Latin America Policy Journal

Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón received the Oscar for best director for his beautiful masterpiece Roma at the 91st Academy Awards. As he was handed the statue from another Mexican director, Guillermo del Toro, he said: “I want to thank the academy to recognize a film that is centered around an indigenous woman, one of the […]

Before 2015, charter schools[1] in Chile were able to select prospective students based on the socioeconomic status of their families, revealed through the ability to pay a copayment;[2] and on other requirements, such as personality tests, admissions tests, marriage certificates, baptism certificates and others[3], that allowed the schools to discriminate against children whose families could […]

The Venezuelan crisis has become the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, with more than 3 million people fleeing the country in the last few years. As conditions in the country worsen, more Venezuelans are expected to leave, causing greater instability throughout the region. Venezuela is a mixture of drug trafficking, money laundering, terrorism, […]

Imagine a modern city of sleek infrastructure offering the latest technological amenities for its citizens such as sensor crosswalks, free internet, electric traffic monitors, and other futuristic features. This vision of utopia is slowly, but steadily, coming into fruition in several urban cities, most notably in Singapore, Seoul, and New York. Plans to integrate smart […]

Venezuela is facing one of the biggest social collapses in modern history. The combination of economic and political unrest has mobilized millions of Venezuelans to leave their home and families behind to seek a better future, mostly to Latin American countries. With conservative estimates from around 2.6 to 3.4 million, though some reach as far […]

In 2017, Latin America was described by the UN as the world’s most violent continent for women. The assassinations of women activists and community leaders have continued across the region in 2018. While the killing of Marielle Franco, a favela community leader, and the unraveling of government-private enterprise collusion in the 2016 killing of Berta […]

Saturday, June 2nd, 2018, the day I flew back to Mexico City hoping to finally settle here. I had spent two years in Boston, at the Harvard Kennedy School, and before that, another two years at the World Bank, in Washington DC. On Sunday, I went to a committee meeting in my apartment building. The […]

Latin America’s economies are experiencing record growth. The continent’s middle class is expanding, and new jobs are flourishing in the global information economy. Yet, even as people are moving up from extreme poverty, 360 million citizens of Latin America and the Caribbean remain at what is known as the “bottom of the pyramid,” according to […]

In the last twenty years, violence in Latin America has reached staggering levels. Although Latin America and the Caribbean are only 8 percent of the global population, the region accounts for 33 percent of the global homicides.[i] The highly integrated corruption in government and community institutions has resulted in weak rule of law and public […]

Abstract Gender gaps in the labor force take three main forms: participation, job type, and earnings. However, research has shown that increasing women’s participation in the labor force can have a net positive impact on gross domestic product (GDP). One research study estimated a net impact of 9% on Brazil’s GDP if female participation in […]

This past Saturday 25th of February, Thomas E. Pérez became the first Latino to be elected as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The DNC constitutes the governing body for the United States Democratic Party. Among the main activities of the organization are the quadrennial elaboration of a Democratic platform where the central ideas […]

This year has been very shocking for most people given the results of popular voting that have taken place in different countries. The first one was the Brexit, which it seems to have taken by surprise not only general population in Great Britain but also political leaders who never thought people would support the idea […]