BBC News US President Donald Trump has said arming teachers could prevent school shootings like that which left 17 people dead last week in Florida. A staff member with a gun could end an attack “very quickly”, he said. Mr Trump floated the proposal as emotional survivors of the 14 February massacre implored him to make sure it never happens… Read more »
USA today CHIHUAHUA, Mexico — As more U.S. states legalize the use of marijuana, Mexico’s violent drug cartels are turning to the basic law of supply and demand. That means small farmers, or campesinos, in this border state’s rugged Sierra Madre who long planted marijuana to be smuggled into the United States are switching to opium poppies, which bring a higher price…. Read more »
Venezuela’s Maduro wants ‘mega-election’ amid opposition boycott posted by: Colin Bunn BBC News
In the past year in Venezuela the very fabric of their democracy has begun to unravel. Nicolas Maduro has turned the once thriving South American country into his own personal dominion. Creating to what is now amounting to a dictatorship trying to disguise itself as a democracy. Despite the attempts of the citizenry to combat this takeover they have… Read more »
Since the news broke of Harvey Weintstein’s prolonged sexual abuse towards hundreds of women in Hollywood, there has been a widespread movement of woman seeking equal rights and the end to men getting away with sexual misconduct. This movement, however, began in Brazil when woman decided to speak out against a “leading man in Brazilian soap operas.” Celebrities created t-shirts… Read more »
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-42938510 Costa Rica’s presidential election will go into a runoff after evangelical preacher Fabricio Alvarado won the first round but failed to secure enough votes to win outright. He will face Carlos Alvarado of the centre-left Citizen’s Action Party (PAC) in the second round on 1 April. The election was dominated by the issue of same-sex marriage, after a court… Read more »
https://latinamericanpost.com/index.php/other/277-latam/19065-latam-s-metoo-moment The revolt against sexual predation in the workplace is in full cry in the United States. But what about in Latin America, where machismo was branded and the border between seduction and assault has been elastic and riddled with legal indulgences? The outrage may be more selective and change agonizingly slow, but even in the most patriarchal societies of… Read more »
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/el-salvador-frees-woman-imprisoned-abortion-180215164922658.html A woman in El Salvador serving a 30-year prison term for allegedly aborting her child has been released after the country’s Supreme Court reduced her sentence. Teodora del Carmen Vasquez was convicted in 2008 of aggravated homicide, after being charged under a strict abortion law prohibiting abortion or miscarriages. Carmen Vasquez, her lawyers and human rights groups always maintained she… Read more »
http://www.france24.com/en/20180205-anti-gay-marriage-candidate-leads-costa-rica-presidential-election A conservative, evangelical lawmaker who fiercely opposes same-sex marriage emerged as the frontrunner to become Costa Rica’s next president, according to preliminary results from a first round election Sunday. Fabricio Alvarado of the right-wing National Restoration Party received 25 percent of the vote, according to a tally of more than two-thirds of the ballots published by the country’s Supreme… Read more »
Corrupt governments and institutions have long been an issue in Latin America and have contributed greatly to the region’s general instability. However the recent trend suggests that corrupt officials may be under a greater threat than they have been previously. The fundamental difficulty in fighting corruption lies in the fact that those who are corrupt usually are the major power-holders…. Read more »