Worldcrunch
SANTIAGO – Between reforestation and afforestation, 100,000 hectares are planted in Chile on average every year – 160 million new trees. Reforestation is the restocking of forests that have been depleted, while afforestation is the establishment of new forests. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Chile and Uruguay are the only South […]
Protests with similar roots continue in Brazil and Chile, two nations that might seem from the outside to be primed to enjoy their respective economic and democratic expansions.
A newly unearthed trove of documents linked to the reign of Augusto Pinochet reveals the regime’s obsession with controlling its youngest members. Some parents even reported on students.
Brazil is just the latest, though largest, recent example of a Latin American country that has seen grassroots movements catch fire from below.
SANTIAGO – We know that Chilean writer and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) was a serious gourmet – something that his considerable girth attested to. So it’s no surprise if among his many poems there’s also an Ode to Conger Chowder. The conger – a giant eel called congrio in Chile – […]
-Editorial- SANTIAGO – If we based our knowledge of Latin America on Amnesty International’s latest global human rights report, we would believe that there is no real justice in the region, violence is on the rise, police regular torture citizens, that there are multiple attempts to exterminate indigenous groups, and organized crime is gaining ground. […]
Monday, June 2, 2014 BATTLE AROUND LUHANSKAt least five separatists were killed after hundreds attacked a border post with automatic weapons in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk near the Russian border. According to the AP, seven Ukrainian troops were also injured in the early morning attack. The news agency also quotes the spokesman for […]
CAVIAHUE – In this ghost town, the houses are empty and windows are boarded shut. The red foxes and cauquenes geese are in hiding and no condors circle the sky above. Since last week, there has been no movement in Caviahue, southwestern Argentina, aside from the tremors of the nearby Copahue volcano, spewing gas. Even […]
SAN JUAN BAUTISTA – For days, Teresa Maldonado has only had bad news for waiting passengers. “No room on the plane today! We’ve got to fly the lobsters out!” Showing the lady a valid ticket issued by the plane company does not help. The lobsters have priority; they have to get to Santiago alive. Nobody […]
And why I won’t be coming back…
-Editorial- SANTIAGO – The month of April brought some very good news for supporters of gay marriage, and one piece of bad news. The best news in Latin America came from Uruguay, where the Chamber of Deputies gave same-sex couples the right to marry by the overwhelming majority of 71 to 21, topped off by […]
PUNTA PIRULIL – You probably couldn’t live any further west than Don Orlando does. He lives in Punta Pirulil on the western edge of the green island of Chiloé, off the coast of Chile. In his book In Patagonia, British writer Bruce Chatwin (1940-1989) described Chiloé as an island of “black storms and black soil.” […]
STANDOFF CONTINUES IN EAST UKRAINE An ultimatum from acting Ukrainian President Olexandr Turchynov expired this morning, ignored by pro-Russian protesters who have been occupying state buildings in several East Ukrainian cities, increasing fears of further escalation in the region, the BBC reports. Although they were urged to lay down their weapons, armed protesters in Gorlovka […]
ESPRESSO (Italy); BBC, THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENDENT (UK) Worldcrunch LONDON – Whistleblowing website WikiLeaks is back making worldwide waves, publishing 1.7 million United States government records, covering diplomatic and intelligence reports on virtually every country in the world on Monday morning. The vast collection spans from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1976, […]
UKRAINE READY TO NEGOTIATE WITH RUSSIAUkrainian Interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk told investors at a conference this morning that the government “would like to hold negotiations on Ukrainian-Russian relations and we think that our foreign ministers should meet as soon as possible,” Voice of Russia reports. He named bilateral trade and energy as topics that […]
SANTIAGO – On January 16th a Boeing 787 Dreamliner from All Nippon Airlines (ANA) was forced to perform an emergency landing in a regional airport after smoke was detected in the electric compartment. This was the fourth incident in less than a month for one of the world’s most state-of-the-art aircrafts. Dreamliner had represented a […]
The death of Hugo Chavez, who propped up Venezuela with oil profits, is another reminder that Latin America needs to look for economic development beyond natural resources.
SANTIAGO – José came to Santiago, from Cali, Colombia five months ago. Some acquaintances in his hometown had put him in contact with Carlos, another Colombian who has been working in a cell phone store in the Chilean capital for the past year. Now José has joined Carlos as a salesperson in the store, where […]
LA NACION, CLARIN (Argentina) Worldcrunch VIÑA DEL MAR – The Chilean government has called an investigation to identify and sanction marines caught on tape chanting “Argentines I will kill, Bolivians I will shoot, Peruvians I will cut their throats.” About 30 marine cadets from the Naval Polytechnic Academy were filmed chanting their offensive song as […]
SANTIAGO – The recent decision of the U.S. Justice department to block the acquisition of Mexican beer giant Grupo Modelo by the Belgian Anheuser-Busch InBev came as a surprise. The $20 billion acquisition was announced last June, and what’s surprising is that neither company involved is technically an American company. Belgium-based multinational AB InBev is […]
The Occupy Movement began on Wall Street by the so-called 99% shut out from economic growth. But Latin America’s income gap mirrors the U.S. In Chile, it is particularly extreme.
-Editorial- SANTIAGO – In the morning on Jan. 4 in Araucania, a region in southern Chile where the Mapuche people live, a group of masked men attacked and set fire to the house of a local landowner and farmer who had spent years litigating with indigenous groups. The landowner, Werner Luchsinger and his wife were […]
PUNTA ARENAS – The first image that you see when you arrive at the edge of the American continent is intense, almost vehement. It is rays of light that pierce the clouds and give the whole landscape a glow. That was just the beginning of our Patagonian journey on the Stella Australis cruise ship. Our […]
SANTIAGO – In early November, a group of delegates from Latin America and Britain, all part of the British American Tobacco multinational, gathered in Rio de Janeiro. The company said it was a routine meeting, and offered few details. The one thing we can know for sure is that if any of them smoked, they […]
-Analysis- SANTIAGO – After presenting their closing arguments, Peru and Chile are now awaiting the verdict of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on a maritime border dispute dating back to the 1980s. While the verdict is not expected for several months, how both countries respond to the ruling when it is […]
SANTIAGO – “The visible web is the tip of the iceberg,” says Anand Rajaraman, co-founder of Kosmix, a search engine for the Deep Web (DW). One of Kosmix’ investors is none other than Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. The iceberg sounds daunting, but Rajaraman seems to know what he’s talking about. How is it possible […]
SANTIAGO – Some time ago, Derek Mossman went to a New York restaurant and asked if they served any Chilean wines. The waiter answered: “No sir, this is a nice restaurant and we only serve good wines.” Mossman is the owners of Garage Wine Co, a Chilean winery. He was in the United States promoting […]
-Essay- SANTIAGO – As recent nationwide municipal elections proved once again, there’s never a shortage of surprises when it comes to politics in my country. The elections were a real blow to the rightist government of President Sebastián Piñera, a businessman who three years ago displaced the center-left Concertacion coalition that had led Chile since […]
CLARIN (Argentina) EL COMERCIO (Peru) PUBLIMETRO.CL (CHILE) SANTIAGO – A new breast cancer awareness campaign has been quickening pulses in Chile. The mildly erotic video called “For The Love Of Tits,” is an appeal to men to encourage their loved ones to get regular breast exams and to do self-exams. The video features short vignettes […]
-Op Ed- SANTIAGO – The most urgent problem for the second term of President Barack Obama or the first term of President Mitt Romney will be a problem that neither of them created. We are talking about the cryptically dubbed ‘fiscal cliff,’ which, if it is not solved, will push the United States into another […]
SANTIAGO – It’s July of 1990, and the two Germany’s have just united, marking the end of the Cold War, and capped with West Germany’s soccer World Cup victory over Argentina. As the images of the defeated players travelled the world (who can forget Diego Maradona’s tears?), in New York, a Latin American company was […]
SANTIAGO – The U.S. Federal Reserve’s recently announced stimulus package, designed to strengthen the American economy, offered a clear reminder of the huge gap that exists today between Mexico and the rest of Latin America. While Mexico enthusiastically applauded the Fed’s decision to begin pumping $40 billion per month into the U.S. economy through the […]
AMERICA ECONOMIA (Chile) SANTIAGO – With the World Cup coming to South America in 2014, the soccer-crazed continent is already worrying who will qualify, and who will be forced to stay at home and watch the others soak up the glory. Well, if you are an Argentinian, Chilean, or Uruguayan, your team is going to […]
SANTIAGO – In 2009, the European Union agreed to gradually prohibit classic incandescent light bulbs, finishing the process in September 2012. The idea is to replace them with energy efficient light bulbs and kick start sales of green products. At the same time, Argentina was much more radical – at the beginning of 2011 the […]
AMÉRICA ECONOMÌA, THE SANTIAGO TIMES (Chile) Worldcrunch SANTIAGO – A total of 139 people, most of whom were students, were arrested during the eviction of three schools in the center of Santiago, the local Chief of Police Victor Tapia told América Economìa. The three schools (Darío Salas School, Miguel de Cervantes and Confederación Suiza School) […]
LA TERCERA (Chile) SANTIAGO – Emergency workers in Chile have pulled off another daring mine rescue, lifting two men to safety early Wednesday morning from a partially collapsed coal pit in the town of Colonel. The rescue comes nearly two years after the world was captivated by the drama of Chile’s “los 33,” a group […]
LA TERCERA (Chile) SANTIAGO – A “fake chef” in Chile has been accused of conning his way into numerous restaurant and café jobs with a souped-up resume, and then robbing his employers. Police say the 28-year-old man, indentified as Jorge Sepúlveda Salazar, used a bogus resume to land jobs throughout the South American country, La […]
EL MERCURIO (Chile) SANTIAGO – In the heart of Providencia, a populous middle-class district of Santiago, you might find yourself walking along Avenida 11 de Septiembre. Of course, anyone familiar with modern Chilean history knows that street commemorates “the other 9-11,” the military coup of Sept. 11, 1973 that toppled Chile’s democratically elected Marxist president […]
EL MERCURIO (Chile) SANTIAGO – A pair of farm workers in northern Chile died Wednesday after being attacked by a raging bull that was captured – several hours later – with the help of a bulldozer. “After its capture the bull was killed,” El Mercurio Online reported. “According to witnesses, its furious reaction could have […]