Broader Latin American Research Articles

It's not about building houses; it's about building people's power: Conversation with Carmen and Andrea from the Movimiento territorial de Liberación (MTL) Buenos Aires

This conversation offers a look into the practices of the Movimiento Territorial de Liberación (MTL), a political and social organization in Argentina. It highlights the organization’s history, values, and significant projects, such as housing developments and community initiatives. Founded in 1999 after a break from the Argentine Communist Party over ideological differences, the MTL has its roots in Marxist-Leninist thought. Their work include building neighborhoods and developing collective housing for those displaced by neoliberal policies. The MTL’s projects go beyond merely providing shelter; they aim to foster a way of life that embodies their values of self-management, solidarity, and resistance against capitalist exploitation. Carmen, a leader within MTL, shares their journey, the challenges faced, and the ideological foundations of their work. Andrea, another key figure, manages finances and emphasizes the importance of transparency and accountability in their operations. The conversation also touches on the broader Latin American and global context, situating MTL's struggle within a larger framework of resistance against neoliberalism and imperialism.

Genetic diversity of the banana Fusarium wilt pathogen in Cuba and across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Fusarium wilt of bananas (FWB) is a severe plant disease that leads to substantial losses in banana production worldwide. It remains a major concern for Cuban banana cultivation. The disease is caused by members of the soil-borne Fusarium oxysporum species complex. However, the genetic diversity among Fusarium species infecting bananas in Cuba has remained largely unexplored. In our comprehensive survey, we examined symptomatic banana plants across all production zones in the country, collecting 170 Fusarium isolates. Leveraging genotyping-by-sequencing and whole-genome comparisons, we investigated the genetic diversity within these isolates and compared it with a global Fusarium panel. Notably, typical FWB symptoms were observed in Bluggoe cooking bananas and Pisang Awak subgroups across 14 provinces. Our phylogenetic analysis revealed that F. purpurascens, F. phialophorum, and F. tardichlamydosporum are responsible for FWB in Cuba, with F. tardichlamydosporum dominating the population. Furthermore, we identified between five and seven distinct genetic clusters, with F. tardichlamydosporum isolates forming at least two subgroups. This finding underscores the high genetic diversity of Fusarium spp. contributing to FWB in the Americas. Our study sheds light on the population genetic structure and diversity of the FWB pathogen in Cuba and the broader Latin American and Caribbean regions.

Community Psychiatry in a Latin American Context: Perú as a Case Example

Background: Historical and conceptual issues related to community psychiatry as an innovative approach to clinical assistance across the world, precede a more or less detailed examination of its presence, role and current accomplishments in Latin America, particularly related to child and adolescent subpopulations. Information about transition processes from the traditional hospital-centered model to the community-based approach, applicable mental health policies, levels of implementation and quality of the available reports in different countries, are duly evaluated. Objective: Within an understanding of the broader Latin American context, the paper describes the situation in Perú, a country considered representative of the Low and Middle Income (LMIC) group in the subcontinent. Methods: The situation in Perú is presented with particular emphasis on a recently established community-based mental health centers program across its territory. Results: This description includes consideration of variables such as personal, family and identity empowerment, a focus on integrated care, and clinical outcomes and community relations. The development of community mental health centers across Perú is described. Conclusion: Adolescents represent the unique future of socio-culturally diverse Latin American countries, and must be the target population of well-conceived, cohesive community mental health policies and programs. The importance of political will to promote community health centers that provide adolescents access to services is critical.

Trans-border Friendships and Strategic Inclinations: Some Insights on the Molecular Emergence of Subversion in Chile

Abstract In the last 30 years, Chile has crowned itself as one of the most singular, sophisticated, and cruel reference points of the global neoliberal laboratory. This article delves into the conceptual thinking of that laboratory by investigating the formation of an emotive-financial consensus based on the operation of institutionalizing sadism and a masochism of merit that profits from the affective destruction of collective intelligence. It situates this dystopic Chilean reality within the broader Latin American context, where the delicate administration of crisis and fear exposes the affective inclinations of persistence and resistance.

Questioning the Conditional Visibility of the Chinese

Abstract Despite a long history of Chinese presence in Chile and the Americas, the Chinese tend to remain in a state of conditional visibility. Questioning the paradoxical ubiquity and invisibility of expressions of Chineseness in the physical and cultural landscape of Santiago, we examine cultural and discursive processes of (re)production that contribute to this scenario. Informed by understandings of identity and contextualized by the history of the Chinese presence in Chile, we consider the diverse ways in which Chinese people and Chineseness are portrayed on Chilean television and in films and theatre plays. We examine how these representations enable forms of subordination and silencing, and/or highlight the agency of Chinese persons. We show that while Chineseness and Chinese people are typically depicted as one-dimensional and incomprehensible, some productions visibilize and problematize such empty stereotypes. Finally, we demonstrate how these representations resignify Chineseness in a broader Latin American and global context.

Book review: Violence, Coercion, and State-Making in Twentieth-Century Mexico: The Other Half of the Centaur, by Wil G. Pansters (ed.)

Wil G. Pansters (ed.) Violence, Coercion, and State-Making in Twentieth-Century Mexico: The Other Half of the Centaur, Stanford University Press, Redwood City, CA, 2012; 400 pp: 9780804781589, US$62(hbk) Mexico is still in crisis. Even if violent incidents have partly disappeared from the news since the PRI took power again in 2012, homicides have only been reduced slightly, and abductions are on the rise (Aristegui Noticias 2013). This security crisis invites us to pose new questions about Mexican state formation, and challenges what have until now been common grounds. This remarkable volume, edited by Wil G. Pansters, challenges accounts in transition studies according to which, by cleverly devised mechanisms, the Mexican governments achieved a largely peaceful transition from the authoritarian state party system of the PRI to democracy, albeit still remaining 'flawed'. It is not only precisely the parallel movement towards party plurality and more visible insecurity (p. 9), but also the electoral return to a PRI government in 2012 that emphasise this critique. Pansters aims to examine 'the interconnections and historical roots of different dimensions, actors, and manifestations of violence, coercion, and insecurity in relation to broader processes of state-making' (p. 6). Violence, thus, even if often dismissed from historical accounts of post-revolutionary Mexico as a 'dark side' (p. 8) or simply as marginal, is nonetheless essential for state formation processes in Mexico after 1910. In fact, Pansters suggests (p. 8), the emphasis on inclusive, co-opting mechanisms might have exaggerated Mexicos role as a Latin American exception and hindered a systematic analysis of violence in Mexican state-making; ultimately, it tends to underestimate the role of violence during PRI times, and to overestimate the violence, illegal economy and conflict we observe today. The so-called paxpriista--the relative stability during decades of PRI rule--therefore, might not have been all that peaceful. And by no means are forms of violence in Mexico such as torture, disappearances, and homicide new destructive practices produced solely from within the 'narco' sphere and clearly separated from the state. Partial overlaps between police and narco organisations are not entirely new, either. Accordingly, the authors try to dismantle the mainstream depiction of the Mexican state as a unitary, corporatist colossus' (p. 29) and instead, based on a Gramscian understanding of the state, stress four fields of study: violence and coercion on a national and regional/local level, and hegemonic processes on both scales as well. A body of nine texts divided into three sections is framed by an introductory essay (Part I) by the editor, and a concluding chapter by Koonings (Part V), who positions the Mexican case within a broader Latin American context. Each of the three main sections (Parts II-IV) contains three chapters. Part II focuses on three 'pillars of state-making'--borders, policing, and the army--covering large parts of the 20th century. Part III concerns a field that is usually neglected: the grey zone between state and non-state actors, state-crime relations and the production of illegalities following new accumulation strategies on a global scale. Part IV focuses on the state-society relation, including issues such as corporatist mechanisms and clientelism, but again looking at these from unusual angles. Pansters offers a systematic analysis of violence and coercion framed by Gramscian concepts, and one aware of diverging theories on the state. The consequential historical perspective compels him to integrate historical peculiarities of Latin American state formation processes. A processual understanding of Gramsci's concept of hegemony allows for relating historical dynamics of state and society, class and violence (p. 26). While Pansters differentiates analytically between 'zones of coercion' and 'zones of hegemony/ consent' (p. …