Articles By: James Rodriguez
Will Gold Make You Rich? Meet Nicaragua’s Güiriseros
Photo Essay: Forensic Anthropologists Exhume Possible Mass Grave Outside Villalobos, Guatemala
January 11, 2010 11:14 am
How Immigration to the United States is Changing Patron Saint Day in Todos Santos Cuchumatán, Guatemala
Other News
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Chile Photo Essays Southern Cone
Chile Commemorates International Day Against Homophobia And Transphobia
SANTIAGO, CHILE — Thousands of attendees enlivened the twelfth consecutive celebration of “Diverse Chile: Cultural Demonstration for Diversity and Against Discrimination” in Santiago’s Plaza de Armas on Saturday, May 12. Organized by the Chilean rights organization MOVILH (Movement for Homosexual Integration and Liberation), the event set the stage for International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, which is observed across the world on May 17. This year’s “Diverse Chile” event was celebrated in the context of Chile’s recently-approved Anti-Discrimination Law, which [...]
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Central America Honduras Today in Latin America
Kidnapped Honduran Radio Journalist Found Murdered
Top Story – Honduran police have arrested a suspect in the murder of kidnapped RHN radio journalist Alfredo Villatoro, whose body was discovered in Tegucigalpa late Tuesday. Villatoro, a prominent Honduran journalist and news director for RHN, was kidnapped early Wednesday on his way to work. His family and colleagues urged Villatoro’s kidnappers to release him unharmed, but he was found shot in the head nearly a week after his disappearance, wearing a police uniform, not the clothing he had on when he was [...]
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Brazil News Briefs Southern Cone
Brazil’s Truth Commission Set To Begin Its Work
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will preside over an official ceremony Wednesday to launch Brazil’s Truth Commission. The seven-member commission will convene for two years to investigate human rights abuses committed in Brazil between 1946-1988, focusing on the country’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship. Rousseff, who endured torture as a political prisoner during the dictatorship, has made it clear that she intends to present the Truth Commission as a multi-partisan effort with broad support in Congress and across social sectors. The commission was created after [...]
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Andes Colombia Today in Latin America
Bombing In Bogotá Kills Two, Injures Dozens More
Top Story – A driver and a police bodyguard for former Colombian Interior Minister Fernando Londoño were killed after a bomb went off in Bogotá on Tuesday, injuring dozens of other people. Lodoño was traveling through a commercial district when an assailant allegedly threw a bomb at his car, according to security camera footage mentioned by Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro. Colombian authorities had discovered another bomb earlier Tuesday, hidden in a car allegedly destined for police headquarters in Bogotá, but they managed [...]
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Caribbean Cuba Today in Latin America
Judge Rejects Declassification Of CIA Volume On Bay of Pigs
Top Story – A U.S. federal judge rejected an effort by the National Security Archive to declassify the CIA’s fifth and final volume on the history of the U.S. Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. The volume, the last in the CIA’s Official History of the Bay of Pigs, was written over three decades ago and details the CIA’s internal investigation of the failed Bay of Pigs operation in April 1961, in which the U.S. unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government in Cuba. Judge Gladys Kessler [...]
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Andes Colombia Today in Latin America
Colombia: FARC Plans To Release French Journalist
Top Story — Red Cross officials said Sunday that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas have agreed to release French journalist Romeo Langlois, who was captured by the rebels while he was embedded with Colombian troops on April 28. The soldiers were in the process of destroying cocaine laboratories in southern Colombia when they were confronted by the rebels, who reportedly killed four members of the Colombian security forces. The head of the ICRC in Colombia said the Red [...]
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Chile Southern Cone Today in Latin America
Chilean Congress Approves “Zamudio Law” Against Discrimination
Top Story – Chile’s Congress passed a long-delayed anti-discrimination law on Wednesday night in a vote of 25-3, seven years after the law was initially introduced and more than two months after 24 year-old gay Chilean Daniel Zamudio was beaten in a violent attack from which he eventually died. Zamudio’s murder prompted thousands of Chileans, including Chilean President Sebastián Piñera, to call for expedited passage of the anti-discrimination law that had been languishing since it was approved by the Senate in [...]
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Central America Honduras Today in Latin America
Honduras: Second Journalist Kidnapped in One Week
Top Story — Honduran radio journalist Angel Alfredo Villatoro was kidnapped Wednesday just a few days after authorities discovered the body of another journalist, Erick Martínez, on the side of a road in eastern Honduras. Witnesses of the kidnapping reported that Villatoro was taken by “young gang members” at dawn on his way to work at HRN radio station in Tegucigalpa. The Honduran government and HRN colleagues have issued statements pleading that Villatoro’s captors release him unharmed. Meanwhile, little information has emerged [...]
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Caribbean Puerto Rico Today in Latin America
Puerto Rico Governor: Students Should Speak Fluent English by 2022
Top Story – Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuño has proposed an ambitious plan to make Puerto Ricans bilingual in English and Spanish by the year 2022, an effort that he hopes will pave the way for U.S. statehood. Fortuño wants public schools to teach all classes in English, with the exception of Spanish literature and grammar instruction. English is currently taught from kindergarten through high school, but Education Secretary Edwin Moreno said the government would begin to introduce a new bilingual curriculum at 31 [...]
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Andes Colombia Today in Latin America
Colombia May Regulate Prostitution Following Scandal
Top Story – Colombian politicians have proposed a new bill that would regulate prostitution in Colombia, reacting to the scandal that erupted in Cartagena last month when members of the U.S. Secret Service reportedly hired prostitutes before the Summit of the Americas. Conservative Senator Armando Benedetti proposed the bill on Monday, noting that prostitution would remain legal in Colombia, but that the new law would “guarantee labor rights and public health”. It’s not clear whether the bill would pass, but Colombia’s Catholic church remains [...]
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