Latin Americans work better with people they know. This dynamic is at the heart of Brazilian samba schools that compete in annual Carnival parades, and may provide solid input for office dynamics and productivity in private companies.
Tag: latin america
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Guatemalan Marimba
Some things never change. If you stay at the Posada de Don Rodrigo in Antigua, Guatemala, it looks like you will still be treated to the sound of a traditional marimba band, as I was 27 years ago.
SANTIAGO — China has been one of Latin America’s main trade partners in recent years, driving the engine of development in the region with a hungry demand for raw materials to help sustain the Asian giant’s growth. But the recent slowdown of China’s economy has been felt acutely in the economies of several Latin American […]
Despite negotiations, perhaps the Greek Prime Minister wants to lead his country toward a Latin American-style leftist populism, like Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.
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Extra! Panama Corruption Crisis Spreads
La Estrella de Panamá, June 16, 2015 A corruption scandal involving high-level politicians in Panama is spreading, now implicating members of the administration of current President Juan Carlos Varela. Luis Cucalón, former finance minister under previous President Ricardo Martinelli, had already been charged with misusing state funds intended for a private tax collection agency. But […]
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Pineapple Express
In Brazil, you can buy delicious pineapples at roadside stalls pretty much everywhere. And we did.
The toppling of two Christopher Columbus statues in Buenos Aires suggests the president’s sympathies with the continent’s indigenous movements. It’s another of the government’s “confused” reinterpre
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Look Again
This monkey, which looks like it was scrawled on a cave wall, is actually a 300-foot-long geoglyph of unknown origin, seen from a plane in Peru’s Nazca Desert.
Latin America is starting to measure happiness or “well-being” levels to gauge social trends and set public policy. Surprising results in Cali, Colombia.
Despite serious financial difficulties, Argentina is negotiating major arms purchases from Russia. Relations with the U.S., in the meantime, have gone from bad to worse.
In countries that once invested in free public university systems, higher education is increasingly becoming an investment option turned over to the private sector. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
Argentina may be at the forefront of high-tech farming, but a growing number of the country’s urban dwellers want food produced by organic, local farmers.
The best-selling novelist is adored by ordinary Chileans (and millions of readers worldwide) but has been shunned by the cultural elite of her native country. She is not the first successful person to get such treatment.
Like with the 18th century Andean silver route for Spain, Argentina has become a short cut for sending Peruvian and Bolivian cocaine to Europe. It’s also a customer.
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Part-Time Guard
They may look dignified and dedicated, but it seems that the guards of Quito’s Carondelet Palace, in the city’s centro histórico, are not doing a very good job: Over the years, the presidential palace has been looted several times.
China’s investments and loans in Latin America ensure the flow of raw matericals to China and products back to the American continent. The lender has the long view in this formula.
Leonardo Boff, a Catholic theologian and key figure of Liberation theology, was condemned for decades by the Vatican. Now, he says, the pope himself is going beyond Liberation teachings.
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Bahia Before Bertrand
In the early 1990s, Salvador began to clean up and restore its historical center Pelourinho. My grandson and partner-in-crime for this series was there last year on his honeymoon, and found it a bit too touristy. But back when I was there as the restoration began, it was nothing more and nothing less than one […]
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El Capitan Del Titicaca
Lake Titicaca is located on the border of Peru and Bolivia. I’ve already shown you what the Peruvian side looks like, so this is me standing on the Bolivian shore of the lake — for once in front of the camera and not behind it.
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Down By The River
Same brand, different technique: These Ecuadorian women were washing their clothes using Ariel, a brand of laundry detergent popular both in Latin America and Europe. Their washing machine was just slightly bigger than ours — the Ambato River, a stream that ultimately empties into the Atlantic Ocean via the Amazon.
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Quito Contrasts
Quito’s old market takes place right in front of the presidential palace, in the city’s centro histórico. It’s this colorful jumble of rowdy, narrow streets and dignified colonial buildings that makes the Ecuadoran capital one of the most beautiful Latin American cities.
Carmen Tulia Ortega recently came face-to-face with a former paramilitary chief responsible for some of the deaths of her loved ones. No, she did not forgive him.
Leaders in Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil refuse to face the reality that the days of easy money are over, and the time is now for real reform.
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Big Bay, Small Statue
We once spent a month in Brazil, which allowed us to see many areas of different cities — including, here, Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro. On top of the highest mountain in the photo is the tiny statue of Christ the Redeemer. It is actually about 30 meters high, which gives you a fair […]
BARRANQUILLA — A four-year-old boy died this week in the northern Colombian city of Barranquilla after he was run over by a taxi, which was being driven by a 12-year-old. The victim had been in intensive care for several days before being pronounced dead on April 5, Colombia’s El Espectador reports, citing local newspapers. The […]
Restrictive U.S. entry requirements deprive talented people of work opportunity but also drag down the competitiveness across the Americas.
Looking at the heirs of Latin America’s major business families, it is the best and worst of times – but it’s just about time for them to take charge.
SANTIAGO – Latin America has a long and checkered history of technological innovation spreading with the confusion and occasional lawlessness of the Wild West. This is particularly troubling now with the spread of drone technology, as more and more of the unmanned craft are hovering around the region with no regulations to speak of. In […]
-Op-Ed- MEXICO CITY — I am no energy specialist, but after reading and listening to experts in recent months, I have learned about the fundamental requirements that should drive any major energy-sector reform. Can smart energy policy become the most powerful platform for Mexico’s economic growth? Ramón Espinosa, an analyst at the Inter-American Development Bank […]
-Editorial- SANTIAGO — What’s happening in the United States, with the partial federal government shutdown and the threat not to raise the country’s debt limit, is perhaps the most serious political crisis the country has seen in more than 100 years. There are those who downplay these developments, because the government has been shuttered before […]
Despite the high profile women presidents of Brazil and Argentina, the fairer sex is notably underrepresented in cabinet positions across Latin American governments.
Brazil is filled with young people wrapped in the flags of their different countries — but mostly South American. Pope Francis meets his flock at the World Youth Day event.
BUENOS AIRES – Washington’s blatent public pressure to keep Edward Snowden from obtaining political asylum has fed a new wave of anti-Americanism worldwide. It also represents a test for the United States’ bilateral relations with several countries, including Russia and those in its own “backyard.” What explains the willingness of Barack Obama’s government to pay […]
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.
BUENOS AIRES – Last month, at the magnificent Palacio de Aguas Corrientes (“Palace of Flowing Waters“) in Buenos Aires, representatives from 12 Latin American countries came together to discuss something so basic, and so vital. How can we work together in our region to make best use of that priceless resource: water? I had the […]
Brazil is just the latest, though largest, recent example of a Latin American country that has seen grassroots movements catch fire from below.
AMERICA ECONOMIA (Chile) 

 Worldcrunch SANTIAGO – The rapid expansion of large Latin American companies is pushing up demand for private airplanes and helicopters like never before. The reasons are simple – these companies want the speed, flexibility and autonomy that private air transport provides. The only problem: There are not enough pilots, America Economia […]
-Analysis- VATICAN CITY – As it turned out, there was a hidden candidate right there in front of us. This explains the rapidity of the conclave, which was almost as fast as the one that elected Joseph Ratzinger eight years ago. When he took the floor last week during the pre-conclave General Congregation meetings, sources […]