July 28th commemorates Peru’s independence from the Spanish Empire in Spain in 1821. Libertador José de San Martín was born in what is now Argentina, and would become the primary leader for the southern region of South America during its successful struggle for independence. Having distinguished himself in several battles against Napoleon, he would go…
Central America is comprised the seven nations of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. The combined GDP of these tropical nations is a total of $165,400 million USD according to the CIA World Factbook. Let’s put that in perspective. Canada had a GDP of approximately $1,759,000 million USD in 2011, or…
Chilean airline LAN Airlines S.A. is a national institution, founded March 5, 1929. The airline is one of the most recognizable brands in Chile, and from 1994 to 2010, the majority shareholder was Chile’s sitting president, Sebastián Piñera (he made good on campaign promised to sell his interests to avoid any conflicts of interest while…
On Friday, the Constitutional Court of Colombia approved a proposal from the government to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, and also included cocaine as a narcotic permissible for personal use. Defense Minister Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro recently submitted a plan to the government a plan to legalize the sale of marijuana in Uruguay through government controlled…
Defense Minister Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro has submitted a plan to the government a plan to legalize the sale of marijuana through government controlled outlets. Revenues would be used to fund rehabilitation programs. Several countries throughout Latin America have recently legalized small amounts of marijuana, including Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Fernández Huidobro noted that it is…
Fernando Lugo was elected president of Paraguay in 2008. His election was particularly notable, as it marked the first time in the history of Paraguay that any ruling party had peacefully transferred their power to an opposing candidate. The “Colorado Party” had been in power for 61 years before Fernando’s election. As Paraguay’s second leftist…
Initiated in 2004 as a pet project of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América started as a pact between the impoverished nation of Cuba, and Venezuela. The pact started as a simple partnership between communist Cuba, and fascist Venezuela. Under the initial agreement, Venezuela basically exchanged about 96,000…
Bolivia has a history with Chile. During the War of the Pacific, Bolivia and Peru united against Chile from 1879 through 1883. Being on the losing side of the war, Bolivia lost direct access to the Pacific. According to the Treaty of Peace and Friendship signed by Bolivia in 1904, Bolivia lost territory previously connecting…
Bolivia, Ecuador Nicaragua, and Venezuela are no strangers to anti-Western posturing. Recently, the nations have been cozying up to the Islamic nation Iran while simultaneously touting increasingly populist rhetoric, and implementing draconian policies such as disarming law abiding citizens in Venezuela, flouting national laws in Nicaragua, or attacks on the press in Ecuador. Last Tuesday,…
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