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Note from the Editor - Castro's Quiet Exit
Rachel Schmidt
Judging by the worldwide media frenzy last month, paired with a relative indifference in Cuba, journalists seemed to be more worked up about Castro’s retirement than Cubans themselves. In Miami, for example, a few hours after the announcement, eager reporters far outnumbered the mostly apathetic Cuban-Americans in local cafés. Similarly, the news was met with diffident shrugs by many Cuban affairs analysts. Despite the global attention on the issue, Castro’s resignation was certainly not a surprise. But that does not mean Canada cannot play an effective role in the country’s ongoing transformation.
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Youth Employment Strategies: Developing Human Capital in Brazil
Jenna-Dawn Shervill
Unemployment, informality and inactivity threaten the future of nearly 106 million young people in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), severely limiting the region’s economic potential and ability to fight poverty. According to the 2007 International Labour Organization (ILO) report entitled “Decent Work and Youth in Latin America,” not only do young people in LAC face an unemployment rate almost three times higher than that of adults, but they also represent 46 per cent of total unemployment. Even when a young person has an occupation, it is much more likely to be irregular and more precarious than that of an adult, a condition that affects two out of every three young workers in LAC. These trends are not showing signs of improvement, as youth unemployment rates are higher today than they were in the 1990s.
The Ironies of Colombia Free Trade
Joachim Bamrud
In what has to be one of the major ironies of today, Colombia is still waiting for the U.S. congress to pass a free trade agreement reached two years ago. Despite an all-out campaign from the Bush Administration to get the accord passed, there is no indication that it will happen any time soon, thanks to solid opposition from key Democrats like Senator Hillary Clinton, one of the two candidates for her party’s presidential nomination.
Costa Rica: Development at a Crossroads
Peter Krupa
To spot the signs of globalization in Costa Rica, just take a long drive. The Inter-American Highway, which winds south from Nicaragua through the country’s arid Guanacaste province, passes hundreds of thousands of hectares of citrus orchards, pineapple fields, and sugar cane plantations, all producing for the export market.
Good “Politics,” Bad Policy:
Washington’s Approach to Latin America
Adam Isacson
Latin America doesn’t get a lot of attention in Washington. There are only a handful of “think tanks” and experts focused on the region. Only a tiny group of Congress-people pays attention to what is happening in the rest of the hemisphere. The U.S. Southern Command and the regional bureaus at the State Department and intelligence agencies are smaller than those for nearly every other region (Africa excepted).
Advancing the Rights of Migrant Women
Barb MacLaren interviews Tanya Basok
Tanya Basok, author of Tomatoes and Tortillas, recently gained the interest of 15 researchers from six different countries in examining migration in Latin America and the Caribbean – this time from a woman’s perspective. The project explores ways of advancing the rights of female migrants and will include case studies from Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. FOCAL’s Barb MacLaren conducted an interview with Dr. Basok and her colleagues, Dr. Nicola Piper and Dr. Claudia Mora to learn more about the project.
Shifting Political Identities:
Gender Roles in Venezuela’s ‘New’ Citizenship
Jennifer Peirce
Amid heavy media coverage of the violent street protests and accusations that surrounded the December 2, 2007 referendum on reforms to Venezuela’s Constitution, its impact on women’s rights and activism went largely unnoticed. Mobilization efforts on both sides of the campaign created some strains among women’s groups, who for many years have maintained a flexible, issue-based coalition that crosses party and ideological divides. These debates point to some of the complexities of feminist activism within the “Bolivarian Revolution,” which Chávez has called “the first revolutionary process in the world in which the rights of women are neither postponed nor relegated.” Indeed, “21st Century socialism” has shifted the ground for feminist advocates, but changing entrenched hierarchies remains an uphill struggle.
High Noon at the Orinoco River:
Venezuela and Exxon-Mobil
Luis A. Pacheco
Push finally came to shove in the conflict between the Venezuelan national oil company, PDVSA, and the giant multinational Exxon-Mobil, when the latter appealed to courts in New York and London to freeze PDVSA’s assets in February. This is just the latest chapter of a saga that started as a love affair and now appears to be heading for an acrimonious divorce.
Estrategias de empleo juvenil: El desarrollo del capital humano en Brasil
El desempleo, la informalidad y la inactividad amenazan el futuro de casi 106 millones de jóvenes en América Latina y el Caribe, limitando el potencial económico y la posibilidad de combatir la pobreza en la región. De acuerdo con el informe de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) de 2007 “Trabajo Decente y Juventud – América Latina”, los jóvenes de la región no sólo enfrentan una tasa de desempleo casi tres veces más alta de la de los adultos, sino también representan 46 por ciento del total del desempleo. Aún cuando un joven tiene una ocupación, suele ser más irregular y precaria comparada con las de los adultos, una condición que afecta a dos de cada tres trabajadores jóvenes en América Latina y el Caribe. Estas tendencias no dan muestras de mejora, ya que las tasas de desempleo juvenil son más altas hoy que en los años noventa.
News Briefs
- Venezuela and Ecuador Send Troops to Colombian Border
- Landslide Cuts Off Ecuador Pipeline
- Bolivian Police Officers Lynched by Mob
- Nuclear Energy-Sharing Deal Between Argentina and Brazil
- Cuba Signs Human Rights Agreements
Facts and Figures