November 1, 2009 www.LatinEPR.com
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Honduras Revolution Goes Live on the Web
Radio Globo, one of many Honduran media outlets closed since the ousting of President Manuel Zelaya, is running operations as usual - on the Internet. According to a report in the Christian Science Monitor, the Tegucigalpa radio station, taken off the air this month by the interim government as part of emergency security measures, has not only continued to broadcast via Internet; it has seen its audience grow to 400,000 listeners. This audience increase, four times the regular number, is in actuality even greater when considered that other radio stations are further distributing Radio Globo content.
Needless to say, the Internet presence is frustrating authorities. More importantly, however, it is heralding a new era in Latin America's fight against censorship. The CSM report cites instances in countries like Venezuela, where protesters have organized through social networking site Facebook and dissidents have spoken out using Twitter and blogs. Of course, the same new information age that is throwing government-orchestrated censorship this curve ball is also leaving large sections of the populace in the dark. Among the poor, who do not have access to these new technologies, many still rely on traditional sources like radio, television, and newspapers – here is where government censorship leaves few alternatives.
The National Police has cited “inciting violence” as reasons for shutting down Radio Globo and television station Cholusat Sur. Among its acts of aggression, Radio Globo transmitted Zelaya messages from the Brazilian embassy, where the ousted president remains holed up. But onlookers agree that this is a thinly-veiled excuse for silencing opposition, and even conservative media outlets that disagree with Radio Globo-s pro-Zelaya stance have condemned these tactics in their editorials.
Argentina Rewrites Broadcasting Law
This past month, the Argentine Senate approved a bill that ends decades of broadcasting media monopolies, but has critics afraid it will strengthen government control and curb freedom of the press, the Associated Press has reported. After nearly 20 hours of debate, the law reversing dictatorship-era rulings passed by an overwhelming margin of 44-24. Affected are the company monopolies that have taken hold since the 1970s but which will now to be dissolved by a specially appointed commission.
The strongest hit company is conglomerate Grupo Clarin, which will have to sell off radio stations, television stations, and part of its cable network to comply with new ownership limits. Critics of the new law argue that rather than breaking monopolies, these forced sales increase government censorship - detractors suspect political allies will have first dibs in buying up these media properties. The law, in addition to dissolving monopolies and imposing more frequent license approvals, will also demand that 70% of radio content and 60% of television content be produced in Argentina, with cable TV companies required to carry channels operated by universities, indigenous groups, and other non-governmental groups. Grupo Clarin and other media companies are expected to appeal on the grounds that the new law violates constitutional property rights.
Latam Internet Usage Continues to Rise by 20%
The number of Internet users increased by an average of 20% across Latin America’s major markets – Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico – from August 2008 to August 2009, according to ComScore figures reported this month in Portada magazine. Argentina leads with an annual growth rate of 29%, bringing its user numbers to 11 million. Brazil stands second with 22%, bringing its numbers to 31 million, and Mexico in third with a 14% growth rate allowing for 13 million users.
In respect to online destinations, Google and Microsoft still dominate in Argentina and Mexico, respectively. However the ComScore study finds that the Brazilian market, the largest in the region, is more disposed to use local sites. UOL and Organizacoes Globo remain leading players there, although Brazil telecom, Terra, and Yahoo are catching up, with double the growth rates. In Mexico, only one of the top ten most visited destinations is actually headquartered inside the country – Televisa Digital (its 50% growth rate far exceeded the nation’s average, however.) Conversely, Argentine local player Clarin continues in the top five, but its 3% growth rate is far below the nation’s average.
One website that does seem to be taking the Internet by storm is Taringa.net, an Argentine site that grew 78% at home, while growing 200% in Mexico, where it reached 3 million users. In terms of social networking sites, Argentina prefers Facebook, the third largest online destination there after Google and Microsoft, while Brazilans opt for local Google product Orkut. The Twitter phenomenon has, however, not quite taken root yet – it figures in the top 20 in Brazil, but not in Argentina or Mexico.
Tourism
Avianca-TACA Form Latam’s Largest Airline Network
This October, Colombian airline Avianca and El Salvador’s Grupo TACA reached a merger agreement to become Latin America’s leading airline network, offering a combined 100 destinations, 129-strong aircraft fleet, and four strategic hubs in the region. The new agreement, worth an estimated $3 billion in annual profits, will offer customers improved connection schedules and give the united airlines stronger negotiating power with suppliers. Avianca and Taca will, however, remain separate operating entities, leaving the brand of each company intact. Avianca and Taca are expected to pose stiff competition in South America for current regional leaders LAN, TAM, and Gol, while Copa airlines has already cut prices as a response to the challenge in the Central American market (Inside Costa Rica). But according to Aviation Week, TACA officials insist that the new deal, rather than posing a threat to the control of other national airlines, will stimulate demand and help the slowly recovering industry.
Galapagos Tourism: Expulsions Pit Government Against Citizens
Scientists and wildlife management officials have criticized the Ecuadorean’s government expulsion of the migrant population in the Galapagos Islands, blaming instead the mismanagement of tourism on the islands’ growing ecological concerns, the Aspen Examiner recently reported. In the past year, Ecuador has relocated 1000 migrants from the Galapagos back to the mainland, on the grounds that the rise in population is endangering the island chain’s ecosystem. Arrivals to the archipelago accelerated in the fifties with the rise in tourism, and in modern day offers an attractive standard of living that the mainland can’t provide – 70% higher wages, good schools, housing subsidies, no violent crime. But more people means the unique fauna and flora is under strain, suffering from coastal overfishing, poaching, and invading human-introduced species like rats and fire ants.
Being that the Galapagos Islands are a World Heritage Site, international pressure has persuaded Ecuador to regulate human presence. The government took that to mean regulating migration rather than the lucrative tourism industry, and introduced restrictions that require residents of the islands’ to either be born there or have migrated before 1998. But migration continues to grow precisely because tourism continues to thrive. The real question then, is how, if at all, the government means to address the growing tourism numbers – 150,000 visitors annually, compared to the island population of 30,000. With tourism a vital sector of the country’s economy, President Correa is not likely to cap visitor numbers any time soon. But reports of the unsavory deportations of Ecuador’s own citizens may yet force a compromise.
“Pink Taxis” Hit the Streets of Mexico
The Mexican city of Puebla has launched its own fleet of 35 “pink taxis”, a car service exclusively for women and driven by women that has caught on in cities around the globe from Moscow to Dubai, the Associated Press reported this month. Each car is equipped with a GPS tracking system and an alarm button to increase the customer’s feeling of security. The inclusion of a beauty kit, however, has been criticized by organizations like the Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, which argues that the taxis are propagating the stereotypes of helpless females only interested in their looks. But women on the street are praising the service, glad they no longer have to deal with harassment from male cabbies. On the other side of the wheel, the service offers women an opportunity to enter into a male-dominated profession. The $440,000 program could expand to other cities in Mexico, depending on its success. In Mexico City, a similar service failed in 2007, but there are ‘pink buses’ and women-only subway cars during rush hour.
Economy and Politics
Venezuela: 22-Year Old Student Becomes Face of Resistance
This October, a student protest in Caracas saw thousands rally in the streets, demanding the government allow the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to visit the country and investigate cases of political persecution, the AFP reported. The massive protest is only one in a series of demonstrations which have been staged in recent months, with the ever-growing voice of a grass-roots student movement making the government rethink its strategy against dissidents, and one student’s plight in particular stoking the embers.
Earlier this August, 22-year old student Julio Cesar Rivas was arrested on criminal counts of inciting civil war, after participating in a political demonstration. Arrests of students is a common tactic intended to weaken groups by targeting its most vulnerable members. However, the intensity of the charge sparked a 6-day long hunger strike across university campuses throughout Venezuela, forcing the government to release Rivas in late September after only three weeks in jail. Upon his release, Rivas, who still faces trial, headed straight to the OAS headquarters - which according to the AFP has itself recommended the admittance of the IACHR. Here Rivas joined in the hunger strike in the name of some Venezuela's other political prisoners, estimated at 40, with 2000 more under investigation.
Venezuela's Education Minister has denounced the student movement, dismissing it as a ploy for media attention. And according to Venezuelan Analysis, a local news source, the government’s hesitation to admit the IACHR has less to do with any actual cases of persecution, and more to do with Executive Secretary of IACHR Santiago Canton, who failed to condemn the April 2002 coup. Venezuela is seeking a formal apology and Canton’s dismissal.
General Interest
Remembering Argentine Folk Legend Mercedes Sosa
This October, thousands in Argentina gathered to commemorate folk-singing legend and three-time Grammy winner, Mercedes Sosa, who died in Buenos Aires on October 4, from a heart attack. Sosa was known by many names, including "La Negra", for her long black hair and Indian-French descent, and "voice of the voiceless ones" for her criticisms of military regimes and championing the poor. During the late 1970's, Sosa lived in exile in France, after the government's arrest of her and 200 concert-goers in La Plata made her the object of state surveillance by the notorious "Triple A" death squad. She returned to her native Argentina shortly before the Falkland Islands War and the consequent demise of the Videla regime in 1982. From that time on, Sosa performed internationally to great acclaim and stood as a beacon of human rights. During a career that spanned decades, Sosa completed 70 albums, served as UN Goodwill Ambassador, won 3 Grammy's, and is posthumously nominated for 3 more.
Hispanic Month: Fiesta at the White House
The White House embraced Hispanic Month and became “La Casa Blanca” this October with Fiesta Latina, a Hispanic musical heritage concert on the South Lawn that featured such guests as Gloria Estefan, Eva Longoria, Marc Anthony, George Lopez, and Jose Feliciano, as well as members of Congress and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (AP). The event is part of a concert series held at the White House since 1978, but the first ever to feature Latin music. Because of its scale, Fiesta Latina also abandoned the traditional venue of the East Room, in favor of the outdoors. Said President Obama: “Even though it’s constantly evolving, Latin music speaks to us all in a language we can understand about hope and joy, sorrow and pain, friendship and love. It moves us, and it tends to make us move a little bit ourselves.”
True to his word, the president danced with Mexican singer Thalia and joined performers on stage for an emotional rendition of Estefan’s “Mi Tierra”. The concert event, which also featured a varied menu from Latin American chef Maricel Presilla, was broadcast on PBS, Telemundo, and V-me, exposure which performers hope will integrate Latin music even further into the mainstream. In October, Longoria Parker also joined Emilio Estefan and members of the national Museum of the American Latino Commission to discuss plans for a possible Latino Museum in Washington DC.
Former Colombian Guerillas Unlock Literacy
Former Colombian Guerrillas are helping scientists understand brain functions involved in literacy by serving as subjects in the latest study funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, the Science Daily reported this October. The way in which reading skills develop in the brain has always proved tricky to analyze, because among children, reading occurs simultaneously with other skills, while in adults, illiteracy is often the result of learning impairments or health problems. Former guerrilla fighters being re-integrated into society and learning to read offer unique subjects, in that they represent healthy adults acquiring this one specific skill.
For the research, twenty former guerrillas who had completed a literacy program were examined via MRI scans to reveal which areas of the brain control reading skills and how the areas change as the skills evolve. In addition to finding that reading increased the strength of both grey and white matter, another major conclusion drawn from the research relates to the “angular gyrus”, a connector between areas in the brain. It was previously believed that the angular gyrus translated words into meanings, instead it provides predictions of what the brain expects to see next. In other words, our brains process reading less like dictionaries, and more like mobile phones completing words for the hurried text messager.
