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The region including Latin America and the Caribbean is the area with the most homophobic crimes committed in recent years. Countries including Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia have had an unfortunate recent history of homophobic crimes. This article, from ipsnews.net., describes how IDAHO (the International Day Against Homophobia Committee) is asking for an international day against homophobia. They chose May 17th as the day of recognition, because on May 17, 1990, homosexuality was removed from the World Health Organization's list of mental disorders. In the past few years, many Latin American countries have developed slogans and media campaigns against homophobia and the transmission of HIV/AIDS. Many activist groups in Latin America (and worldwide) are vying for political action and equal rights laws.

Legalizing abortion has been a slow process in Latin America. Only a handful of countries, including Cuba and Guyana, have legalized abortions in the first trimester. In 2007, when this article was written, there was a legal debate deciding whether or not to legalize abortion in Mexico. The Roman Catholic Church is adamantly opposed to legalizing abortion, and studies found that people in rural areas were antiabortion. Thousands of women die in Latin America from unsafe and illegal abortions, and it is apparent that the illegality of abortion does not reduce the number of women getting them.

This is a blog from Pepito Valenzuela who was my closest friend when I lived in Ecuador. His blog is a combination of all of his life's thoughts in which he includes everything from stories to poems to pictures.

This article talks about several groups that work to improve the rights of indigenous women in southern Mexico. Their efforts include informing women of their legal rights, giving them job training and help finding a job, and providing them with shelter if they want to leave their homes because of domestic violence.

This section of the Los Angeles Times deals directly with and reports daily on Latin American current events. It provides articles concerning Latin American politics, Latin American economics, Latin American art, etc. The page also includes video interviews, podcasts and an interactive map and multimedia gallery in regards to the Mexican drug wars.

This article talks about how homosexuality is coming out more and more in Latin America, and people are becoming less afraid of the idea through the support of the government movements. It talks about how the term "macho," though still existing, is starting to give way to a more "gay-friendly" region. This article also gives a bit of history on the gay, lesbian, and bi communities and their efforts in Latin America, and how it is rapidly moving to a more accepting environment despite the religious upheaval with it.

An article published in February 2009 discusses the change in attitude of towards homosexual people in Latin America. Ten years ago the area still promoted "macho" attitude and took on a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude, however, today groups are fighting for gay rights and making improvements. In 2003 Mexico even passed an anti-discrimination law that included sexual orientation. This new toleration is mainly due to the region no longer being authoritarian as well as gay and lesbian activists groups making a different in government and their local areas.

This source deals with a wide range of contemporary issues in Latin America including gender, education, technology and politics. As well as general articles on Latin America, many articles look at specific countries/areas of the Latin American world.

The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs created and maintain this website. Many topics are discussed in length about indigenous people - the issues they face, their values and political systems - from multiple continents, including Argentina, Guatemala, Panama, and Peru from Latin America.

This cite is valuable because it has a large compilation of articles pertaining to a multitude of current issues in Venezuelan society. Such topics include; the economy, social change, internal and external politics, current events, etc.. There are audio recordings as well as the literary ones.

In June 2009, Latin American health officials and United Nations bureaucrats agreed to continue implementing "comprehensive sexuality education starting in early childhood" throughout the region, including instruction in the use of condoms and anti-"homophobia" training, at a meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in Jamaica. Their goal is also to fight against sexual discrimination.

I thought this website would be helpful in better understanding Venezuela through current events. There are many sub-topics within the website that make specific searches easier, including those related to crime, culture, religion, and violence, all of which are new subjects of interest while reading Milde's book, Reasons to Believe.

Women's rights activist groups in Chile are urging presidential candidates to support women's rights. They want to further the progress they made during the the current government, and are urging all women to vote and take a stand during the presidential elections in December. Some of their prominent issues include the decriminalization of abortion, availability of emergency contraception, and legislature to prevent and rid Chile of violence against women and gender-related murders of women.

This article is a historical look at violent and violated women in Guatemala. It explores the social meanings of "gendered crimes" in rural Guatemala between 1936 and 1956. These gendered crimes include b=not only sexual violence, but also infanticide and abortion, which are defined as female. Many times harmful acts to women fail to generate criminal proceedings.

This article discusses the civil unrest in the country of Venezuela between Governor César Pérez and President Chávez. The governor claims that the government is not doing anything to prevent the rebels from Colombia from crossing the border and only wished to keep out those supporting right-wing agendas. Not only has the President allowed leftist groups to cross the border unchecked but he has limited the access to weapons of local police to keep them from taking action against the guerillas. The constant dispute between the government, local government, and the leftist Colombian rebels has caused violence in the region along the border including deaths.

The "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation," formally known as "the School of the Americas" is a United States Department of Defense facility in Fort Benning, Georgia. The school is responsible for training a multitude of Latin American soldiers and policeman, many of whom have been responsible for a number of human rights violations. Graduates from the school include Guatemala's Efraín Ríos Montt, one of the most notorious generals of the Guatemalan army and president during part of the civil war. The SOA Watch is an advocacy organization formed in protest of the training methods utilized by the WHISC, including classes on torture and interrogation, jungle warfare, and how to preform a military Coup d'états.

This article is provided by conciliation resourced. The creators of the laws found in this article discuss topics on the agreement on identity and rights of indigenous people. They include identity of indegenous people, struggle against discrimination, and cultural, civil, political, social and economic rights. It is interesting to see these laws and wonder how often they are followed (not very often at all).

This BBC article contains a timeline of political, social, economical, and cultural changes in Guatemala from the 1500's to the present day. It marks from 1970 up until the end of the civil war as a time when human rights were violated. The postwar years mainly focus on political reform.

This webpage includes a basic timeline of Guatemala's history from the beginning of the Spanish colonization to the present. It outlines social-democratic reforms, violations of human rights, the end of the civil war, storm related deaths, murders, etc. This relates to our class because it provides an easy to read outline of Guatemala's history.

Many countries-Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, and Cuba-are considering it mandatory to teach sexual education in primary schools. Many believe that the exclusion of sexual education has impacted the number of cases of sexual abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and teenage pregnancies. The goal is to bring awareness to these issues in hopes of decreasing the rates and to teach children how to make choices responsibly.

Almost all of Latin America is required to provide sexual education classes for their students, however, these laws are widely ignored. Many children do not receive the proper knowledge about sex until the age of 12 or 13, even though a study conducted in Cuba shows that this is the age children are becoming sexual active. Without the knowledge of the issues of sex it leads to an increase in sexual abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, and many abandoned babies. The article also states that children in Argentina do not receive sexual education at all because of the conservative sectors in the area. Many committees and groups are lobbying to help make sexual education more prevalent in students education.

This article discusses the role of sexual education and how it affects the prevention of STDs, unplanned pregnancies, sexual abuse, and HIV/AIDS. Many countries in Latin America have laws stating that sexual education must be taught at schools, however in many of these countries this is not happening. Studies have shown that because these children are not receiving sexual education there are higher rates of unplanned pregnancy, STDs, sexual assault, and earlier ages of engaging in dangerous sexual activities.

I think this is a very interesting source because it has access to all Latin American history. It includes the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Chicano history. It also contains history from colonial Latin America and offers specific history dates

Latin American History research resources for high school and college students