Latin America

World News

A Newsprint Shortage Hobbles Venezuelan Media

6:20pm January 17, 2014

by John Otis

Venezuela is running out of newsprint and newspapers are shutting down. Media outlets say that it's another form of harassment by a government that often doesn't like what independent media reports.

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Social media is booming in Brazil, which has become a major market for both Facebook and Twitter. But Brazilian law is still in flux, and legislation is only just being created to deal with the rise of social media.

World News

Brazil's Social Media Boom Sparks Calls For New Privacy Laws

11:59am January 02, 2014

by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

Brazil is the world's third largest market for Facebook and the fifth largest for Twitter, and it has quickly become the largest market for Lulu, the controversial man-rating app for women. That has highlighted the country's race to pass legislation to keep up with a quickly changing society.

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The Secret Protectionism Buried Inside NAFTA

7:49am December 26, 2013

by Zoe Chace

In order to get the North American Free Trade Agreement signed 20 years ago, a specific trade-off was made. The trade-off would not protect U.S. jobs from moving overseas.

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Cuba Loosens Restrictions On Buying New Cars

11:13am December 20, 2013

Automotive News reports the state altered regulations, first in 2011, and now a second time, making it simpler for Cubans to buy or sell new cars. Cubans, too, now have the freedom to ask: "What do I have to do to get you in this new car today?"

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An auto worker tightens bolts on a Focus at a Ford plant in Michigan in October. Labor unions predicted in 1993 that NAFTA would send many U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico, and they continue to argue that the pact prompted a race to the bottom for worker

What Has NAFTA Meant For Workers? That Debate's Still Raging

12:31am December 18, 2013

by Don Gonyea

Two decades ago, labor unions warned that the North American Free Trade Agreement would drive away U.S. jobs and push wages down. Today, unions feel as strongly as ever that NAFTA was a mistake for U.S. workers, but quantifying the factors behind the decline in the middle class is no simple matter.

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The Virgencita Plis character from Distroller in Mexico.

World News

Mexico's Patron Saint Is Also Its Hello Kitty

8:52pm December 12, 2013

by Carrie Kahn

As many as 6 million pilgrims have made their way to the Mexican capital to pay homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe on Thursday. One woman has turned the country's most revered religious icon into a cartoon characterization, using it to build a multimillion-dollar company.

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World News

Ex-Brazilian President Kubitschek Was Murdered, Commission Says

12:30pm December 11, 2013

by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

In Brazil, an investigative commission has released a report that says ex-president Juscelino Kubitschek, thought to have died in a 1976 car accident, was murdered by the 1970's military regime.

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World News

Mexican Lawmakers Hope Private Investment Will Boost Oil Industry

7:35pm December 06, 2013

by Carrie Kahn

Mexico's congress is set to pass a controversial plan to open up the country's vast and sluggish oil industry to private investment. The move requires a constitutional amendment since Mexico forbids foreign involvement in the oil industry. Opponents of the plan say the president is selling out the country, but many experts say that without foreign investment, Mexico won't be able to tap all its oil and won't modernize.

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PLANET MONEY MAKES A T-SHIRT: The Lives Of The Workers Who Made Our Shirt

'Our Industry Follows Poverty': Success Threatens A T-Shirt Business

6:26pm December 04, 2013

by Marianne McCune

Colombia's economy has been growing, and wages have been rising. That's good for the country as a whole, but it may wind up driving away the T-shirt industry.

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Municipal guards with batons chase a mob of thieves that snatched bags and wallets from beachgoers on Arpoador beach, adjacent to Ipanema, in Rio de Janeiro on Nov. 20.

World News

Swarming Thieves Wreak Havoc On Famed Rio Beaches

10:04am December 02, 2013

by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

In a spate of robberies in Rio de Janeiro, young boys — some only 10 years old — descend on tourist beach areas, robbing and harassing people. The attacks come despite anti-crime efforts in the run-up to the World Cup and Olympics. It's a phenomenon that had not been widely seen since the country's crime-ridden 1990s.

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