In 2020, we took a deep dive into U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean, the idea of a Green New Deal for the Americas, public health and the pandemic across the region, and all things Central America in our quarterly print issues of the NACLA Report. Online, we covered the social and economic issues emerging from the pandemic, protests in Peru, elections in Bolivia, the plebiscite in Chile, policing, environmental issues, child migration, and much more.
Here are NACLA’s editors' picks of the year’s most memorable web pieces. Support our work to help us bring you more quality stories and analysis in 2021.
The Inversion of Human Rights in Brazil
Jacob Blanc (January 2020)
A dictatorship-era torturer is suing one of his victims in Brazil in a stark reminder of how Bolsonaro emboldens rights abusers. Read more.
The Stain that Mardi Gras Covers Up: Worker Vulnerability in New Orleans
Sarah Fouts and Deniz Daser (February 2020)
The October collapse of the Hard Rock Hotel building project in New Orleans demonstrates the city's willingness to ignore widespread labor precarity. Read more.
Rethinking Sargassum Seaweed: The New Normal in Jamaica?
Pietra Brown (March 2020)
Blooms of smelly and unsightly sargassum seaweed have impacted the tourism industry across the Caribbean. Now, solutions must balance environmental factors and local livelihoods. Read more.
A History of Inconvenient Allies and Convenient Enemies
Alexander Aviña (April 2020)
Recent narco-terrorism charges against Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro form part of a longer history of U.S. empire using drugs to advance geopolitical goals. Read more.
Corona Hits the Cocaine Supply Chain
Linda Farthing and Thomas Grisaffi (May 2020)
The global pandemic has destabilized the delicate balance in the Andes that the mercurial drug trade relies on. Read more.
Dismantling Anti-Blackness Together
Lorgia García-Peña (JUNE)
Two struggles—Black liberation and immigrant rights—are intertwined and must be confronted together, which means acknowledging there is racism in the project of Latinidad. Read more.
Local Paper Covers Pandemic Impact in Queens
Edna Negrón (June 2020)
At a time when community papers are dwindling across the country, Queens Latino is an essential resource on the Covid crisis in New York's most impacted borough. Read more.
Costa Rica’s Covid-19 Response Scapegoats Nicaraguan Migrants
María Jesús Mora (July 2020)
A wave of the coronavirus hitting Costa Rica’s agriculture and construction industries—both heavily reliant on migrant labor—has sparked an uptick in xenophobia against Nicaraguan migrants. Read more.
Seeds of Hope in Uncertain Times
Valeria García López and David Greenwood-Sánchez (October 2020)
Increased demand for seeds during Covid-19 shows the need for stronger, decentralized seed systems in Latin America and the United States. Read more.
Joshua Frens-String (October 2020)
Chileans are determined to reinvent how democracy is practiced, starting with a new constitution. Read more.
A New Era of Protest Rocks Peru
Verónica Hurtado Lozada (November 2020)
After President Martín Vizcarra’s impeachment, decentralized networks broke through Peru’s fragmented political landscape and mobilized unprecedented protests. Read more.
Guatemalan Child Refugees Then and Now
Rachel Nolan (November 2020)
Tens of thousands of Guatemalan children sought refuge in Mexico during the country’s civil war, a history often overlooked in today’s discussion of child migration. Read more.
