It’s the world’s most vulnerable workforce, but many of Latin America’s fourteen million child workers are joining unions and fighting for better working conditions. Bolivia’s Union of Child and Adolescent Workers represents 15,000 workers aged 8-18.
Latin america
Ecuador survives an all-too-familiar Latin coup
September 30, 2010 will be remembered as a historic day in Latin American and Ecuadorian history. The twice-democratically-elected government has survived a coup d’état, but the pattern of force pervades the continent, writes Leo Codutti from Argentina.
When democracy smiles at me, I go to Rio
The biggest general election of 2010 takes place on Sunday when Brazil, the world’s fifth-largest country, elects its new president, congress, governors and state legislatures. Democracy works well in Brazil.
What are 30,000 Cuban advisers doing in Venezuela?
Anyone dismissing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez as just a wacky loudmouth does so at their own peril: he has imported 30,000 advisers from Cuba, $2b worth of weapons from Russia, and is doing big business with China. Is a socialist revolution brewing?
Mexico: the new front of the abortion wars
Two years after Mexico became the first Latin American country to legalise abortion, the issue is dividing communities and opinion, as the country’s very Catholic past battles with its increasingly liberal future.
Hugo Chavez: the new leader of the Latin American left
How an alliance between Cuba and Venezuela, formed 15 years ago in protest to an American free trade agreement, has grown into a $7 billion socialist trading partnership, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at its helm.
Honduran coup: take another look at Zelaya’s proposals
Had they come to fruition, the evil schemes of Zelaya (and, for that matter, Chavez) would have resulted in an electoral system rather like Australia’s.
Honduras gets ugly, time for another US decision
With gunshots and teargas, the military has successfully prevented the plane carrying the elected Honduran leader from landing.
Guy Rundle: Resistance grows in Honduras; US watches and waits
The arrest and exile of President Zelaya in Honduras takes on all the classic appurtenances of a latin american coup.
Honduras coup didn’t come from nowhere
For weeks, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya — an erratic leftist who styles himself after his good pal Hugo Chávez of Venezuela — has been engaged in a naked and illegal power grab, says Glenn Garvin.
Honduras: old-school coup or something new?
The kidnapping of Manuel Zelaya was like an old-fashioned Latin American coup d’etat, writes Richard Gott. But the rightwing supreme court and armed forces are claiming legitimacy. Who’s right?
Chavez rules the airwaves in Venezuela
Hugo Chavez wants to shut down Globovisión, the last remaining national channel in Venezuela that’s critical of the government. At the same time, the government has built itself a huge media empire.
Latin America: Obama’s next test
President Obama must tread lightly on the military overthrow of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. His call against “outside interference,” to respect national sovereignty is a good start.
Guy Rundle: And now for a central American coup!
Wow — talk about your nostalgia boom. First Jacko has everyone digging out Off The Wall. And now a central American coup!
Half empty or half full
They’re not a happy lot in Senegal. Fifty-three per cent of the population say 2008 will be worse than 2007, according to Gallup International’s Voice of the People End of the Year Survey.
