Full Coverage: Latin America & Caribbean

30.08.2005 A 50 per cent drop in deforestation in the Amazon region in the last 11 months is reported by the Brazilian Environment Ministry.

30.08.2005 If the referenda on the prohibition of commercialization of guns happened today, Brazilian civilians would no longer be able to buy or sell arms. A survey on public opinion done by IBOPE in 143 Brazilian cities showed that 81% of the population is in favor of putting an end to gun commercialization – 17% are against the prohibition and 2% do not have an opinion or did not answer the question.

29.08.2005 A organização não-governamental Rede de Amizade iniciou desde o último sábado, 27, o Projeto Amazonas da Noite, em Manaus – AM. O projeto trabalha com capacitação em prevenção às DST/Aids para profissionais do sexo na capital do Estado e foi inspirado em um projeto inicial da ONG, realizado em 2002, e chamado Protagonistas da Noite, que durou cerca de seis meses.

29.08.2005 Cientista político Fabiano Santos defende que a legislação deveria proporcionar maior transparência, principalmente em relação aos financiamentos de campanha.

29.08.2005 Severine Macedo is a youth leader and youth representative on the board of FETRAF-SUL. FETRAF (Federaçao dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura Familiar) is a trade union of family farmers and FETRAF-SUL is a regional organization based in the southern Brazilian states of Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul. FETRAF-SUL has 100,000 members and works with 300,000 union and non-union families.

29.08.2005 What to do with Hugo? That’s a question that is bedeviling the Bush administration, which sees its centuries-old hegemonic hold on Latin America and the Caribbean slipping.

29.08.2005 La présente chronique est divisée en trois sections. La première replacera dans son contexte historique l’opposition centrale qui divise les Amériques jusqu’à ce jour, celle entre la vision hégémonique des États-Unis d’Amérique (EUA) et la vision de Bolivar. À cette fin, il sera aussi bien question du Traité de Gand de 1814, de la déclaration de Monroe de 1823, connue plus tard sous le nom de « doctrine Monroe », que de leurs effets sur le Canada. La deuxième section cherchera à illustrer certains des développements faits antérieurement en s’attardant sur le rôle du Canada en tant que promoteur de la démocratie. Quant à la troisième section, elle propose un tour d’horizon rapide de la conjoncture actuelle dans les Amériques, afin de mettre en lumière à quel point la fracture induite par la doctrine Monroe et sa réplique bolivarienne traverse encore et toujours le continent.

29.08.2005 China’s increasing interest in economic and trade integration with Latin America while worrisome to Washington, is encouraging to some Latin American leaders who perceive the U.S. as a being a condescending patron, say America’s Program analysts.

25.08.2005 Synthesis report on 20 ICT case studies from organisations in South Asia, Southern Africa and Central America. Their activities vary from offering wireless communication equipment to tribal nomads and teaching slum children how to use a computer, to training NGOs how to build a website and online broadcasting of radio programmes.

25.08.2005 In cooperation with the "Universidade de la Republica Oriental de Uruguay”, UNESCO Montevideo and the National Library of Uruguay will organise in Montevideo, Uruguay from 29 August - 2 September 2005, a training course for MERCOSUR countries on the creation of digital libraries.

24.08.2005 While the rates of maternal mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean are not the world's highest, a worrying disparity within a small group of countries and especially among indigenous groups and afro-descendants exist, reveals a U.N. assessment of the region's progress in meeting the MDGs.

23.08.2005 Ampam Karakras is a man on a mission. A Shuar from the Ecuadorian Amazon, he recalls the days when the Shuar (or Jivaro as they were then known to Westerners) were famed for their secret technique of shrinking human heads. As a youth, he was sent to boarding schools run by Salesian Catholic priests where he learned Spanish and was educated in Western ways. But unlike indigenous boarding school experiences in other parts of the world, Ampam’s years among the Salesians strengthened his appreciation both for the value of education and for the Shuar people and their culture.

23.08.2005 O PT errou e pede desculpas à nação. Falta apresentar os culpados. Dois são confessos: Sílvio Pereira, ex-secretário geral do partido, que se valeu do cargo para benefício próprio; e Delúbio Soares, ex-tesoureiro, que admitiu à CPI ter montado o esquema de caixa dois operado por Marcos Valério. O primeiro desligou-se do PT; o segundo permanece filiado, graças a manobras internas que protelam a apuração da Comissão de Ética. Talvez a resistência dele em revestir-se de boi de piranha represente uma ameaça a outros envolvidos em maracutaias. Escreve Frai Betto.

22.08.2005 O Comitê Pró-Resgate e Desenvolvimento de Vieques (CPRDV) denuncia a intenção da Marinha de Guerra dos Estados Unidos e a cumplicidade das agências do governo relacionadas com o processo de descontaminação na ilha, de reiniciar a detonação, a céu aberto, de bombas.

19.08.2005 Many male Miskito of Nicaragua and Honduras are permanently disabled from diving for lobsters at great depths and having no protective gear provided them. The Miskito however are only one of the many indigenous populations affected by health and human rights problems in Latin America, says Rocio Rojas.

18.08.2005 Ainda que seja a maior tragédia marítima do Equador, o naufrágio do barco que levava equatorianos que tentavam cruzar a fronteira dos Estados Unidos de maneira ilegal é apenas a ponta do iceberg. Para concretizar o sonho de uma vida com mais conforto e menos pobreza, centenas de equatorianos arriscam a própria vida.

18.08.2005 Un premier ministre, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, indépendant et apprécié de la population, six nouveaux ministres... Le gouvernement nommé mardi 16 août à Lima devrait rassurer les Péruviens, plongés depuis six jours dans une crise politique sans précédent depuis l'élection du président Alejandro Toledo, en 2001.

17.08.2005 Lors de sa rencontre avec le gouverneur de État de Chihuahua, Reyes Baeza, et la ministre de la Justice, Patrizia Gonzalez, la secrétaire générale d'Amnesty International, Irene Khan, a accueilli favorablement la volonté qu’ils ont exprimée de s'occuper des affaires d'homicides de femmes. Irene Kahn a néanmoins fait part de sa déception devant le manque d'actions concrètes et les progrès limités accomplis dans de nombreuses affaires, suscitant des doutes quant à l'aboutissement du processus chez les familles des victimes.

17.08.2005 The U.S. recently adopted a law to demobilize armed groups in Colombia, which could result in greater impunity and de facto amnesties for human rights abuses, says Amnesty International, urging you to ask Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to not use U.S. aid for the demobilization process.

17.08.2005 In an Open Letter to all Mexican political parties, Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan challenged the leaders to make human rights the cornerstone of Mexican life and a fundamental central pillar of their electoral manifesto.