The Base of the Pyramid
Ana Delia Ibarra, a 40 year old mother of three, is one of 80,000 Community Mothers who work in marginal neighborhoods in Colombia. Back in 1986, when President Virgilio Barco created the …
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Country: Costa Rica
The Magic of Butterflies
William Camacho worked as a laborer in a biological research station near the village of Las Horquetas, Costa Rica, when he learned from a visiting scientist of the possibility of breeding butterfly pupae …
Read MoreAmbivalence in the Tropics: The 2006 Elections in Costa Rica
After weeks of sitting on the edge of their seats, election junkies learned in early March that 1987 Nobel Laureate Oscar Arias won the 2006 election by a margin of less than 1.12 percent. The election was close enough that the Supreme Tribunal of Elections spent more than 3 weeks manually recounting all of the ballots. That Arias did not trounce his opponents came as a shock. In the weeks before election day, polls indicated that …
Read MoreIntroduction: From Hope to Despair? Latin America’s Year of Elections
Latin American democracy is living through unprecedented times. The list of countries where political leadership is not determined through competitive elections has for many years now been limited to one case: Cuba. Between November 2005 and December 2006, electoral episodes will be cruising the region at full steam. Twelve countries will have featured presidential contests: Mexico, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, …
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Building Houses, Improving Lives
A house can provide much more than basic safety and shelter from the rain. As an intern for Habitat for Humanity in San Ramon, Costa Rica, I discovered that for many Habitat partner…
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