</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Standing in line on the [volleyball] court, looking at the flag, and singing the anthem had turned into a painful routine for me. I felt the pain viscerally — not just in my heart. Observing spectators in the stands, also struggling during the anthem, made for an interesting study of people’s political alliances. Those supporting the military sang their lungs out, whereas those opposed either didn’t sing at all or selected only one part of the anthem, the one about “granting asylum to those persecuted.” What irony! Standing there singing, in full view of everyone, I was always aware that any departure from the norm could be dangerous for me, as the military and their supporters were humourless and would punish and persecute for such unpatriotic conduct.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.londres38.cl/1937/w3-article-97937.html">Sergio Tormen Méndez</a> and <a href="https://www.londres38.cl/1937/w3-article-97894.html">Luis Guajardo Zamorano</a> were two athletes, less fortunate in the military junta, forcibly disappeared 10-months after the coup d'etat.</p>
<p>Méndez and Zamorano were two elite cyclists and friends committed to fighting the military dictatorship. On the morning of July 20, 1974, DINA, the feared secret police, kidnapped the two men along with national cycling coach, Andres Moraga, and 14-year-old Peter, Méndez’s younger brother. In subsequent days, Moraga and Peter were released with a message: Sergio and Luis are in big trouble. Numerous survivors recount seeing the two in various torture centres, yet, the details of their disappearance remains a dark secret, and their bodies have yet to be found.</p>
<p>The tireless efforts of many groups, principally the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared (<em>Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos</em>), have attempted to break pacts of silence amongst those responsible for human rights violations, and authorities, especially members of the armed forces, have consistently impeded efforts to pursue justice. </p>
<p>Efforts are further complicated by a <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/09/chile-amnesty-law-keeps-pinochet-s-legacy-alive/">1978 amnesty law</a> that pardoned perpetrators and accomplices of all offenses committed between Sept. 11, 1973 and March 10, 1978.</p>
<p>Since the return to democracy in 1990, only 307 previously missing victims have been identified, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/30/chile-announces-much-anticipated-plan-to-search-for-pinochet-victims">Chilean courts have since processed 584 kidnapping cases, 169 murders, and 85 illegal burials under the dictatorship</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, in August 2023, president Gabriel Boric’s government <a href="https://elpais.com/chile/2023-08-30/chile-buscara-a-mas-de-mil-desparecidos-de-la-dictadura-la-mayor-apuesta-de-boric-a-50-anos-del-golpe-militar.html">initiated a plan</a> to determine the circumstances of forced disappearances and offer reparations and assurances to the families of victims.</p>
<h2>Mythical miracles</h2>
<p>The history of brutal violence <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/myths-about-pinochets-chile-persist-brazil-today/">counters the sanitized myths</a> about a Chilean miracle popularized by people like economist Milton Friedman, who called it Latin America’s “<a href="https://www.druglibrary.org/special/friedman/socialist.htm">best economic success story</a>.”</p>
<p>In 2019, the attempted framing of the “miracle of Chile” could no longer be maintained. Two years after Chile was announced as host of the 2023 Pan/Parapan American Games, civic unrest erupted after the government announced an increase in transit fares. <a href="https://ciudadaniai.org/en/chile.html">Mass demonstrations were led by students</a> who jumped turnstiles and held open gates for people to avoid fares.</p>
<p>With some of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50123494">highest levels of inequality</a> among 30 of the wealthiest nations in the world, and <a href="https://corruption-tracker.org/case/chiles-milicogate-scandal#:%7E:text=Summary%20of%20Corruption%20Allegations&text=Three%20Chilean%20Armed%20Forces%20(CAF,were%20indicted%20or%20tax%20fraud">public officials marred by corruption scandals</a>, Chileans were reacting to 30 years of free-market neoliberal failure. </p>
<p>More than a million people, from the poorest to those from upper middle-class neighbourhoods, took to the streets. Militarized police and armed forces brutally repressed demonstrations, as protesters chanted <a href="https://jacobin.com/2019/10/chile-protests-pinera-repression">“It’s not about 30 pesos, it’s about 30 years.”</a></p>
<p>In a matter of weeks, at least <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/13/chile-un-prosecution-police-army-protests">26 people were killed, 113 people were tortured, and 24 cases of sexual violence were committed</a> by the police and army.</p>
<p>In response to protests, the political establishment agreed to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/how-chile-is-rewriting-its-pinochet-era-constitution-2021-05-14/">redraft the 1980 constitution</a>, ratified amid the bloodshed of Pinochet, and Boric <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-59694056">was elected in December 2021</a> with a progressive agenda. </p>
<p>His minority government has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/chile-constitution-kast-boric-2c0c228d4608a55faf75ad6a318865a0">struggled to implement significant changes</a>. The first attempt to pass a progressive constitution — which included a host of rights and guarantees — was rejected in 2022.</p>
<p>Roughly 80 per cent of <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1294731/distribution-wealth-by-percentile-chile/">Chile’s wealth</a> remains concentrated within the top 10 per cent, and almost 50 per cent of the total national wealth belongs to the top one per cent.</p>
<p>The entrance of the Estadio Nacional reads “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/national-stadium-santiago-pan-american-games-788a048385aa169950ffd0b5915d3edd">A people without memory is a people without future</a>” and serves as a stark reminder that memories, especially those bearing the weight of state repression in stadiums celebrated now, remain living.</p>
<p>The Pan and Parapan American Games and constitutional debates, while ostensibly thought to represent a new Chile, temporarily obscured histories, still repeating.</p>
<p><em>This article was also co-authored by Chilean filmmaker Hernán Morris, and Melissa Humaña-Paredes, a 2020 Tokyo Olympian.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219790/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite hosting the 2023 Pan American Games and electing a president with a progressive agenda, Chile continues to grapple with entrenched economic inequality.Hernan Humana, Associate Lecturer, School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, CanadaAmanda De Lisio, Assistant Professor, School of Kinesiology and Health Science, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2201502024-01-10T18:54:04Z2024-01-10T18:54:04Z‘Legal animism’: when a river or even nature itself goes to court<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566558/original/file-20231004-26-deen3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=130%2C32%2C5324%2C3582&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Aerial view of a waterfall in the valley of Vilcabamba, Ecuador, where an historic lawsuit was won by a river in 2011.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/fr/image-photo/ecuador-waterfall-aerial-view-mountain-waterall-2150891681">Curioso.Photography/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On 30 March 2011, a truly <a href="https://ejatlas.org/conflict/first-successful-case-of-rights-of-nature-ruling-vilcabamba-river-ecuador/">unprecedented event</a> took place at a provincial court in Loja, Equator, located some 270 miles from the capital of Quito. The Vilcabamba River, a plaintiff in a <a href="https://mariomelo.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/proteccion-derechosnatura-loja-11.pdf">trial there</a>, convinced the tribunal that its own rights were being undermined by a road development project. The project was then halted due because it would have jeopardised the river’s flow.</p>
<p>I was fortunate to be able to both attend this trial and examine what has been termed “legal animism” in two pioneering countries in the field, Ecuador and Bolivia.</p>
<p>Today, nations from <a href="https://notreaffaireatous.org/amendement-du-parlement-ougandais-du-national-environment-act-2019/">Uganda</a> to <a href="https://www.earthlaws.org.au/aelc/rights-of-nature/new-zealand/">New Zealand</a> are following suit by opening up their criminal justice systems to this type of jurisprudence that enables a natural entity, be it an ecosystem or indeed nature itself, to become a legal person and thus have rights. These innovations are raising hopes among some environmental activists, but they also remind us of the law’s malleability. From animals being called to stand trial in the <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/09/fantastically-wrong-europes-insane-history-putting-animals-trial-executing/">Middle Ages</a> to the Indian lawyer who <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35489971">sued a god</a>, we have sculpted our laws in creative ways throughout the eras. Indeed, no one finds it odd nowadays that a business is considered a legal person.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505718/original/file-20230122-28471-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505718/original/file-20230122-28471-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505718/original/file-20230122-28471-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505718/original/file-20230122-28471-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505718/original/file-20230122-28471-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505718/original/file-20230122-28471-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505718/original/file-20230122-28471-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505718/original/file-20230122-28471-kntkja.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499989/original/file-20221209-29206-wsoxgj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499989/original/file-20221209-29206-wsoxgj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499989/original/file-20221209-29206-wsoxgj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499989/original/file-20221209-29206-wsoxgj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499989/original/file-20221209-29206-wsoxgj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499989/original/file-20221209-29206-wsoxgj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499989/original/file-20221209-29206-wsoxgj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Illustration of a sow and her piglets on trial for the murder of a child. The trial is believed to have taken place in 1457.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proc%C3%A8s_d%27animaux#/media/Fichier:Trial_of_a_sow_and_pigs_at_Lavegny.png">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>When two worldviews collide</h2>
<p>By delving into the origin and development of the innovations in Ecuador and Bolivia, we can also observe how legal animism plays out in all its various guises, possibilities and limits. This is what I intend to do in this article.</p>
<p>South America may have blazed the trail, but the expression “legal animism” actually appeared for the first time in the writings of French legal researcher <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/insituarss/1338">Marie-Angèle Hermitte</a>. Right off the bat, this compound term connotes a meeting of two worlds and two philosophical traditions. In one corner, we have the animist worldview, which some Western schools of thought have portrayed as their antithesis; in the other, a system that forms the bedrock of European modernity.</p>
<p>In Ecuador and in Bolivia, we can find a common undercurrent of influences or frictions that pervades these two colliding worldviews. All at once, influences from North American environmental lawyers meld with the use of the divine Earth Mother figure present in Andean cosmogony.</p>
<h2>Constituent Assembly: the moment when the natural world became redefined</h2>
<p>Another commonality between these two nations is the rather specific context of the constituent assembly. In 2006 and 2007, respectively, Bolivia and Ecuador essentially wiped the slate clean by introducing assemblies tasked with drafting new constitutions. In doing so, they each witnessed a watershed moment of redefining their entire national identity.</p>
<p>Supported or even long awaited by Native communities in both countries, these changes led to a rising prominence of the figure of Pachamama, the embodiment of Mother Earth in Andean myth. Also evoking a meeting of two worlds, this name is a portmanteau of <em>pacha</em>, the Quechua and Aymara word for “world”, and <em>mama</em>, the Spanish word for “mother”. Out of these circumstances soon came a wave of aspirations to endow nature with a legal status.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Mother Earth, or Pachamama, is a mythical figure found throughout Latin America. Shown here in Andean cosmology according to Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamayhua (1613)." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552055/original/file-20231004-24-8ro2p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552055/original/file-20231004-24-8ro2p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552055/original/file-20231004-24-8ro2p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552055/original/file-20231004-24-8ro2p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=657&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552055/original/file-20231004-24-8ro2p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552055/original/file-20231004-24-8ro2p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552055/original/file-20231004-24-8ro2p2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mother Earth, or Pachamama, is a mythical figure present across Latin America. This depiction of her is taken from Andean cosmology, drawn by Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti Yamqui Salcamayhua (1613) based on an image from the Qorikancha (</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachamama#/media/Fichier:Santa_Cruz_Pachacuti_Yamqui_Pachamama.jpg">Domaine public</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Ecuador, legal animism was brought into the constituent assembly by intellectuals aligned with new theories of the law. They’re influenced by the concepts of US legal expert Christopher Stone, who proposed, as early as <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/should-trees-have-standing-9780199736072">1972</a>, that trees should have rights. To ground these ideas within the constitutional context, the advocates relied on reinterpretations of the country’s Indigenous knowledge. In fact, 80% of Ecuadorians are mixed-race European and Native, but <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2014/11/13/religion-in-latin-america/">virtually the entire population</a> identifies as Christian. It was out of these disparate influences that Article 71 of the Constitution was born. It stipulates:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Nature, or Pachamama where life is reproduced and occurs, has the right to integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes. All persons, communities, peoples and nations can call upon public authorities to enforce the rights of nature.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Article 72 evokes the right for an ecosystem to be restored, while Article 73 cites the requirement to enforce the precautionary principle for activities that might lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of ecosystems and the permanent alteration of natural cycles.</p>
<h2>The figure of Pachamama</h2>
<p>In Bolivia, constituents found themselves debating Pachamama’s specific attributes. On one side were residents from the highlands, who honour this deity each day; on the other were people from the lowlands and the south of the country, who had an altogether much more nebulous notion.</p>
<p>Pachamama’s scope of enforcement was also the subject of fierce discussion. If Mother Earth is omnipresent, must all living things be included in her definition? What are her limits? I had the chance to attend a debate that sought to ascertain whether, if Pachamama were considered a legal person, it would be possible – or indeed desirable – to sue a mosquito for biting a human.</p>
<p>These discussions culminated in a conceptualisation of Pachamama as an open-ended, collective entity; a Mother Earth across all planes of existence who should therefore be protected as such. This was to avoid the endless back-and-forth of determining what could or could not be included in her definition. Thus regarded as the mother of all things, her definition extends to every entity in the world. In the new constitution of 22 January 2010, no fewer than 10 articles mention Mother Earth based on these terms:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Mother Earth is a dynamic living system comprising an indivisible community of all living systems and living organisms, interrelated, interdependent and complementary, which share a common destiny. Mother Earth is considered sacred, from the worldviews of nations and indigenous peoples.” (Article 3)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Articles 5 and 6 set out the legal framework of Mother Earth as a “collective public interest”, affirming that all Bolivians can exercise the rights of Mother Earth, provided that they also respect individual and collective rights.</p>
<p>Article 7 then goes on to list the seven rights of Mother Earth, which are the right to life, to the diversity of life, to water, to clean air, to equilibrium, to restoration and to pollution-free living.</p>
<hr>
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<h2>The permutations and limits of nature’s newfound rights</h2>
<p>With this new relationship to nature being enshrined in the two constitutions, what real-world consequences and applications have followed on from the legal tools that they have inspired? Again, Bolivia and Ecuador differ somewhat.</p>
<p>The Ecuadorian constituents’ desire to offer practical legal tools quickly gave way to legal actions, the first of which was the case of the Vilcabamba River. This trial was spurred by environmental activists who back in 2011 were already well versed in the law’s new potential, but we have since seen <a href="https://www.derechosdelanaturaleza.org.ec/casos-ecuador/">other proceedings led by a diverse cross-section of Ecuadorian society</a>.</p>
<p>The tools proposed by the new constitution soon outstripped the limits expected of them by ecological struggles across the world. In this respect, it was presumed that it would be tricky to isolate responsibility for cases concerning the environment. For instance, how could a project, organisation or person be held accountable for environmental damages if those damages were suffered beyond the borders of the offending country? The Ecuadorian justice system has managed to extricate itself from these issues by invoking the precautionary principle and <a href="https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/mlj/2014-v60-n1-mlj01619/1027721ar/">universal jurisdiction</a>.</p>
<p>In November 2010, citizens from Ecuador, as well as India, Colombia and Nigeria, pressed charges against British Petroleum before the Constitutional Court of Ecuador. After the company caused a colossal oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the plaintiffs demanded that it release information on the ecological disaster and its impact, and that it repair the damages caused. These citizens were not direct victims of the oil spill and were therefore not suing on behalf of their own rights, but of those of the ocean. Although the complaint was heard, the judges ultimately decided to dodge the issue, citing another constitutional framework that imposed a notion and scope of territoriality on legal cases.</p>
<p>By comparison, the Bolivian constituent assembly has done little in the way of offering simple recourse to the law for defending the rights of nature. Nevertheless, the drafting of the new constitution centred on the figure of Pachamama has not been a futile exercise.</p>
<p>In particular, there has been some disillusionment regarding the gap between the ambitious ideals built upon the rights of Mother Earth and the reality of ongoing projects to exploit natural resources. This has put the government in a difficult position. It declares Mother Earth as sacred on the one hand, but on the other, it has also been entrusted with managing business as usual – or even developing it further – across all economic sectors.</p>
<p>This disparity has a fuelled a certain anger, with the figure of Pachamama being used as a cornerstone of several struggles. Among them is the movement to stop the construction of a road leading to the region of TIPNIS, a natural reserve of the Bolivian Amazon. Against the “developmentalist” arguments of the Bolivian government, farmers’ organisations, Natives and civic committees alike have cited the rights of Mother Earth as guaranteed in the nation’s constitution.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Manifestants contre le projet de route de TIPNIS arrivant à La Paz, en octobre 2011" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552048/original/file-20231004-17-83ds1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552048/original/file-20231004-17-83ds1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552048/original/file-20231004-17-83ds1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552048/original/file-20231004-17-83ds1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552048/original/file-20231004-17-83ds1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552048/original/file-20231004-17-83ds1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552048/original/file-20231004-17-83ds1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrators protesting against plans to build a road from TIPNIS to La Paz in October 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mywayaround/6262323419/">Szymon Kochański/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Backed by <a href="https://www.sciencespo.fr/opalc/node/712/index.html">citizen support</a>, particularly during two marches toward the capital, this movement saw an <a href="https://www.courrierinternational.com/breve/2011/09/27/evo-morales-recule-sur-le-projet-de-route-du-tipnis">initial victory</a> when a law was passed to establish the national park as an “intangible zone” and when plans to build the motorway were scrapped in October 2011. However, this was <a href="https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/bolivie-le-projet-controverse-dune-route-au-milieu-de-lamazonie-refait-surface">reversed in 2017</a>. President <a href="https://theconversation.com/fr/topics/evo-morales-78519">Evo Morales</a>, for his part, lost considerable support from Native populations throughout this case.</p>
<h2>Backtracking and side-tracking in all directions</h2>
<p>What can we learn? Such legal innovations may well have sparked a number of legal and political actions, but the law cannot do everything. It remains, above all, subject to the whims of political situations, as malleable for environmental struggles as it is for the demands of extractivism.</p>
<p>It can be common for backtracking to occur. In Australia in 2019, the Aṉangu Aboriginal population decided to ban <a href="https://ici.radio-canada.ca/espaces-autochtones/2002324/autochtones-lieux-touristiques-land-back">tours of Uluru</a> despite the substantial financial boon that these visits represented. This was because mass tourism to this sacred site was exacerbating erosion and groundwater pollution.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Panorama du Mont Uluru" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552057/original/file-20231004-15-6nov55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552057/original/file-20231004-15-6nov55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552057/original/file-20231004-15-6nov55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552057/original/file-20231004-15-6nov55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552057/original/file-20231004-15-6nov55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552057/original/file-20231004-15-6nov55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552057/original/file-20231004-15-6nov55.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Uluru, a mountain where tourist access has been prohibited.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/fr/photos/1GFUOji-yck">Photoholgic/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In recent years, Ecuador and Bolivia have stayed true to their reputation as breeding grounds of legal innovation. For instance, the Bolivian Mother Earth Authority, headed by Benecio Quispe, considered potentially expanding the law to include rights for objects.</p>
<p>Confronted with the global problem of waste management, the Mother Earth Authority opened up discussions with chiefs of Native communities and trade union leaders on the subject of <a href="https://arbre-bleu-editions.com/heritage-et-anthropocene.html">legal rights for manufactured objects and goods</a>. These included the right to a maximum lifespan, care, repair, non-abandonment and so forth. While this avenue ultimately led to nothing, it once more demonstrated the ability of legal tools to help redefine our relationship with ecosystems and the modern world.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is part of a project between The Conversation France and AFP Audio, supported financially by the European Journalism Centre, as part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation “Solutions Journalism Accelerator” initiative. AFP and The Conversation France have maintained their editorial independence at every stage of the project.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220150/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diego Landivar ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Some countries have managed to elevate nature and ecosystems to the status of legal entities. Do these innovations really help to protect the environment?Diego Landivar, Enseignant Chercheur en Economie, Directeur d'Origens Media Lab, ESC Clermont Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197812023-12-19T19:33:29Z2023-12-19T19:33:29ZJoel Roberts Poinsett: Namesake of the poinsettia, enslaver, secret agent and perpetrator of the ‘Trail of Tears’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566077/original/file-20231215-25-a398jx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1023%2C80%2C4967%2C3907&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Joel Roberts Poinsett is given credit for bringing the popular red and green plant to the U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-poinsettia-flower-royalty-free-image/1188012230?phrase=poinsettia&adppopup=true">Constantine Johnny/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If people know the name Joel Roberts Poinsett today, it is likely because of the <a href="https://www.postandcourier.com/features/poinsettias-christmas-classic-south-carolina-history/article_47939016-8dfb-11ee-9a7f-0b56456cf49b.html">red and green poinsettia</a> plant.</p>
<p>In the late 1820s, while serving as the first ambassador from the U.S. to Mexico, Poinsett clipped samples of the plant known in Spanish as the “flor de nochebuena,” or flower of Christmas Eve, from the Mexican state of Guerrero. He then <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/12/23/conspiracy-fueled-origin-christmas-poinsettia/">introduced it</a> to the U.S. on a trip home from Mexico.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2021/12/poinsettia-how-a-u-s-diplomat-made-a-mexican-flower-an-international-favorite/">plant has been named poinsettia</a> ever since. </p>
<p>But much like the history of the U.S., Poinsett had a complex and troubling past. </p>
<p>An ambitious politician, financial investor and enslaver, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joel-R-Poinsett">Poinsett was a secret agent</a> for the U.S. government in South America who fought for the Chilean army against Spain during Chile’s War for Independence in the early 1800s. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A white man is wearing a cloak on his shoulders as he poses for a black-and-white portrait." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566089/original/file-20231215-16097-flqh2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joel Roberts Poinsett served as U.S. secretary of war from 1837 to 1841.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/poinsett-secretary-of-war-news-photo/1371420766?adppopup=true">HUM Images/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>A confidant of President Andrew Jackson, Poinsett also served as U.S. secretary of war under President Martin Van Buren and oversaw the ignominy of the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1567.html">Trail of Tears</a>, the forced relocation and deadly march of Cherokee people from the South to reservations in the West during the 1830s.</p>
<p>And yet Poinsett, an avid botanist who brought scores of other plants to the U.S., also helped found an organization that led to the creation of the <a href="https://www.si.edu/about">Smithsonian Institution</a>.</p>
<h2>A privileged life</h2>
<p>I came across his history almost by accident. I am a historian of capitalism in early America, and while I was on a research fellowship for my first book, “<a href="https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12030/manufacturing-advantage">Manufacturing Advantage: War, the State, and the Origins of American Industry</a>,” another researcher suggested I go to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to check out the papers of a few War Department officials. Poinsett was one of those officials. </p>
<p>There, I found a large collection of his letters and other personal papers that spanned five decades of his life. I became so fascinated with his life that I decided to write a book about him. <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo206811148.html">I detail</a> his complicated life in another book, “Flowers, Guns, and Money: Joel Roberts Poinsett and the Paradoxes of American Patriotism.”</p>
<p>Born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 2, 1779, Poinsett was the son of a wealthy doctor and lived a life of privilege. He traveled throughout Europe and Russia in his early 20s before starting a military career.</p>
<p>In the 1810s, Poinsett traveled around South America as a secret agent of the U.S. State Department. His intelligence reports led in part to the drafting of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Monroe-Doctrine">Monroe Doctrine</a>. </p>
<p>That doctrine, written by Secretary of State <a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/monroe-doctrine-1823">John Adams</a> and buried in <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/monroe-doctrine#:%7E:text=President%20James%20Monroe's%201823%20annual,nations%20of%20the%20Western%20Hemisphere.">President James Monroe’s address</a> to Congress on Dec. 2, 1823, sought to prevent European colonization in South America and, in essence, claimed the entire Western Hemisphere for the U.S. </p>
<p>The doctrine also set the stage for two centuries of rocky relations between the U.S and Latin America.</p>
<p>In 1825, the Monroe administration appointed Poinsett as the <a href="https://diplomacy.state.gov/events-listing/minister-poinsett/">nation’s first ambassador</a> to Mexico. He arrived there in the spring of that year and almost immediately instigated a general distrust of American interference. He used his connections to secure favorable plots of land for himself and his friends and established <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3338598">a U.S.-based mining company</a> to exploit Mexican resources for his own benefit.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An America soldier stands behind a fence with his thumb on his nose as two soldiers try to climb over the obstacle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566401/original/file-20231218-19-k36ngi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1902 caricature of England and Germany trying to overcome the Monroe Doctrine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/caricature-of-england-and-germany-responding-to-the-news-photo/3305759?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was on a trip to assess the profitability of some mines, in fact, that Poinsett admired the red and green plant and cut clippings to send to horticulturalists in the U.S. Exactly where and how these clippings were made and sent is not quite clear, but he remarked on the beauty of the plants he saw, which Franciscan friars in Mexico had been displaying at Christmas since the 1600s. </p>
<p>Several prominent horticulturalists in the United States later reported that <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/12/13/poinsettia-flower-christmas-holiday-sales-history">Poinsett sent them plant samples</a>. By the mid-1830s, agricultural reports described a plant with brilliant scarlet foliage, “lately referred to as the poinsettia,” as having been introduced by Poinsett in 1828. </p>
<h2>Poinsett’s Latin America meddling</h2>
<p>That same year, Poinsett also supported a coup in Mexico City. </p>
<p>During the Mexican presidential campaign in 1829, Poinsett supported <a href="https://www.mexconnect.com/articles/268-vicente-guerrero-a-study-in-triumph-and-tragedy-1782-1831/">Vicente Guerrero</a>, whom he saw as more amenable to his and U.S. financial interests. When Guerrero lost to moderate <a href="https://www.caller.com/story/news/columnists/2017/07/31/presidents-mexican-texas-1824-1836/526986001/">Manuel Gómez Pedraza</a>, Guerrero staged a coup with Poinsett’s approval that forced Gómez Pedraza to flee Mexico.</p>
<p>Because of Poinsett’s poor conduct during the election, the Mexican government requested Poinsett’s removal from his post. President Andrew Jackson instead <a href="https://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2018/10/1829-andrew-jackson-recalling-joel.html">allowed Poinsett</a> to resign.</p>
<p>Poinsett left Mexico and went back home to South Carolina.</p>
<p>On Oct. 24, 1833, at 54 years old, Poinsett married a 52-year-old, wealthy widow from South Carolina who owned a rice plantation and almost 100 enslaved people. </p>
<p>Though he wrote that he enjoyed married plantation life, he was not done with politics or the military. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A gray-haired white man sits in a chair with his right hand underneath his dark jacket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=833&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1047&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1047&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566398/original/file-20231218-23-uqnnpb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1047&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A portrait of Andrew Jackson in 1830.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/andrew-jackson-the-8th-president-of-the-united-states-news-photo/3087913?adppopup=true">MPI/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1837, Poinsett was named U.S. secretary of war and oversaw the execution of Jackson’s <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/indian-treaties">1830 Indian Removal Act</a> that the Cherokee people referred to as the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/trailoftears.htm#:%7E:text=Guided%20by%20policies%20favored%20by,Southeast%20in%20the%20early%201800s.">Trail of Tears</a>. That act saw the violent displacement of members of the Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations from their homelands in the South to reservations in the West.</p>
<h2>The creation of the Smithsonian</h2>
<p>Based on his travels and experiences around the world, Poinsett believed that the U.S. should have a national museum to conduct scientific research and display the expanding government collections, including plant specimens. </p>
<p>In his retirement, Poinsett <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/a-smithsonian-holiday-story-joel-poinsett-and-the-poinsettia-3081111/">helped found</a> in 1840 and became president of the <a href="https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_217217">National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts</a>.</p>
<p>That organization <a href="https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_469">later became part of</a> the Smithsonian Institution, whose gardens now showcase thousands of poinsettias during the Christmas season. </p>
<p>Poinsett died on Dec. 12, 1851.</p>
<p>It remains unclear how long the plant that bears his name will remain known as the poinsettia. After years of controversy, the American Ornithological Society announced that it was going to remove all human names from as many as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dozens-of-north-american-bird-species-are-getting-new-names-every-name-tells-a-story-217886">152 bird species</a>, including those linked to people with racist histories or people who have done violence to Indigenous communities. </p>
<p>Though no attempts as yet have emerged to rename plants, it’s my belief that Poinsett’s poinsettia may be the first.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lindsay Schakenbach Regele receives funding from Miami University and the Kluge Center.</span></em></p>Much like the history of the US, Joel Roberts Poinsett, after whom the poinsettia is named, had a complicated and troubling history.Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, Assistant Professor of History, Miami UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2176142023-12-19T13:17:06Z2023-12-19T13:17:06ZGuatemala’s anti-corruption leader-to-be could be prevented from taking office, deepening migration concerns for US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566364/original/file-20231218-17-s6fipw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C416%2C4154%2C2319&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Guatemala's President-elect Bernardo Arévalo waves to supporters. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/guatemalas-president-elect-bernardo-arevalo-waves-to-news-photo/1735484556">Orlando Estrada/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Guatemala is in the <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/guatemala-prosecutors-claim-presidential-election-203740355.html">midst of a democratic crisis</a> so severe that it may prevent the new president from taking office, as planned, on Jan. 14, 2024.</p>
<p>On Dec. 8, 2023, prosecutors and the Guatemalan Congress <a href="https://twitter.com/lahoragt/status/1733196649005035932?s=20">called for the nullification</a> of the election results. A few weeks earlier, the attorney general’s office in Guatemala <a href="https://apnews.com/article/guatemala-election-bernardo-arevalo-f7a7537e15e7f8692de8dd62ee9b666b">tried to remove</a> President-elect Bernardo Arévalo’s immunity from prosecution. The attorney general alleged that the center-left politician, who won the election on an anti-corruption ticket, made posts on social media in 2022 that encouraged students to occupy the country’s public university. In an unprecedented attempt to prevent him from assuming power, officials accused Arévalo of complicity in the takeover of the university, illicit association and damaging the country’s cultural heritage.</p>
<p>During the presidential election in September, the Public Ministry <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/guatemalan-authorities-raid-electoral-facilities-open-boxes-of-votes">raided electoral offices</a>. These actions “appear to be designed to overturn the will of the electorate and erode the democratic process,” <a href="https://www.oas.org/en/about/speech_secretary_general.asp?sCodigo=23-0037">concluded</a> the Organization of American States, a group that represents 35 countries in the region and promotes human rights, fair elections, security and economic development. </p>
<p>These developments follow a democratic backslide in Guatemala that has been going on since 2019, when the government <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46789931">expelled an anti-corruption commission</a> backed by the United Nations. </p>
<p>Ordinary Guatemalans, meanwhile, are fed up with rampant corruption and electoral interference. On Oct. 2, 2023, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/guatemala-election-protest-bernardo-arevalo-07025036d506ec51be1d7426812be1ad">thousands of protesters</a> filled the streets of Guatemala City and blockaded more than 100 roads and highways to demand respect for the election. The demonstrators represented a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/10/10/1204800590/after-8-days-of-peaceful-protests-in-guatemala-demonstrations-turn-violent">broad cross-section</a> of urban and rural society, including both Maya and non-Indigenous communities.</p>
<p>As a professor of history who studies <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=y9TnHZkAAAAJ&hl=en">social movements in Latin America</a>, I see the current climate of protest as part of a long history of instability and political mobilization in Guatemala. As in the past, these anti-democratic actions will likely lead more Guatemalans to migrate to the United States.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563472/original/file-20231204-29-fqy8k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Crowd of protesters waving Guatemala flag" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563472/original/file-20231204-29-fqy8k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563472/original/file-20231204-29-fqy8k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563472/original/file-20231204-29-fqy8k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563472/original/file-20231204-29-fqy8k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563472/original/file-20231204-29-fqy8k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563472/original/file-20231204-29-fqy8k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563472/original/file-20231204-29-fqy8k7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters demand the attorney general’s resignation on Oct. 9, 2023, in Guatemala City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-demonstrate-to-demand-the-resignation-of-attorney-news-photo/1715813995">Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Civil war and kleptocracy</h2>
<p>Guatemala’s recent past is marked by violent political unrest and activism.</p>
<p>Between 1960 and 1996, the country endured a <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Unfinished_Conquest/-ojiw8UP-X0C?hl=en&gbpv=1">bloody armed conflict</a> between leftist insurgents and the army. About <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Terror_in_the_Land_of_the_Holy_Spirit/BXWwm7jo-hEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=200,000">200,000 Guatemalans were killed</a> – most of them <a href="https://hrdag.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/CEHreport-english.pdf">from the Indigenous Maya population</a>. </p>
<p>The armed confrontation, which was rooted in <a href="https://www.refworld.org/docid/3decc9724.html">land conflicts</a> and opposition to the <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Battle_For_Guatemala/gwlQDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=popular+movement+in+guatemala+during+the+civil+war&printsec=frontcover">military dictatorship</a>, led to <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Guatemala_la_infinita_historia_de_las_re/I0MjEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">mass mobilization</a> in favor of fair working conditions and democratic rule.</p>
<p>Guatemala’s democracy in the post-1996 years was marked by <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/securing-the-city">neoliberal policies</a> that favored free market economics and privatization. It also saw the rise of a cadre of careerist politicians who, in the words of the jailed journalist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/14/world/americas/jose-ruben-zamora-journalist-guatemala.html">Rubén Zamora</a>, created a “<a href="https://www.plazapublica.com.gt/content/el-hombre-que-le-susurra-al-poder-y-viceversa">kleptocracy</a>.” This system hinged on corrupt <a href="https://nacla.org/news/2015/05/19/repudiating-corruption-guatemala-revolution-or-neoliberal-outrage">political dealings</a>, nurtured <a href="https://www.wola.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Crimen-y-Violencia-GT-ENG-8.9.pdf">criminal activity</a> and perpetuated <a href="https://apnews.com/article/0b7f28a8ab5645e58fb2d708d27e3adf">high poverty levels</a>.</p>
<p>Guatemalans have taken an active – perhaps even activist – posture toward the kleptocracy. </p>
<p>In 2015, they <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2015/9/3/people-power-and-the-guatemalan-spring">took to the streets en masse</a> to protest government corruption. Their mobilization bolstered the actions of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/09/guatemala-president-otto-perez-molina-cicig-corruption-investigation">International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala</a>, or CICIG, a U.N.-backed body tasked with investigating and prosecuting crime and strengthening Guatemala’s judicial system. </p>
<p>The commission’s probe led to the prosecution of Guatemalan officials for corruption, including former President <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-president-to-prison-otto-perez-molina-and-a-day-for-hope-in-guatemala">Otto Pérez Molina</a> and former Vice President <a href="https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/guatemala-president-implicated-in-customs-fraud-scandal/">Roxana Baldetti</a>. However, the government expelled CICIG in 2019. In response, the Guatemalan public accused political elites, high-ranking bureaucrats and business leaders of forming a “<a href="https://nomada.gt/pais/la-corrupcion-no-es-normal/el-pacto-de-corruptos-2-0-resumido-en-5-puntos/">pact of the corrupt</a>” to thwart the fight against corruption.</p>
<h2>Anti-corruption candidate’s surprising win</h2>
<p>Guatemala’s 2023 general elections were held amid this fragile political climate. </p>
<p>In the weeks leading up to election day, the constitutional court, on what <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/24/americas/guatemala-elections-president-corruption-intl-latam/index.html">critics say</a> were questionable grounds, disqualified two rising political outsiders: <a href="https://nacla.org/thelma-cabrera-we-are-fighting-plurinational-state-and-well-being-peoples">Thelma Cabrera</a>, an Indigenous leftist candidate, and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/guatemala-elections-carlos-pineda-df6ee50218f10b5fc8398a7531ea2d39">Carlos Pineda</a>, a conservative businessman and populist who gained a large following on social media. </p>
<p>This judicial meddling in the electoral process, however, opened the way for another political outsider, <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/event/primavera-democratica-conversation-president-elect-bernardo-arevalo-guatemala">Bernardo Arévalo</a> of the left-of-center <a href="https://arevalopresidente.com/">Seed Movement party</a>. An increasing number of Guatemalans, including young voters, saw Arévalo and his <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/137QmBdLM70p_5ZhTsAYffbin--URNfcZ/view">anti-corruption platform</a> as an alternative to establishment candidates such as former first lady <a href="https://apnews.com/article/guatemala-election-sandra-torres-74ce43addf2ec3f36f356fd034546cc0">Sandra Torres</a>, who led most polls in the weeks before the election.</p>
<p>The election results <a href="https://elfaro.net/es/202307/columnas/26958/la-primera-vuelta-en-guatemala-marco-record-en-latinoamerica">sent shock waves</a> through the political system. Arévalo received 11.8% of the general vote, second only to Torres’ 15.9%. Because no candidate received a majority, a runoff election was held on Aug. 20. Arévalo won handily with <a href="https://segundaeleccion.trep.gt/#!/tc1/ENT">58% of the vote</a> compared with Torres’ 37%. </p>
<p>Arévalo is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/guatemalas-unlikely-presidential-victor-follows-fathers-footsteps-2023-08-21/">not a political neophyte</a>. He has served as a diplomat and currently occupies a seat in Congress. He is also the son of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/08/obituaries/juan-jose-arevalo-is-dead-at-86-guatemala-president-in-late-40-s.html">Juan José Arévalo</a>, the country’s first democratically elected president.</p>
<h2>Guatemalans take to streets</h2>
<p>After the election, political elites, including members of Torres’ National Unity of Hope party and President Alejandro Giammattei’s Vamos party, alleged – <a href="https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2023/07/10/corte-suprema-guatemala-tribunal-electoral-resultados-elecciones-presidenciales-orix/">incorrectly</a>, it turned out – that the electoral software <a href="https://elpais.com/internacional/2023-07-02/la-sala-constitucional-de-guatemala-suspende-la-oficializacion-de-los-resultados-electorales-y-ordena-depurarlos.html">had favored Arévalo’s candidacy</a>. They attempted to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/guatemala-election-court-president-35acfbf1a26f905c99f4e05b4578c288">stop the results</a> from being made official.</p>
<p>More consequently, the Public Ministry, led by Attorney General Consuelo Porras, accused Arévalo’s party of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/guatemala-attorney-general-determined-block-arevalo-office-sources-2023-10-19/">using false signatures</a> during its registration process. It contended that up to 100 out of the 25,000 signatures required for registration were falsified. On July 21, one month before the runoff election, Public Ministry officials <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/21/guatemala-police-raid-office-of-semilla-presidential-candidate">raided the Seed Movement’s headquarters</a> and asked a judge to suspend the party. </p>
<p>Despite Arévalo’s resounding victory on Aug. 20, the Public Ministry continued to try to suspend his party. On Sept. 29, it took the unprecedented action of <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/guatemalan-authorities-raid-electoral-facilities-open-boxes-of-votes">raiding the offices of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal</a>, the highest electoral authority.</p>
<p>Disgusted by this interference in the electoral process and fearful over the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/11/13/1212635508/guatemala-president-elect-bernardo-arevalo-interview">prospect of a coup</a>, Guatemalans took to the streets. The protests that began on Oct. 2 <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/10/10/1204800590/after-8-days-of-peaceful-protests-in-guatemala-demonstrations-turn-violent">brought the country to a standstill</a> for more than 10 days and united the urban and rural population.</p>
<p>Echoing a long-standing <a href="https://www.unmpress.com/9780826348661/for-every-indio-who-falls/">history of Indigenous activism</a> in Guatemala, prominent Indigenous groups such as the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=222887414099385">Peasant Committee for Development</a> and the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/11/guatemalas-indigenous-leaders-take-to-the-street-in-nationwide-protests">48 Cantones of Totonicapán</a> played a vital role in the protests. Indigenous people, who make up nearly half of Guatemala’s population, face <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/guatemala/overview">high poverty rates</a>, <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/guatemala/our-work/health-and-nutrition">poor access to health care</a> and environmental degradation of their lands caused by <a href="https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/extractive-industries-in-guatemala-historic-maya-resistance-movements/">mining and hydroelectric projects</a>. </p>
<p>For many Indigenous voters, the election interference highlighted the relationship between government corruption and their socioeconomic inequality. The central role of Indigenous communities in the protests signaled a new grassroots movement with the potential of replicating the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X8000700212">multiracial and multiclass coalitions</a> that had emerged during the armed conflict in the 1970s.</p>
<h2>Key driver of migration</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/19/report-on-the-u-s-strategy-for-addressing-the-root-causes-of-migration-in-central-america/">U.S. officials</a> and <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/guatemala/migration#:%7E:text=Corruption%3A,migrate%20among%20victims%20of%20corruption.">agencies</a> report that political corruption in Guatemala is a <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/guatemala/migration#:%7E:text=Corruption%3A,migrate%20among%20victims%20of%20corruption">root cause of migration</a>. In 2023, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended more than <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/crs/row/IF11151.pdf">200,000</a> Guatemalans trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.</p>
<p>Guatemalans themselves understand all too well how kleptocracy reinforces the country’s social ills. They realize that democratic backsliding not only may prevent Arévalo from assuming the presidency, but it can also rob their communities of resources needed to <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/guatemala/our-work/health-and-nutrition#:%7E:text=More%20than%20six%20million%20people,basic%20health%20and%20nutrition%20services.">strengthen health care</a>, <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/guatemala/our-work/education">improve education</a>, <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/guatemala/overview#:%7E:text=Poverty%20is%20estimated%20at%2055.2,at%2049%20percent%20of%20GDP">create jobs</a>, <a href="https://www.unicef.org/lac/en/stories/guatemala-search-cases-child-malnutrition-are-hidden-pandemic">reduce malnutrition</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/hungry-desperate-climate-change-fuels-migration-crisis-guatemala-rcna2135">fight climate change</a>. Without these improvements, many will <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/lens/central-americans-migrate-united-states.html">continue to migrate</a>, despite the many perils of doing so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217614/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bonar Hernández Sandoval does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Anti-democratic actions and government corruption are key reasons many Guatemalans migrate to the US.Bonar Hernández Sandoval, Associate Professor of History, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2194652023-12-14T13:28:25Z2023-12-14T13:28:25ZRelease of Alberto Fujimori in Peru rekindles fears of backsliding on human rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565595/original/file-20231213-17-yn1fim.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C939%2C693&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A frail but free Alberto Fujimori.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-perus-president-alberto-fujimori-sits-between-his-news-photo/1829282546?adppopup=true">Renato Pajuelo/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The release from prison of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/07/alberto-fujimori-peru-former-president-released-jail">former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori</a> on Dec. 6, 2023, has sparked concern over Peru’s <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/06/peru-fujimoris-release-violates-international-law">commitment to human rights</a>.</p>
<p>The move came a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/12/05/1217503340/peru-court-release-alberto-fujimori">a day after</a> the Constitutional Tribunal of Peru ruled that the 85-year-old, who was serving a <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2009/04/peru-conviction-fujimori-e28093-milestone-fight-justice-20090407/">25-year sentence for crimes against humanity</a>, be freed on <a href="https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/c6pe9pdp8k8o">humanitarian and health grounds</a>.</p>
<p>Images of the frail-looking Fujimori being driven away from his jail in Lima were <a href="https://www.barrons.com/news/supporters-of-peru-ex-president-fujimori-celebrate-after-court-ordered-his-release-f9efff6f">celebrated by his supporters</a>. But others expressed concern. The United Nations’ human rights office <a href="https://twitter.com/UNHumanRights/status/1732380570989080627">described the release</a> as a “concerning setback for accountability.” </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.ubalt.edu/cpa/faculty/alphabetical-directory/nusta-carranza-ko.cfm">a scholar writing</a> a book about the violation of human rights in Peru under Fujimori, I understand the concerns. The release of the deeply divisive former president suggests the rehabilitation of “Fujimorism” at a time when Peru’s current right-wing government is being <a href="https://www.fidh.org/en/region/americas/peru/peru-growing-authoritarianism-erosion-of-rights">accused of authoritarianism and human rights violations</a>. The pardoning of Fujimori also reflects the growing divide between Peru and the decades-old <a href="https://www.oas.org/en/IACHR/jsForm/?File=/en/iachr/mandate/what.asp">inter-American system</a> to promote and protect human rights in the region. In addition, Fujimori’s presence out of prison is an affront to the victims and survivors of his regime’s human rights abuses.</p>
<h2>Resurgence of Fujimorism</h2>
<p>The early release of Fujimori, who ruled Peru from 1990 to 2000, comes despite his <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-peru-fujimori/perus-fujimori-gets-25-years-prison-for-massacres-idUSTRE5363RH20090408/">crimes being well documented</a>. In 2009 he was sentenced to 25 years behind bars for <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-peru-fujimori/perus-fujimori-gets-25-years-prison-for-massacres-idUSTRE5363RH20090408/">ordering a death squad to carry out the extrajudicial killings</a> of civilians. He also presided over the <a href="https://theconversation.com/forcibly-sterilized-during-fujimori-dictatorship-thousands-of-peruvian-women-demand-justice-155086">coercive sterilizations of thousands of Indigenous women</a> under the guise of a family planning program.</p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-33-4939-1">Research shows</a> that when former leaders held responsible for human rights violations continue to wield power in politics, it is harder for subsequent governments of a country to adequately respect or uphold human rights.</p>
<p>This is why Fujimori’s release poses a problem. Although the former dictator may be too old and frail to directly influence Peruvian politics, the country is experiencing a resurgence of Fujimorism.</p>
<p>Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, has been a strong contender in presidential elections since 2016 and heads the right-wing Fuerza Popular party. In 2021, she lost the presidential vote to left-wing candidate Pedro Castillo by just <a href="https://elcomercio.pe/politica/pedro-castillo-vencio-a-keiko-fujimori-con-una-diferencia-de-votos-mayor-que-ppk-en-la-anterior-eleccion-de-2016-elecciones-2021-segunda-vuelta-peru-libre-jne-nndc-noticia/">0.252% – or 44,263 votes</a>. Fuerza Popular currently holds 22 of the 130 seats in Congress – the largest number held by a single political party.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, former personnel from Alberto Fujimori’s government continue to wield considerable power. Alejandro Aguinaga, a former minister of health during Fujimori’s tenure, was elected to Congress in 2021 and is the current president of the Congressional Committee on Foreign Relations. Aguinaga is among those <a href="https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-09-28/victims-of-forced-sterilization-in-peru-take-their-case-to-the-inter-american-court-of-human-rights.html">accused over the forced sterilization</a> of thousands of Indigenous women. Earlier this year, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights took up <a href="https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/jsForm/?File=/en/iachr/media_center/preleases/2023/186.asp">the case of Celia Edith Ramos Durand</a>, who died after a nonconsensual sterilization as part of a campaign overseen by Aguinaga’s health ministry. It marked the first forced sterilization case to come before the regional body.</p>
<h2>Fighting regional oversight</h2>
<p>The Inter-American Court of Human Rights was set up in 1979, as an autonomous legal body of the Organization of American States. Along with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, its purpose is to monitor, interpret and apply the American Convention on Human Rights and other inter-American human rights treaties, which includes issuing judgments on cases and advisory opinions.</p>
<p>Aguinaga is among those who have questioned the power of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, noting that Peru needs to “<a href="https://elcomercio.pe/politica/congreso/alejandro-aguinaga-vamos-a-pedir-como-poder-del-estado-que-no-sigamos-en-la-corte-idh-fuerza-popular-cidh-victor-polay-campos-ultimas-noticia/">start the paperwork to disaffiliate ourselves</a>” from the court. </p>
<p>Indeed, the wider context of Fujimori’s release is a long-running dispute between Peru’s Fujimorists and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The court ruled in 2001 and 2006 that the Peruvian state was responsible for grave human rights violations, leading to the 2009 conviction of Fujimori. </p>
<p>Since then, Peru has sought to push back against the court. Fujimori was pardoned on <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-16097439">humanitarian grounds in 2017 by then-President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski</a>, resulting in the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/es/latest/news/2018/06/peru-corte-interamericana-resuelve-que-tribunales-peruanos-deben-revisar-el-indulto-concedido-a-fujimori/">intervention of the court</a>. In agreement with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Supreme Court of Peru <a href="https://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/medidas/barrioscantuta_02.pdf">nullified the pardon</a>, and Fujimori was ordered back to prison to serve his remaining sentence.</p>
<p>Tensions between Peru and the inter-American system have grown under the government of Dina Boluarte. Since taking office in December 2022, Boluarte and her government have been <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/12/peru-investigations-against-president-security-forces/">accused of human rights abuses</a>, including violations of the right to peaceful protest, excessive use of force by security forces and the extrajudicial execution of protesters.</p>
<p>Boluarte’s minister of foreign affairs, Javier González-Olaechea, has <a href="https://www.oas.org/en/iachr/jsForm/?File=/en/iachr/media_center/preleases/2023/083.asp">openly questioned a report</a> from the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights about alleged human rights violations against peaceful protesters by the Boluarte government. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.ideeleradio.pe/lo-ultimo/carlos-monge-sobre-el-viaje-de-dina-boluarte-a-que-van-los-congresistas-a-la-cumbre-apec/">political analysts in Peru</a> saw the appointment of González-Olaechea in November 2023 as a move toward Peru’s withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.</p>
<p>Such a move would be welcomed by some in Peru’s Congress, members of which have put forward three bills on the withdrawal of the state from the Inter-American system. <a href="https://wb2server.congreso.gob.pe/spley-portal-service/archivo/MTA1MDg4/pdf/PL0521620230601">The latest such bill</a> urges withdrawal to protect Peru from being “<a href="https://ojo-publico.com/politica/extremos-del-congreso-buscan-retirar-al-peru-convencion-ddhh">jurisdictionally pushed around by a foreign organization</a>.”</p>
<h2>Political interests over rights</h2>
<p>This is not the first time that Peru has threatened to withdraw from the Inter-American system. Toward the end of the internal armed conflict period of 1980 to 2000, the Fujimori administration similarly voiced a desire to withdraw. However, a political scandal involving Fujimori’s intelligence chief in 2000 and accusations of fraud led to the end of his presidency, halting discussions about withdrawing from the Inter-American system.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the release of Fujimori represents a further deterioration of Peru and Inter-American system relations. And without the oversight and jurisprudence of the Inter-American system, the well-being of Peruvian citizens will be jeopardized by a government seemingly willing to prioritize political interests over the rights of its citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219465/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ñusta Carranza Ko does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The former Peruvian strongman appeared frail as he left prison. But his influence on politics remains strong.Ñusta Carranza Ko, Assistant Professor, School of Public and International Affairs, University of BaltimoreLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2137172023-11-13T13:29:12Z2023-11-13T13:29:12ZMexico will soon elect its first female president – but that landmark masks an uneven march toward women’s rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558364/original/file-20231108-15-sy1yyd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C38%2C8588%2C5703&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Claudia Sheinbaum, the favorite to become Mexico's first female president.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MexicoElections/72c870d1426245e9b5acff64d1d0eef5/photo?Query=Sheinbaum&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=211&currentItemNo=3">AP Photo/Marco Ugarte</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/mexico-elegira-pronto-a-su-primera-presidenta-pero-este-hito-oculta-una-marcha-desigual-hacia-los-derechos-de-la-mujer-217642"><em>Leer en español.</em></a> </p>
<p>Mexico will <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/07/americas/mexico-female-candidates-presidential-election-intl/index.html">elect its first female president</a> in 2024, barring any surprises between now and the June vote. </p>
<p>The looming landmark moment was all but guaranteed in September after the country’s leading parties each nominated a woman as its candidate – the ruling Morena party <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicos-ruling-party-name-presidential-candidate-with-sheinbaum-favorite-2023-09-06/#:%7E:text=%22Today%20the%20Mexican%20people%20decided,purple%20color%20of%20her%20party.">named former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum</a> as its nominee days after the main opposition coalition, Broad Front for Mexico, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mexico-politics-elections-2024-xochitl-galvez-nominee-8df70cef1f5e9ee242d495570578d5ed">announced Xóchitl Gálvez</a>, a senator for the center-right National Action Party, as its own.</p>
<p>But as <a href="https://www.uta.edu/academics/faculty/profile?username=vidalxm">scholars who study politics</a> <a href="https://cchambersju-research.uta.edu/">and gender in Mexico</a>, we know that optics are one thing, actual power another. Seventy years after <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-45.1.164">women won the right to vote</a> in Mexico, is the country moving any closer to making changes that would give women real equality?</p>
<h2>Uneven fight for gender equality</h2>
<p>Women now <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/07/mexico-women-gender-parity/">represent half of Congress</a>, after electoral reforms nearly a decade ago mandated gender parity in nominations to Mexico’s legislatures. And two women, Ana Lilia Rivera and Marcela Guerra Castillo, occupy the top posts in both chambers of Congress. Meanwhile, Norma Lucía Piña is the <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/mexico-s-supreme-court-elects-first-female-chief-justice-/6901488.html">first woman to serve as chief justice</a> of Mexico’s Supreme Court. </p>
<p>But electing women to high office doesn’t necessarily shift power in meaningful ways. It’s what experts on women in politics call “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1978">descriptive representation</a>” – when political leaders resemble a group of voters but fail to set policies designed to protect them. In contrast, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231154864">substantive representation</a>” occurs when officials enact laws that truly benefit the groups that they claim to represent.</p>
<p>Scholars who study the difference between the two, including <a href="https://polsci.umass.edu/people/sonia-e-alvarez">Sonia Alvarez</a>, <a href="https://polisci.unm.edu/people/faculty/profile/mala-htun.html">Mala Htun</a> and <a href="https://www.oxy.edu/academics/faculty/jennifer-piscopo">Jennifer Piscopo</a>, have found that wins in public spheres, such as the right to vote or hold office, have rarely led to progress for women in private spaces – such as the right to reproductive freedom or protections against domestic violence.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman holds a green flare during a street protest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558365/original/file-20231108-25-j6vxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558365/original/file-20231108-25-j6vxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558365/original/file-20231108-25-j6vxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558365/original/file-20231108-25-j6vxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558365/original/file-20231108-25-j6vxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558365/original/file-20231108-25-j6vxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558365/original/file-20231108-25-j6vxc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of feminist organizations demonstrate in favor of the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico City on Sept. 28, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-feminist-organizations-demonstrate-in-favour-of-news-photo/1696063220?adppopup=true">Photo by Silvana Flores/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In other words, Mexico may have surpassed many countries – including the U.S. – in promoting women to political leadership positions, but it still hasn’t shed its <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-36324570">stigma of machismo</a> and its <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/mexico-takes-another-step-toward-its-authoritarian-past/">history of authoritarianism</a>.</p>
<p>In the 1990s, a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-gender/article/abs/regionalizing-womens-human-rights-in-latin-america/8469F364E098DD1D8CF3088CC58BC86B">resurgent feminist movement</a> throughout Latin America led to major breakthroughs in women’s rights. By the end of the decade, many countries had passed legislation against gender-based violence and reforms requiring gender quotas in party nomination lists. In the past 17 years, seven women have been elected president across Central and South America. </p>
<p>Yet the fight for gender equality has advanced unevenly. Mexico is a country still rattled by <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2023/07/were-here-tell-it-mexican-women-break-silence-over-femicides">high rates of femicide</a>. Government data shows that, on average, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mexico-caribbean-gender-6594c9b2c9ea39a52dc3204e16be704c"> 10 women and girls are killed every day</a> by partners or family members.</p>
<h2>Government accused of harassment</h2>
<p>During his term, the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and his party, Morena, have been accused of downplaying the extent of the femicide crisis, with at least one critic claiming he’s “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/world/americas/violence-women-mexico-president.html">the first president to outright deny</a>” the violence. </p>
<p>Rather, López Obrador has used his daily “mañanera” news conference to issue <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/14/mexico-president-continues-attacks-on-opposition-despite-order">verbal assaults against women</a> in office, including 2024 nominee Gálvez. In July 2023, the independent <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/mexicos-national-electoral-institute-explainer">National Electoral Institute</a> found López Obrador guilty of targeting Gálvez in derogatory statements related to her gender. </p>
<p>López Obrador has also denounced Supreme Court chief justice Piña in what Mexico’s National Association of Judges <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jufed.org/photos/a.119395656264809/742860923918276/?type=3">has described as hate speech</a> and the federal judiciary condemned as “<a href="https://twitter.com/SCJN/status/1637968261143986176?s=20">gender-based violence</a>” and hatred against her. His statements at <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mexico-lopez-obrador-politics-rally-elections-5160cbaf5ccd453f7333d651e41b79dd">a rally in March</a> incited his followers to burn <a href="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/JNtltrZs">Piña in effigy</a>, prompting critics to suggest that such attacks don’t simply reflect López Obrador’s distaste for checks and balances, but <a href="https://www.nycbar.org/member-and-career-services/committees/reports-listing/reports/detail/second-statement-condemning-the-mexican-presidents-attacks-on-judicial-independence#_ftn14">aim to undermine women</a> in positions of power.</p>
<h2>Mexico’s patronage politics</h2>
<p>Observers view <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicos-sheinbaum-favorite-win-presidential-nomination-poll-shows-2023-09-05/">current 2024 front-runner</a> Sheinbaum as López Obrador’s handpicked successor: He has publicly endorsed her, and she has vowed to continue his “fourth transformation,” a campaign promise to end government corruption and reduce poverty that’s had <a href="https://elpais.com/mexico/2022-02-22/la-fiscalia-abre-una-investigacion-por-el-caso-del-hijo-de-lopez-obrador-y-un-contratista-de-pemex.html">mixed results</a>. </p>
<p>Sheinbaum’s record as mayor of Mexico City has been equally mixed. She has publicly described herself as a <a href="https://www.capital21.cdmx.gob.mx/noticias/?p=3084">feminist</a> and has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexican-mayor-doubles-down-accusation-alleged-femicide-cover-up-2023-01-17/">criticized</a> state prosecutors for covering up the killing of Ariadna Lopez, a 27-year-old woman. At the same time, Sheinbaum <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/mayor-apologizes-to-protesters/">attempted to criminalize participants</a> of a mass protest against the thousands of women who’ve disappeared in recent years, claiming that these demonstrations were violent.</p>
<p>Political scientists have shown that even when the faces of politics change, the operatives behind the scenes can stay the same – especially in Mexico, where political parties are <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/voting-for-autocracy/F6671D230EC7C458A30035ADB20F9289">mired in patronage politics</a> – when party leaders reward loyalty by deciding who gets to run for office and who gets to keep their jobs when the government is handed over to a new administration.</p>
<p>If Sheinbaum is elected, she’ll likely still be beholden to the Morena coalition and will rely to a large degree on López Obrador to help push through her policies. </p>
<h2>A feminist future?</h2>
<p>Both Sheinbaum and Gálvez have <a href="https://gatopardo.com/noticias-actuales/claudia-sheinbaum/">championed women</a> and shared their <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/20/mexico-presidential-elections-galvez-interview/">experiences as women</a> on the campaign trail. But, so far, neither has signaled that her legislative agendas would advance the interests of women through policies, such as expanding access to health care or fighting for family leave and equal pay in the workplace. </p>
<p>As criticism of López Obrador has overshadowed Sheinbaum’s campaign, we believe she faces a greater challenge in convincing voters of her commitment to women’s rights. </p>
<p>While Gálvez’s path to the presidency is narrow, her ability to advocate for a pro-women agenda seems more plausible. She has publicly supported <a href="https://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2023/jul/08/although-she-is-now-aligned-with-the-conservative-opposition-galvezs-record-is-one-of-a-liberal-an-2592712.html">LGBTQ+ rights in Mexico</a> even as a member of the conservative National Action Party, suggesting she’s capable of speaking and acting independently of party leadership when it matters. </p>
<p>Aside from front-line politics, women’s rights in Mexico have moved forward when leaders have committed to substantive change.</p>
<p>Notably, Mexico’s Supreme Court under Pinã has declared all federal and state laws <a href="https://elpais.com/mexico/2023-01-05/el-empuje-de-la-nueva-presidenta-norma-pina-a-la-agenda-feminista-de-criticar-la-violencia-obstetrica-a-defender-el-aborto.html">prohibiting abortion unconstitutional</a>. When Piña took office, she <a href="https://elpais.com/mexico/2023-01-05/el-empuje-de-la-nueva-presidenta-norma-pina-a-la-agenda-feminista-de-criticar-la-violencia-obstetrica-a-defender-el-aborto.html?event=go&event_log=go&prod=REGCRARTMEX&o=cerrmex">promised to take on women’s rights</a> in her agenda. So far, she’s delivered.</p>
<p>If either presidential candidate hopes to have similar success, they’ll need to follow Pinã’s lead by centering their platforms around the issues that most affect women in their day-to-day lives, beginning with rising femicide rates. Women may be gaining political power in Mexico, but the question now is whether they’ll use it to fight for the women they represent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Women represent half of Mexico’s Congress and hold key positions in politics and the judiciary. But the country is still dogged by high rates of femicide.Xavier Medina Vidal, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at ArlingtonChristopher Chambers-Ju, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Texas at ArlingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2124852023-11-09T16:40:01Z2023-11-09T16:40:01Z‘Bluewashing’: how ecotourism can be used against indigenous communities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549588/original/file-20230921-25-y63803.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C28%2C3840%2C2517&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The idea of vacation spots that are a "paradise on earth" can sometimes overlook uncomfortable truths. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/infinity-pool-near-beach-3155666/">Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the notion of “ecotourism” was introduced in the late 1970s, it was intended to be ecologically responsible, promote conservation, benefit local populations and help travellers foster a <a href="https://law.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Picchio.pdf">“reconnection with biocultural diversity”</a>. It’s now more of a marketing term, used to give mass adventure-tourism packages a more “responsible” sheen. Visitors might get a nature walk, but interactions with local residents are limited to souvenir sellers at best, and international consortiums arrange everything and <a href="https://ecobnb.com/blog/2019/10/giants-global-tourism/">keep the profits for themselves</a>.</p>
<p>While it’s no surprise that the original concept of ecotourism has been obscured by less virtuous projects, they become more problematic when they block local communities from ancestral lands or even involve their forced relocation. A recent case on the eviction of <a href="https://theconversation.com/victims-of-the-green-energy-boom-the-indonesians-facing-eviction-over-a-china-backed-plan-to-turn-their-island-into-a-solar-panel-ecocity-214755">16 villages on Rempang Island, Indonesia</a> to build a solar panel factory and “eco-city” illustrates this. While the need to increase renewable energy production is urgent, it’s harder to justify when it comes at the expense of local residents’ lives and territorial sovereignty.</p>
<p>To explore such questions, in June 2023 a group of researchers at Grenoble Ecole de Management (GEM) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uux4Ca5Mueo">organised a dialogue</a> with members of the Mbyá Guaraní community from Maricá, Brazil. Our motivation was to explore the relationship between business schools and the behaviour of multinational corporations toward indigenous peoples and their land rights. That questionable dealings can advance under the cover of “sustainable” or “responsible” social development – a practice referred to as <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/timothyjmcclimon/2022/10/03/bluewashing-joins-greenwashing-as-the-new-corporate-whitewashing/">“bluewashing”</a> – demonstrates how many firms have become adept at implying that their work is virtuous, whatever the reality.</p>
<h2>Maraey: a “sustainable” hotel complex in a biological reserve</h2>
<p>In Maricá, residents of the Mbyá Guaraní village of <em>Ka’Aguy Hovy Porã</em> (known in Portuguese as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mataverdebonitaoficial/">Aldeia Mata Verde Bonita</a>) are now facing the possibility of being pushed aside for a massive resort branded as <a href="https://www.maraey.com/en/home-3/">“Maraey”</a>. The name is taken from a sacred Guaraní concept signifying “land without evil”, and according to community representatives, it was chosen by the developers without securing authorisation from the Guaraní themselves.</p>
<p>The project is being led by the Spanish firm Cetya, commercialised locally as IDB do Brasil. It has support from two industry heavyweights – US-based <a href="https://news.marriott.com/news/2023/01/17/maraey-signs-agreement-with-marriott-international-to-build-three-distinct-hotels-in-marica-on-rio-de-janeiros-sun-coast">Marriott Hotels</a> and Germany’s <a href="https://siila.com/news/siemens-maraey-closed-deal-smart-destination-rio/389/lang/en">Siemens</a> – as well as the Swiss hospitality school <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/maraeyrj_andre-mack-ehl-activity-7064669504617742336-75j2/">EHL in Lausanne</a>.</p>
<p>While billed as “development with an environmental conscience”, the project would include three luxury hotels with a total of 1,100 rooms. The tagline on the project’s website is “paradise living”. The site being targeted is a narrow strip of coastal wetlands in a <a href="https://antigo.mma.gov.br/areas-protegidas.html">biological reserve</a>, established in 1984, 41 kilometres south of Rio de Janeiro.</p>
<p>As part of the dialogue organised by GEM, we interviewed Tupã Nunes, leader of the Mbyá Guaraní community, coordinator of the <a href="https://www.yvyrupa.org.br/">Comissão Guarani Yvyrupa</a> (CGY), and president of the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/instituto_nhandereko/">Instituto Nhandereko</a>. Also interviewed was Delphine Fabbri-Lawson, co-founder of the institute. Both described the difficulties that the community faces to preserve its land and traditions.</p>
<h2>Divide and conquer?</h2>
<p>While IDB do Brasil asserts that it has the required legal permits to move ahead, in such areas <a href="https://www.equaltimes.org/in-brazil-a-nature-reserve-near">building rights remain ambiguous and relatively permissive</a>. It should be noted that corruption has been a frequent problem in the past and legal battles often pit municipalities, state governments against national courts, and even divide indigenous families.</p>
<p>When asked to provide specific information on the company’s interactions with the community, Maraey’s CEO, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilio-izquierdo/">Emilio Izquierdo</a>, shared that an agreement was signed in December 2021 between the company and the indigenous community’s <em>cacique</em> or main representative, Chief Jurema. Izquierdo insures that as part of the agreement, the municipality agreed that it would “look for a public area that would guarantee the permanent establishment of the village”. Maraey representatives stated that such an area was purchased in December 2022, but declined to provide additional information on the transaction.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/G2oFazqPCOA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Emilio Izquierdo reacting to critics in July 2023, proposing that Maraey is an appropriate solution for the protected natural reserve.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tupã Nunes stipulated that he had “no knowledge” of the 2022 agreement signed with the chief Jurema, who does not appear to have shared any news of it with her community. According to the Guarani tradition of governance, doing so is a crucial obligation of the <em>cacique</em>, and ambiguous dealings of this sort have fostered deep fractures within the community itself. Members discovered the extent of the local government’s involvement and the advanced state of the project only when the bulldozers arrived to clear the land.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AFJhmxfLuGQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Tupã Nunes declaring, in April 2023, the illegality of the construction equipment present on what he asserts are his community’s lands.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It should be noted that the International Labor Organization’s <a href="https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f">C169 agreement on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples</a>, signed by both Spain and Brazil, requires at least a dialogue with indigenous communities prior to launching projects that would affect them.</p>
<p>The discovery of a number of irregularities as well as confrontations between the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q-RawXPgtU">community and the construction workers</a> in April 2023 led local courts to <a href="https://maricainfo.com/2023/05/26/stj-0rdena-par4lisacao-das-obras-do-resort-na-restinga-de-marica.html">suspend the project</a>. A 26 May 2023 Superior Court of Justice document <a href="https://processo.stj.jus.br/processo/dj/documento/?&sequencial=189597232&num_registro=20210">listed a number of determining factors</a>, including “incessant pressures” on the
lagoon’s system and water table and the “illegality of the environmental licensing process”. Maraey representatives have asserted that all licenses were obtained after a “rigorous process” with the State Environmental Institute (INEA).</p>
<h2>Virtue signalling through collective messaging</h2>
<p>IDB do Brazil maintains that the 54-hectare project will be <a href="https://www.jornaldogolfe.com.br/em-destaque/marica-no-rio-de-janeiro-tera-um-novo-campo-de-golfe-sustentavel-e-inclusivo/">“sustainable and inclusive”</a>, and the promised facilities would include a hospital and schools. However, there will also be mall and an 18-hole golf course, and 150,000 to 300,000 tourists are <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CyMVk6oPcnR/">projected to visit annually</a>. Given that the project is also <a href="https://diariodoporto.com.br/maraey-comeca-obras-de-complexo-turistico-em-marica/">forecasted to generate 1 billion reales</a> in tax revenue (197 million US dollars), there is a lot more than environmental and social concerns at stake.</p>
<p>Bolstered by the work of <a href="https://inpresspni.com.br/">PR and marketing firm</a>, Maraey has mobilised a rallying message and woven its story to garner collective support. Using the hashtags such as #JuntosPorMaraey, #VivaMaraey and #TogetherForMaraey, the project has promoted, with increasing intensity, what is presented as local support and commitment to sustainability. Maraey’s promoters even proclaim that the project, despite its size and density, will help <a href="https://www.maraey.com/en/maraey-the-project/">preserve fauna and flora</a>.</p>
<p>The Maraey website and communications are silent on the Guarani communities now living in the reserve, despite a crescendo of protests and declarations against the legality of their operations.</p>
<p>Coverage in Spain’s <a href="https://elpais.com/internacional/2023-04-28/el-ladrillo-de-un-resort-espanol-cerca-una-de-las-ultimas-aldeas-indigenas-de-rio-de-janeiro.html"><em>El País</em></a>, on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxeWJfioyMU">France 24</a> and other <a href="https://www.equaltimes.org/in-brazil-a-nature-reserve-near">international sources</a> has laid bare the tensions behind the Maraey project. Local political opposition <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CzFw-lGOwqI/">recently asserted</a> that “this company has been trying to occupy Maricá’s reserve for almost 20 years. The resistance of civil society and environmentalists to denounce this massacre of fauna and flora is what allowed its partial preservation.” Summed up in <a href="https://www.equaltimes.org/in-brazil-a-nature-reserve-near">words of one local resident</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They say it will create jobs. But fishermen don’t want jobs in the hospitality industry. Can you imagine a fisherman on a golf course? Golf is for millionaires, for people with money. Fishermen want a healthy, clean lagoon. It’s our livelihood.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Native lands are not just a habitat</h2>
<p>The significance of the Amazon rainforest and Atlantic coastal forest for indigenous peoples such as the Guarani Mbyá goes far beyond a simple habitat. They derive their culture, language and social order from the natural structure of the forest, as explained by anthropologist <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/anthropology/people/eduardokohn">Eduardo Kohn</a> in his book <a href="https://www.academia.edu/43472285/How_forests_think_Toward_an_anthropology_beyond_the_human_Eduardo_Kohn"><em>How Forests Think</em></a>.</p>
<p>The International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation has recently called for <a href="https://www.ifrs.org/news-and-events/news/2023/04/issb-prepares-to-consult-on-future-priorities-and-international-applicability-of-sasb-standards">greater scrutiny on non-climate-related reporting</a>, in particular societal and social issues. For multinationals, however, the temptation will always be there to find ways to minimise risks and <a href="https://www.allens.com.au/insights-news/insights/2023/07/bluewashing-risks-and-challenges/">continue business as usual</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/psj.12085">Research has shown</a> that lax reporting and the lack of enforcement mechanisms have led firms to shirk social sustainability and human rights requirements and favour bluewashing strategies. This regulatory environment has enabled MNCs to increasingly follow what <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14623520601056240">historian Patrick Wolfe called a “logic of elimination”</a> that erases natives from the land.</p>
<p>However, there is reason to think that attitudes can shift over time. A <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/americas_victory-brazil-tribe-hotel-group-cancels-plans-luxury-resort/6179721.html">2019 victory in Bahía</a> of the <em>Tupinamba de Olivença</em> tribe over the Portuguese hotel giant Vila Gale created a legal precedent demonstrating that if local authorities license projects without involving federal agencies, it can backfire. <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/americas_victory-brazil-tribe-hotel-group-cancels-plans-luxury-resort/6179721.html">For Juliana Batista</a>, human rights lawyer for the Brazilian NGO <em>Instituto Socio-Ambiental</em> involved in the case, it is a matter of understanding the nature of indigenous land rights which, for her “take precedence over any other rights.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Mielly est membre de Grenoble Ecole de Management.</span></em></p>As detailed in a June 2023 event in Grenoble, France, business schools hold partial responsibility for the longstanding behaviour of multinational corporations (MNCs) in indigenous territories.Michelle Mielly, Professor in People, Organizations, Society, Grenoble École de Management (GEM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.