Stories from Quick Reads and Latin America
If I Were FIFA President…
After the recently reelected FIFA president, the Swiss Joseph “Sepp” Blatter, surprisingly resigned on June 3 amidst a corruption scandal that hit the supreme football organization, Twitter users started to speculate not about who might become the next leader, but what would happen if they were. The result was the satiric hashtag #SiYoFueraPresidenteDeLaFIFA...
Can Abortion Be Discussed in Medellín's Metro?
Residents of the city of Medellín, Colombia, are asking themselves if the metro is the place to talk about abortion, stemming from an ad by the #ladecisiónestuya (the decision is yours) campaign that's running in the public transit system's cars, as shared by user Jaime Andrés (@JAIM3_ANDR3S): #LaDecisionEsTuya pic.twitter.com/Nbaq2zJHXn — Jaime...
Peru Sets Up First Bilingual Spanish-Awajun Civil Registrar
May 21 marks the National Day of Cultural and Linguistic Diverisity, and to commemorate the occasion, the Peruvian National Registrar of Identification and Civil Status (Reniec) launched the Awajun-Spanish bilingual civil registrar: Las actas generadas de esta manera tendrán el mismo valor oficial que las actas tradicionales en castellano, y...
Pregnant 11-Year-Old in Uruguay Refuses Abortion
Niña de 11 años embarazada que no quiere abortar genera polémica➝http://t.co/uPBo6NEKcC #Aborto #Embarazo #Uruguay — Periódico La Tribuna (@PLaTribunaFunza) May 8, 2015 Pregnant 11-year-old who refused to abort creates controversy. We wrote recently about about a 10-year-old pregnant girl from Paraguay who was allegedly raped by her stepfather and who was unable to have an abortion...
At Least 48 Fatalities After Landslide Hits Colombian Village
At least 48 people were killed and an unknown number of people are missing after a landslide caused by heavy rains that hit the community of Salgar, in the Colombian department of Antioquia, in the early hours of May 18, 2015. The secretary of government of Salgar, Zulma Osorio, declared that...
Lima Orchid, a Flower Once Believed to Be Extinct, Blooms Again in the Peruvian Capital
For over 50 years, it was thought that the Lima orchid was an extinct species; but, good news comes from a team from the National Forest and Wildlife Service, which is also part of the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture: Los especialistas encontraron ejemplares de dicha orquídea, típica de las lomas de la cuenca del...
Argentinians Organize Online to Demonstrate Against Femicides
Under the hashtag #NiUnaMenos (Not One Less), Argentina is mounting a campaign against the alarming increase in the number of femicides, which shows no signs of going down. Many of the country's public personalities have joined the campaign, like cartoonist Liniers, who used one of his best known characters to participate in the movement. 3...
#IFellAsleepToo: Sleeping Latin American Doctors Go Viral
#YoTambienMeDormi Atte:@kellypeto pic.twitter.com/00hXx8iJBe — Iván Hernández (@DrIvanHdez) Mayo 12, 2015 I Fell Asleep Too. Sincerely: @kellypeto It's a trending topic under the hashtag #YoTambienMeDormi (#IFellAsleepToo). In one week, there have been 17,500 comments on Twitter. The stories of tens of thousands of doctors in Mexico and Latin America who are sharing...
Venezuela Bans 22 Media Editors and Executives from Leaving the Country
Over 20 members of three Venezuelan media groups, El Nacional and Tal Cual, as well as news site La Patilla, are now prohibited from leaving the country. Caracas judge María Eugenia Núñez ordered the restriction on the opposition media figures, who are “accused of ‘continuing aggravated defamation'”, according to broadcaster NTN24. Venezuela places travel ban on opposition media execs...
Chilean Campaign to Prevent Child Grooming Goes Viral
The Chilean Police campaign against grooming, in which adults earn the trust of minors online to later abuse them, has already reached more than 5 million views. It has become a success going way beyond the borders of the South American country, according to Verne website. The video was published on Facebook to raise...
Media Factory Seeks to Invest in New Digital Media in Latin America
Media Factory, a startup accelerator which focuses on the business of online news and journalism, announced the second class of its news acceleration program, seeking to support new digital-only media ventures in Latin America during 2015. Teams should be based anywhere in the region and have a strong professional network, successful experience generating...
The Mexican ‘Corrido’ of Feminist Liberation
Junio del 75 en México no te asombres Se juntaron mil señoras para hablar mal de los hombres […] Liberación absoluta es meta de la mujer Pero aquello de que hablamos Que no lo dejen de hacer aunque sea por favor In June of '75 in Mexico don’t be surprised...
Mother Regains Custody of Child Following Social Media Pressure in Ecuador
The battle of a French mother to recover her son held in Ecuador by his Ecuadorian father, a case characterized by sexism and misogyny, had been followed closely on Ecuadorian social networks. Valeria Coronel and Antonio Jurado relate for the blog Plató Mundo: Arianais Alezra, la madre de Gaspard Bruzzone, denunció hace...
Whooping Cough Epidemic Looms Over Nanti Children in Peru
The Nantis is one of the semi-nomadic communities that live in Peru. A part of them live in the townships in the upper Camisea river and the central area of the Timpía river. There are isolated families that live scattered in the upper Timpía river and the northern area of the...
Initiative Helps Children With Autism Through Surfing
Tabra is an association launched by Guillermo Ferrero and Andrea Mesones in Peru that aims to improve life quality for children with autism and Down syndrome through surfing and contact with nature, as stated on their Facebook page. Guillermo is the father of a 13-year-old boy diagnosed with autism, and...
Keeping Minors Safe Online Is Everyone's Responsibility
We live in an age in which dizzying technological advances sometimes put minors in danger. In a post on blog Mujeres Construyendo (Women Building), Gloria Serrato delves into society's responsibility to protect them and teach them the appropriate use of new technologies: Diferentes organismos han emitido iniciativas para defender a los menores de...
Travelling Radio: Sound Postcards and Histories from Cali to Panama
Performers, communicators and scientists are working together on Hacia el Litoral. Acción Colectiva (On the Way to the Littoral: Collaborative Action), an initiative to give voice to the population dwelling in the lands located between Cali (Colombia) and the border with Panama: Hacia el litoral. Acción colectiva es una práctica artística, una...
Blunt Pro-Abortion Campaign in Chile
The NGO Miles (Thousands) and the advertising agency Grey Chile are taking a provocative approach to showing the problem that thousands of women face in Chile with respect to abortion, using three fictitious tutorial videos that show the only legal way to have an abortion in the country. The “advice”...
Photo of a Mexican Revolutionary Who Looks Like Pacquiao Goes Viral
A photo of a Mexican revolutionary who looks like Manny Pacquiao has gone viral few days before the Filipino boxing icon's fight today against Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas for three champions belts (OMB, CMB y la AMB) in the welterweight division. In Twitter there were many tweets related to the picture: Resulta que el abuelo de...
The Troubling State of Abortion Rights in Ecuador
This text is part of the 49th edition of #LunesDeBlogsGV (Monday of blogs on GV) on April 13, 2015. Underage pregnancy has been rising in Ecuador for the past several years, while abortion even in cases of rape or incest remains criminalized. According to the State Prosecutor, 98 percent of rapes in Ecuador last year occurred...
At Least 30 People Killled After Heavy Rains in Chile
The heaviest rains to hit Chile's northern region in decades have costed the life of at least 30 people, according to the most recent report by the National Office of Emergency of the Interior Ministry (known as Onemi), dated April 21. At the time of writing the original post of this translation,...
