Railways in Chile

Chilean rail transport is operated entirely by Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Estado (EFE) through subsidiaries. Since creation in 1884, the company expanded to its present monopolistic state. Oddly, Chilean rail gauges are not standardized within the country, although the gauges have been segregated in the north and south of the country. Rail lines in…

US Ambassador Booted from Ecuador Over Wikileaks Incident

United States ambassador Heather Hodges was removed by the administration of Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa on the 4th of April, 2011. A leak revealed by Wikileaks reportedly revealed that a State Department cable implied that Correa appointed a General, Jaime Hurtado, despite having knowledge that Jaime had “used his positions to extort bribes, facilitate human…

Plurinations

Along with Bolivia, Ecuador is a country which recognizes the right of native ethnic groups to assume affiliations within the formal state. In 2009, Bolivia’s controversial constitution formal bestowed this right to it’s indigenous population. In Ecuador, these countries-within-a-country are represented by criollos, mestizos, and Afro-Ecuadorians across the country. Ecuador officially recognized these groups, and granted them certain rights…

Bolivia’s Constitution Disregards the Law

On the 25th of January 2009 Bolivia’s controversial constitution was approved by a reported 61% of voters in a referendum. In response to plans by Bolivian president Evo Morales to redistribute wealth from the more industrialized southern Santa Cruz Department, efforts began in May of 2008 in regions to hold referendums with the intention of…

Bolivian President Scraps Road Into TIPNIS

Caving to pressure from indigenous groups protesting the construction of a much needed infrastructure project running from the north to the south through the heart of the country, Bolivian president Evo Morales said that he would respect opposition by locals and prevent the construction through the park. The road would have run through the Tipnis National Park, and through an…

Colombian Coca Growers Oppose Construction

A consortium of coca growers are opposing construction of a North-South highway which would provide Bolivia with much needed connectivity. The Beni-Cochabamba highway would run from the North to the South and would establish much needed infrastructure to the country’s transportation network. Coca production was recently protected and enshrined in Bolivia’s controversial 2009 constitution as part of Bolivia’s cultural heritage. An energy…

The Persistence of Paraguayan Guaraní

Like many South American countries, Paraguayans have held onto their indigenous language despite modernization in areas such as television, telecommunications, or the internet. An estimated half of the rural population is monolingual, and the majority of the population in Paraguay speaks Guaraní (it is also spoken in parts of Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil). The tenacious hold of the language in what is…

The Battle of Iquique: Then and Today

As he boarded the Peruvian armored monitor Huáscar on May the 21st, 1879 the Chilean navy officer Arturo Prat lead his Chilean crewmen with the shout “Let’s board, boys!” Prat would not survive the battle, but managed to set into motion a path which would have a profound effect on his own country’s future, and geopolitical perceptions between Chile, Peru,…