Latin America

LAB partner Latino Life, is 25 years old this year (and its . A Latina-run organization, festival and website, it is a wonderful resource for the UK's thriving Latin American communities, and the rapidly growing and ever more diverse audiences who are inspired by the liveliness and optimism of Latin American culture, especially its music. Latino Life founder Amaranta Wright describes the growth of this phenomenon, since a chance meeting in a salsa club in 2001.

A new and timely LAB book by anthropologist and environmental rights researcher Jan Schulz, will examine the importance of The Rights of Nature in the battle to defend Indigenous territories in Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. It explains the origins of this concept, its profound challenge to the 'resources to be exploited by humans' approach to nature, and documents the ways it is being used today with growing success by Indigenous and other rural communities.

A lot has happened in the region – and the world – since we last wrote to you.A week ago, we woke to the...

Jenny Pearce on De la Espriella's victory and her new book ¿Quién manda en Colombia?

Fishing communities in Brazil are demanding legal recognition of 'marétorios' as Marine Spatial Planning and offshore wind expansion threaten traditional territories and livelihoods in the Amazônia Azul.

As Belém prepared for COP30, urban redevelopment projects deepened long-standing inequalities between the city centre and the baixadas, where rivers continue to disappear beneath concrete channels. Written before COP30 all the issues remain valid today for Belém and other cities hosting major international events.

Dear MikeIn place of our regular newsletter, we’re coming to you with something a bit different this month – a request for help.Mike, we...

Debates on impunity for people convicted of heinous crimes against humanity are acquiring a new urgency in Chile, where the Senate has approved a measure which would allow convicted prisoners over the age of 70 to serve their sentences under house arrest, or have them suspended. Trials and judgements reached in Germany and Holland may provide relevant parallels.

COP30 in Belém raised hopes that the Amazon would finally move to the centre of global climate action. While governments agreed to expand adaptation finance and launch new forest-protection initiatives, binding commitments on deforestation, fossil fuels and Indigenous land rights remained absent. As Brazil hosted the climate summit in the heart of the rainforest, the gap between diplomatic ambition and enforceable protection became stark.

In an impassioned article, LAB author Marcos Colón denounces the double-standards afflicting the mainstream press in Brazil, prompt to condemn those who defend the Amazon, its rivers and people as radicals and vandals, while they hail the confidence, predictability and business-friendly character of projects to dredge rivers and construct massive ports for exporting soya.