The Conversation

Fringe Religious Party Gains Power in Crisis-Stricken Peru

After 40 years of failing to qualify for a national election, the political party of the Israelites —called the Agricultural People’s Front of Peru, or Frepap— won 15 congressional seats. In a fragmented Congress with nine parties, that makes the Israelites the third-largest legislative bloc.

  • Mar 3, 2020
  • 10:06 AM

A Guerrilla-To-Entrepreneur Plan in Colombia Leaves Some New Businesswomen Isolated and at Risk

In Colombia, as in other conflict zones, rejoining society after war is generally more challenging for women.

  • Feb 26, 2020
  • 6:46 PM

Hundreds of County Jails Detained Immigrants for ICE

More so than federally operated facilities, county jails, along with facilities operated by for-profit companies, have come to hold for ICE the lion’s share of immigrant detainees facing removal proceedings.

  • Feb 11, 2020
  • 10:12 AM

AMERICAN DIRT Fiasco Exposes Publishing Industry That’s Too Consolidated, Too White and Too Selective

As someone who studies the publishing business, I see this ordeal as a symptom of an industry that relies far too heavily on a handful of predetermined “big books,” and whose gatekeepers remain predominantly white.

  • Feb 6, 2020
  • 9:25 AM

Puerto Rico Earthquakes Imperil Island’s Indigenous Heritage

Many indigenous ruins lie along the shore, where ancient settlements thrived.

  • Jan 28, 2020
  • 1:38 PM

US and Cuba Spar Over Jailed Dissident, But Is José Daniel Ferrer Really a Political Prisoner?

The two countries are in dispute over the prolonged detention of a Cuban dissident.

  • Jan 24, 2020
  • 1:23 PM

Refugee Stories Reveal Anxieties About the Canada-U.S. Border

Canadian leaders have desperately tried to preserve the country’s image of liberal humanitarianism at our border, but they have instead been confronted with the reality that Canada’s border and immigration history is built upon exclusion, securitization and anxieties related to border management.

  • Jan 21, 2020
  • 11:08 AM

Supreme Court DACA Decision Isn’t Just About Dreamers—It’s About Whether the White House Has to Tell the Truth

Under American law does the executive branch have to give complete and accurate reasons for its actions?

  • Jan 16, 2020
  • 2:32 PM

Earthquake Forecast for Puerto Rico: Dozens More Large Aftershocks Are Likely

Seismologists like me are constantly working to better understand earthquakes, including advancing ways to help vulnerable communities before, during and after damaging events.

  • Jan 16, 2020
  • 10:43 AM

How a Chilean Dog Ended Up as a Face of the New York City Subway Protests

Stickers bearing the dog’s image jumping a turnstile appeared on subway walls and trains.

  • Jan 8, 2020
  • 2:57 PM

Unrest in Latin America Makes Authoritarianism Look More Appealing to Some

That’s the startling finding of a still-unpublished study I conducted using data from the AmericasBarometer, a survey undertaken every two years in Latin American countries

  • Jan 6, 2020
  • 11:50 AM

‘The Rapist Is You’: Why a Viral Latin American Feminist Anthem Spread Around the World

This widespread political cry in the form of a poetic truth —too close to home for some of us —makes the call for change too hard to ignore.

  • Dec 20, 2019
  • 1:41 PM

Evangelical Gangs in Rio De Janeiro Wage ‘Holy War’ on Afro-Brazilian Faiths

There’s been a sharp increase in reports of religiously motivated crimes in Rio de Janeiro since 2016, in particular attacks on “terreiros”—the temples of the Candomblé and Umbanda faiths.

  • Dec 17, 2019
  • 4:37 PM

Mexico Transformed? Challenges, Changes After a Year of Leftist Government

Despite economic woes and enduring violence, López Obrador’s government has made considerable progress dismantling a system that almost solely benefits the political and economic elite and keeps more than 50 million Mexicans in poverty.

  • Dec 13, 2019
  • 12:24 PM

Haitian Migrants Face Deportation and Stigma in Hurricane-Ravaged Bahamas

At least 340 Haitian migrant workers have been deported since Hurricane Dorian hit the island.

  • Dec 12, 2019
  • 4:12 PM

2019 Was a Year of Global Unrest, Spurred by Anger at Rising Inequality, and 2020 Is Likely to Be Worse

This is not helped by an administration in Washington that has yielded ground to authoritarian dictatorships at a time of global unrest in which stable Western leadership has hardly been more necessary.

  • Dec 11, 2019
  • 10:12 AM

Currency Manipulation and Why Trump Is Picking on Brazil and Argentina

Ultimately, labeling other countries as currency manipulators is more about politics and geopolitical relations than policy.

  • Dec 6, 2019
  • 8:57 AM

Bolivia After Morales: An ‘Ungovernable Country’ With a Power Vacuum

Throughout Bolivian history, protests have been an important way indigenous people and rural peasants, long excluded from the halls of power, have made their voices heard.

  • Dec 5, 2019
  • 3:23 PM

Trump’s Border Wall Threatens an Arizona Oasis With a Long, Diverse History

Quitobaquito’s history is worth preserving. It reveals an American past populated by people who do not fit into current rhetorical boxes.

  • Dec 4, 2019
  • 9:42 AM

Colombia: Being an Environmental Activist in Some Countries Is Much More Dangerous Than in Others

Here in the heavy industry heartland of Colombia, environmentalism has old roots and has endured through decades of violence and intimidation.

  • Dec 2, 2019
  • 9:12 AM

Now Evo Morales Is Out, Bolivia’s Celebrated ‘Plurinational Revolution’ Has an Uncertain Future

Over the past few decades, Bolivia has transformed in a way that many considered irreversible.

  • Nov 26, 2019
  • 2:13 PM

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