Ellen Schneider’s description of Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega in her provocative article on Nicaraguan democracy sent me scurrying to my oversized scrapbooks of newspaper articles. I wanted to show her that rather than being perceived as a caudillo
Antonio M. Battro M.D., Ph.D. has been named to The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the oldest science academy in the world, established by Galileo 400 years ago. Battro, Robert F. Kennedy…
Cuando Jacqueline van Rysselberghe fue informada en Noviembre último que ella debería dejar su puesto como alcaldesa de Concepción, una de las ciudades mas grandes e…
Ellen Schneider’s description of Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega in her provocative article on Nicaraguan democracy sent me scurrying to my oversized scrapbooks of newspaper articles…
The creation, consolidation, and improvement of democratic institutions do not happen automatically. Democracy (however it is defined) requires both favorable conditions and a certain…
In March 2000, while researching legislatures in several Latin American countries, I found myself in Caracas. This promised to be a quiet stop given that Venezuela was, at the time, without a real…
As I walked around the Harvard campus on a characteristically cold slushy day in February 1996, I spotted several bright posters with slanted palm trees, inviting students interested in Latin…
As election observers in Asunción, we spent our spare time debating about how we would construct a better government in Paraguay, if given the opportunity. As we rode from interview…
Democratic institutions are facing stress throughout Latin America and experiencing serious challenges in some countries. The public has had little confidence in political parties and…
One of the most dramatic developments in Latin America today is the unprecedented shift in the nature of politics since the late 1970s. At no time in the history of the Latin American republics…
We humans have the capacity to conceptualize ideas and elaborate thoughts, as well as to construct and fabricate both material and immaterial outcomes, based on those ideas and…
Despite more than ten years of democratic systems in Latin America, why is it that corruption hasn’t decreased in the region? In Peru, videotapes filmed at the National Intelligence…
A passion for planting trees awoke in me,” Don Juan Morales explained to me next to his numerous wood-burning kilns. I had asked him why he had become a member of the…
Children and youth are citizens. It’s important to keep that fact in mind, and to understand that political participation in a democratic society involves much more than voting. In our work we…
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When auto mechanic Pedro Pirir got fired from the repair shop where he’d worked for years, his reaction of outrage and shame made him want to complain to the authorities. He’d heard his…
When Jacqueline van Rysselberghe was informed last November that she would have to leave her post as mayor of Concepción, one of Chile’s largest and most important cities, she fought…
The post-dictatorial cultural transformations of Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay bring to the fore gender and sexuality as critical to discussion and reflection on the development of democracy…
The breakdown of some democratic regimes in Latin America in the 1970s challenged the widespread belief of many in the region that with education came democracy. This perceived…
With the exception of Fidel Castro’s Cuba, the Western Hemisphere is now exclusively ruled by democratically elected leaders. Democracy has come a long way in Latin America and we can…
You say you’ll change the constitution,” Beatle John Lennon once wrote. Latin American countries have long been singing this same tune, often blaming their presidential constitutions…
