For many people throughout much of the world today, the terms “Amazon” and “rain forest” are synonymous—indeed, it seems as if the two must have always intertwined. However, while this much-invoked realm of shimmering, fragile nature, together with its ferocious jungle alter ego, does have deep roots in the past, its present-day incarnation has much to do with the global environmental movement that began emerging in the 1960s and has continued to morph over time. This article examines contemporary representations of the Amazon with an eye to what is now changing, as well as why. It underscores the key role that these depictions play in shaping policy, which gives them an importance far transcending purely narrative concerns.

In 2008 Bolivia ceased to benefit from US trade preferences, which resulted in thousands of jobs lost thoroughout the country. Without the political will to initiate a trade agreement with the United States, the Morales administration has the opportunity to initiate a trade agreement with the European Union. This study evaluates macro- and microeconomic impacts emerging from a hypothetical trade agreement between Bolivia and the European Union. Our methodology consisted of using a computable general equilibrium model as price generator, and a micro-simulation approach as a bridge to transmit those price changes to the household level under two liberalization scenarios. We conclude that Bolivia could benefit if a trade agreement with the European Union (the second largest importer of goods in the world) is accomplished.

Decentralization has been considered a tool of democracy promotion because of its ability to improve citizen participation and increase equity by allocating resources to long-neglected populations. I examine these claims by focusing on decentralization's effects for indigenous and Afro-Latino individuals in fifteen Latin American countries. Using AmericasBarometer survey data provided by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP), I first analyze how the inclusion of ethnic citizens in local government affects attitudes that are considered crucial for democratic consolidation, such as satisfaction with democratic governance. I then assess whether decentralization has increased inclusion by examining how political, fiscal, and administrative decentralization affect ethnic individuals' participation and engagement in local government. The analyses demonstrate the limits of decentralizing reforms for democratization. I find that the inclusion of marginalized citizens is not substantially enhanced by decentralization, which is especially important given the other significant result of this study: that local inclusion increases ethnic individuals' support for democracy. The results suggest that individual reserves of social capital may be most important for enhancing local inclusion, and hence support for democracy.

En las fronteras indígenas del Río de la Plata y Chile meridional, principalmente en la primera, la comunicación interétnica estuvo condicionada para las autoridades coloniales por una endémica escasez de lenguaraces e intérpretes, de quienes dependían debido a su habitual desconocimiento del mapu dungum, lengua del sur del reino de generalizada utilización en el siglo XVIII por todos los grupos nativos de la región. Con relación a estos últimos, en cambio, no son pocos los casos documentados de personas que habían incorporado el habla de Castilla (o español como se la denominaba) y la utilizaban en actividades de mediación —inclusive por circunstancial requerimiento de la administración— y de inteligencia. En este artículo, se examinan las distintas maneras en que los oficiales reales, los sacerdotes y especialmente los hombres y mujeres indígenas enfrentaron y resolvieron las dificultades inherentes a la adquisición de ambas lenguas y a las demandas de intermediación.

How are patterns of delegation between the president and the legislature chosen in multiparty presidential regimes? How do political actors make strategic use of legislative provisions during moments of institutional reform? This essay explores causal mechanisms related to these questions based on a case study of Brazilian budget reform from 1999 to 2008. The main findings are that legislative agenda control can be decisive for the maintenance of delegation patterns that favor governing coalitions; entrepreneurs have a real, but limited, power; and the strategic use of legislative rules may be as relevant for institutional reform as they are for regular policy making.

This article examines the breadth and depth of anti-Americanism in contemporary Latin America. Using individual-level data from 2012, we employ regression analysis to understand why some Latin American citizens are more likely than others to distrust the government of the United States. By examining the attitudes of citizens of countries that are part of different groupings—such as the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas and the Pacific Alliance—we find great variation in the levels and predictors of anti-Americanism. While citizens' ideology is a common predictor in most countries, other variables such as the receipt of remittances, the perception of insecurity, and nationalism appear as predictors in only some. Furthermore, although there is a positive correlation between presidential approval and anti-Americanism in countries where leaders have an overtly anti-American discourse, this relationship disappears in countries where the president is perceived as neutral, and it is inverse in countries where the president is perceived as pro-American.

Latin American global cities have embraced international tourism as a pillar of economic development. Even as tourism has recently grown dramatically, some cities have succeeded and others have failed at capturing international tourists and delivering benefits to the population. This article examines the role of new public institutions (tourism ministries) and social structure from 2000 to 2010 in Buenos Aires, Havana, and Rio de Janeiro. Based on extensive fieldwork and interviews, the evidence shows that both policy choices and social structure shape the composition of international tourism. Prospect theory and economic crisis help explain the emergence of entrepreneurial and innovative bureaucracies. Buenos Aires is an example of innovative inclusive tourism, Havana exhibits innovative disarticulated tourism, and Rio de Janeiro features stagnant urban enclave tourism.

The laborante was a revolutionary identity of the Ten Years' War that represented those who worked clandestinely in favor of Cuban independence. The repeated invocation of the term did not emerge from a single print source, nor was its usage evolutionary such that each reference responded to a previous one. Instead, writers appropriated the term to represent anticolonial advocates from diverse sectors of Cuba's socioeconomic strata and to grapple with shifting identities. A Latinate term for “worker,”laborante intimates the changing dynamic between elites, the working class, and slaves. This article examines the uses of laborante to show how Cuban identity was negotiated in different but related moments. It also explores why elites may have cultivated the worker, a figure of limited economic power, to represent their aspirations for increased political freedom, and what this implies about the agents of the revolution.

Although racial injustice and inequality are widely acknowledged in Brazil, recent experimental research concludes that citizens there do not rely on racial cues when voting. In this article, we test for the impact of candidate race on vote choice. We find evidence of identity-based voting in Brazil that interacts with ballot size. When facing a short ballot with only a few candidates, most subjects chose candidates without regard to race or color. But when presented with a large ballot with many candidates, white and brown subjects show a significant preference for same-race candidates. Self-identified black subjects, however, demonstrated a strong and consistent preference for black candidates regardless of choice set size. These results are particularly important given Brazil's electoral rules that provide voters with overwhelming numbers of candidates from which to choose.

La migración no sólo representa un desplazamiento de habitantes, bienes tangibles y simbólicos, o que crea transformaciones, a su vez, produce una constante desterritorialización y reterritorialización de percepciones, sentimientos y memorias. Estos procesos representan una interrupción o un quiebre en los proyectos de vida e identidades. La comunidad de San Cristóbal se “construye” afrocolombiana como un camino de resistencia a las amenazas perceptibles de desplazamiento. En San Cristóbal, la amenaza por la desterritorialización es el principal detonante de los procesos actuales de construcción de identidad. Su tránsito de campesinos a afrocolombianos está anclado en el factor espacial. En consecuencia, su experiencia demuestra que el territorio se convierte en parte esencial de la identidad, donde los lugares y los espacios toman significados históricos en la creación de los discursos identitarios.

This article analyzes whether public investment has crowded out private investment in Bolivia during the 1988–2010 period. The evidence demonstrates that this is generally the case, as public investment has been shown to consistently run counterclockwise to private investment. Interestingly, the quality of the institutional setting and the openness of the economy to trade with other nations do not seem to matter to the relation between public investment and private investment. The findings suggest, however, that increases in domestic credit to the private sector lessen the crowding-out effect, which calls attention to the importance of a stable and healthy financial system as a way to encourage private investment.