Latin America in the News (February 5, 2020)

Over the past few days, 47 people have died, 4 are missing and 18,000 people have been forced to flee from their homes because of severe weather. In the state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, landslides and floods have caused environmental and humanitarian damages. The power of the water in some areas has been so damaging that it caused pavement to explode, creating geysers.

These rains have been damaging particularly to the mining industry as it has caused flooding and threatened collapses. It has also been especially damaging to those living in poverty. There has been a housing deficit in the area which cause many to build homes on dangerous slopes which were wiped out by landslides. The Governor of Minas Gerais states that in the future they hope to prevent this from happening by enacting housing policy that will build homes in safe neighborhoods.

The deaths from the rain, floods and landslides is tragic and the reasoning for them is scary. José Carlos Carvalho, a former environment minister said that these severe rains are a clear sign of climate change stating “The first signs of climate change are extreme events,” he said. “There is a transformation of our climate pattern.” This is some of the first evidence of a change in climate patterns which means that these rains and their effects such as flooding and landslides could get worse over time putting more people and places in danger.

I was not aware of the powerful storms and their effects until I started doing research for this project and I think that is very telling of the media attention that this issue and many other issues in Latin America. A former environmental minister said that these rains and the deaths that have occurred because of them are direct consequences of climate change. The fact that this story has been under reported is scary for those reasons. People should be aware of the changes in weather due to climate change and the disasters it can cause.

At first, I wasn’t quite sure how to connect this event to class but the article stated that mines and miners are especially at risk because the landslides could collapse the mines putting people’s lives and livelihoods in danger. Mining began in Brazil in the colonial era, in fact the state Minas Gerais where this tragedy is happening literally means “General mines”. The Portuguese began mining in Brazil in the 1700s, collecting almost 180 tons of gold during that century alone. There are still a lot of mines in the region which shows a colonial legacy through industry.

The introduction of mining  by the Portuguese did not just create an economic legacy in Brazil but also an environmental impact. Mines create many environmental issues but the ones that relate to this issue are landscape degradation and erosion. These make the landscape less secure which makes landslides and flooding even more severe because the land is not as stable as it should be.

Bibliography:

Andereoni, Manuela and Letíca Casado. “Powerful Storm Kills 47 in Brazil.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 Jan. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/world/americas/brazil-flood.html.

Other Links:

A video by a Brazilian News Source that shows examples of the flooding and geysers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV7OCyIr7vI

A history of the Brazil mining industry

https://brazilian.report/business/2018/08/20/brazil-mining-industry/

 

 

Latin America in the News (January 31, 2020)

 

Brazil’s far-right government has implemented a new program in an effort to combat the country’s high pregnancy rate and H.I.V. infections: abstinence. Damares Alves, the minister of human rights and family and women, is behind the new policy change. The new policy is a collaboration between Ms. Alves and a group of evangelical pastors. This change has sparked heated debates about reproductive rights and sex education in Brazil. The government’s new stance on abstinence closes the gap between church and state. It also leaves teen less informed, which could led to them making poor decisions about sex.

Sex and sexuality was a huge theme in the recent presidential campaign. President Jair Bolsonaro has accused his leftist opponents of trying to encourage teens to have sex and promoting homosexuality. Evangelical voters are among the presidents strongest supports. The country’s teenage pregnancy rate has always been high, and is now around 62 per 1,000 births. But it used to be much higher, and the government’s new abstinence program could undermine this progress. Furthermore, H.I.V. is also spreading at an alarming rate in the country. The new policy would not have much effect in stopping its spread. The new abstinence policy might resonate with evangelical teens, but will most likely be ignored by most. Ms. Alves says the new policy will work with, not replace, existing ones. In defense of the program she sited similar campaigns in the United States, that she said had been effective. Her claim about the effectiveness of these programs is largely untrue, occurring to studies. At the same time sex education and reproductive rights are being restricted in Brazil. The government has pushed to ban access to sites that provide information about reproductive health and abortion. The restriction of this information could be harmful.

The article portrays two extremes in the country’s debate over sex and sexuality. The high rate of teen pregnancy is contrasted with the more conservative evangelical stance of abstinence. While teen births rate are high in Brazil, showing the middle ground would have produced a more well rounded picture of the country. This might have curbed the article’s tendency of portraying Brazil as an incredibly polar society. This could have been done by addressing policies that are already in place, and policies that the public would like to see be implemented.

The clear connection that connections the article back to the themes of class is the separation of church and state, or lack of separation. The Catholic church and evangelical Christians have been a large part of Latin American history. Similar to other Latin American countries the catholic church is deeply embedded in Brazil’s culture and institutions. Since the Portuguese colonization and with that the arrival of the Church, Catholicism has remained dominant in the region. Even with the countries attempts secularization, the catholic church continues to play an important role in the lives of Brazilians. The debate now regarding sex education and reproductive health has sparked recent concern over the separation between church and state. The emphasis on sex and sexuality in the recent presidential campaign means that this is a deeply important issue in the country. It is likely that there will be continuing debates on the subject, especially when the health on safety of million in the country will be affected.

 

Bibliography

Londoño, Ernesto, and Letícia Casado. “Brazil Under Bolsonaro Has Message for Teenagers: Save Sex for Marriage.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 Jan. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/world/americas/brazil-teen-pregnancy-Bolsonaro.html.

“The Catholic Church in Brazil.” Religious Literacy Project, rlp.hds.harvard.edu/faq/catholic-church-brazil.

Additional articles

Ms. Alves’s essay on her recent abstinence policy:

https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/opiniao/2020/01/abstinencia-ou-autonomia.shtml

New York Times article on gay marriage in Brazil:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/29/world/americas/brazil-bolsonaro-gay-marriage.html

Latin America in the News (January 29, 2020)

Although Russian meddling in the U.S. election is a popular topic covered by U.S. media, Russian influence campaigns in other countries and regions are covered less frequently in the mainstream media. However, this recent New York Times article, “As Protests in South America Surged, So Did Russian Trolls on Twitter, U.S. Finds,” sheds light on the extent of Russian social media campaigns in Latin America. The U.S. State Department routinely monitors social media worldwide, especially Twitter, to watch for evidence of malicious activities sponsored by foreign governments with the purpose to influence public opinion. In the case of Latin America, accounts flagged by the State Department as being backed by the Russian government have ramped up efforts to sow dissent and confusion throughout this past fall as protests have erupted across many of the countries in the region. Specifically, most of the tweets are aimed at increasing support for the Maduro government in Venezuela, which is funded in part by Russian oil and backed politically by the Russian government, in states where many people have demanded Maduro’s resignation. The United States along with a coalition of over 50 other states have backed Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader in Venezuela, and have imposed sanctions on the Maduro regime. Therefore, Russian meddling in the region appears to be specifically aimed at disrupting the support and influence in Venezuela and Latin America overall of the U.S. and its allies.

The article went on to provide evidence of the Russian Twitter campaigns beyond just Venezuela, stating that almost 10% of all tweets in Chile supporting the protests last fall came from Twitter accounts flagged by the U.S. State Department as having a “high certainty of being linked to Russia” (Jakes). Furthermore, in Bolivia, in the period before and after President Morales resigned, tweets about Bolivia in the Russian Twitter network surged from about five per day to over a thousand. While these campaigns are not necessarily related to Russian interests in Venezuela, they are still working to increase Russian influence in Latin America by trying to garner support for Russian-backed governments in the region. Besides Twitter, the Spanish-language branches of Russian news organizations such as RT Español and Sputnik Mundo have been accused of spreading “disinformation, conspiracy theories, and in some cases, outright falsehoods” in order to garner support for Russian-backed causes (Jakes).

The Russian foreign minister has denied any government involvement in the Twitter campaigns. Plus, even the general public in Chile was skeptical of how much foreign involvement could be influencing protests after the Chilean government released a report citing foreign actors as playing a “leading role” in inciting protests (Jakes). Furthermore, it is also still unclear how effective these Russian Twitter campaigns have been in changing public opinion to support Russian-backed causes. The State Department was unable to concretely prove that these Twitter accounts were directly backed by the Russian government, instead describing them as “likely linked to the Russian state” (Jakes). Even with the pushback against the State Department’s claims, however, this remains an incredibly important geopolitical issue, highlighting the continued influence of post-Cold War U.S.-Russian relations across the world and the growing prevalence of Russian meddling in states’ internal affairs through the use of social media.

This article does a good job of showing Latin America not as a region apart from the rest of the world but as one intricately connected. Additionally, it shows just how much influence the major powers still have or try to have in the region even though we are theoretically living in a post-colonial, post-Cold War society. This article does still fall into the trope of depicting Latin American states as unstable and susceptible to outside control, but this is necessary to provide the background knowledge on why Russian influence campaigns are suddenly so abundant in the region.

This also relates to the themes we’ve been discussing in the class. Chasteen discusses in Ch. 5 how, since the end of the independence movements in Latin America, governments in the area have often been unstable and tend to be overturned quickly, which is still continuing to occur today. This article also ties back into the major themes of nationalism versus liberalism in Latin American politics. There has been conflict since the end of colonization about whether countries should strive for the support of outside actors like the U.S. and other world powers or remain focused internally for growth and support. The effect of these two ideologies can still be seen in the way that countries like Venezuela have partnered closely with Russia while others are trying to avoid external influence on national politics.

The article by Jeifets, Khadorich, and Leksyutina helps to further explain why Russia is working so hard to garner Latin American support right now. The authors explain how, after the West imposed sanctions on Russia for their actions in Ukraine, Russia has focused heavily on finding new trade opportunities outside of Europe. Of relations with Latin American states, Russian-Venezuelan relations have historically been the strongest due to their heavy reliance on oil as a key export. In return for diplomatic support for Russian foreign policy with Ukraine, Crimea, and Georgia, Russia has also supported and helped fund the Venezuelan military. With the global dip in oil prices, however, and the continued rise of China in Latin America, Russia appears to be starting to lose its influence in Venezuela and in Latin America as a whole, leading towards its new strategy of social media meddling.

 

References:

Chasteen, John Charles. Born in Blood & Fire: a Concise History of Latin America. 4th ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.

Jakes, Lara. “As Protests in South America Surged, So Did Russian Trolls on Twitter, U.S. Finds.” The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/19/us/politics/south-america-russian-twitter.html?searchResultPosition=2

Jeifets, Victor, et al. “Russia and Latin America: Renewal versus Continuity.” Portuguese Journal of Science, vol. 17, no. 2, 2018, pp. 213–228., http://content.ebscohost.com/ContentServer.asp?T=P&P=AN&K=132485541&S=R&D=aph&EbscoContent=dGJyMMvl7ESeqLU4yNfsOLCmsEieqLFSsK64SrCWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGqsEyxqbNRuePfgeyx44Dt6fIA.

 

January 25, 2020 Latin America in the News

Latin American nations hold some of the highest income inequality indexes in the world. Chile, has the highest income inequality gap of Western Democracies. This article attempts to dissect the deeply rooted issues that have produced the massive mobilization protests at the end of 2019. The article cites an increase in bus fares as the cause for the massive protests. Protestors argue that the increase in subway fares was the final straw. Despite the economic stability at the macro-economic level, Chilean wages are simply not enough to cover the high cost of living.

A possible explanation for the rising discontent in the Andean country can be attributed to the economic model established during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Chileans have been consistently sold the capitalist Neo-liberal model. This model emphasizes the production and exportation of raw materials. The continuous extraction of raw materials has damaged various regions of the country, leaving them as “sacrificial zones”, usually relocating indigenous or low income communities. While there is an increase of jobs, under this model, most jobs are temporary. This has all been allowed by the government that still adheres to the constitution established during the dictatorship, as one of the conditions for the transition to democracy. Neo-liberalism allows the rich to get richer, and the poor to remain poor.

This article embodies some of the ideas presented in Chasteen’s book, Born in Blood and Fire. To some extent, a caste system looms over Latin America. While it is not legal or tangible, it remains implied within the social context. Born in Blood and Fire highlights the consequences of discontent in Latin America during the colonial and revolutionary periods, however, several centuries forward, economic issues continue to plague Latin American countries. During the colonial period in Latin America, the amount of wealth owned by individuals ultimately decided a certain lifestyle they could afford to live and it remains the same way today.

 

Scholars are now using Chile as a case study to focus on the longterm internal effects of Neo-liberalism. In Camila Jara’s, “Democratic Legitimacy under Strain? Declining Political Support and Mass Demonstrations in Chile” is an example of scholarly work that critiques this economic system “supported” by democracy. This article examines in depth how Chileans disapprove of the current economic and political systems despite the image of functioning democracy in the Andean country. In this study, over the decades since the transition to democracy, Chileans find their political institutions as unfavorable. Many studies are now covering the long term effects of Chilean Neo-liberalism.

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References:

 

Jara, Camila. “Democratic Legitimacy under Strain? Declining Political Support and Mass Demonstrations in Chile.” Revista Europea De Estudios Latinoamericanos Y Del Caribe / European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, no. 97 (2014): 25-50. Accessed January 25, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/23972438.

 

Cortés, A. (2020, January 23). The Chilean October: neoliberalism was born and will die in Chile? Retrieved January 25, 2020, from https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/el-octubre-chileno-el-neoliberalismo-nace-y-muere-en-chile-en/