Military dictatorships in most Latin American countries during the 1970s suppressed the population, but out of it grew a movement that remains strong. People who were typically voiceless, began to use walls as a microphone for their political and social expressions. While street art is not always politically linked, the movement grew from the need to not be silenced anymore.
With the late-summer release of Netflix’s new hit series, “Narcos,” which documents the rise of Pablo Escobar and his position as one of the most powerful men in Colombia, as well as one of the richest men in the world, the former drug lord has reemerged as a hot topic in American popular culture nearly 22 years after his death. This is not the first time, though, that Escobar’s life has been dramatized for either film or television.
The recent impeachment scandal occurring in Brazil stemming from President Dilma’s alleged involvement in the Lava-Jato scandal has resurrected stories from past impeachment scandals around Latin America.
A crime normally associated with countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, acid attacks have been on the rise in Colombia. In 2014, more than 100 cases were reported, with nearly 1,000 reported in the past decade. According to executive director of the Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI), a nonprofit group in London, per capita Colombia has one of the highest rates of acid attacks in the world.
It is no secret that the armed conflict in Colombia with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent civilians during its more-than-50 year lifespan. The numbers are staggering, as more than 220,000 people have been killed, 80 percent of whom were civilians, 150,000 people have been displaced each year since 1985, and more than 63,000 people have been officially reported as missing.
In 2013, I authored what turned out to be the most read paper in the Journal of Politics in Latin America. It was a case study of the overlaps between the Water Regulatory Commission (CRA) and the Constitutional Court of Colombia. Regulatory issues are not the sexiest of topics in Latin American politics.
In 2013, I authored what turned out to be the most read paper in the Journal of Politics in Latin America. It was a case study of the overlaps between the Water Regulatory Commission (CRA) and the Constitutional Court of Colombia. Regulatory issues are not the sexiest of topics in Latin American politics.
In the last few decades, many countries have enfranchised their emigrant populations. Voting from abroad is not new, but was historically reserved for diplomats or military personnel. However, starting in the 1990s, parallel to a growth in international migration, an increasing number of countries enacted laws allowing expatriates to participate in some fashion in the electoral process. Twelve Latin American nations have enacted these rights. Colombia (1962) was the first country in Latin America, and the second in the world, after Indonesia (1953), to extend suffrage to emigrants.
