Recent opinion articles on Latin America

Over the past few weeks many op/ed pieces have appeared in the press regarding Latin America. Here’s a small sample of some of them starting with a negative stereotypical view on the region:

• “Latin America or Southern Europe?”- Let’s see if I get this straight: Hungarian magazine HVG describes the chaos in their country and comes up with the conclusion that increased violence and abuse of authority is following “the Latin American script.” Tell me, Mr. Pelle, how do you say “yellow journalism” in Hungarian?
• On the other hand, an editorial from The Times of India suggested that India should pursue stronger economic and political ties with Latin America.
• Marcela Sanchez’ latest column in the Washington Post examined the pluses and minuses of Brazilian president’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s policies as he’s seemingly on the way for reelection this year.
• Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer bemoaned the Republican Party’s push towards “courting…the xenophobic right” through anti-immigrant measures such as proposing increased fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. Add to that former Republican congressmen Dick Armey’s opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal which denounced the political “demagoguery” that “blocks a serious solution to our nation’s border security problems.”
• Columnist James Pinkerton’s piece in last Friday’s Christian Science Monitor looked at a recently-released anti-immigration documentary that emphasizes border security and the need for immigrants in the U.S. to assimilate.
• The Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby reflected on Hugo Chavez’ infamous speech to the U.N. last week and noted that “Chavez is no a fool” in spite of his inflammatory rhetoric.

Links- HVG (Hungary), OC Register (U.S.), Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Times of India, Andrew Sullivan (blog)

Image- Zona Latina (Newsstand in Mexico City).

Tags- journalism, Latin America