Foundation essay: This article is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the US. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment and analysis articles and take a wider look…
Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff is seeking a second term in office when the country returns to the polls this weekend.
EPA/Sebastiao Moreira
The final run-off of the Brazilian presidential elections, to be held this weekend, represent a decisive moment for Latin America’s largest nation. No matter who wins, will the newly elected government…
The war on drugs is not working for every day Brazilians.
Antonio Lacerda/EPA
Brazil has a serious drug problem. The country lies beside the largest coca plantations in the world in Peru and Colombia. A sizeable part of the cocaine used in Europe moves through its vast territory…
Xi Jinping’s tour through Latin American countries signals the time is right to reassess Chinese investment in Australia.
AAP/EPA/Cubadebate
Chinese President Xi Jinping has just returned from his second state visit to Latin America, having achieved what no other leader could. His dash through Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, and Cuba has breathed…
Mattresses thrown over a playground at the Gran Familia children’s home, Zamora.
EPA
The recent rescue of 458 children and 138 adults from the Gran Familia refuge in the city of Zamora in the state of Michoacán is another grim illustration of the plight of many unprotected and vulnerable…
Similar protests to those that rocked Brazil during 2013 will no doubt re-appear during the World Cup, as many locals aim to increase their social and political rights.
EPA/Marcelo Sayao
During last year’s Confederations Cup football tournament in Brazil, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the country’s streets to demand change. Protests that started with a clear opposition…
With less than a month to go before the FIFA World Cup, Brazil has once again been shaken by strikes, protests, police repression, and promises of federal intervention to ensure public safety. Just like…
The idea that there is a “land grab” taking place in developing nations began with the publication of a report, Seized!, by the NGO Grain. This rang an alarm bell about large-scale land acquisitions…
Gabriel García Márquez died on Thursday April 17, aged 87.
EPA/Mario Guzman
Novelist, short story writer, journalist, film critic, writer of screen plays, Gabriel García Márquez was a man of many facets and extraordinary skill. He achieved that rare feat for a Latin American writer…
Demonstrators clash with police in Caracas, Venezuela, where violent street protests have raged for weeks.
EPA/Santi Donaire
A wave of street protests, some violent, has been sweeping Venezuela. These attracted international media coverage, which often presented protests as the expression of a national crisis that anticipated…
Mexicans are taking matters into their own hands.
Esther Vargas
In 2013, Mexico signed into law an important and controversial set of structural reforms, one of which opens the way for foreign companies to profit from Mexico’s oil holdings. An article in The Economist…
Dictatorship or direct democracy? Depends who you ask.
EPA/Miguel Gutierrez
Opposition protests against Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro over crime, inflation, and shortages show no sign of abating, and the March 5 anniversary of Hugo Chavez’s death will only add to the sense…
Outsourced workers take things into their own hands.
3Cosas
Trade unions are having to adapt to a new world. The spread of “subcontracted capitalism” across both the private and public sectors has made it increasingly hard to organise workers and win union recognition…
Mexico’s Zapatistas are one of the world’s longest running active revolutionary groups. But who are they, and what are they fighting for?
EPA/Jorge Núñez
On New Year’s Day 1994, the world was taken by surprise. A group of indigenous people staged a rebellion against a Mexican state that had continued the trajectory of racism, neglect, genocide and exploitation…
Chile has returned former president Michelle Bachelet to office for her second, non-consecutive term. What’s ahead for the Latin American nation?
EPA/Felipe Trueba
It’s a case of back to the future in Chile after voters returned former president Michelle Bachelet to that position at the weekend. In a country that doesn’t allow the president to serve two consecutive…
Drug lord Pablo Escobar was regarded as one of the most powerful entities within Latin America, but his legacy remains the subject of debate.
Thierry Ehrmann
Even today, some 20 years after his death, there is still debate in Colombia on how to interpret the mythology surrounding feared drug lord Pablo Escobar and his Medellín Cartel. Escobar was regarded as…
If Michelle Bachelet is successful in the Chilean presidential elections, the country will join Argentina and Brazil as Latin American nations with female leaders.
EPA/Felipe Trueba
Michelle Bachelet, Chilean president between 2006 and 2010, is likely to return to that position at the second round of elections on December 15. Bachelet obtained almost 47% of the vote in the first round…
Progress may have been slow, but the signs are there that Colombian revolutionary guerilla group the FARC may be finally willing to negotiate with the government.
EPA/Christian Escobar Mora
Last month marked the one year anniversary of peace talks between the Colombian government and the western hemisphere’s oldest and strongest insurgency – the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (the…
The United Nations has recently announced that Peru has taken over Colombia as the largest producer of illegal coca leaves, the base for the drug cocaine. This comes as Brazil becomes the second biggest…
Visiting Scholar, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University; Director of Studies at the Changing Character of War Centre, and Senior Research Fellow, Dept. of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford