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New Dawn or a False Hope for Mexico

This issue, edited by Verónica Silva and Jorge Márquez, offers an assessment of how the “Fourth Transformation” of AMLO has responded to the catastrophes left behind by the utterly failed neoliberal policies of the preceding decades. The authors address significant questions such as: Will it provide an effective bulwark against the return of neoliberalism in whatever form it may reinvent itself or will this latest pivot to the left stumble and succumb to the interests of capital, domestic and global? Indeed, what is the left nowadays, what are the prospects for a broad, successful resurgence, and is AMLO’s brand anything but left? What are the important economic, political, cultural, and ideological fault lines that we should think deeply about?Their contributions, including struggles over water privatization, PEMEX, mining concessions, and earthquake recovery, highlight the danger of confusing incremental improvements in isolated areas of economic and political life with a larger and self-sustaining transformation.  They critically examine the relationship of a weakened state to big capital and criminal organizations and offer varying perspectives ranging from considering Obradorismo as a domesticated, neoliberal populism “looking for the love of big capital” to viewing AMLO’s friendly policies toward some large capitalists as a pragmatic policy [...]

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Political Report #1465 “Those Who Are Poor, Die Poor” | Notes on The Chilean Elections

by LAP Editor, Jeffery R. WebberPosted by SPECTRE Journal Premature obituaries of Chilean neoliberalism abound on the heels of the December 19 run-off presidential election. Gabriel Boric of Apruebo Dignidad (Approve Dignity, AD) – a coalition of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front, FA) and the Partido Comunista de Chile (Communist Party of Chile, PCC) – secured a surprisingly robust victory over his far-right opponent, José Antonio Kast (aka, JAK), of Frente Social Cristiano (Christian Social Front, FSC) – a coalition of Kast’s Partido Republicano (Republican Party, PR) and the Partido Conservador Cristiano (Christian Conservative Party, PCC).1 Boric took 55.9 percent of the popular vote to Kast’s 44.1 percent, with 1.2 million more people voting in the second round than in the first contest in November. That put voter turnout at 56 percent, the highest of any presidential election since 2012, when voting was made voluntary.2 The result represents a serious setback for forces of the far right in Chile, and, indeed, the region more generally – it wasn’t good news for Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, for example, who faces elections in 2022 that he was already likely to lose to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (“Lula”).Scenes of elation on streets across Chile [...]

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Urban Latin America: Part 2: Planning Latin American Cities: Dependencies and “Best Practices”

Urban Latin America: Part 2: Planning Latin American Cities: Dependencies and “Best Practices” Issue #: 213  | Volume #: 44  | Number #: 2 Date: March 2017 Interviewer: Tomas Ocampo Interviewees: Tom Angotti and Clara Irazábal Short Description: Urban planning in Latin America reflects the historic dependencies and inequalities of peripheral capitalism. These were amplified by recent neoliberal reforms in housing, transportation and social policy. This issue looks critically at urban reforms in these areas, the role of social movements and the emergence of “best practices” including social urbanism, bus rapid transit, bicycle infrastructure, and participatory budgeting, with more to come in the next LAP issue. LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES is a theoretical and scholarly journal for discussion and debate on the political economy of capitalism, imperialism, and socialism in the Americas. For more than forty years, it has published timely, progressive analyses of the social forces shaping contemporary Latin America. http://latinamericanperspectives.com

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Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Latin America

Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Latin America Issue #: 217  | Volume #: 44 |  Number #: 6 Date: November 2017 Interviewer: Alexander Scott Interviewees: Daniela Issa Short Description: Modern slavery and human trafficking affect an estimated 1.8 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean today yet remain significantly understudied given their devastating human consequences. This issue addresses this gap in the slavery and trafficking scholarship by taking a critical look at it across the region and situating it within the transnational capitalist economy. Articles include theoretical analyses of the phenomenon as well as recruitment practices, populations susceptible to being enslaved/trafficking, and the role of violence. Additionally, it seeks to provide regional balance in the literature on slavery and trafficking in Latin America, which has disproportionately centered on Brazil; it highlights three underresearched areas—slavery outside Brazil, nonsexual slavery, and smugglers/traffickers rather than victims exclusively. LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES is a theoretical and scholarly journal for discussion and debate on the political economy of capitalism, imperialism, and socialism in the Americas. For more than forty years, it has published timely, progressive analyses of the social forces shaping contemporary Latin America. http://latinamericanperspectives.com

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Migration, Regional Traditions, and the Intricacy of Documentary Representation in Cuates de Australia and La chica del sur

Review by: Tomás Crowder-Taraborrelli Approaches to telling a story are, of course, abundant. Latin American filmmakers borrow from all kinds of artistic traditions—literature, pop music, the plastic arts, home movies, etc. What makes this borrowing both draining and stimulating is that the web offers an excess of examples to draw from. Further, digital production and online distribution are cultivating a new kinship among filmmakers, visual traditions, and viewers across the world. This is a daunting realization that the current crop of young filmmakers is trying to grapple with. Two recent documentary films from Mexico and Argentina bring the topic of social and cultural migration into focus, giving international audiences the opportunity to enter otherwise inaccessible worlds. Cuates de Australia (Drought) from Mexico and La chica del sur (The Girl from the South) from Argentina display contrasting approaches to portraying the hardships of relocation. Both documentaries follow their protagonists’ journeys from the place they call home to an unfamiliar land and their bittersweet return. Cuates de Australia, directed by Everardo González, is an enigmatic film. It goes out of its way to remain removed from its subject, but it cannot help but become enamored of its own rendition of it. This essential [...]

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Latin American Perspectives, founded in 1974, is a theoretical and scholarly journal for discussion and debate on the political economy of capitalism, imperialism, and socialism in the Americas. Most issues focus on a single problem, nation, or region, providing an in-depth look from participants and scholars throughout the Americas.

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Alfredo Saad Filho — "SOAS, University of London" “Latin American Perspectives is the most important resource available providing in-depth progressive analyses of developments in Latin America. It is the unmissable Journal!”
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