Author Archive for Jacob Ertel

Paraguay Opens Up to Unregulated Foreign Investment

July 31, 2012
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Paraguay Opens Up to Unregulated Foreign Investment

After the impeachment of the center-left Catholic Bishop Fernando Lugo from the presidency last month, Federico Franco, the new president of Paraguay, has taken some vast and controversial measures to open the country up to unregulated foreign investment. According to the Inter Press Service News Agency:

Franco named Jaime Ayala, the president of...
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Obama Hesitant to Push for More Union Workers’ Rights in Colombia

July 31, 2012
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Obama Hesitant to Push for More Union Workers’ Rights in Colombia

To say it is difficult to be a union worker in Colombia would be a massive understatement. Ravaged by paramilitary violence and corrupt governments for almost 50 years, union workers in Colombia face unprecedented challenges; they are threatened and sometimes even killed for attempting to unionize and protect their rights. According to upsidedownworld.org,...
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#YoSoy132 Photo Essay

July 9, 2012
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#YoSoy132 Photo Essay

The #YoSoy132 movement is broadening its scope beyond Mexico. On June 30th, many Mexican-Americans living in New York held a "symbolic vote" for Mexico's president in the city's Union Square. As the North American Congress on Latin America reports, the movement is focused on "the democratization of the country’s political system and the...
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An Unknown Side of Hemingway is Unveiled

July 8, 2012
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An Unknown Side of Hemingway is Unveiled

Many readers young and old are familiar with Ernest Hemingway's classic novel, A Farewell to Arms. Few, however, may be completely aware of the painstaking revision Hemingway underwent in writing the ending to his famed novel, reworking its final lines at least 37 times before deciding on the final version. Now, 83 years the...
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What is to Come of the #YoSoy132 Movement?

July 6, 2012
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What is to Come of the #YoSoy132 Movement?

The #YoSoy132 movement (coined by sensationalist pundits as "the Mexican Spring") was a crucial news story in the month of June. With Mexico's presidential election drawing near, the movement's criticism of Enrique Peña Nieto and unjust media coverage garnered much attention over the past month, attracting comparisons to both the Arab Spring and the...
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Théo Francos (1914-2012): An International Brigade hero

July 5, 2012
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Théo Francos (1914-2012): An International Brigade hero

Théo Francos, who died a couple of days ago (obit in El País here), may have been a French communist, but he was also a war hero, fighting in the international brigades and risking his life in the Spanish Civil War. Six years after an article about Francos was published in El...
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The Importance of Advertising to Latinos in the Upcoming U.S. Presidential Elections

July 2, 2012
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The Importance of Advertising to Latinos in the Upcoming U.S. Presidential Elections

With over 21.3 million registered voters, it is clear that the United States' Latino population will have a significant impact in the upcoming presidential elections this November. At the same time, both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have faltered in their respective advertising campaigns when it comes to marketing themselves to Latino voters. While...
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Enrique Peña Nieto Is Mexico’s New President

July 2, 2012
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Enrique Peña Nieto Is Mexico’s New President

Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) has won the Mexican presidential election, beating out Andres Lopez Manuel Obrador of the Leftist Party with a plurality of 38 percent of the vote. The election of Peña Nieto signifies Mexico's frustration with the weak agenda of current president Felipe Calderrón of the PAN...
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Ex Argentine Dictator Awaits His Sentence, Insults Pregnant Women

June 29, 2012
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Ex Argentine Dictator Awaits His Sentence, Insults Pregnant Women

This past Tuesday, Jorge Rafael Videla, the ex Argentine dictator who ruled from 1976 to 1983, gave his final words in his court case regarding the theft of babies from pregnant women during the country's Dirty War. According to elpais.com, the 86 year-old Videla used this platform as a means for insulting the...
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Spanish Liberals and Intellectuals Promote Writers’ Conference

June 29, 2012
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Spanish Liberals and Intellectuals Promote Writers’ Conference

This coming fall, many renowned Spanish liberals and intellectuals will be promoting and celebrating a so-called Conference of Writers, Intellectuals, and Artists for the Compromise. The conference is set to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the "legendary Second International Writers' Conference for the Defense of Culture, which in the summer of 1937 met...
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