Latin America & the Caribbean

Why Venezuela's Oil Money Could Keep Undermining Its Economy And Democracy

By Scott Morgenstern and John Polga-Hecimovich*

LONDON (IDN-INPS) – As political and economic crises threaten to topple Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, political scientists like us are not surprised that he has run into trouble.

Instead, we see Venezuela as another example of what scholars call the “resource curse.” That’s the unfortunate correlation first described by the British economic geographer Richard M. Auty between nations with vast wealth from oil or other natural resources and political instability.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 10 February 2019

Photo: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said the White House had "ordered and planned" a "coup". Credit: cancilleria.gob.ec

Venezuela Crisis Drives A Wedge Between Europeans

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran*

NEW DELHI (IDN) – It’s a topsy-turvy world. President Emmanuel Macron’s France can recognise Juan Guaido, who is leading the protests in distant Venezuela, as “Interim President” of that country. But Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio cannot meet “Yellow Vest” protestors demonstrating on the streets of Paris.

Why is recognition of protests acceptable in the case of Venezuela but not when it comes to France?

Because the West led by the United States and its camp followers in Europe say so. This is the so-called “international community” known for its duplicitous standards.

: Shastri Ramachandaran; OPINION; 09 February 2019

Photo: El Salvador President Salvador Sánchez Cerén greets Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro at his inauguration on 10 January 2019. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

It's Not Just About Overthrowing Maduro In Venezuela

Viewpoint by Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE (IDN) – The 'Washington Consensus' on democracy today is not about respecting peoples’ right to elect their leaders by popular vote, but how to buy these votes to promote U.S. business interests. Thus, the ongoing campaign to bring “regime change” in Venezuela is not about overthrowing Venezuelan President Nicolas Madura, but overthrowing the Bolivarian development model and an alternative trading system introduced by Hugo Chavez after he came to power in 1999.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 08 February 2019

Photo: Demonstration on Avenida Bolivar, in the center of Caracas, to support President Nicolás Madura and protest the economic war that, according to the government, has been launched against Venezuela. 17 December 2016. CC BY-SA 4.0

Independent Election Monitors Could Have Averted Current Crisis in Venezuela

Viewpoint by Rene Wadlow

The writer is President of the Association of World Citizens and its Representative to the United Nations, Geneva.

GENEVA (IDN) – The social, economic, and political situation in Venezuela grows more tense and complex by the day. On January 27, Pope Francis speaking from Panama said. "Faced with the grave situation it [Venezuela] is going through, I ask the Lord that a just and peaceful solution is sought and achieved in order to overcome the crisis, respecting human rights and the good of all the people in the country."

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 31 January 2019

Photo credit: Rafael Murillo, Courtesy Congress SEE

Costa Rica Set to Achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2021

By Fabiola Ortiz

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (IDN) – It has been twenty two years since Costa Rica embarked on its national program of payment for environmental services (PES), the first in the world to start a nationwide scheme for compensating landowners for keeping the forests standing for people and the planet.

Now that the world struggles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit the global temperature rise by the end of the century, this Central American nation of five million people has served as an example of public policies addressing the taxation of fossil fuels in favour of the protection of nature. The country pledges to become carbon neutral by 2021.

: Fabiola Ortiz; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 03 October 2018

Brazil at Another Major Turning Point

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – From the time of its beginning as a nation state "Brazil has been a paradise for some, an endless hell for others, and for the rest, a kind of purgatory on earth." So write two Brazilian historians, Lilla Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling, in their massive, newly published, volume on Brazil.

They continue: "Brazil's development was born of ambivalence and contrast. On the one hand it is a country with a high degree of social inequality and low rates of literacy, whereas on the other its electoral system is one of the most sophisticated and reliable in the world. Brazil has the second number of Facebook users in the globe. At the same time vast geographical regions lie abandoned, particularly in the north, where the chief means of transport is by rudimentary sailboats.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 02 October 2018

Photo: India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj hosted the G4 Foreign Ministers Meeting of Japan, Germany and Brazil to discuss progress on early reform of the Council, including the expansion of both permanent and non-permanent categories of membership. Credit: Twitter MEA India

India Hosts G4 Meeting Pressing For Security Council Reform

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Brazil, Germany, India and Japan – also known as the G4 – have reiterated the compelling need for a protracted reform of the United Nations Security Council and restated their support for Africa's appropriate representation in a reformed and expanded Council, which under the UN Charter bears primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.

A Joint Press Statement, issued after a meeting on the first day of the General Assembly's high-level General Debate on September 25, 2018, said: "The G4 [Foreign] Ministers reaffirmed the need for an early reform of the Council including the expansion of both permanent and non-permanent categories of membership to enhance its legitimacy, effectiveness and representativeness."

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 26 September 2018

Photo: 6 out of 10 young people in the region work in the informal sector, with lower wages, and less or no benefits or social protection. Such work in Latin America and the Caribbean is often related to domestic work, street vending, illegal mining and farming. (ILO) ©IFAD/Pablo Corral Vega

Helping Rural Latin America Beat the Economic Downturn

By Kwame Buist

ROME (IDN) – Over the last three decades, the countries of Latin American and the Caribbean have experienced a profound transformation which has extended to rural areas. All countries in the region, except for Haiti, are now considered middle-income.

This economic and rural transformation has resulted in many benefits, especially between 2004 and 2013, when millions of people left poverty behind. However, despite this success, over one-quarter of the region’s population continues to live in poverty. Now, the economic downturn of most of Latin America’s economies over the last few years threatens to send millions more back under the poverty line.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 24 September 2018

Photo: Recovery and restoration of a watershed in Brazil’s Caatinga biome, as part of the URAD initiative. Source: UNCCD

Brazil Sets Up an Innovative Model to Reverse Land Degradation

Viewpoint by Prof. Dr. Valdemar Rodrigues

The writer is Director of Sustainable Rural Development of the Ministry of Environment of Brazil, National Director of the UNDP / GEF / MMA Program and National Director of the FAO / GEF / MMA Program. Prior to joining the Ministry, he was he was a Professor at the Federal University of Piauí. He is a specialist on desertification. This article first appeared in UNCCD Science to Policy Weblog on 13 September 2018. – The Editor

BRASILIA (IDN) – Brazil is synonymous with the Amazon for most people. But Brazil’s vast rainforest and wide rivers have not just captured the imagination of ordinary people. It has also captured donor finances due to the invaluable ecosystem services they provide, ranging from influencing global rainfall patterns, to stabilizing the global climate system to preserving a tremendous and unique biological diversity.

: Jaya Ramachandran; THE WORLD; Latin America & the Caribbean; 22 September 2018

Photo: Equatorial Guinea President's son and Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang cropped while addressing the general debate of the UN General Assembly’s seventieth session on 30 September 2015. Credit: UN Photo/Amanda Voisard

When a Vice President is Nabbed With Million Dollar Watches

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) - What does a suitcase full of million dollar watches look like?

Well, it’s blinding for one and it caught the eye of police at the Sao Paulo Viracopos airport in Brazil who confiscated the gem-encrusted time pieces found in the luggage of the son of the long-time ruler of Equatorial Guinea.

In a second bag belonging to Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue, vice president and son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, $1.5 million in cash was found, allegedly for medical treatment far from home.