Silvia Viñas · January, 2012

Latest posts by Silvia Viñas from January, 2012

Panama: President Receives Draft for New Constitution

  31 January 2012

“President Martinelli received [es] a draft of a new constitution from a special commission working on the subject,” reports Bloggings by boz. Boz looks at two of the biggest issues regarding the reform: reelection and the creation of a Constitutional Court within the Supreme Court.

Mexico: Discussing Nonviolence with Javier Sicilia

  31 January 2012

Fred Rosen interviewed Javier Sicilia, founder of the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity. Rosen will report on the conversation in upcoming posts in his blog at the NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America) website; in this first post he focuses on “some excerpts on the questions of...

Bolivia: Pro-Road March Reaches La Paz

  31 January 2012

Marchers in favor of a project to build a road that would go through the TIPNIS indigenous territory reached La Paz. Mario R. Duran from the blog Palabras Libres [es] reports that residents of El Alto and La Paz received the march with indifference.

Chile: Mapping Chile with OpenStreetMap

  30 January 2012

In El Quinto Poder [es], Marcelo Aliaga writes about OpenStreetMap (OSM), “a free editable map of the whole world,” and the OSM community in Chile. He invites Chileans to participate and stay informed through the local blog. [es]

Mexico: An Interactive Map of the Drug War

  26 January 2012

Diego Valle-Jones has created an interactive map of the drug war in Mexico. “You can link directly to cities or whole regions within Mexico and post them to Twitter and Facebook by clicking on the “Share This Map” link at the bottom of the box. You can even compare 2007...

Nicaragua: The Struggle for Food Sovereignty

  26 January 2012

Maddy M., a Voices of our Future correspondent for World Pulse, writes about how free trade agreements and other policies have affected the access to affordable, locally-produced, healthy food in Nicaragua. She also highlights citizens who are “working to raise awareness about the need to change the agricultural system in...

El Salvador: New Attack Against Anti Mining Activists

  25 January 2012

Voices from El Salvador reports on a new attack against anti mining activists in Cabañas. This time, Father Neftalí Ruiz was attacked by “several young men [who] tied him up in his home and proceeded to search his home, computer files, and cellphones for information and supposed weapons.” Grit and...

Chile: Crowd Funding a Mapuche-Inspired Mobile Game

  24 January 2012

Digital communication and social network consultant Paloma Baytelman [es] explains crowd funding in her personal blog. She shares the experience of “Pewen Collector” [es], a mobile game inspired by the Mapuche indigenous people that was financed using a crowd funding platform.

Latin America: Museum Releases Digital Archive of 20th-Century Art

  24 January 2012

The International Center for Arts of the Americas (ICCA) at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has released a digital archive of 20th-century Latin American and Latino art, which, “is now available, free of charge, to the research and teaching community as well as to the public at large.” Culture...

Guatemalans Climb to Raise Awareness About Domestic Violence

  23 January 2012

“On January 21, Under the name of Subida por la vida [“Climb for life”], there were over 8,000 people climbing Volcán de Agua (Water Volcano) to form the largest heart in the world at 12,335 feet as part of campaign to bring awareness and to reduce domestic violence,” Antigua Daily...

A Guide to Crowdsourcing in Latin America

  21 January 2012

Crowdsourcing allows anyone with an Internet connection to generate useful content for the masses. In Latin America, numerous crowdsourcing projects have arisen that respond to the needs and emergencies that the continent is facing. Jacinto Lajas on Periodismo Ciudadano presents examples of these initiatives in the region.

Chile: Discrimination, Media Ethics, and the Case of #InesPerez

  20 January 2012

Inés Pérez, a resident of a gated community that prohibits domestic workers to enter by foot, quickly became the subject of online scorn after an interview on Chilean television. When it transpired that her quote was taken out of context, the discussion instead turned to a debate on journalism ethics.

Venezuela: Soledad Ramírez, One of Caracas’ Heroes

  19 January 2012

Ten years ago, Soledad Ramírez created the Rincón Infantil San Edmundo [es], a center that today helps 200 at-risk children from Minas de Baruta in Caracas. Journalist and blogger Mirelis Morales highlights Soledad's work in a video in her blog about Caracas [es].

Bolivia: March Demands Road Through TIPNIS

  19 January 2012

Last year we reported extensively on a march to protest a road that would go through the TIPNIS indigenous territory; on December 20, 2011, a group demanding the building of the road started their own march towards La Paz: “This pro-road march wants the law approved in October by President...

Latin American Sites and Bloggers Protest PIPA and SOPA

  18 January 2012

Several Latin American blogs like SitioCero [es], alt1040 [es], and Sentidos Comunes [es] have joined the online protests against U.S. anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA. Some are speaking out against similar local laws, like the bloggers behind the Mexican blog network Indie Weblogs [es]. Popular series and film site Cuevana.tv...

Costa Rican Blogs Protest SOPA and PIPA

  18 January 2012

Ticoblogger [es], a network of Costa Rican blogs, has joined the global protests against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect-IP Act (PIPA). Ticoblogger blogs like Ciencia Ficción [es], Carepicha [es], and El Infierno en Costa Rica [es] posted a message against the U.S. bills and “censored” part...

Bolivia: New Judges Face Systemic Challenges

  17 January 2012

The 56 judges elected during the October 2011 judicial election in Bolivia were sworn in on January 3, 2012. Emily Achtenberg, from the NACLA blog Rebel Currents, writes about the election process and the obstacles the new judges will face.