Behind the Numbers: Insecurity and Marginalization in Central America
With 11 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012, Nicaragua stands out as a relatively fortunate exception in a region whose homicide rates rank among the world’s highest. Its northern neighbors all recorded rates at least three times greater: with Guatemala at 34.3 murders per 100,000 citizens; El Salvador at 41.5; and—at the top of this … Read more
Solving the Migration Crisis Requires a Shift in Foreign Policy
This Friday, presidents of the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras will meet with President Barack Obama in Washington DC to deal with the crisis of unaccompanied minors arriving in the U.S. from Central America. Migration between these countries is not new, and has been high on the multilateral agenda for … Read more
Short and Long-term Solutions to Migration in Central America
During the past few months, the United States, Mexico and Central American governments have brought attention to the number of unaccompanied minors fleeing towards the U.S. from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. A recent study by the Pew Research Center shows that the number of unaccompanied children ages 12 and younger caught at the … Read more
How Guatemala Is Tackling Its Social Issues
One year ago, Americas Quarterly’s 2013 Social Inclusion Index gave Guatemala the lowest total score of all countries evaluated, with a total of 14.8 points out of a possible 100. The index ranked 16 countries, including the United States and 15 countries from Latin America. The comments in the evaluation for Guatemala indicated that “Poverty … Read more
Monday Memo: Argentine debt – Putin in Latin America – Italy investigates Plan Cóndor – Earthquake – Trapped Honduran Miners
This week’s likely top stories: Argentine negotiates with holdout creditors; Russia’s Vladimir Putin will visit Cuba, Argentina and Brazil; Italy investigates dictatorship-era murders; an earthquake hits Mexico and Guatemala; and Honduran authorities search for eight missing miners. Argentina begins debt negotiations: Argentina will begin negotiating a settlement today with its holdout creditors, who are owed … Read more
U.S. Patent Office Rejects Redskins Trademark
In a rare move on Wednesday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cancelled six trademark registrations owned by the Washington Redskins on the grounds that the National Football League (NFL) team’s name is offensive to Native Americans. The office’s independent Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled that the term “Redskins” was disparaging to “a substantial … Read more
Striking in Brazil Continues
With 21 days left before the World Cup begins, Brazilian bus drivers have gone on strike—shutting down terminals across São Paulo—while thousands of police are striking in 14 of Brazil’s 26 states and smaller protests are cropping up across the country. In São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city with over 20 million inhabitants, over half … Read more
Teachers, States Protest Mexico’s Education Reform
Mexico’s Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (National Coordinator of Education Workers–CNTE), the powerful teacher’s union, took to the streets of Mexico City yesterday to protest President Enrique Peña Nieto’s educational reform, including a 3.5 percent increase in teachers’ wages. The leaders of the union sent a message to the president calling the increase … Read more
Two Views of Consulta Previa in Guatemala: A View from the Private Sector
Read a view from Indigenous peoples here. Guatemala ratified International Labour Organization Convention 169 (ILO 169) on June 5, 1996, more than a year after Guatemala’s Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country, ruled in Document 199-95 that the Convention did not contradict the Guatemalan Constitution.1 But the lack of clarity in ILO 169 … Read more
Country Study: Peru
Read the introduction here. Read a case study from Chile here. Read a case study from Colombia here. Read a case study from Guatemala here. Read the sidebar Indigenous or Not? During his 2011 presidential campaign, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala promised a new relationship between the Peruvian state and Indigenous peoples, in which the rights … Read more
Country study: Guatemala
Read the introduction here. Read a case study from Chile here. Read a case study from Colombia here. Read a case study from Peru here. Although they constitute 40 percent of Guatemala’s population, Indigenous Guatemalans face great inequality in terms of access to health, education, housing and—most critically—political representation.1 In 1995, the Guatemalan Constitutional Court … Read more
Country Study: Colombia
Read the introduction here. Read a case study from Chile here. Read a case study from Guatemala here. Read a case study from Peru here. In Colombia’s 2010–2014 National Development Plan, President Juan Manuel Santos listed the mining sector as one of the five engines of the country’s economic growth, alongside infrastructure, housing, agriculture, and … Read more
