Latin American & Caribbean History

This website answers questions about US-Cuba relations. I believe it is very reliable given it is written by Stephanie Hanson, an employee of the Council on Foreign Relations, which publishes the internationally respected Foreign Affairs Magazine. The Council on Foreign Affairs is a non-biased think tank committed to accurate, current news. The author seems simply interested on informing her audience with reliable information. She sites her sources with links to external articles, and she provides clear evidence.

Stephanie Hanson is a published writer who covered economic and political development in Latin America for over three years for the Council of Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan organization committed to remaining objective about matters of policy. This article cites the vast majority of its statistics and factual information to reputable sites, and confirms information I knew previously. The information is mostly factual, and seems fairly unbiased. The author's objective seems to be only to inform interested citizens about the topic. This article was published on January 11, 2010, and covers a large variety of topics relating to US and Cuban foreign affairs. 

This website has a clear author (Stephanie Hanson) who appears qualified after a google search revealed her extensive experience and recognition writing about global issues. The Council of Foreign Relations is the site's organization which is a famous, distinguished resource for public and government debate. Information is accurate, grammatically correct, and clearly cites sources. CFR is a nonpartisan organization which aims to be an unbiased facilitator of discussions about world issues. The article itself presents basic facts and allows readers to form their own opinions. The site indicates the date when the article was last revised (January 11, 2010), has a 2010 copyright, and provides up-to-date links. It covers a wide range of points and is pretty long but is well-organized with an introductory outline dividing it into clear sections.

News blog from Cuba

Published May 14th 2010, this article has no single author but instead has the semi-obscure organization's name in the byline: "Big News Network.com." It summarizes an Organization of American States (OAS) report on global crime rates but has no link to this source. Also, the low-quality graphics and overall site design, big font, and low-level grammar are a little suspicious.

Blog from young Cubans

This reputable New York Times article is by regular contributor Jens Erik Gould who has firsthand knowledge as a correspondent in Venezuela. It asserts that Latin America's high crime/murder rate impairs economic growth. It was published a few years ago (October 17, 2006) but is full of well-cited, very illuminating facts and convincing evidence that still seems relevant. A solid, detailed source I recommend.

Written by Dennis Rosen, a pediatric pulmonologist at the Chidlren's Hospital in Boston, for the New York Times, this article is a well written account of a doctor trying to save lives in Haiti. As the article is mostly personal, there is little factual information. The objective of the article seems to be to give readers hope that Haiti is improving. Published on Sept 27, 2010, the article is fairly recent.

Although this article does not present its author, it comes from a trusted source, The World Bank. Published a few years ago on February 27, 2007, the article provides relevant and well-cited examples and information on the status of indigenous people in Latin America. Also, the article is organized into clear sections, making it easy to follow as a reader. In addition, it offers further information (reports, case studies, an interview, a video, and working links to other websites) . Overall, I would say this website is an excellent resource.

This article written by Abigail Griffith, a research associate for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, an established organization. It presents accurate information on the status of indigenous people in several countries in Latin America. Published recently on June 21, 2010, the article uses facts as well as statistics from the past and present, that are correctly cited with it, as evidence. It is an excellent source, providing in-depth analysis on the topic.

This site is dedicated towards giving countries all around the world access to drinking water, including certain areas of Latin America. This site is not bias because it is sanctioned by the United Nations, which tends to be impartial, especially in non-war related issues. This site, however, should update it's articles more since they seem relatively outdated for 2010. This site as no author, however each article is backed up by facts that are bipartisan to any group. 

This website collects articles and facts pertaining to clean drinking water in Latin America. It is an independent group that is not affiliated with any country, thus making it less bias towards a certain government. This source seems reliable because it gathers articles that are relevant and that are also true. I do not see any bias because the issue at hand is not one of opinion, they use statistics to cite arguments and offer non-controversial ideas for action that will benefit the water quality in Latin America. 

Another trusted article by the Huffington Post written Aug. 22 by Mauricio Cuevas proves to have accurate grammar and spelling. This site is accurate and useful; all links still wor, however the advertisement is somewhat distracting when reading the article. This site is also useful because it provides links to videos as well as other articles on the same topic. The author seems knowledgable and passionate about the miners.

Although this article has no clear author, the recently written article (Aug 27) shares the conditions in which the miners have been living, and it explains the contact they have had with the outside world. All the links to this site are up to date as well as the videos. This is a trusted article because of the site (fox news) and also grammar and spelling are correct.

This topic is one that has interested me for the past couple of weeks; this article was published recently on October 11, 2010 by Jeffrey Kofman. This is a legitimate article because it is a trusted site (ABC news) and it provides links and videos to other acclaimed sources on the same topic.

Jacqueline Charles, of the Miami Herald, is the newspaper's Caribbean Correspondent. and is a native Haitian. Though the article does mention that statistics come from "recent polls", it is not said where or when the polls were taken. The article also seems a bit biased towards the people who are frustrated about the elections and the government, and barely mentions those who believe the opposite. The article was very recently published (on Oct15, 2010), and seems to cover quite a bit of information within this fairly narrow topic.

Mery Vaca is a respected journalist who focuses on Bolivia. The page is in Spanish, but it appears to be grammatically correct and BBC Mundo is usually very high quality. She quotes activists in the issue and various sources she uses for her statistics. It was last edited on September 29, 2010. This page provides facts and focuses on a single organization for its information. It has a wide scope of the information it provides.

This article does not site specific authors but it does have places to email the author and contact the site's administrators. Again, the site is in Spanish, but the sources are reliable (WHO, Intervida.org) and the information is confirmed in other sites I've seen. There are some Google ads on the site, most likely to support its upkeeping. The article was last edited on January 24, 2007 and has not been updated since. The site is written for women, so it is focused on the Intervida organization to help women and has some scary statistics to tell women to be careful.

"Race to the bottom"

Though this article has no specified author, the site is obviously trustworthy from the copyright at the bottom of the article (Copyright 2010 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.).  The article is clearly written, tapping evidence from officials to support the story.  The information is broken down and covered thoroughly, even though the article itself is quite short. 

This article by the CNN Wire Staff is quite short, yet the writing is clear and free of grammatical errors.  CNN is a trusted news source and has always provided the facts.  This article uses many quotations from officials closely connected with the incident as well as some facts to provide the story with logos.  The most recent update was today (the 17th of October).  The only potential problem with this article could be that its length, which is made up for in the clear and concise information.

Timothy Gatto is a well respected member of the Liberal Party of America. Because of his political views, this article is biased, but there is still accurate information and a perspective on what is happening in Latin America. The date stamp is recent, and there is more information on the author with links to an external site.