Sabatini discusses how globalization, democracy and the search for natural resources are contributing to the increase in indigenous political movements. He also explains who is being effected and how activism is impacting countries across the region.

As part of the Worldfocus series Beyond the Headlines, Daljit Dhaliwal interviews Brazilian scholar Felipe Bruno Martins Fernandes about the status of gays and lesbians in Latin America.

He says that many governments in Latin America, prompted by the gay and lesbian community, have made great strides in combating homophobia.

One issue on the table was Cuba, which was kicked out of the OAS in 1962. While most of the 34 nations in the group want Cuba to be reinstated without conditions, Clinton said there must be changes made by the Cuban government, including the release of political prisoners, respect for basic human rights and democratic reforms. That position comes despite recent overtures by the United States to improve relations with Cuba.

Shannon O’Neil, an expert on Latin America with the Council on Foreign Relations, joins Martin Savidge to discuss what it would take for Cuba to be re-admitted into the organization, overtures from Cuba to the U.S. and Iran’s interest in Latin American countries.

The story also received prominent news coverage around the world, with newspapers in Latin America and elsewhere highlighting the fact that Judge Sotomayor is the first Hispanic Supreme Court nominee.

Christopher Sabatini, a senior director of policy for the Council of the Americas, joins Martin Savidge to discuss how the news of Sotomayor’s nomination is playing in Latin America and the role of women in the judiciary in Latin America.

President Alan Garcia of Peru. Peru’s GDP expanded by 9.8 percent last year — faster than China’s — but has slowed significantly.

The Latin American economy is expected to contract 1.5 percent this year as countries face losses from declining exports, tourism and remittances.

But while Iceland was called “the first political casualty of the global credit crisis” after its prime minister resigned, blogger Thiago de Aragão writes that in most Latin American countries, people seem to separate politics from their pocketbooks.

Thiago is the Latin American senior research associate at the Foreign Policy Center in London and he writes at Latin American Politican Analysis.

Latin America: Politics and Economics divided

Politically speaking, the impact of the international economic crisis is expected to be extremely relative in Latin America. Contrary to what happens elsewhere in the world, here political and economic issues are easily sifted apart. [...]

There are odd situations, such as Peru. Here, in spite of the economy’s best performance ever (which may change or plunge because of the crisis), president Alan Garcia faces one of the worst cases of popularity evaluation across the whole region. In Peru we now witness an overt cleavage between economy and politics that hadn’t been seen in Latin America for a while. The thriving economy has taken the Peruvians to unprecedented wealth levels, yet their president isn’t seem as someone capable of inspiring political and institutional stability.

In Brazil things are somewhat different. Both low-income and low-middle-class populations are now entirely catered for by the country’s economy. Since these ranks of Brazil’s population have subscribed to the notion that “politicians are all the same, they all cheat”, there is nothing to be worried about if the economy is in good shape. It isn’t that president Lula’s administration isn’t a reasonable one, but significant political advancements that are yet to be made (the political, tax and labor reforms) hardly affect the vast majority of the country’s population. This vast majority of people is quite content only to be able to plan ahead the purchase of, say, a household appliance in the beginning of the year, knowing exactly how many installments they will have to pay by December.

The Brazilian upper classes are the ones that care about political issues, specially those that affect them directly, i.e. the battles for the end of the CPMF, lower excise tax for cars etc. Issues such as education, health and crime rate are lost in the political limbo. The upper classes in Brazil can afford private schools, health insurance and safe neighborhoods. Because the low-income population is living their best economic moment ever, coupled to the fact that they lack political organization to demand improvements in such critical areas, things more or less are kept going by way of compromise.

Colombia, however, is a clear example of both political and economic advancement. The country’s economy is growing steadily, foreign direct investments increase year by year, industry leaders are constantly attracted by the country’s infra-structure modernization programs. Furthermore, there has been tremendous advancement in regard to Colombia’s worst political nightmare: the FARC. Nowhere has a government managed to reap good economic and political fruits and appraisals because of good seeds sown. However, it is important to acknowledge the mounting risk that this success can be adversely affected if the Colombian president attempts at running for a third term in office.

Except for countries drowning in social issues, such as Bolivia, in Latin America economic issues have an overriding role as far as a country’s stability is concerned. In Brazil, economic issues go hand in hand with everything else for the low-income population. Because for this part of the population, “if economy is right, then everything else is right, too.” In Peru we witness a dissension in opinion, in that “economy is well regardless of the president”, whereas Colombia as a whole, or at large, in any case, including the upper classes, perceives that both economy and politics are going very well.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Presidencia de la República del Ecuador under a Creative Commons license.

Venezuelans recently voted for a referendum to end term limits, which could potentially extend President Hugo Chávez’s term indefinitely.

Chávez is a darling of news headlines worldwide with his colorful, often anti-American rhetoric and socialist agenda, but Worldfocus’ online radio show looked at what the headlines miss:

• What do the Venezuelans who elected him want?
• Why has trade with China, Russia and Iran has expanded across Latin America? Has the U.S. “neglected” Latin America?
• Is Latin America swaying left with elections of seemingly leftist and socialist leaders, like Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil and Evo Morales in Bolivia?

Worldfocus’ weekly radio show examined the hype of Hugo Chávez and the expectations of the Venezuelans who elected him. The program surveyed the political players in Latin America and explored the social and political movements from the ground up.  Our panel also discussed the Obama administration and the U.S.’s role in Latin America’s future.

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Katie Combs and Stephen Puschel

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted a panel of guests:

Charlie Devereux is a correspondent based in Venezuela for GlobalPost. Born and raised in Panama, he has traveled throughout Latin America. Charlie’s work has appeared in the Daily Telegraph, CNN International, the Sunday Telegraph, the San Francisco Chronicle and openDemocracy.

Sujatha Fernandes is an assistant professor of sociology at Queens College, City University of New York. She spent 9 months living and carrying out field research in a popular barrio of Caracas during the presidency of Hugo Chávez. Her book, “In the Spirit of Negro Primero: Urban Social Movements in Chávez’s Venezuela,” will be published by Duke University Press in Spring 2010.

Tony Spanakos is an assistant professor of political science and law at Montclair State University specializing in comparative politics, political economy, democratization and Latin America. He co-edited the book “Reforming Brazil” and is a two-time Fulbright scholar, most recently researching the reception of economic policy in different communities in Venezuela. He conducted this research while living in Caracas between January and August of 2008.

In the state of Chiapas, Mexico, about 25 percent of people don’t speak any Spanish. Rather, they speak a host of indigenous languages, many of which originated in ancient Mayan times. Some organizations, like the Intercultural University of Chiapas school in San Cristobal, work to keep these dying languages alive by teaching them to the next generation.

Worldfocus special correspondent Lynn Sherr and producer Megan Thompson highlight Mexico’s attempt to preserve the past by speaking ancient languages in the present tense.

Below, learn about other endangered languages across Latin America and listen to audio samples courtesy of the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America.

There are more than 600 indigenous languages still in use across Latin America, though hundreds more have disappeared over the last several centuries and still more face imminent extinction. Below are a few examples of endangered languages across Central and South America.

Achuar: Used by communities living near the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador and Peru, Achuar is a potentially endangered language spoken by a few thousand people. Listen to a ceremonial visiting conversation: Click

Iquito: Iquito is a highly endangered language spoken in parts of Peru. Many of its native speakers died of malaria in the 1990s and there are only 22-26 elderly speakers still alive. Listen to the story of a man who imitates the call of a frog: Click

Kawésqar: A language spoken primarily in Chile, Kawésqar is spoken by less than 100 people, many of whom are bilingual and speak Spanish. Listen to a love song: Click

Pipil: The Pipil are an indigenous group of El Salvador. The language was outlawed in the 1930s and only a handful of people speak it today. Listen to a guitar song: Click

Rama: Native to Nicaragua, there are only about 24 people who speak Rama left. Listen to the song “Our Oyster Shells”: Click

Yanomami: The Yanomami are a large indigenous tribe living mostly in Brazil. With about 11,000 speakers, the language is considered partially endangered. Listen to Yanomami women sing: Click

For more on disappearing languages, see The National Geographic’s Enduring Voices project.

Information courtesy of the Encyclopedia of the World’s Endangered Languages.

Cristina Fernández, the president of Argentina.

Latin American leaders like Chile’s Michelle Bachelet and Argentina’s Cristina Fernández — both the first elected female presidents of their countries — have been heralded as examples of gender equality in politics and inspirations to women worldwide. But other Latin American countries retain cultural stereotypes about gender and few women hold office.

Kristen  Sample is senior programme officer at International IDEA and writes at “OpenDemocracy” exploring how different electoral systems have resulted in such varying levels of power for Latin American women.

No hay mujeres: Latin America women and gender equality

Thirty years after the start of the third wave of democracy in Latin America,  the region’s policy-makers and civil society have the “final frontier” of this historic process in sight: to ensure that democracy works for all citizens in equal measure, regardless of gender.

In Latin America there has in recent years been an increase in both the number and percentage of women in politics - embodied by the rise to power of two female presidents, Michelle Bachelet in Chile and Cristina Fernández in Argentina. Their election has, in turn, generated a renewed debate on the state of women in politics today in the region. The reality, perhaps surprising, is that the progress of women in assuming elected office in Latin America varies considerably: between and even within countries, nationally and sub-nationally.

[...]The choice of electoral system has an enormous impact - perhaps more than any other single factor - on the number of women elected to public office.

Chart detailing the percentage of women representatives in elected office in Latin America. Chart: OpenDemocracy

For instance, one basic ground-rule: “list” systems - in which electors select from lists of candidates - are far better at facilitating the election of women (and minority-groups) than first-past-the-post system systems (as found in the United States, Britain and Canada) as they encourage parties to develop comparatively more balanced candidate lists. When a party has to bet on one candidate for a legislative seat - as in the case of a first-past-the-post system - the slot generally goes to a man. When the party presents a list of candidates to represent a legislative district, however, it is more apt to balance the list by assigning selected slots to women. That’s why of the ten countries with the highest percentage of women legislators, nine have some variation of the list system.

Two specific examples demonstrate the importance of the design of the electoral system to more balanced representation:

Why does Argentina have 40% women legislators, while neighbouring Brazil has only 8%? Both countries have list systems with gender-quotas, but they’re only effective in Argentina where parties run “closed” lists and are required to alternate men and women in “electable” positions higher up the list. Brazil, on the other hand, allows parties to present a number of candidates equivalent to as much as 150% of the number of seats being contested and there is no sanction for non-compliance with the quota. Additionally, Brazil’s candidate-centred “open” list-system makes success more dependent on access to campaign funding, an area in which women face greater disadvantages.

Why do women account for nearly one in three legislators in Peru, but only one in thirty mayors? There are at least two reasons for this. First, representatives in collective bodies (legislatures, town councils) in Peru are elected from “list positions” while executives  (president, departmental president and mayor) are chosen from a first-past-the-post system. Second, a 30% quota applies to the legislature and local councils, but not to mayors or other executive positions.

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user ¡Que comunismo! under a Creative Commons license.

The visit, along with a Russian warship’s visit to Venezuela and Nicaragua and passage through the Panama Canal earlier this month, comes in response to the announced American missile defense shield in Europe as well as the presence of American ships in the Black Sea during the recent conflict with Georgia.

Russia also announced that it plans to give 10 fighter jets to Lebanon as part of a defense cooperation deal, and is preparing to sell anti-aircraft missiles to Iran.

Christopher Sabatini, an expert on Latin America and senior director of policy for the Council of the Americas, speaks with Martin Savidge about the significance of the timing of the visit, Raul Castro’s proposed prisoner swap with the U.S. and potential changes to Cuba-U.S. relations under Barack Obama.

A poster in support of the “Cuban Five.”

Cuban President Raul Castro has proposed a prisoner swap with the U.S.

Political dissidents imprisoned in Cuba would be released in exchange for the “Cuban Five,” who were arrested in 2001 for conspiracy and espionage charges in a controversial case.

The exchange could lead the way toward talks between Castro and the Obama administration.

John McAuliff of “The Havana Note” wants to see prisoner releases prior to Barack Obama’s assumption of office and wrote Presidents Castro and Bush urging for a release.

Kyle Munzenrieder at “Riptide 2.0″ thinks the same of prisoner release under the Obama administration and says of the potential talks “don’t expect anti-Castro Cuban-Americans to let him bring the ‘Cuban Five’ to the table.”

Blogger Circles Robinson suggests that the exchange could please people on both sides, noting that the Cuban Five are “considered heroes and are never far from most people’s thoughts” in Cuba.  Castro’s offer closely resembles what Robinson proposed as a “win-win deal” in March of 2007.

Billy Burnett and Judi Lynn of “Democratic Underground” are against the prisoner exchange, claiming that the “Cuban Five” did not act against the U.S. state and that among the “dissidents” held by Cuba are terrorists who acted against the Cuban state. 

“CharlesD” of the “CubaMania” forum disagrees, and writes that if the exchange takes place, “the only…winner will be Castro,” arguing that the offer is little more than a publicity stunt.

International and online opinion on the “Cuban Five” varies, but the U.S. federal appeals court upheld their convictions in June.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Hartlandmartin under a Creative Commons license.

The majority of deaths are preventable, with access to sufficient medical care — a challenge for many Guatemalans, particularly those in remote areas.

Worldfocus special correspondent Lynn Sherr reports from the mountain community of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, where the “Casa Materna” center has helped 50,000 women and their children since opening — but tragedy lingers.

For more information on global maternal health, see below.

One of the United Nations’ Millenium Development Goals — a set of global goals to achieve by 2015 — is to improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters.

Read about the state of maternal health in Latin American countries.

A chart, courtesy of PBS Wide Angle, details those countries with high and low rates of maternal mortality. Also, listen to public health experts discuss worldwide efforts to improve maternal care.

While vaccines, early testing and treatment have reduced the effects of cervical cancer on women in the U.S., the disease is the number one killer of women in Latin America and kills over 33,000 women in Latin America and the Caribbean each year.

Though the disease can be prevented with a vaccine (for human papillomavirus or HPV, which causes cervical cancer) and is treatable if detected early, access and affordability are challenges to communities in Nicaragua.

Now, Nicaraguan women are finding hope in coffee — the country’s top export. The “Grounds for Health” program brings low-cost treatment to coffee-growing communities like Jinotega, one of the country’s top coffee producers. The nonprofit group is supported by international coffee companies and also works with Soppexcca, a cooperative of coffee producers in Nicaragua, to fund and execute testing.

Worldfocus special correspondent Lynn Sherr and producer Megan Thompson travel to Jinotega, Nicaragua, where coffee has truly become the nectar of life for some women.

Michelle Bachelet, the president of Chile.

Barack Obama’s historic election as the 44th president of the U.S. on Nov. 4 has received international attention from citizens and news media alike.

Here in the U.S., commentators have stated that his victory could happen “only in America.”

Obama himself stated in his 2004 address to the Democratic National Convention that “in no other country on earth is my story even possible.”

Greg Weeks is an associate professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and blogs at Two Weeks Notice, where he takes issue with such a characterization of Barack Obama’s victory and details what he believes are progressive elections in Latin America.

“Only” in America?

As I’ve watched and listened to U.S. media commentary, especially after the election, something has nagged at me. This has indeed been an historic election, but in the United States we try to claim that we are the first to have historic elections. It can happen, we say, “only in America.” I don’t have links, but heard it from both Chris Matthews and Chris Wallace–if you google “obama only in america,” you can get a feel for how broad the sentiment is.

In Latin America, I think of Evo Morales’ impressively large victory in Bolivia in 2005, followed shortly by Michelle Bachelet’s in Chile (remember that the U.S. has not yet elected a woman, unlike many other countries). What of Alberto Fujimori’s 1990 election in Peru (will we see an Asian elected president of the United States?)? Or if we look at class, rather than race, there is no doubt that Lula’s election in Brazil changed history–imagine an uneducated union activist running for president here.

It is truly remarkable that our president-elect is African American, and it says a lot about the progress being made in this country. But let us savor it without pretending that we’re the only ones who have made such progress.

See the original post.

For more, read an article from The Economist about the phenomenon of American exceptionalism.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Fotograma! under a Creative Commons license.

Brazil’s infrastructure has not kept up with its explosive economic growth over the past several years. Now, Brazil has embarked on a multi-billion dollar plan to correct the lack — a plan that has enormous implications for the country.

Brazil is the second largest producer of ethanol after the U.S., and expects to harvest 12 percent more cane than last year and increase exports by 25 percent. For more on worldwide use of ethanol and other fuel, see our map on global energy.

Producer Bryan Myers and correspondent Edie Magnus report on “Brazil Today” — a series that explores Brazil’s spiking conversion to Pentecostalism, its pioneering path toward energy independence and its improving — but expensive — roadways.

The Pentecostal growth in Brazil comes as the world’s largest Catholic community shrinks, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Pentecostals often view their churchgoing experience as more personal and social activism — particularly outreach to the poor — as more common.

Producer Bryan Myers and correspondent Edie Magnus report from the Assembly of God New Zion church in Rio de Janeiro.

Below, see what bloggers are saying about religious shifts in Brazil and across South America.

The “My Brazilian Brasil” blog discusses the “dangerous” relationship between religion and politics in Brazil, writing about the possibility that a Pentecostal may soon become Rio de Janeiro’s mayor.

The “Upside Down World” Web site writes about the role of Pentecostal churches in poor urban neighborhoods in Brazil.

Todd Martinez, a Fulbright research scholar studying in neighboring Uruguay, explores the reasons behind increasing conversion across Latin America at the “Small State” blog.

Also watch PBS NewsHour’s report on the Protestant church’s impact on Latin America.

Shannon O’Neil, a specialist on Latin America at the Council on Foreign Relations, speaks with Martin Savidge about Obama’s position on Cuba, the future of relations with Cuba and Venezuela and major trade issues that are currently under review in Congress.

Producer Bryan Myers and correspondent Edie Magnus report from the roads of Brazil.

This piece was part of the Blueprint America project on infrastructure.

Read producer Bryan Myers’ blog posts from the field: Truckin’ through Brazil, Brazil plans to improve highways and Brazil privatizes its roadways.

This comes as human rights organizations complain that the the military is deliberately killing civilians and making it look as though they were armed leftist rebels so as to to inflate the count of rebels killed.

Christopher Sabatini, director of policy at the Council of the Americas, explains the ties between the U.S. government and the Colombian military, human rights abuses and the Colombian government’s oversight and control.

An estimated 4,000 people have been killed due to drug-related violence in Mexico this year, with a significant rise in recent weeks.

Rodolfo de la Garza, a Columbia University political science professor, speaks with Martin Savidge about the U.S. connection to Mexico’s surge of drug violence. De la Garza attributes this violence to increased state challenges to the drug cartels in areas they both claim to control.

Read what a Worldfocus contributing blogger had to say about the violence in Mexico at our previous post: Nearly 80 killed in Tijuana drug wars.

AUDIO: Freelance journalist Wafaa Jamil speaks from Ramallah, West Bank about the lack of Palestinian interest in the U.S. elections. Peter Ford of The Christian Science Monitor speaks from Beijing about the China’s similar lack of interest and the absence of China as an issue in the U.S. elections.

Argentinians watch the Oct. 2 debate between vice presidential contenders Sarah Palin and Joe Biden in Buenos Aires.

At the second U.S. presidential debate on Oct. 7, candidates John McCain and Barack Obama discussed a range of foreign policy issues including their thoughts on Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia and Iran. Bloggers around the world watched and responded.

From Canada, the “Mapleleafweb” blog argues that the focus on the economy in this debate will spill over into the upcoming Canadian election on Oct. 14.

From Latin America, the “VivirLatino” blog writes that Obama won’t acknowledge immigration in the debates despite doing so frequently in Spanish-language ads.

From Iraq, the “Iraq Pundit” blog points to changes in Obama’s position in Iraq based on his discussion of moral obligation during the debate.

“Sean’s Russia Blog” assesses the candidates’ discussion of Russia, calling it “Cold War rhetoric without the Cold War.”

From Palestine, the “Body on the Line” blog writes that the debate ignored Palestine.

And blogger “Jonolan” writes about which candidate would be better for Pakistan, concluding that McCain’s plan for a cooperative effort with the Pakistani government would help the country mitigate violence.

Since the world has a stake in the outcome of the U.S. election, The Economist has created a global electoral college that allows people from all over the world to vote for one of the two main candidates. Currently, Barack Obama has received the majority of the over 25,000 votes that have been cast.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user blmurch under a Creative Commons license.