South America

By Maxine Lowy* Women in Chile are are challenging gender-based violence through song, continuing a national tradition of music as a tool of social justice and human rights. In mid-May 2016, in the chilly hours before dawn, a young woman…

By Leonardo Boff I want to introduce a book that will be published soon in Brazil: Pachamama and the Human Being, (La Pachamama y el ser humano, Ediciones Colihue, 2012) by Eugenio Raúl Zaffaroni, well known in Brazil’s judicial circles.…

By Andrea Vale Domestic violence is alarmingly prevalent in Peru. Not only is it statistically more common than in other, more progressive cultures, but Peruvian women tend to accept it as simply a ‘part of marriage.’ It was therefore both…

By Maxine Lowy* In the hours before New Year’s Eve 1975, sociology student and Socialist Party member Jaime Robotham was walking with his friend Claudio Thauby along Santiago’s Providencia neighborhood, when agents of the repressive DINA police drove past, saw…

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been convicted on corruption charges and sentenced to nine-and-a-half years in prison. Lula, widely considered one of Brazil’s most popular political figures, is the front-runner in the 2018 elections. We look…

As in other aspects of socio-political culture, Chile’s experience of the late 1960s and early 1970s diverged significantly from other countries in Latin America. On the one hand, hippismo (the hippies) and similar countercultural movements that captured the imagination of…

The second cycle of peace talks between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the Colombian government has ended today in the Ecuadorian capital, with significant achievements by both sides. In a press conference at the Foreign Ministry, Negotiating Chiefs Juan…

By Ricardo Gómez García On the 20th of June, five thousand people from 45 countries listened to President Evo Morales at the inauguration of the World Conference of the People “for a world without walls towards universal citizenship”.  Repeatedly interrupted…

By Leonardo Boff This reflection is motivated by the speech of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the closing of the opening ceremonies of the 6th National Gathering of Brazil’s Worker’s Party, PT,(from the Portuguese, Partido dos Trabalhadores,…

By Samantha San Romé “Either you love or hate Milagro,” said a local when I visited Jujuy.  “But don’t believe all the bad things they say,” he added.  He didn’t say much more.  He spoke little, but enough for me…