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This article analyzes claims by Sebastian Pinera, president of Chili in his article for the Economist. Economic potential in Latin America seems quite high recently, with the earnings of top bankers in Brazil moving past those in New York or London. If these claims are true, the influx of business capital in the Latin American region should be a harbinger of an information revolution, as Latin America tries to keep up with the US, Europe, and Asia in this increasingly wired world.

This article again illustrates the nature of the Latin American technology market: largely consumer driven. This stands in opposition to the American model, which is mostly a top-down funding model where infrastructure is the primary concern for investors. In fact, most infrastructure spending in Latin America is imported from Japan, China, and the US, while in consumer markets, these global players have a hard time competing with local providers. Latin American must diversify its tech industres foundation to include local businesses focusing on infrastructure technologies if it wishes to be a competitor on the global scale in the future, rather than remaining dependent on these global powers for tech innovation.

This article in regards to Google's new data center in Chili highlights the paradox facing Latin American IT. Latin American use of the internet has increased rapidly in recent history (the online population jumped 16 percent in 2011), but Latin American users have yet to view the Internet as simply more than an entertainment source. Online banking and business continues to struggle to catch on, despite attempts by the Chilean government to spur growth in this sector. Many believe the implementation of this data center will help Latin Americans make this transition.

This article lays out the reasons why Uruguay's government is considering legalization of marijuana. It has already been decriminalized and full legalization would allow the government to benefit economically from production. The profits could stimulate the economy and even be used to treat drug addicts and go towards drug education. Also, legalization would take power away from deadly cartels.

This article was very interesting. To me, it seems that Uruguay has been searching for a way to combat what the war on drugs has done to the cartels. This is vastly different to the approach the United States is taking in regards to marijuana. I wonder if we will see any of the affects here, in addition to how the U.S. government views government controlled marijuana. I feel that ong term, the different drug strategies could potentially change the U.S.'s current stance on drug policies if they prove their effectivness.

wow, great discussion! I've been working my way down from the top adding some comments and was wondering about decriminalization up above! This reminded me that there's a ballot initiative in Washington state this election year that could pass re legalization of marijuana, which would put the states vs the feds in an interesting position if so. I was looking for some info, and found this background on a site called ballotpedia -- which I didn't know existed and am definitely going to be using in the future! http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Washington_Marijuana_Legalization_and_Regulation,_Initiative_502_(2012)

As Brazil prepares to host both the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, gang violence and police murders overshadow the progress the cities Sao Paulo and Rio De Janiero are making. This year, 95 officers have been murdered in the Sao Paulo area alone, mostly by members of the PCC retaliating against the police. The situation in Rio is being somewhat improved in Rio as the police attempt to regain control of the cities many favelas.

Bigger cities are always going to have higher homicide rates. I do wonder if it will die down for the world cup. I imagine the world cup would be captivating enough to a Brazilian city to stop violence for a few weeks.

I don't think the issue is that the world cup is not a big enough event to stop the violence. The homicide rate in Sao Paulo is so high because the police to not have control of much of the city. The extremely poverty stricken areas (favelas) are run by criminal gangs. Corruption and economic disparity keep the gangs in power. In fact, in some areas the police's attempts to "clean up" the city have further angered the gangs which is why police officers are being targeted more than ever. The situation is unfortunately complicated and severe.

Essentially this article describes a long drawn out legal battle, starting in the 70s, between Chevron and the residents of a region in Ecuador. Apparently the oil company, then Texaco, released billions (yes, billions) of gallons of toxic waste in an area affecting parts of the Amazon. Despite the opinion of the Ecuadorians, Chevron claims their end of the issue has been long settled. - This case seems to bring to light several noteworthy factors. Involved is a major pollution event as opposed to accumulative issues such as global warming. So the immediate responses to these differing kinds of environmental problems is, of course, quite different. With a major event an expeditious 'clean up' is always a priority, but there is still a paradigmatic similarity regarding the effects of pollution on the environment over time. That is, the difficulty and/or unwillingness to accept and deal with the long term damage incurred. Also relevant, one may consider the global political implications of cases like these. The consequences of American companies destroying foreign lands seems interesting in itself, but equally so is the relationship of courts and legal systems in different countries.- I will be interested to see if Chevron ever pays. tl;dr- 1970s Chevron spill shows a glimpse of political complications across borders.

Good point about discrete events vs. longer-term processes in regard to whether that makes them more manageable to resolve (you would think so, but....) Toxic waste is a huge global issue (and certainly not inconsequential in the US), and the electronic waste issue is a big one. At the very least, this kind of foot-dragging will hardly win the hearts and minds of those in other countries who know the US via the local reputations of US companies that don't see the local population as stakeholders. How do we shift the culture to thinking in long-range terms? Maybe the pushback by other countries will force a shift?