8 h. ago Want to beat authoritarianism? Look to Latin America | Greg Grandin

The region has grappled with dictatorships, coups and inequality. But its democratic spirit remains vital – and offers a lesson for the USInspiration on how to beat back authoritarianism is in short supply, but those searching for hope in these dark times might consider Latin America.It’s not the first place that comes to mind when thinking about democracy, associated as it is with coups, death squads, dictatorships, inequality, drug violence and now a country, El Salvador, offering itself up to Donald Trump as an offshore prison colony for deportees. Continue reading...

Culture

14 h. ago A Mexican musician uses a contentious genre to sing of women imprisoned for killing their abusers

A Mexican music icon is using a typically male genre to sing of women imprisoned for killing their abusers while defending themselves and to highlight the more complicated aspects of gender-based violence

Events

27 h. ago Natalia Lafourcade’s alter ego takes center stage in ‘Cancionera’

When Natalia Lafourcade sat down to craft “Cancionera” she never expected to discover an alter ego that would lead her down a pathway of artistic enlightenment

Politics

8 d. ago AP PHOTOS: Rain or shine, emotions run high at Seville's Holy Week processions in Spain

With tears of emotion often flowing down their faces, tens of thousands of faithful have packed the rooftops, bridges and narrow streets of this historic city in southern Spain to watch much-venerated images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary carried in hourslong processions throughout Holy Week.

Culture

1 week ago Peruvian court sentences former President Humala and wife to 15 years for money laundering

A Peruvian court has sentenced former President Ollanta Humala and his wife, Nadine Heredia, to 15 years in prison for laundering funds received from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht to finance his 2006 and 2011 campaigns

Politics

1 week ago ‘We waited greedily for his novels’: Mario Vargas Llosa, a revolutionary of Spanish

His breakthrough book was deemed too inflammatory to be taught in my school, and was burned by authorities, but this Peruvian firebrand would reveal himself to be a man of contradictionsThe early 1960s was, for my generation in Argentina, an age of discovery when, in our mid-teens, we learned about sex, metaphysics, the Beatles, Ezra Pound, Che Guevara, Fellini’s films, and the new literature of Latin America. In the bookstore around the corner from my school, there began to appear novels with black-and-white photographs on the dust jackets whose Spanish-language authors, while acknowledging Borges as the fons et origo of all literary endeavours, attempted to find in the 19th-century European realists new ways to depict the troubled reality of Spain and South America.One of those novels was La Ciudad y los Perros (The City and the Dogs, oddly translated into English as The Time of the Hero) by a young, unknown Peruvian writer, Mario Vargas Llosa, who, in 1962, had won the recently c...

Politics

1 week ago Good news at last: just a little exercise can reduce the risk of dementia | Devi Sridhar

A recent study shows the benefit of being a middle-aged ‘weekend warrior’ who only exercises once or twice a weekIn these bleak times, glimmers of hope often seem to come out of the pages of scientific research. Take what we know about exercise. Just in the past few months, we’ve learned that moderate exercise may almost halve the risk of postpartum depression for new mothers, and that even five minutes of exercise a day could help lower blood pressure.But what really caught my eye recently was a study from Latin America that included roughly 10,000 people who were assessed over two decades using the Mexico City prospective study. The research, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, examined cognitive function with the aim of understanding the impact of exercise on mental ability, including mild dementia. The researchers took account of confounding variables such as age, diet, smoking and alcohol intake, nightly sleep and educational attainment, which have all been sho...

Events

1 week ago Trump’s China trade war a ‘boon’ for Brazil but sends US farmers reeling

Latin America’s largest economy is poised to extend its lead as China’s top food supplier

Politics

2 w. ago ‘Magical realism’: how a fake Hindu nation tried to take over Indigenous land in Bolivia

Contracts show fictional country created by fugitive Indian guru would control vast swathes ‘with full sovereignty’Followers of a fugitive Indian Hindu guru on a mission to establish his own state are popping up across Latin America, offering hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy land in Ecuador, Paraguay and now Bolivia.At the end of last year, a representative of the Baure Indigenous people in the Bolivian Amazon signed a “perpetual” contract leasing 60,000 hectares (148,260 acres) of their vast rainforest for $108,000 (£81,910) a year. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Argentina reports a drop in poverty under President Milei, but many say life is harder

Argentina says that its poverty rate has dropped to 38.1% in libertarian President Javier Milei’s first year in office

Politics

3 w. ago US sanctions Sinaloa Cartel associates for alleged money laundering

The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned six people and seven companies it said were involved in money laundering for factions of the Sinaloa Cartel

Events