-
Life in Plastic, It’s Fantastic!
Sitting by a pool in Cali, my eyes were suddenly fixated on a woman walking by. Something just didn’t seem right about her – and then it hit me: I had just witnessed my first surgically enhanced butt. Before coming to Colombia, I did not know that this was a phenomenon, particularly in Medellín and ...
-
Will Argentine rugby be willing to reap the benefits of 2012?
On 18 August 2012 the Argentine national rugby team, los Pumas, will play South Africa in Cape Town, an event that will mark their long-awaited entry into an annual international tournament. Until now, Argentina has been the only high performance national team to have never competed in a yearly international tournament. In Europe, England, ...
-
Politics and the Environment in Nicaragua and Panamá
With Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s recent launch of Ecological Battalions, the green that has come to typify military wear now stretches beyond the realm of the army’s attire and into that of their mission. Ecological Battalions, composed of 580 army men and women, have been entrusted with the gargantuan task of “protecting the natural resources ...
-
Disaster in Torres del Paine the result of human negligence.
Eight hundred hectares of Chile’s most beautiful national park have been consumed by flames over the last four days. Torres del Paine, located in the Magallanes region of Chilean Patagonia and immensely popular with backpackers, is still burning on new year’s eve. Highly combustible vegetation, winds of up to 45 miles per hour and the ...
-
Argentinian football rears its ugly head once more
Another abandoned match, yet another death. Football in Argentina continues to bring about all forms of criminal activity amongst those who follow it, including murder. These days it appears that a standard Argentinian first division match rarely produces much football. A fixture last week between the bottom two clubs in the division, Banfield and Estudiantes ...
-
‘Protest against human rights violations violently repressed by the police’ – has nobody noticed the irony?
On Monday, Santiago de Chile’s leafy borough of Providencia was unexpectedly disturbed by loud protests, tear gas and violent clashes with members of the police. As a prosperous and largely residential ‘comuna’, this area has managed to stay out of the firing line of protests over the last six months. Surprisingly, it was Providencia’s mayor ...
-
Hacking Away: the windy path to becoming a foreign correspondent
As the sports fans among you may know, Guadalajara played host to the 16th Pan American Games last month, a showcase for some of the Western hemisphere’s best athletes and in many cases a qualifying round for the London 2012 Olympics. As a local journalist, it presented a great opportunity for me to gain some ...
-
Bolivia shock Argentina in Qualifier
Most had Argentina’s tie with Bolivia last Friday nailed on as a home win. However it took a goal from substitute Ezequiel Lavezzi of Napoli to earn the albiceleste a hard fought draw at home to a Bolivian side ranked 105 places below them on the current FIFA rankings. Argentina, boasting the likes of Messi, ...
-
What Dimbleby did not tell us about Chile
It is certainly rare to see Latin America take centre stage on primetime TV in the UK. September’s documentary series A South American Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby was, then, a golden opportunity for one of the BBC’s veteran broadcasters to shed light onto what has become of the region over recent years to a mainstream audience. ...