List of Topics

Here is a list of topics already taken by students. I hope it helps to guide you on the search for your topic.

• 1. Armed conflict in Colombia (during the democratic process)
• 2. Dominican Republic's recent withdrawal of citizenship for Haitians
• 3. TIPNIS conflict in Bolivia
• 4. The Brazilian protests against the government and the world cup
• 5. The attempted coup in Ecuador in 2010
• 6. Effects the drug war had on the Mexican Democracy since the election in 2000 (Military, the Justice System, and the Press)
• 7. The student protests in Chile
• 8. Conflict Cajararca/Minas Conga in Peru
• 9. Constitutional conflict(s) in the Bolivian Constitution of 2009
• 10. The Bolivian Water War in April 2000
• 11. Peace Process and Construction of Democracy in El Salvador
• 12. The conflict with Goldcorp Inc. and Guatemalan Society that began in 2008 and had a continuation to the present day 
• 13. The Mensalão scandal in Brazil

The list will be updated as I am told about the topics!

Let's remember that we want to take a look at the democratic process in each country AND how conflict (social, political or economic) plays out within this framework. We want to highlight the tensions within the democratic process.

Update:
Please help me keep the list up to date by paying close attention to the list as it gets filled, as many of you keep on replying to the same email, the thread is so long that subsequent emails run the risk of getting overlooked. So, please, if you don't see your topic reflected, just check with me. Thank you!

Ready to Go

Dear all,

we are ready to go. Everyone has a topic and is working on the presentation. I am looking forward to the seminar on Friday.

One thing to mention is that the IT department at the institute has been having problems with the servers. I am sure you are all aware of it. As far as I understand, they will be working on it this weekend, starting Friday. That should not affect us in any case as we do not need to access anything from the server. Unless, of course, some of you are thinking on saving his or her presentation there. I would suggest to use a USB instead and that should work fine. We have a computer in the room (normally is there) and a beamer. What I do is bring two versions of my presentation in two formats, PDF and PPT.

In addition, but I think I already said that, we will be making a draw to see who will be presenting first and last. So, it will be the luck of the draw for everyone.

If there are any other questions please don't hesitate to either email me or post it on this blog in the commentary sections. I will be made aware in such case.

Until Friday!

New Topic Suggestions

Dear Students,

we have enough Bolivia and Mexico cases, that is why I would like to suggest some other topics:

1. The removal of Fernando Lugo in Paraguay
2. The Mensalao scandal in Brazil
3. The Student protests in Chile
4. Argentine economic crisis (various topics)

Presentation Order

The presentation order will be determined, most likely (if we cannot come to an agreement), by a draw!

I think this will be most fair for everyone.

mb

Alternative Modes of Presentation

Dear Students,

thanks to your very good questions, I have come to think about an alternative mode for preparing and delivering the presentations. Here is the idea, I hope it helps.

If two (no more than two) students are interested in a topic, they can coordinate to prepare and deliver the presentation as follows:

The first presentation would have a country background section (this would be information that is necessary to understand the problem), and a general description of the conflict and how it plays out, and how does it affect the democratic process.

A second presentation might want to concentrate on a particular place (such as a town where the conflict is particularly bad) or a particular time or period of the conflict. This part would illustrate in more detail the conflict and its relation with the democratic process.

If your have suggestions please make use of the comments section.

mb

Latinnews and EIU

For those of you who are looking to know exactly what happen in some specific time in a specific country, the weekly and regional reports of Latinnews and the country reports of the Economist Intelligence Unit can be a good source.

The only problem is that they are available either by subscription (too expensive) or through your library. I would suggest, if you are in need of such material, to ask your librarian if they have a subscription to those services. They can be very useful.

Introduction about Latin America

Here is an interesting video presenting the last United Nations Development Program Report (2013). It gives you some numbers about the degree of development in Latin America (as measured by the UNDP) and through that an idea about the region.

Enjoy!

Other places in Youtube:

The Americas Society/ Council of the Americas has lots of videos about the region and its issues.

More to come...

Resources

This is a list of suggested sources:

For reading

Wikipedia's List of conflicts in South America
Allvoices' South America Conflict and Tragedy news
America's Quarterly
Blog about Latin America (Two Week's Notice)
The Economist's America section
Upsidedown World
Inside on Conflict (about Colombia and Guatemala only)
Latin American Bureau
Washington Office on Latin America
Deutsche Welle Americas
Crisis Group Latin America
Global Voices Latin America

For those of you who want to do a bit more than reading:

Global Conflicts Portal


That is for starters!
I hope to grow the list a bit more. If you have some suggestions please leave them in the comments section. Thank you!

Understanding Social Conflict in Latin America

Here is once again the link to the document I sent around to inspire some topics for presentations.

Its introduction reads:

The Latin American countries with greatest numbers of conflicts are those with broad social inequalities and governments with limited capacity to manage unrest. The report titled Understanding Social Conflict in Latin America reveals that social, institutional and cultural tensions in Latin America are numerous, compared to other regions, and are characterized by a high degree of citizen participation. According to the report, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina were the countries with the highest number of social conflicts (over 200 each), while those with the lowest levels of unrest were Costa Rica, Chile, and El Salvador, with an average of 58 conflicts each.  The report examined more than 2,300 social conflicts in the region by monitoring 54 newspapers in 17 countries between October 2009 and September 2010, and did not cover other conflicts associated with organized crime, drug trafficking, guerrilla movements or wars.

I hope you find it useful!