The Bolivia crisis: Evaluating Evo
2020 Febrero América Latina
Bolivia’s dramatic events have followed an imperialist script Latin Americans are starting to know well: arrange for the regime change of a government...

Drug trafficking is embedded in Latin America’s politics and economy
2019 Diciembre América Latina
The presence of drug trafficking in politics and the use of words we’re hearing more frequently to classify some governments as “narco-government,”...

Ecuador’s rebellious speak with one voice
2019 Noviembre América Latina
A“swarm of parasites” was how President Lenín Moreno referred to those who protested the “government for everyone” package that penalized the vast...

The Left’s human sacrifices and its war on peoples
2019 Mayo América Latina
During the Cold War, Latin American dictators murdered, disappeared and imprisoned the citizens oppressed under their jackboots in the name of anti-communism....

How does a country escape a gradual dictatorship?
2019 Abril América Latina
It would be rash for anyone on the outside to claim to have the answer about what to do in Venezuela’s case, with its specific features, even applying...

The Venezuelan crisis poses a challenge for the Left
2017 Julio América Latina
The turn of events in the Venezuelan situation, with prolonged grassroots mobilization against Nicolás Maduro’s government and his call for a National...

There’s no rule of law here
2017 Mayo América Latina
There is no rule of law in Venezuela because there isn’t even a “State.” Not only is this true with respect to the administrative bodies of public...

The extractivism of “leftist” governments: Alternative development model or trap?
2017 Abril América Latina
The wave of governmental changes starting in 1999 with Hugo Chávez’s coming to power in Venezuela, followed by electoral victories for Lula in Brazil...

The Trump shock in Latin America
2016 Noviembre América Latina
Despite US President-elect Donald Trump’s crude behavior, insulting rhetoric and vicious incitement over the past year and a half, the mantra in the...

“We lack the imagination to think of alternatives”
2016 Noviembre Centroamérica
A great Guatemalan sociologist, Edelberto Torres- Rivas, whom many of you know and of whose research CLASCO is fortunately preparing a compilation, has...

“We live in politically democratic but socially fascist societies”
2016 Octubre Centroamérica
Boaventura de Sousa Santos has a doctorate in Sociology of Law from Yale University and is a sociology professor at Portugal’s University of Coimbra...

Is “lactose” really a missing ingredient in Latin America’s leftist movement?
2016 Marzo América Latina
In recent months South America’s political debates have undergone a substantive shift. While leftists who aren’t working in Latin America’s progressive...

We need a mining moratorium given the obsession for gold
2014 Agosto América Latina
Gold mining has become a scourge plaguing many Latin American countries. A few transnational giants are operating in certain places but hundreds, thousands,...

The Left and the Progressives: Ten theses on a divorce
2014 Marzo América Latina
Governments of the new Left have been dominating Latin America’s political stage recently. In a substantial turnaround, they have supplanted conservative...

The masses in the streets
2013 Julio Internacional
An insurrectional spirit is spreading among the masses around the world and they’re occupying the only spaces left to them: the streets and squares....

Reflections on the “citizen’s revolution”
2013 Abril Ecuador
On February 17, 2013, Rafael Correa was ratified as head of the Ecuadoran government for the third term, this time by an overwhelming majority. Accumulating...

Reflections from the “end of the world”
2013 Abril Nicaragua
The Latin American Left has come up with two widely opposing interpretations of the meaning of an Argentine cardinal of Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s stripe...

Hugo Chávez’s legacy of goals, accomplishments and challenges
2013 Abril Venezuela
The most charismatic democratic political leader of recent decades has died. When this happens in a democracy the charisma creates a particularly moving...

The 7-O results in Venezuela
2012 Noviembre América Latina
Fourteen years have passed since Hugo Chávez burst upon the presidential scene with his Project for a Bolivarian Revolution. Citizens weary of political...

The extractive capitalism of Latin America’s progressive camp
2012 Junio América Latina
In today’s Latin America, the leading agro-mineral exporting countries, including those engaged with the world’s leading mining and energy multi-national...

Self-employment is back
2012 Marzo Cuba
I arrived in Cuba at the end of January 2011. My flight from Miami was filled with Cubans carrying what looked like five or six times the alloted quota...

We’re starting to see ourselves through our own eyes
2011 Diciembre América Latina
Latin America and the Caribbean are arising with extraordinary strength to form the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), a small...

From Latin America to Abya Yala: The new awakening of indigenousness
2011 Septiembre América Latina
The homogenizing and “civilizing” policies fostered above all by the First Inter-American Indigenist Congress, held in Pátzcuaro, Mexico, in 1949, together...

Some thoughts for 21st-century socialists
2011 Julio América Latina
Revolutionaries almost always think that victory over their opponents means a total rupture with all past history. In the best of cases they admit...

Venezuela: Pieces for Analyzing Venezuela’s Election Results
2010 Octubre América Latina
Venezuela’s reality after its elections for parliament on September 26, 2010, is a glass half full for some and a glass half empty for others. The results...

“At The Heart of Uruguayan Democracy, Surrounded by Thinking Heads”
2010 Marzo América Latina
Dear friends, life has been extraordinarily generous to me. It has given me endless satisfactions beyond my wildest dreams. Almost all of them are...

We Were a Small but Efficient Brigade And the Haitians Grew Fond of Us
2010 Marzo Nicaragua
We flew from Managua to Jamaica and from there to Haiti. When we landed in Jamaica, General Perezcassar called us together and asked us to work with...

For Suffering Haiti, The First Word...
2010 Enero Haití
Haiti is in pain. We had never seen a disaster so close and so terrifying as the earthquake of Tuesday, January 12. Never before had a Latin American...

Is There Participatory Democracy In the ALBA Countries?
2010 Enero América Latina
Latin America is a vast field of experimentation in which different political projects co-exist that are expressed in different forms of linkage among...

Socialism in the 21st Century: A Model with Changeable Pieces
2009 Diciembre Internacional
According to the logbook bequeathed to 21st-century socialism, last century’s predecessor had four main qualities: efficiency, heroism, barbarity and...

The Failed Conspiracy And the Chávez Factor
2009 Septiembre Guatemala
Three months ago in these pages we tried to find the thread leading us out of the labyrinth in which Guatemala had lost itself with the murder of lawyer...

Corruption Is the Most Serious Aspect of The Ortega-Chávez Relationship
2009 Septiembre Nicaragua
Daniel Ortega began governing before Obama was elected, when the US government was dominated by the most rightwing conservatives. He also began when...

Letting a Hundred Flowers Bloom?
2009 Agosto América Latina
Intellectuals, democracy and socialism: Dead ends and access roads” was the name they gave to their critical reflection sessions on Hugo Chávez’s Bolivarian...

Interview with President-Elect Lugo A Change in Paraguay’s “Cathedral”
2008 Mayo América Latina
He’s 55 years old, and has the olive-colored complexion of Paraguay’s Guaraní people. He was born in San Solano, a tiny Paraguayan village in the San...

Initial Statements by President-Elect Fernando Lugo
2008 Mayo América Latina
I’m Paraguayan. I’m not from the Left or the Right; I’m from Paraguay. My ideology. Ideologically, I don’t identify with any leftist...

Chávez’s Behavior at the Summit: Symptoms of Latin American Insecurity
2007 Diciembre América Latina
Everything that Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez said in his altercation with President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and King Juan Carlos of Spain at...

Five Little Problems with Venezuela’s Brand of 21st Century Socialism
2007 Octubre América Latina
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez was reelected in December 2006 with over 60% of thevote. During the campaign and ever since, he has insisted that...

Media Content as Social Property
2007 Junio América Latina
Who owns the rainbow? Does someone have title to the property over the oceans, which takes up most of the planet’s surface? What would you think if...

Bush-Lula: The Ethanol Alliance
2007 Mayo América Latina
If you think that President George W. Bush’s visit to several Latin American countries, Brazil in particular, was inspired by alarming warnings from...

Reform or Revolution? And the Left’s Ethical Challenge
2007 Marzo América Latina
In February I had the chance to share ideas on the present and future of the Latin American Left with a group of friends and colleagues from the region...

Two Opposing Solutions to Latin America’s Two-Sided Problem
2006 Noviembre América Latina
The results of many of the elections held in Latin America in recent months have led numerous observers, perhaps the majority, to speak of a “leftwing...

A Portrait of the Chávez Government
2006 Noviembre América Latina
Two key elements allow us to explore and understand the new political expressions arising in the current Latin American contexts. One is the change...

Politics and Energy: Now and for the Future
2006 Octubre América Latina
In probably no other region of the world are energy and politics so closely related as in Latin America. For a state to have control of a petroleum company...

“Chile is for all of us”
2006 Enero América Latina
The Concertation is a coalition of parties that emerged to fight for a better Chile. During the eighties we won democracy. The first years of the nineties...

Michelle Bachelet: A Mother for Chile?
2006 Enero América Latina
When Michelle Bachelet took over Chile’s defense portfolio, her first meeting with the top command began with the following declaration: “I’m a socialist,...

Eyes on November And the South
2006 Enero Nicaragua
For many reasons Nicaragua was at the center of world attention in the eighties. That’s how we felt, and that’s how we were seen. As of 1990, that...

Quito Isn’t Managua, Ecuador Isn’t Nicaragua
2005 Mayo Internacional
In Ecuador, the people of Quito, indignant at judicial manipulation to grant impunity to a corrupt former ruler, took to the streets in mid-April...

The Left in the 21st Century: Reflections, Tasks and Challenges
2004 Julio América Latina
The Left’s renewed presence in Latin American political life can be observed in the emergence of a series of governments that, admittedly vaguely, identify...

Rhetoric Reigned in the European-Latin American Summit
2004 Junio América Latina
The Third Summit of Heads of State of Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union was held in Guadalajara on May 28-29. The first had taken...

An Economy Without Ethics Means a Continent Without Development
2004 Junio América Latina
In his small treasure chest titled On Ethics and Economics, published in 1987, Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics Amartya Sen referred to the serious...

From Conqueror State to Nation State Is from Resignation to Citizenship
2004 Mayo América Latina
In Nicaragua, our historic present could be characterized as a long, almost retarded present relative to our era’srhythm, since it covers at least...

Another Kind of Development and Integration Is Possible
2003 Octubre América Latina
Concern about Latin America¡¦s development includes a dimension without which any project for this continent is unthinkable: the well-being of the entire...

Trading Away the Future
2002 Agosto Internacional
Free trade agreements in Canada are relatively contemporary phenomena, which have not been met with out controversy. A major concern with the North American...

Crime Is on the Rise in our Lands
2002 Mayo América Latina
The crime rates in Central and South America have skyrocketed in the last two decades. According to The Economist, all of the region’s cities...

There’s Only One Valid Way Out of the War in Colombia
2002 Abril Nicaragua
Declaring a war and winning it are two different things, just as winning it is not the same as obtaining peace. Our collective memory is so short that...

Dual Societies: A Ticking Bomb
2001 Octubre Centroamérica
In recent visits to Nicaragua and El Salvador, I have come to understand more keenly than ever that the problem of many Latin American countries is that...

Educational Reform in Latin America: "It Needs to be Turned Around"
2000 Septiembre América Latina
The start of a new decade and of a new century is an invitation to reflect on past achievements and to prepare a future agenda based on new available...

Let People’s Voices Be Heard In the New Millennium
1999 Diciembre América Latina
When we inaugurated Radio Enriquillo in southeastern Dominican Republic, we wanted to open its microphones to all voices. From the first day of transmission,...

Setting Chile on the Right Path
1999 Octubre América Latina
The arrest of General Augusto Pinochet in London on October 16, 1998, has led our country, or perhaps more accurately has forced it, to look into the...

Agrarian Reforms: The Latin American Legacy (part 2)
1999 Agosto América Latina
Although agrarian reform may be a prerequisite for sustainable development, it is certainly not a panacea for all of the disasters suffered by Latin...

Agrarian Reforms: The Latin American Experience
1999 Julio América Latina
How well was Latin American agriculture performing before the agrarian reforms were implemented? The figures reflecting agricultural growth in the post-war...

Pinochet Under Arrest The End of Voluntaristic Democracy
1998 Diciembre América Latina
Finances and stock markets are not the only things that have globalized. Law and the struggle against impunity are beginning to be universalized too,...

The Rights and Duties of Community Radio
1998 Octubre América Latina
1. Communication is a universal and fundamental human right. The word brings us closer together, opens us up to each other, develops us, makes us better...

Fighting Poverty With Democracy
1998 Septiembre México
The new stage of capitalism has increased poverty by geometric proportions. They tell us it is the result of a natural process. We know it is the consequence...

"We Need a National Accord to Control Corruption"
1998 Junio Nicaragua
IN NICARAGUA, THE GUIDE WIRE OF THE STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY RUNS PARALLEL TO EFFORTS TO ERADICATE CORRUPTION. THOUGH THE many scandals we are observing...

"We Need Fair Trade, Not Free Trade"
1998 Junio América Latina
AS MEMBERS OF UNIONS, SOCIAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS OF WOMEN, indigenous, educators, environmentalists and parliamentarians...

When Children Organize And Want to Work
1998 Mayo América Latina
When the child and adolescent workers of the Christian Workers' Movement (MANTHOC) was born in Peru in 1976, it was the first such movement in Latin...

Community Radios: Freedom of Antenna!
1998 Febrero América Latina
WHEN YOUNG JOURNALISTS INTERVIEW ME, THEY NEVER FAIL TO ASK A KEY QUESTION: "AND RADIO... DOES IT STILL HAVE A FUTURE? How does it defend itself against...

A School Where People Learn How to Learn
1998 Enero América Latina
THE EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION ARE DENOUNCED DAILY but, given that transnational interests move with the same objectives in the...

How the US Trained Latin America's Military: The Smoking Gun
1997 Octubre Estados Unidos
Part of that training took place at the US Army School of the Americas (SOA), set up by the US Army in Panama in 1946 and transferred to Fort Bennington,...

For an Agrarian Reform Of the Air Waves
1996 Mayo América Latina
A Great Festival of Latin American and Caribbean Grass roots and Community Television and Radio was celebrated in Quito, Ecuador, on November 20 24,...

What Happened in the Economist's Meeting?
1993 Noviembre Nicaragua
As rector of the Central American University (UCA) and president of the Regional Coordinating Body of Socioeconomic Research (CRIES), thus responsible...

Liberation Theology Today: Crisis or Challenge?
1992 Agosto América Latina
It is commonly believed that with the fall of Eastern Europe's socialist governments, the crisis in Marxist thought and the installation of the new world...

Latin America in the "New World Order"*
1991 Agosto América Latina
A series of international meetings and seminars held in Latin America and elsewhere in 1990-1991 indicate a common evaluation of the nature of Latin...

The Last Word
1989 Junio América Latina
In the following statement the Latin American nations known as the Group of Eight, minus Panama, meeting in Rio de Janeiro, make known their concern...