Latin America

WLRN Adds Latin America Correspondent In Collaboration With NPR And The Herald

Christine DiMattei — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Journalist Tim Padgett spent nearly a quarter of a century covering Latin America and the Caribbean for TIME and Newsweek magazines.

But he's always been envious of the way foreign correspondents deliver the news for NPR.

"They're giving listeners a richer sense of the sounds and the colors than perhaps I'm able to do as a print reporter," he says.

Borderless Latin American Cooking With Maricel Presilla

Trina Sargalski — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:48:11 +0000

When she won a James Beard award for her cookbook, Gran Cocina Latina, Maricel Presilla felt gratified to be acknowledged for the "work of a lifetime," as well as for "the collective work of millions of Latin Americans that live on two continents, in the Caribbean Islands, and also in the U.

Violence, Hardship Fuels Immigration To U.S., Miami

Carrie Kahn — Mon, 06 May 2013 15:08:00 +0000

William Ordonez and his wife, Carolia, thought that starting a new business in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, was a great idea.

But just two weeks after they started selling chips, candy and soda, gang members showed up and ordered them to pay about $25 a week.

"We tried explaining to them that we just opened, we aren't making that much, we can't pay you," Ordonez says.

The men didn't care, so Ordonez went to the police. He says instead of helping, the police told the gang that Ordonez and his wife had complained.

As Youth Crime Spikes, Brazil Struggles For Answers

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:38:20 +0000

In Rio de Janeiro, tourists are drawn to Copacabana for its wide beach and foliage-covered cliffs. But a month ago, not far from the tourist hub, an American woman and her French male companion were abducted. She was brutally gang-raped; he was beaten.

Perhaps what was most shocking to Brazilians, though, was the age of one of the alleged accomplices: He was barely in his teens.

"Why? That's what you ask yourself," says Sylvia Rumpoldt, who is walking with a friend at dusk by the sea in Rio. "It's horrible. It's criminal energy."

Her friend, Maria de Paula, agrees.

Will Spanish Thrive Or Decline In The U.S.?

Luis Clemens — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:58:44 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnKFP-2se84

Exploring Coffee's Past To Rescue Its Future

Dan Charles — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:02:25 +0000

At the Center for Tropical Agricultural Research and Education (CATIE) in Turrialba, Costa Rica, you can touch the history of coffee — and also, if the optimists have their way, part of its future.

Here, spread across 25 acres, are coffee trees that take you back to coffee's origins.

"The story starts in Africa, no? East Africa," says Eduardo Somarriba, a researcher at CATIE, as we walk through long rows of small coffee trees.

These trees came directly from forests in Africa.

Azuquita Pa'l Cafe: What Coffee Songs Mean To Latin America

Jasmine Garsd — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:49:41 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZOLOggfWp0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgpn4wBlFzo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8C8_P8l2Cc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IIopGu_LLc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3hBU9aRoT0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z03pc4_ixu0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-RlQM1u0_c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1wpTgmW8NE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Er-HgiCq7w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDokxiFCQwQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=584t773W6hk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw9b0i6XN2M

How Coffee Makes The World Go 'Round

Dan Charles — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:09:12 +0000

Coffee is more than a drink.

Popular Writer Debates His Own Kidnappers On Venezuelan Politics

Steve Inskeep — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:22:43 +0000

Earlier this week in Caracas, we were about to go to an interview when it had to be rescheduled. The man we were going to speak with was unavoidably detained — kidnapped, to be precise.

It took awhile after that for Laureano Marquez to free up his schedule and meet us in a coffee shop.

"I'm so sorry," he said when he finally arrived, as if it was his fault for being thrown into a car and driven off to the far reaches of town.

We'd been planning to talk with Marquez about Venezuela's presidential election this weekend, an election that opens a door on a changing Latin America.

Oil, Chavez And The Silent Rise Of The Venezuelan Novel

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 22:35:52 +0000

Marcela Valdes is the books editor of The Washington Examiner and a specialist in Latin American literature and culture.

For more than 40 years, the most important book prize in South America has been bankrolled by the region's most famous petro-nation: Venezuela. Yet Venezuelan novelists themselves rank among the least read and translated writers in the entire continent.

Chavez Looms Large As South Floridians Prepare To Vote In Venezuela Election

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:13:14 +0000

Hugo Chavez died in March, but his ghost still lingers in Venezuela. He was president for well over a decade and, according to journalist Rory Carroll, his oversize influence hasn't faded.

"It's slightly surreal, because Chavez has never been more ubiquitous in Venezuela than now. His face greets you from the airport the moment you arrive; there are posters of him everywhere; there are fresh murals of him around the city; his voice booms from the radio; recordings of him singing the national anthem fill government rallies," Carroll says.

Upon News Of Argentinian Pope, Latin Americans Are Overjoyed

Eyder Peralta — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:26:49 +0000

Pope Francis goes into history as the first pontiff from the New World.

For Latin America in particular, this is a momentous occasion: It is home to 483 million Catholics, or a little more than 40 percent of the global population.

Pope Francis was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, of Italian parents.

Cubans Wonder If Aid Will Still Flow Following Death Of Chavez

editor — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:19:05 +0000

The death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is an especially tough blow for Cuba, whose feeble state-run economy has been propped up for more than a decade with Venezuelan oil shipments and other subsidies.

The Castro government has declared three days of mourning, calling Chavez "a son" of Cuba, but privately Cubans are quietly fretting about the potential loss of billions in trade and the threat of a new economic crisis.

When he was first diagnosed with cancer in 2011, Hugo Chavez turned to Fidel Castro and Cuba's doctors to save him.

Will A New Secretary Of State Put A New Focus On Latin America And The Caribbean?

Phil Latzman — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:23:57 +0000

Wednesdays on WLRN, we discuss issues related to Latin American and the Caribbean. Today: how a transition at the top of the U. S. State Dept. might be felt in the hemisphere.

Some have said the Obama Administration has ignored that part of the world as it tried to put out other fires in the President's first term.

A Strong Voice For Brazil's Powerful Farmers

editor — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:38:00 +0000

In some ways, Katia Abreu is still an old-fashioned farmer, one who rides her chestnut mare, Billy Jean, to tour her farm in Tocantins state in north-central Brazil.

She glides the horse along a gravel road, which soon turns to dirt, and along fields of sorghum and corn. She has plans for more.

"Soon, we're going to produce fish and lamb," she says. "There will be soybeans and fields of tall grass for cattle. Lots of cattle."

Agriculture has boomed in Brazil, and the country now rivals the United States in food production — everything from beef to soybeans, chicken to corn.

How Cell Phones Are Fighting Poverty In Latin America

Kelley Mitchell — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 21:54:46 +0000

The stated goal of the Grameen Foundation is to help the world’s poorest improve their lives and escape poverty by helping to provide access to financial services , such as small loans and savings account, to find new ways to generate income and obtain important information about their health, crops and finances.

Grameen Foundation is a nonprofit founded in 1997 by friends of Grameen Bank to help microfinance practitioners spread the Grameen philosophy worldwide.

What Does Fania Records Have To Do With Art Basel Miami?

Trina Sargalski — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:15:23 +0000

The legendary salsa label hosts a free music and art event at PAX in Little Havana during Art Basel Wednesday, Dec.5 through Saturday, Dec. 8.

How The Government Set Up A Fake Bank To Launder Latin American Drug Money

David Kestenbaum — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:37:49 +0000

In the early 1990s, Colombian drug cartels had a problem: They had more money than they knew what to do with.

"They were having a very difficult time with just the logistics of laundering millions and millions and millions of dollars every week," says Skip Latson, who worked for the DEA at the time.

So Latson and Bill Bruton, who was a special agent with the IRS, hatched a plan: They'd create a fake, offshore bank catering to the needs of the drug cartel.

Latson and Bruton got their bosses to sign on.

SOUTHCOM: From Doral, Gen. John Kelly Commands Pentagon Operations in Latin America

Arianna Prothero — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:00:00 +0000

The United States Southern Command has a new boss.