Twitter: latamthought- The other drone story today RT @REDInteligencia: #Chile vigilará sus fronteras con aviones no tripulados. http://t.co/fJtoAw8U
- From July, on Iran's information network http://t.co/vV84HX2K
- Argentine government increases media monitoring capacity http://t.co/8NGQsqhC
- New oil discovery reignites dispute over #Falkland Islands, reins in U.S. http://t.co/jHis0frT
Author Archives: Sebastian Chaskel
How To Vote in Colombia
Voting in Colombia can be confusing, so I have created a 5-minute video that explains in Spanish in simple terms how to vote this March. Please share with Colombians you may know.
Why Not Being Disliked is as Powerful as Being Liked
I recently wrote an article for the Americas Quarterly blog in which I argued that in Colombia’s second round of elections for the presidency not being disliked may be even more of a deciding factor than being liked by voters.
Campaign Season in Colombia
Colombian President Álvaro Uribe and his allies were already taking candidate-like precautions before [...]
Disheartening Aspects of Colombia’s Congressional Elections
Some things may be comical when you see them in movies, yet somewhat worrying when they are part of the democracy you count on.
Such is the case with María Fernanda Valencia, Candidate for the Partido de la U, who made it to the front cover of the Colombian magazine Soho (a classier version of the [...]
Election Season in Colombia
The Constitutional Court’s ruling last night blocking the possibility of President Uribe’s reelection lifted a weight off the country’s shoulders. Even Uribe, who found out about the Court’s decision through his Blackberry at a a press conference about health reform in Barranquilla, reacted with a nervous smile.
Many Colombians, who heard the news over television and radio waves [...]
Investigative Journalism in Colombia
Many of our readers are likely already aware of last week’s announcement of the end of Cambio, perhaps Colombia’s most important source for investigative journalism. While the Casa Editorial El Tiempo, which owns Cambio, claims that the decision to turn this weekly investigative magazine into a monthly magazine on tourism and travel reflects market trends, the magazine’s [...]
Honduras should open our eyes to discontent with democracy in the region
Within 48 hours of the coup in Honduras, much has been written about what this means for Latin America, with the best analysis acknowledging that the coup breaks with the democratic constitutional order, but also that Honduran President Manuel Zelaya threatened democracy in his campaign to perpetuate himself in power. Chris Sabatini from the Council [...]
Posted in Honduras Tagged democracy, elections, Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, Political Unrest, Roberto Micheletti Leave a comment
LASA: Reflections on Blogging on Latin America
I very much enjoyed Eliot’s last blog entry on news sources and how they’re suffering from, or at least needing to adapt to, the massive flow of news and analysis that now occurs online. As I read it I could not help but think of the role that blogs like this one and others are [...]
Posted in Latin America Leave a comment
LASA: Some thoughts on security in Brazil and Central America
The Latin America Studies Association (LASA) bi-annual conference is taking place in Rio de Janeiro this year. With over 5,000 participants, it is supposed to be one of the largest LASA conferences ever. However, there have been many no-shows, mostly due to the financial crisis, and the book fair was canceled—apparently because publishers found it [...]
Posted in Latin America Leave a comment
Do Colombians Care About Democratic Values and Human Rights?
Recently released Gallup opinion data on Colombia received media attention because it is the first to show that if President Uribe were not to run again for the presidency and the elections were to take place tomorrow, Sergio Fajardo and Juan Manuel Santos would be toe to toe for the presidency. However, the data has [...]
Posted in Colombia Tagged corruption, democracy, Human Rights, Operation Jaque, polling data, Uribe Leave a comment
How Will Colombians Vote This Sunday?