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Begin New Search Topic Economics Content Type Journal Article Publishing Institution Council of the Americas Publication Year within 25 Years

21. Dispatches from the field: Xaltianguis, Mexico

Author:
Nathaniel Parish Flannery
Publication Date:
05-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Dispatches: Xaltianguis, Mexico BY NATHANIEL PARISH FLANNERY How armed housewives in the hills of Mexico are fighting back against narcotraffickers—without the state. View a slideshow from Xaltianguis, Mexico below. Angelica Romero, a middle-aged mother of two, views her reflection in the bedroom mirror. She tucks her blue T-shirt into her jeans, pulls her hair back in a ponytail, and slips a tan baseball cap onto her head. In black letters across the brim, it reads: “Citizen Police.” Only a few months earlier, residents of Romero's town, Xaltianguis, located in the verdant hills outside Acapulco, had been paralyzed by fear of kidnapping gangs, armed robbers and extortionists. But since the townspeople banded together to form a militia this summer, the crime wave has come to an end.
Topic:
Economics and Government
Political Geography:
Mexico

22. Celebrating Afro-Peruvian culture through dance — Bringing essential services to Detroit — Creating a global market for Guatemalan weavers — Bringing education to Chile's Indigenous people

Publication Date:
05-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Arts Innovator: Luis Antonio Vilchez, Peru Watch a video of Luis Antonio Vilchez dancing in Times Square below. Passing through New York's Times Square one winter day in 2010, Lima native Luis Antonio Vilchez noticed a group of street percussionists playing a familiar Afro-Peruvian rhythm—and immediately decided to join them. Soon, a large crowd gathered as Vilchez, wearing a button-down shirt and a winter coat, burst into a dance performance that was so impressive even the drummers watched in awe. The same kind of impromptu creativity dominates Adú Proyecto Universal (Adú Universal Project), a nonprofit arts organization Vilchez founded four years ago to re-imagine Peruvian identity through dance, theater and percussion. Financed by money the group earns from its performances, Adú (which means “friend” in limeña slang) encourages its 20 members—all dancers—to combine different dance and music genres, crossing back and forth between tradition and modernity.
Topic:
Economics, Education, Government, and Politics
Political Geography:
United States and New York

23. Country Study: Colombia

Author:
Sebastian Agudelo and Diana María Ocampo
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
In Colombia's 2010–2014 National Development Plan, President Juan Manuel Santos listed the mining sector as one of the five engines of the country's economic growth, alongside infrastructure, housing, agriculture, and innovation. At the same time, the government recognized the need for regulatory, legal and policy instruments to make Colombia a regional powerhouse for mining and infrastructure.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Colombia

24. Reducing the Financial Risk of Social Conflict

Author:
Daniel M. Schydlowsky and Robert C. Thompson
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
The Peruvian economy has experienced exceptional growth in the past 10 years, with its GDP expanding at an average yearly rate of 6.5 percent. Much of this growth is due to the mining sector, which in 2012 accounted for 9.6 percent of Peru's GDP, 1.3 percent of its employment and 56.9 percent of its exports.
Topic:
Economics and Communications
Political Geography:
Peru

25. Speaking a Common Language with Latin America: Economics

Author:
Jose W. Fernandez
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
United States-Latin American relations have often suffered from a disconnect. While we stress security issues, the region's leaders speak of poverty reduction and trade. They resent being seen as afterthoughts to U.S. policies focused elsewhere. As a result, the region is sporadically open to new suitors, such as Spanish investors 15 years ago, or the Chinese today.
Topic:
Economics and Poverty
Political Geography:
United States, China, Latin America, and Spain

26. Ask the Experts: Consulta Previa

Author:
Sonia Meza-Cuadra, Katya Salazar, César Rodríguez-Garavito, and Roberto Junguito Pombo
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Governments aim to make decisions that will improve the economic and social development and welfare of their citizens. But historically, decisions affecting Indigenous and tribal people's culture, ancestral lands and habitats have too often been made without their participation. ilo 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples seek to redress this situation.
Topic:
Economics, Government, Human Welfare, and Culture
Political Geography:
United Nations

27. Guatemalans returning home from the U.S. face unemployment, a maze of red tape—and social stigma. (slideshow available)

Author:
Michael McDonald
Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Dispatches: Guatemalan Migrants BY Michael Mcdonald Guatemalans returning home from the U.S. face unemployment, a maze of red tape—and social stigma. (slideshow available) Read a sidebar about voluntary return migration. Read a sidebar about the stigma that return migrants face. View a slideshow of return migrants in Guatemala below. Fidelino Gómez remembers fondly the years he spent in Iowa, where his middle child was born. Standing outside his one-room wood home in his native Guatemala, Gómez, 34, thumbs through pictures he took of the Mississippi River, snowy Midwest winters and gatherings with family and friends. He recalls easier times. “We lived well,” Gómez says under the searing sun. “We could feed our children, pay our bills, and we still had money left over.” From 2004 to 2008, Gómez and his wife María earned roughly $7 an hour working at Agriprocessors Inc., a slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. The money was more than they ever imagined as subsistence farmers back home. But the family's dream was cut short when United States immigration officials raided the plant in May 2008, arresting hundreds of undocumented Guatemalan workers and deporting them. Now, like more than 100 other families deported after the Postville raid, they struggle to eke out a living back in the economically depressed farming village San José Calderas, some 40 miles (64 km) west of Guatemala City. They grow corn and beans to feed their loved ones and do odd jobs, scraping by on the equivalent of between $15 and $30 per month.
Topic:
Economics and Government
Political Geography:
United States and Guatemala

28. Robert A. Boland and Victor A. Matheson debate: Do megasports events contribute to economic development?

Author:
Robert A. Boland and Victor A. Matheson
Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
The urgency and scale of hosting can provide a needed boost to public investment and transform a country's image, infrastructure and business conditions beyond the games. BY ROBERT A. BOLAND Do megasports events contribute to economic development? Yes Following the 2014 World Cup? Read more coverage here. In the next two years, Brazil will host the three largest mega sports events in the world: the 2014 FIFA World Cup this summer, and then the Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Rio in 2016. Other nations in the Americas and across the globe will be watching to see if Brazil's hosting duties lead to broad-based, lasting growth, or are merely an expensive distraction. While history provides examples of both scenarios, hosting such megaevents can provide lasting and transformative value, including to developing nations. Megaevents can accelerate the process of planning for and executing much-needed public investment, while the host countries or cities can rebrand themselves as safe for investment and trade, and as a destination for tourism. For democratic governments, the construction blitz around megaevents can cut through political deadlock, representing the best available chance to quickly bring about focused and necessary change. The ability to develop infrastructure that can improve the quality of life, health and economic strength of the host nation is key. Hosts with plans focusing on self-improvement, investment and the enlargement of existing assets tend to fare better than countries that simply build competition venues.
Topic:
Development and Economics
Political Geography:
America and Brazil

29. Ted Piccone on Cuba behind the scenes — Jim Swigert on narco money in election campaigns — Ariel Fiszbein reviews an analysis of community-managed schools in Honduras and Guatemala.

Author:
Ted Piccone, Jim Swigert, and Ariel Fiszbein
Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Cuban Revelations: Behind the Scenes in Havana by Marc Frank BY TED PICCONE Popular interest in Cuba will continue to grow as Americans open their eyes and ears to one key fact: after 55 years, Cuba is changing. It is shifting from a highly centralized, paternalistic, socialist regime, both lauded and vilified for achieving social progress at the cost of democracy and civil liberties, to a hybrid system in which individual initiative, decentralization and some forms of limited debate are encouraged. As the Castro brothers prepare to leave the scene, they are handing power to a more institutionalized Communist party that maintains tight political control even as it liberalizes the economy. Marc Frank's new book, Cuban Revelations: Behind the Scenes in Havana, expertly captures this evolving terrain. He provides a clear and compelling guide to the transition from Fidel to Raúl Castro after the demise of the Soviet Union. Frank, currently a freelance journalist for Thomson Reuters and the Financial Times, deploys his two decades in Cuba and his extensive network of colleagues, friends and family (he is married to a Cuban) to explain to both seasoned and amateur observers why Cuba's leaders are embarking on a new path. This is no easy assignment. Nearly everything about life in Cuba today is complicated by Cuba's outsized role during the Cold War, the trauma of exile and the opaque nature of its regime. Despite Cuba's controlled media environment, Frank managed to open doors to information not readily available to others, a testament to his intrepid reporting.
Topic:
Economics and Governance
Political Geography:
America, Soviet Union, and Cuba

30. Anthony Spanakos looks at Venezuela befoAnthony Spanakos looks at Venezuela before Chávez — Roger-Mark De Souza examines Indigenous rights and Amazon oil conflicts — Johanna Mendelson Forman on new approaches to regional security.

Author:
Johanna Mendelson, Anthony Spanakos, and Roger-Mark De Souza
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Venezuela Before Chávez: Anatomy of an Economic Collapse by Ricardo Hausmann and Francisco R. Rodríguez BY ANTHONY SPANAKOS During the 1970s, Venezuela was the richest country in Latin America. With the region's highest growth rates and the lowest levels of inequality, it was also one of the most stable democracies in the Americas. But starting in the early 1980s, things fell apart. The nation endured three coup attempts and one presidential impeachment. Per capita growth plunged, and mass protests became the norm. What happened? Venezuela Before Chávez: Anatomy of an Economic Collapse, edited by Ricardo Hausmann and Francisco R. Rodríguez, offers some intriguing answers. Pointedly departing from much of the current research (and political discussion) on Venezuela, which focuses on the 14-year presidency (1999–2013) of late President Hugo Chávez, the editors have assembled a distinguished group of experts with the aim not only of exploring, as they put it, the “enigma” of Venezuela's pre-Chávez collapse, but to explain why some countries go through such turbulence. The unexpected outcomes in Venezuela are used by the authors to challenge hypotheses that rely on big data analysis to explain economic collapse. While the explanation behind Chávez' rise to power may draw attention, as Venezuela continues to be rocked by internal conflict following his death, it is the book's second aim that makes it stand out as an important work of scholarship.
Topic:
Economics and Government
Political Geography:
United States

31. Global Poverty Amid Global Plenty: Getting Globalization Right

Author:
Dani Rodrik
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
To lift their people out of poverty, nations need to enter the global economy.
Topic:
Economics, Education, and Government
Political Geography:
Japan, China, and Asia

32. Social Exclusion and Political Change

Author:
Hauke Hartmann and Daniel Schraad-Tischler
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
When do inequality and economic frustration erupt into political turmoil?
Topic:
Economics and Politics
Political Geography:
Russia, Bahrain, and Slovakia

33. A Matter of Transparency: The Top One Percent in the Americas

Author:
Nora Lustig
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
It's time to measure the income share of Latin America's super-rich.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
United States, Canada, Argentina, and Latin America

34. The Dream Deferred

Author:
Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Children are the unwitting victims of exclusionary policies toward immigrants. (video interview available)
Topic:
Security, Economics, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
America and Georgia

35. Political Representation, Policy Inclusion

Author:
Richard André, Ryan Berger, Nina Agrawal, and Wilda Escarfuller
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Do more Indigenous and Afro-descendant representatives in national congresses make a difference?
Topic:
Economics and Politics
Political Geography:
United States, Latin America, and Peru

36. The Hemisphere's Spaghetti Bowl of Free-Trade Agreements

Author:
José Raúl Perales
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
The hemisphere's free-trade agreements-and how to untangle them.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government
Political Geography:
Canada, Latin America, Caribbean, and Mexico

37. Generation Ni/Ni: Latin America's Lost Youth

Author:
José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
How does the region economically and politically reengage a generation?
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
Latin America and Caribbean

38. Race and Ethnicity by the Numbers

Author:
Judith A. Morrison
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Why smart policies require better data. (video interview available)
Topic:
Development and Economics
Political Geography:
America

39. The Digital Divide and Social Inclusion

Author:
Mark Warschauer
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
Wider access to computers in schools is no magic bullet.
Topic:
Economics and Communications
Political Geography:
America and Venezuela

40. The Next Step in Improving Equity: Tax Reform

Author:
Juan Pablo Jiménez and Isabel López Azcúnaga
Publication Date:
05-2012
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Americas Quarterly
Institution:
Council of the Americas
Abstract:
To continue improving economic equality, governments have to address their progressive and ineffective tax systems.
Topic:
Economics and Reform
Political Geography:
Latin America and Caribbean