Thoughts from the Andes

Brazil’s Bolsa Familia: Welfare model or menace?

Big change for a buck? Latin America says ‘yes’

"Manual for writing headlines in the official media" in Venezuela, from the El Chigüire Bipolar parody website.

US$233 million has been invested into the ALBA refinery in Nicaragua. Nothing there but five flags.

This article by the Economist hits the nail on the head.  Ms. Villaran is by no means a perfect mayor but this recall and the forces behind it have gone too far.  Outside of being upopular, Ms. Villaran has done nothing worth of being recalled.  During her administration there have been no signs of shady deals, no major political scandals, and she has been harshly critical of herself and errors that she has committed.  

Tracking peace talks in real time

If you are interested in following the Colombian government peace talks with the FARC guerrilla, you shouldn’t miss DialogosPorLaPaz. 

This website is dedicated to covering the unfolding negotiations between the government and the leftist guerrilla to end the 50 year old conflict between the rebels and the Colombian federal forces.

One of the most remarkable features of this project is how it incorporates the opinion of citizens around the dialogue, something that most of the traditional media outlets have been missing. 

DialogosPorLaPaz also measures the sentiment and perceptions of the people around the peace talks through a quantitative index that includes opinions expressed through social media and a series of web-based polls hosted in the website.

FJP: Although it’s clear that DialogosPorLaPaz focuses on citizens, we think that it would be very useful if it had official information about where the peace talks stands. This would serve as a reference to what citizens are reporting and commenting.

At first I was shocked by this headline, until I read a bit deeper and saw that it was from a luxury travel magazine.  That really cleared things up as Cusco winning any type of award for a top city is far fetched.  

Cusco as a tourist destination does and should receive high marks but as an actual city for those who live there its accolades are few and far between.  In contrast to the beautiful facades of the 5 star hotels infrastructure throughout the city is sorely lacking.  Travel a few short blocks from the main plaza and one notices litter lined streets, roads that become almost impassable with just a little bit of rain, and packs of stray dogs laying claim to large swaths of territory.  

For the better part of the last 15 years Cusco has lacked a general guiding vision for its development.  What has transpired has been a hodgepodge of disconnected ideas put forth by multiple ineffective at best and absolutely corrupt at worst local governments that have not served the local populace.  

University of Carabobo