For this assignment, you are to read current news articles about Latin America from the website for the North American Congress of Latin America (NACLA) and submit two short reviews during the semester.  Please submit one review per due date. Each review is to be at least 3-4 pages and each due date corresponds to a regional topic in Latin America. The due dates for these reports are September 24 and October 22.  Here are the regional topics corresponding to each due date:

 

• September 24: Mexico, the Caribbean (Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, etc.); Border issues, U.S. foreign policy, immigration and Latinx communities; and Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, and Belize).

• October 22: South America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Venezuela)

 

Please submit your reports through Canvas in either of the following formats: doc, docx or PDF (if you are using Google Docs or Apple Pages to compose your review, please be sure to convert your paper to docx or PDF before submitting it). Late papers will be accepted for each submission,  but only for one week after the assigned due dates and will be assessed a full grade deduction. Please use both a title page and a works cited page (neither of these pages count toward your 3-4 pages of text). These 2 reports will count as a combined 20% toward your final grade. In your works cited page, compose your article entry in a format like this:

Christian Pettersen, "In Guatemala, Will Old Foreign Policies Bring New Results?," NACLA Report on the Americas website (August 3, 2021).

 

In terms of the content of each report, I am looking for two main points of discussion. First, you should devote the first half of the report to a summary of the main points in the article that you selected. To help you to address this issue, consider some of these questions: What is the main issue being discussed? (i.e. immigration, elections, education, environment, women's issues, crime, etc.) Who are the main personalities mentioned in the article? (i.e. Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, President Biden, Vice-President Harris, former President Trump, etc.) How does the issue affect the people of the country mentioned in the article? Does the issue have any connection with United States interests? What do you think could be the best solution to resolve this problem?

 

And for the second point of discussion, please analyze the article that you selected and present your point of view on the story. For example, how do you feel about the story? How did this article contribute to your understanding about modern Latin America? And what do you think about the author’s perspective on the article? How does this topic have any connection to contemporary political, economic or cultural themes in the United States today?  

Here is a list of articles from the NACLA website pertaining to regions for the September 24 due date. Everybody, just pick any one article from this list for your September 24 review.  You will repeat the same process for your review that is due October 22 on a South American nation. These articles range in date from February 2019 to August 2021:

Mexico, US Foreign Policy, Border Issues and Latinx Communities

Border Issues, Latinx Communities and US Foreign Policy:

• Abolish ICE! Fighting for Humanity over Profit in Immigration Policy (June 2019)

• An Immigration Courts Backlog Keeps Central American Youth in Legal Limbo (June 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• Biden’s New Immigration System Overlooks Mexican Refugees (June 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• Border Land, Border Water (Book Review) (July 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Border Shutdowns: State Violence and Psychological Warfare Performed (March 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Clouds at the Border: Threatened by the Wall (Sept. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Dismantling Anti-Blackness Together (June 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Exiliados, Refugiados, Desplazados: Children and Migration Across the Americas (Oct. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• From La Montaña, Guerrero to The Bronx: The Story of Victorio Hilario Guzmán (Jan. 2021)

• From Trump to Biden in Latin America (May 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Immigration Nation (Film Review)(Aug. 2020)

• Immigration Policy Must Look Beyond the Border (June 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• In a Washington State Prison, Latinos are Advocating for Mentorship and Education (Dec. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Informal Recyclers Fight for Survival in Gentrifying Brooklyn (Apr. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Latin American Immigrants in New York Face Covid-19 Crisis (Sept. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Life and Resistance for Migrant Families in the Rio Grande (Book Review) (June 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Local Paper Covers Pandemic’s Impact in Queens (June 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Magazuelans: How Venezuelan Americans Embraced Trump as Their Savior (Jan. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• Meeting Cubans 4 Trump (Oct. 2020)

• Migrant Networks in the Pandemic (July 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• On the Front Lines of Trump's Immigration War in the U.S. Heartland (July 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Reducing Migrants’ Lives to One Grisly Photograph (July 2019)

• Reopening Mass Influx Facilities Goes Against Biden Administration Promises (March 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Slow Burn, Humid Pitch: Cultivating Care While Livin’ La COVIDa Loca (Sept. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• The Case for Nuance in Immigrant Stories (Book Review) (Sept. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• The Deadly Reverberations of U.S. Border Policy (Book Review) (Jan. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• The Deportation Machine (Book Review) (Sept. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• The Opportunistic Border Logic of the Pandemic (May 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• The Origins of an Early School-to-Deportation Pipeline (Nov. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• The Stain that Mardi Gras Covers Up: Worker Vulnerability in New Orleans (Feb. 2020)

• They Are Concentration Camps—and They Are Also Prisons (June 2019)

• Undoing Trump-Era Policies is Not Enough to Transform the Immigration System (March 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• U.S. Asylum Law is a Biopolitical Crisis (Book Review) (June 2020)

• U.S. Policy Toward Central America Continues Legacy of Displacement (Apr. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• “What better function for art at this time than as a voice for the voiceless”: The Work of Chicano Artist Malaquías Montoya (Feb. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

Mexico:

• 23 Years of Impunity for Perpetrators of Acteal Massacre (Dec. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• A Labor Spring for Mexico’s Maquilas? (March 2019)

• A License to Pollute at Fortuna Silver Mines in Oaxaca (March 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• "A Project for Life” in Mexico City (Jan. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• As Mexican Pork Industry Expands, Environmental Concerns Follow (Sept. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• AMLO Pushes Ahead on Militarized Megaprojects (Aug. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• AMLO’s Crumbling Promise to Migrants (July 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Blurring the Division Between Church and State in AMLO’s Mexico (Feb. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• El Chapo and Mexico’s Drug War Spectacle (March 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Euphemisms of Violence: Child Migrants and the Mexican State (Dec. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• For Mexico’s Striking University Workers, A War of Attrition Over Public Education (July 2019)

• For Mexico City Housing Movement, Metro Collapse is the Latest Symptom of Structural Inequity (June 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• “Green Tide” Reaches Mexico as Oaxaca Decriminalizes Abortion (Oct. 2019)

• Health and Economic Crisis in Mexico Hits Informal Sector Workers (March 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• Horizontal Vertigo: A City Called Mexico (Book Review) (July 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• In Mexico, the Threats and Failures of Pre-Trial Detention (Jan. 2020)

• Indigenous Communities in Mexico Take up Arms to Defend the Monarch Forest (March 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Julián Leyzaola's Dangerous Plans for Tijuana (May 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• López Obrador’s Public Enemy Number One (Feb. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Machista Media Get it Wrong on Feminist Protests in Mexico (Interview) (Aug. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Maquiladoras and the Exploitation of Migrants on the Border (Oct. 2019)

• Mexican Police Who Massacred Guatemalan Migrants Get Their Guns from the U.S. (Apr. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Mexican Women Call on Government to End Violence (March 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Mexico Bans Glysophate But Tolerates Other Agrochemicals (Jan. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• Mexico Labor Reform May not be Enough for Auto Logistics Workers (July 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• Mexico’s Fracking Impasse (Oct. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Mining Culture Wars Escalate in Oaxaca (Dec. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Narcos Mexico Is Not the Education We Need (Television Review) (March 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• On the Coast of Oaxaca, Afro and Indigenous Tribes Fight for Water Autonomy (May 2019)

• Oaxaca Fisherwomen Organize to Protect Their Way of Life (June 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Pandemic Intensifies Women’s Struggle for Water in Oaxaca, Mexico (July 2020)

• Power and Spectacle on Mexico’s Southern Border (Feb. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Revisiting the Battle of Culiacán (Nov. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• The Legacy of Samir Flores, One Year Later (Feb. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• The Rebirth of Mexico’s Electrical Workers (Feb. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• The Search for Answers in Mexico (Apr. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Today We Protest, Tomorrow We Strike (March 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Translating the Fourth Transformation (Interview) (Apr. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Twenty-First Century Battlefields (Book Excerpt) (July 2019)

The Caribbean

Barbados:

• Caribbean Food Sovereignty During Covid-19 (Aug. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

Barbuda:

• After Irma, Disaster Capitalism Threatens Cultural Heritage in Barbuda (Feb. 2019)(Links to an external site.)

Cuba:

• A Ship Adrift: Cuba After the Pink Tide (Apr. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Artists in Cuba Spearhead First Major Protest in Decades (Dec. 2020)

• Cuba Today: Homeland, People, and Sovereignty (July 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• Cuban Memory Wars (Book Review) (May 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• "Don’t Throw the Sofa out the Window" Discussing Protests in Cuba (Aug. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• Have You Heard, Comrade? The Socialist Revolution is Racist Too (Aug. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

•  (Links to an external site.)

  J-11 in Cuba (July 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Mi Primera Tarea (Film Review) (Oct. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• On Sovereignties and Solidarities (March 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Religious Conservatism is Shaping the Civil Liberties Debate in Cuba (Feb. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• The Damaging “Middle Ground” Stance on Cuba (Aug. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• The Right to Live in Health and Cuban Health Care: The Ongoing Revolution (Book Review) (Nov. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• The War on Cuba Documentary Tells the Story of the U.S. Embargo (Dec. 2020)

• Using Cuba’s Protests as a Chance to Denounce the Left (Aug. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Why Trump’s Cuba Policy is So Wrong (May 2019)

• With Cubans Speaking Out, How Will the Left Respond? (July 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

Dominican Republic:

• Checkpoint Nation (March 2019)

• “I Am the Darker Brother”: Michèle Stephenson’s “Stateless” Documentary (Apr. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Post-Electoral Crisis in the Dominican Republic (Interview) (March 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• The Right’s Continued Dominance in the Dominican Republic (Jan. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

Haiti:

• A Young Duvalier and Haiti’s Unremembered Past (Feb. 2019)

• After Moïse Assassination, Popular Sectors Must Lead the Way (July 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Behind the Covid Numbers in Haiti (June 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Building Corruption in Haiti (May 2019)

• Fighting for Survival, Building for Power (Apr. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Haiti at the Crossroads (March 2019)

• Haiti’s Earthquakes Require a Haitian Solution (Aug. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• The Foreign Roots of Haiti’s “Constitutional Crisis” (Feb. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

•  (Links to an external site.)

  The Political Anatomy of Haiti’s Armed Gangs (Apr. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

Jamaica:

• Rethinking Sargassum Seaweed: Could It Be the New Normal in Jamaica? (March 2020) (Links to an external site.)

Puerto Rico:

• A Disastrous Methane Gas Scheme Threatens Puerto Rico’s Energy Future (June 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Adjunct Faculty in an Adjunct Country (Aug. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Celebrating 50 Years of El Comité-MINP (Jan. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• Doing Reggaetón However He Wants: Bad Bunny’s YHLQMDLG (Music Review) (March 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Mutual Aid and Survival as Resistance in Puerto Rico (Aug. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Policing is the Crisis (May 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Puerto Rican People’s Assemblies Shift from Protest to Proposal (Aug. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Puerto Rico 2021: A Shift in Perspective, A New Opposition (Dec. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Puerto Rico’s Seismic Shocks (Jan. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Puerto Rico and the Perpetual State of Emergency (Aug. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Step by Powerful Step, Citizens Lead Puerto Rico into Its Solar Future (Sept. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• The Anti-Corruption Code for the New Puerto Rico (May 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• The Protests in Puerto Rico Are About Life and Death (July 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• The Summer 2019 Uprising: Building a New Puerto Rico (Oct. 2019)

• To My Fellow BoriBlancos: When We Say “Down with White Power,” We Also Mean Our White Power (Oct. 2020)

• Where is the State of Emergency? (June 2021) (Links to an external site.)

Trinidad and Tobago:

• Toppling the Colonizers in Trinidad and Tobago (June 2021) (Links to an external site.)

Central America

Belize

• In Belize, a Win for Black Dockworkers (Nov. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

Costa Rica:

• Costa Rica’s Covid-19 Response Scapegoats Nicaraguan Migrants (July 2020) (Links to an external site.)

El Salvador:

• 100 Days of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador: Social Movement Perspectives (Interview) (Sept. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Alejandro Molina Lara Fought for Workers’ Rights in El Salvador and the United States (Feb. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• Building a Church of the Poor (Dec. 2020)

• Bukele Responds to Avalanche of International Criticism: “The People Voted for This” (May 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Confronting Internal Forced Displacement in El Salvador (Feb. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Death by Deportation, With Help From the Human Rights Establishment (March 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Deportation Contagions (March 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• El Bukelazo: Shades of Dictatorship in El Salvador (Feb. 2020)

• El Salvador President Nayib Bukele Has Blood on His Hands (Feb. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• El Salvador’s Backslide (Feb. 2019)

• Left Out of Bukele’s Bitcoin Decision, Salvadorans Face Deepening Inequality (July 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Poets and Prophets of Resistance: Intellectuals and the Origins of El Salvador’s Civil War (Book Review) (Aug. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• The Hollywood Kid: The Violent Life and Violent Death of an MS-13 Hitman (Book Review) (Nov. 2019)

• Underreported and Unpunished, Femicides in El Salvador Continue (March 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

Guatemala:

• A Dispatch From the Caravan (Feb. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• A Victory for Guatemala’s Pacto de Corruptos (June 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Defending Consultation: Indigenous Resistance Against the Escobal Mine in Guatemala (May 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Democracy in Crisis in Guatemala (June 2019)

• Dianna Ortiz, Survivor and Witness of the Guatemalan Genocide (1958-2021) (Feb. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Guatemala: Impunity for War Criminals, Again (Feb. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Guatemalan Child Refugees, Then and Now (Nov. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Guatemalans Have Had Enough (Nov. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• “History Moves Forward. You Cannot Go Back:” An Interview with Judge Yassmín Barrios (May 2019)

• Historical Memory in the Digital Age (June 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• In Guatemala, Finding a Voice in Indigenous Community Radio (July 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• In Guatemala, Out with the Old, In with the Older (Aug. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• In Guatemala, Resignations are Not Enough (Dec. 2020)

• In Guatemala, Will Old Foreign Policies Bring New Results? (Aug. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Indigenous Guatemalan Journalist Faces Charges after Reporting on Protest (Nov. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Is Guatemala a “Safe Third Country” for Disposable People? (Aug. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Officials Conceal Conditions at Guatemala Mental Health Hospital During Pandemic (June 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Remembering Guatemala’s Martyr of Justice: An Interview with Francisco Goldman (Dec. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Sex Workers Unionize in Guatemala (Feb. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Talking Like a Mining Company: The Escobal Mine in Guatemala (Oct. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• The Garífuna Voices of Guatemala’s Armed Conflict (Dec. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• U.S. Archeologist Seeks to Privatize Maya Historic Sites in the Name of Conservation (Aug. 2020)

• “We Are Here by Force”: Maya Ixil Activists Fight for Asylum and Justice (May 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• White Flags as Guatemalans Grow Hungry (May 2020) (Links to an external site.)

Honduras:

• A Private Government in Honduras Moves Forward (Feb. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• A State of Mistrust (Nov. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Climate Change Haunts a Ghostly Border in Honduras (Nov. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• For Murdered Honduran Organizer Berta Cáceres, “Any Injustice Was Her Battle” (June 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Garífuna Community Demands Return of Kidnapped Leaders (July 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• Honduras a Decade after the Coup: An Interview with Luis Méndez (June 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• On Honduras (June 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• Political Prisoners Released as Government's Legitimacy Crumbles in Honduras (Interview) (Sept. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• The Flame of Opposition in Honduras (Sept. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• The Roots of the National Strike in Honduras: An Interview with Bayron Rodríguez Pineda (June 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• U.S. Violence Prevention in Honduras: Help or Hypocrisy? (March 2020)

• Verdict Forthcoming for Military Intelligence Officer in Murder of Berta Cáceres (July 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• Who Killed Berta Cáceres (Book Review) (June 2020) (Links to an external site.)

Nicaragua:

• Crisis in Nicaragua: Is the Ortega-Murillo Government Leftist? (Part I) (Aug. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

• Deciphering Nicaragua's Tepid Covid Response (June 2020)

• Sanctions May Impoverish Nicaraguans, but Likely Will Not Change their Vote (Aug. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

   (Links to an external site.)

• The Anti-Sandinista Youth of Nicaragua (Feb. 2020) (Links to an external site.)

• The Sandinista Labor Paradox (Sept. 2019) (Links to an external site.)

• The Youth Leading Nicaragua’s Uprising, One Year Later (Apr. 2019)

• Why Did Daniel Ortega Imprison His Former Comrades? (June 2021) (Links to an external site.)

Panama:

• After Landmark Territorial Win, Naso People of Panama Look to the Future (Feb. 2021) (Links to an external site.)

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