Latin American Studies Resources

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.

Guatemala has the resources to prevent child hunger compared to poorer countries in Latin America, but according to Unicef approximately half of Guatemala's children are suffering from malnutrition, making it the sixth worst performance of a nation in the world. The growing problem is a result of the current economic crisis, and the effects are being seeing through the decrease in monetary aid being sent from Guatemalans working in the United States. In order to break the cycle of poverty it is essential for the Guatemalan government to address the inequality of income.

This website documents photographs and written accounts of how Argentine people were affected by the dictatorship which took many political prisoners, los desaparecidos. It offers a look into how people have dealt, and continue to deal, with such a tragedy arising from corrupt government action.

This article discusses the current issues that Central America is facing in regard to the current disarray of the regional institution used to integrate the countries of the continent since the military removal of the president of Honduras in June and the resent request to leave the PARLACEN group by Panama.

This is an article focusing on the resent increase of protests being held in both Venezuela and Colombia in protest of President Chavez. President Chavez has frozen relations with Colombia on the terms that he feels they are granting the United States military forces too much access to military bases.

This article focuses on the history of the civil war in El Salvador from 1980-1992. Starting with discussing the increase of violence in the Nation following the death of the Archbishop to the reason for involvement by the United States and the negative effects that had on the country. From there it describes the involvement of the United Nations and leads up to the end of the dispute bringing us to the stage of reconstruction that El Salvador is currently in.

This article talks about Venezuela's plan to start exporting gasoline to Iran. President Chavez and Ahmadinejad have been discussing the bilateral cooperation between their two countries not only for the export of gasoline but as a way to send a message to the United States. With these talks have come up the topic of nuclear power and the programs of these two countries.

This is a group that came to Wheaton last year to talk about human rights (and violations of those rights) in El Salvador and to promote fair trade and free elections. The website has information about the current political and economic situation in El Salvador and what we can do to help improve it.

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.

Chagas--a deadly disease caused by an inch-long insect found in Mexico and South America has begun to spread to the United States. This article examines a disease long common in Latin America, but virtually unknown in the United States. There is little awareness around the disease, possibly due to the disparities in healthcare between Latin America and the United States--and the lack of recognition/communication about diseases between the two bordering countries of Mexico and the United States (e.g. the H1N1 virus).

This article talks about the changes in policies for certain Latin American countries towards drug consumption. Countries such as Argentina and Mexico are looking to decriminalize drugs as step towards a solution. Many Latin American governments see the United State's way of dealing with drug use as having major negative effects and causing more problems then it is fixing.

Brazil's current Senate president, José Sarney, has been the center of many controversial newspaper reports of corruption for using nepotism. This recent scandal has been the launching point for many Latin American government's to speak out against the media and their dislike for free press, believing that their should be more censorship.

Reminders of Peru's recent violence have occurred in recent months in a series of attacks against the Peruvian government by a group using the name Sendero Luminoso or "Shining Path," the Maoist guerrilla group responsible for a large amount of bloodshed in the 1980's. This article details the recent attacks along with providing a brief history of the violence involving Shining Path in previous years.

Bryan Derballa is from my hometown, and has done a great deal of excellent photojournalism work-recently traveling to Venezuela during the referendum vote Hugo Chávez (the current controversial president of Venezuela) put forth to eliminate the law limiting the amount of years he could run for re-election and remain in office. I frequent his blog, featuring Derballa's work along with other artists from North Carolina, California, and New York. The photos document both the support and protest towards Chávez during the referendum vote last February.

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 article (actually written by my brother-in-law), discusses Hilary Clinton's recent withdrawal of millions of dollars and assistance from Honduras. The removal of this assistance is a response to the coup d'etat that took place in Honduras on June 28th. The U.S. government is hoping to show Latin America that it supports the effort to keep the military out of politics.