Despite Pope’s Comments, a Good Week for Trans Rights in Latin America
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) advocacy groups expressed disappointment this week after comments by Pope Francis were released showing the Catholic leader’s unease over the growing social acceptance of transgender rights. During a private meeting last week, the pope said the idea of teaching schoolchildren they can choose their gender was “terrible” and that … Read more
Infographic: The ‘Disastrous’ State of Latin America’s Prisons
Flames and plumes of smoke could be seen rising above the Juiz Plácido de Souza penitentiary in Pernambuco, Brazil on Saturday after a violent inmate rebellion left six dead and at least 11 injured. Local news outlets reported several possible causes for the incident, but severe overcrowding was almost certainly a factor: the prison, built … Read more
A Shaken Dominican LGBT Movement Finds Strength After Orlando
The Dominican Republic’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community was shaken after the nightclub shooting in Orlando a month ago. At least four victims were from that small country, and the attack underscored the discrimination many LGBT activists feel in their own, largely conservative society. In a particularly ill-timed display of opposition to LGBT … Read more
Incluya a los indígenas en las discusiones sobre cambio climático
Leer en inglés Estimado(a) Sr(a) Presidente(a): Los pueblos indígenas somos los que menos hemos contribuido al cambio climático pero los que más sufrimos sus consecuencias. Las catástrofes climáticas han puesto en riesgo nuestras fuentes de alimentación y medios de vida tradicionales. Pero nuestros problemas palidecen ante la crisis global de mayores proporciones que no sólo … Read more
One Transgender Refugee’s Journey through Central America
A transgender refugee’s personal journey is interrupted when violence forces another to begin. A photo essay. A transgender refugee’s personal journey is interrupted when violence forces another to begin. – See more at: http://americasquarterly.org/content/a-trying-transition#sthash.NZeRcYoo.dpuf
Centroamérica no mejorará mientras los temas de las mujeres no sean una prioridad
Read in English El fracaso de América Latina en prestar atención a las mujeres está rezagando a la región. A pesar del gran éxito en la reducción de la pobreza y de la desigualdad de ingresos durante la primera década del siglo 21, la amplia brecha de género en la región continúa siendo un freno … Read more
Jair Bolsonaro: Pro-Torture, Anti-Gay and Brazil’s Future President?
Brazil’s outspoken Jair Bolsonaro has a widening path to the presidency, posing a growing concern to the LGBT community.
Central America Won’t Get Better Until Women’s Issues Become a Priority
Leer en español Latin America’s failure to pay attention to women is holding the region back. Despite great success in reducing poverty and income inequality in the first decade of the 21st century, the region’s yawning gender gap continues to be a brake on future development. No clearer example of this exists than in Central … Read more
Peru’s LGBT Community Frustrated By Violence, Presidential Election
With less than six weeks to go before Peru’s presidential election, gay rights activists are fighting to put LGBT inclusion on the national agenda and find a candidate to rally behind. It isn’t easy, says Carlos Polo in Lima. Over Valentine’s Day weekend, Polo was beaten by police while kissing his boyfriend during a small … Read more
Free College in Chile! So What Are Students So Mad About?
On Tuesday, 80,000 university students in Chile received the good news that they were eligible for tuition-free education as part of a new program enacted by President Michelle Bachelet. The moment should have been a high point for the country’s vocal – and powerful – student movement, which for years has been protesting for better … Read more
In Latin America, Abortion Rights Stall as LGBT Rights Advance. Why?
Last month, thousands of people in cities across Brazil took to the streets to protest a bill that, among other things, would make it more difficult for rape victims to obtain abortions. In Rio de Janeiro, those protestors gathered just blocks away from the state’s justice tribunal where, less than two years before, more than … Read more
Greater Women’s Equality in Latin America Would Unlock $1 Trillion
Women have won five presidential elections in Latin America – an impressive feat. Yet much more still needs to be done to advance women’s equality in the region. The economic benefits alone would be huge – by our calculations more than $1 trillion over the next decade. At a time when many Latin American economies … Read more
Rethinking Poverty in the Amazon
María Teresa Quispe is keenly aware of her status as an outsider in the Amazon. Born in London to Peruvian parents, Quispe grew up in Lima, Caracas and Buenos Aires, and initially focused her career on addressing poverty among urban populations. But a chance trip to the Venezuelan Amazon as part of an Inter-American Development … Read more
Indigenous Residents of Lima’s Cantagallo Shantytown Confront an Uncertain Future
The pueblo joven, or shantytown, of Cantagallo sits atop a former landfill in Lima, wedged between a freeway and the Rímac River. Founded in 2000 by roughly 15 indigenous Shipibo families who were part of a mass exodus of Amazonian immigrants pushed out of their communities by logging, illegal mining and infrastructure development in the … Read more
Dr. Douglas Rodrigues on Protecting the Amazon’s Remaining Isolated Peoples
This article is adapted from the Fall 2015 print edition of Americas Quarterly. To subscribe, please click here I have worked as a doctor and researcher with indigenous communities in central Brazil’s Xingu National Park since 1981, and I have witnessed how contact with vulnerable, isolated groups results in high rates of violence, disease and … Read more
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