ESPN Latin America
Launched	1989
Network	Cable Television Network
Owned by	The Walt Disney Company (80%) Hearst Corporation (20%)
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 720p (HDTV)
Language	Spanish
Broadcast area	Argentina  Bolivia  Chile  Colombia  Costa Rica  Dominican Republic  Ecuador  El Salvador  Guatemala  Honduras  Mexico  Nicaragua  Panama  Paraguay  Peru  Uruguay  Venezuela
Sister channel(s)	ESPN2, ESPN3
Website	www.espndeportes.com

ESPN Latin America is an ESPN channel that broadcasts in Latin America, not to be confused with ESPN Deportes, which is another channel which broadcasts in the United States in Spanish. ESPN Latin America is not available in the U.S., because is not authorized to air most of the programming seen on its U.S. sister channels due to television rights affecting the programs. It is adapted to the demands of Spanish-speaking viewers, who tend to prefer football and Hispanic baseball players to the more Anglo-centric programming or athletes.

ESPN Latin America first aired in 1989. It cablecasts programs in Spanish; some of the programs are live or taped retransmissions of the sister channels ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes. Some of those programs include English-language audio on a second audio program (SAP) with commentators from sister channels of the U.S. or commentators who work just for the ESPN Latin America channel. One of the voiceover announcers who announces programming on TV commercials has also appeared as a voiceover substitute for CNBC programs like Kudlow & Company and Mad Money in the U.S.

ESPN Latin America, unlike its U.S. sister channels, has more programs related to football, such as live games from Spain's La Liga. It also airs live retransmissions of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, the Home Run Derby, All-Star Game, Playoffs and World Series with Ernesto Jerez as the Spanish-language play-by-play announcer and other baseball commentators such as Venezuelan brothers Luis Alfredo Álvarez and Fernando Álvarez and former Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player Candy Maldonado. On weekday mornings at 9 a.m. Eastern Time, ESPN Latin America also airs the taped SportsCenter programs which air live the night before on ESPN in the U.S. at 1 a.m. ET.

Many of the TV commercials shown on ESPN Latin America are for companies from Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina, where the largest companies are based and where viewer numbers are higher.

ESPN Latin America's main competitor is News Corporation's Fox Sports Latin America from Los Angeles (formerly called FOX Sports Americas), which, unlike ESPN Latin America (and like ESPN2 and ESPN+), has a FOX Sports Latin America Northern Cone channel for the Caribbean/Mexico baseball-focused region, and another channel called FOX Sports Latin America Southern Cone for Central and South America, which is more soccer-oriented.

The Disney/Hearst Corporation joint venture has also added some secondary regional channels for the Spanish-speaking Americas in the last few years, like ESPN Dos (ESPN2) for the Caribbean/Mexico region, and ESPN+ (ESPN Más) for most of South America (Argentina/Bolivia/Chile/Colombia/Paraguay/Peru/Uruguay).

The channel is also available in Portuguese for Brazil, where ESPN also owns regional channel ESPN Brasil. An exclusive feed for Brazil was launched on December 15, 2005, introducing programming subtitled in Portuguese, ESPN Brasil programming and events commented by ESPN Brasil staff.

In November 2009, ESPN Latin America Networks (a subdivision of Disney & ESPN Media Networks Latin America) announced that the high definition version of the channel would be launched on December 1, 2009 on the whole region.^[1]

In 2011 ESPN launched a new channel for Latin America: ESPN3. This channel is divided in four segmets: Live (broadcasts live coverage of sport events), Compact (resumed sport events), ESPN3.0 (extreme sports) and ESPN Series (featuring ESPN US show 30 For 30).

See also[link]

• List of ESPN Latin America announcers
• Latin American sports television broadcast contracts

External links[link]

• (Spanish) ESPNdeportes.com
• (Portuguese) ESPN.com.br

References[link]

Latin America

Area	21,069,501 km2 (8,134,980 sq mi)
Population	572,039,894
Pop. density	27 /km2 (70 /sq mi)
Demonym	Latin American, American
Countries	19
Dependencies	1
Languages	Spanish, Portuguese, Quechua, Mayan languages, Guaraní, French, Aymara, Nahuatl, Italian and others.
Time Zones	UTC-2 to UTC-8
Largest cities	[1] 1. Mexico City 2. São Paulo 3. Buenos Aires 4. Rio de Janeiro 5. Lima 6. Bogotá 7. Santiago 8. Belo Horizonte 9. Guadalajara 10. Caracas

Latin America (Spanish: América Latina or Latinoamérica; Portuguese: América Latina; French: Amérique latine) is a region of the Americas where Romance languages (i.e., those derived from Latin) – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken.^[2][3] Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² (7,880,000 sq mi), almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area. As of 2010, its population was estimated at more than 590 million^[4] and its combined GDP at 5.16 trillion United States dollars (6.27 trillion at PPP).^[5] The Latin American expected economic growth rate is at about 5.7% for 2010 and 4% in 2011.^[6] According to Phelan (1968, p. 296), the term "Latin America" was baptized in 1861 in La revue des races Latines, a magazine 'dedicated to the cause of Pan-Latinism'.

Subdivisions[link]

Common subregions in Latin America

Latin America can be subdivided into several subregions based on geography, politics, demographics and culture. The basic geographical subregions are North America, Central America, the Caribbean and South America;^[7] the latter contains further politico-geographical subdivisions such as the Southern Cone and the Andean states. It may be subdivided on linguistic grounds into Hispanic America and Portuguese America.

Etymology and definitions[link]

The idea that a part of the Americas has a linguistic affinity with the Romance cultures as a whole can be traced back to the 1830s, in the writing of the French Saint-Simonian Michel Chevalier, who postulated that this part of the Americas was inhabited by people of a "Latin race", and that it could, therefore, ally itself with "Latin Europe" in a struggle with "Teutonic Europe", "Anglo-Saxon America" and "Slavic Europe".^[8] The idea was later taken up by Latin American intellectuals and political leaders of the mid- and late-nineteenth century, who no longer looked to Spain or Portugal as cultural models, but rather to France.^[9] The term was first used in Paris in an 1856 conference by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao^[10] and the same year by the Colombian writer José María Torres Caicedo in his poem "Two Americas.^[11] The term Latin America was supported by the French Empire of Napoleon III during the French invasion of Mexico, as a way to include France among countries with influence in America and to exclude Anglophone countries, and played a role in his campaign to imply cultural kinship of the region with France, transform France into a cultural and political leader of the area, and install Maximilian of Habsburg as emperor of the Second Mexican Empire.^[12] This term was also baptized in 1861 by French scholars in La revue des races Latines, a magazine dedicated to the Pan-Latinism movement.^[13]

In contemporary usage:

• In one sense, Latin America refers to territories in America where the Spanish or Portuguese languages prevail: Mexico, most of Central and South America, and in the Caribbean, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico — in summary, Hispanic America and Brazil. Latin America is, therefore, defined as all those parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires.^[14] By this definition, Latin America is coterminous with Ibero-america ("Iberian America").^[15]
• Particularly in the United States, the term more broadly refers to all of the Americas south of the United States,^{[citation needed]} thus including: English-speaking countries such as Belize, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Bahamas; French-speaking Haiti and Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana; and the Dutch-speaking Netherlands Antilles, Aruba and Suriname. (In the former Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, Papiamento – a predominantly Iberian-derived creole language – is spoken by the majority of the population.) This definition emphasizes a similar socioeconomic history of the region, which was characterized by formal or informal colonialism, rather than cultural aspects. (See, for example, dependency theory.)^[16] As such, some sources avoid this oversimplification by using the phrase "Latin America and the Caribbean" instead, as in the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas.^[17][18][19]
• In a more literal definition, which remains faithful to the original usage, Latin America designates all of those countries and territories in the Americas where a Romance language (i.e., languages derived from Latin, and hence the name of the region) is spoken: Spanish, Portuguese, and French, and the creole languages based upon these. Strictly considering this definition, Quebec, in Canada, is part of Latin America as well. But this region is rarely considered so, since its history, distinctive culture and economy, and British-inspired political institutions are generally deemed too closely intertwined with the rest of Canada.^[20]

The distinction between Latin America and Anglo-America is a convention based on the predominant languages in the Americas by which Romance-language and English-speaking cultures are distinguished. Neither area is culturally or linguistically homogeneous; in substantial portions of Latin America (e.g., highland Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Paraguay), American Indian cultures and, to a lesser extent, Amerindian languages, are predominant, and in other areas, the influence of African cultures is strong (e.g., the Caribbean basin—including parts of Colombia and Venezuela)—and the coastal areas of Ecuador and Brazil.^{[citation needed]}

History[link]

Pre-Columbian history[link]

Parque Nacional Tikal in Peten, Guatemala.

Archaeological site of Chichén-Itzá in Yucatán, Mexico. One of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

The Americas were thought to have been first inhabited by people crossing the Bering Land Bridge, now known as the Bering strait, from northeast Asia into Alaska well over 10,000 years ago. The earliest known settlement, however, was identified at Monte Verde, near Puerto Montt in Southern Chile. Its occupation dates to some 14,000 years ago and there is some disputed evidence of even earlier occupation. Over the course of millennia, people spread to all parts of the continents. By the first millennium AD/CE, South America's vast rainforests, mountains, plains and coasts were the home of tens of millions of people. The earliest settlements in the Americas are of the Las Vegas Culture^[21] from about 8000 BC and 4600 BC, a sedentary group from the coast of Ecuador, the forefathers of the more known Valdivia culture, of the same era. Some groups formed more permanent settlements such as the Chibchas (or "Muiscas" or "Muyscas") and the Tairona groups. These groups are in the circum Caribbean region. The Chibchas of Colombia, the Quechuas and Aymaras of Bolivia and Perú were the three indigenous groups that settled most permanently.

A view of Machu Picchu, a pre-Columbian Inca site in Peru. One of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

The region was home to many indigenous peoples and advanced civilizations, including the Aztecs, Toltecs, Caribs, Tupi, Maya, and Inca. The golden age of the Maya began about 250, with the last two great civilizations, the Aztecs and Incas, emerging into prominence later on in the early fourteenth century and mid-fifteenth centuries, respectively. The Aztec empire was ultimately the most powerful civilization known throughout the Americas, until its downfall in part by the Spanish invasion.

European colonization[link]

Romantic Painting of Christopher Columbus arriving to the Americas Primer desembarco de Cristóbal Colón en América, by Dióscoro Puebla 1862.

With the arrival of the Europeans following Christopher Columbus' voyages, the indigenous elites, such as the Incas and Aztecs, lost power to the heavy European invasion. Hernándo Cortés seized the Aztec elite's power with the help of local groups who did not favor the Aztec elite, and Francisco Pizarro eliminated the Incan rule in Western South America. The European powers of Spain and Portugal colonized the region, which along with the rest of the uncolonized world, was divided into areas of Spanish and Portuguese control by the line of demarcation in 1494, which gave Spain all areas to the west, and Portugal all areas to the east (the Portuguese lands in South America subsequently becoming Brazil).

The Colonial city of Granada in Nicaragua, is one of the most visited sites in Central America.

By the end of the sixteenth century Spain and Portugal had been joined by others, including France, in occupying large areas of North, Central and South America, ultimately extending from Alaska to the southern tips of the Patagonia. European culture, customs and government were introduced, with the Roman Catholic Church becoming the major economic and political power to overrule the traditional ways of the region, eventually becoming the only official religion of the Americas during this period.

Epidemics of diseases brought by the Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, wiped out a large portion of the indigenous population. Historians cannot determine the number of natives who died due to European diseases, but some put the figures as high as 85% and as low as 25%. Due to the lack of written records, specific numbers are hard to verify. Many of the survivors were forced to work in European plantations and mines. Intermixing between the indigenous peoples and the European colonists was very common, and, by the end of the colonial period, people of mixed ancestry (mestizos) formed majorities in several colonies.

Independence (1804–1825)[link]

Simón Bolívar, one of the independence movement leaders

Haiti among the Latin American nations, was the first to gain independence, in 1804. This followed from a violent slave revolt led by Toussaint L'ouverture on the French colony of Saint-Domingue. The victors abolished slavery. Haitian independence helped inspire independence movements in Spanish America.

By the end of the eighteenth century, Spanish and Portuguese power waned on the global scene as other European powers took their place, notably Britain and France. Resentment grew among the majority of the population in Latin America over the restrictions imposed by the Spanish government, as well as the dominance of native Spaniards (Iberian-born Peninsulares) in the major social and political institutions. Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 marked a turning point, compelling Criollo elites to form juntas that advocated independence. Also, the newly independent Haiti, the second oldest nation in the New World after the United States and the oldest independent nation in Latin America, further fueled the independence movement by inspiring the leaders of the movement, such as Simón Bolívar of Venezuela, José de San Martín of Argentina and Bernardo O'Higgins of Chile, and by providing them with considerable munitions and troops.

Fighting soon broke out between juntas and the Spanish colonial authorities, with initial victories for the advocates of independence. Eventually these early movements were crushed by the royalist troops by 1812, including those of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in Mexico and Francisco de Miranda in Venezuela. Under the leadership of a new generation of leaders, such as Simón Bolívar "The Liberator", José de San Martín of Argentina, Bernardo O'Higgins of Chile, and other Libertadores in South America, the independence movement regained strength, and by 1825, all Spanish America, except for Puerto Rico and Cuba, had gained independence from Spain. Brazil achieved independence with a constitutional monarchy established in 1822. In the same year in Mexico, a military officer, Agustín de Iturbide, led a coalition of conservatives and liberals who created a constitutional monarchy, with Iturbide as emperor. This First Mexican Empire was short-lived, and was followed by the creation of a republic in 1823.

Consolidation and liberal-conservative conflicts (1825–1900)[link]

This section is empty. You can help by adding to it.

World wars (1914–1945)[link]

Brazil’s participation in World War II[link]

Latin America’s participation in World War II was lead by the country of Brazil. After World War I, in which Brazil was an ally of the United States, Great Britain, and France, the country realized it needed a more capable army but didn’t have the technology to create it. In 1919 the French Military Mission was established by the French Commission in Brazil. Their main goal was to contain the inner rebellions in Brazil. They tried to assist the army by bringing them up to the European military standard but constant civil missions did not prepare them for World War II.

Brazil President, Getulio Vargas, wanted to industrialize Brazil allowing it to be more competitive with other countries. He reached out to Germany, Italy, France, and the United States to act as trade allies. Many Italian and German people immigrated to Brazil many years before World War II began thus creating a Nazi influence. The immigrants held high positions in government and the armed forces. It was recently found that 9,000 war criminals escaped to South America, including Croatians, Ukrainians, Russians and other western Europeans who aided the Nazi murder machine. Most, perhaps as many as 5,000, went to Argentina; between 1,500 and 2,000 are thought to have made it to Brazil; around 500 to 1,000 to Chile; and the rest to Paraguay and Uruguay.^[22] It was not a secret that Vargas had an admiration for Hitler’s Nazi Germany and its Führer. He even let German Luftwaffe build secret air forces around Brazil, but he knew that he could never favor the Nazis because of their racism towards the large black population in Brazil. This alliance with Germany lead to be Brazil’s second best trade alliance behind the United States.

Brazil continued to try to remain neutral to the United States and Germany because it was trying to make sure it could continue to be a place of interest for both opposing countries. Brazil attended continental meetings in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1936), Lima Peru (1938), and Havana, Cuba (1940) that obligated them to agree to defend any part of the Americas if they were to be attacked. Eventually Brazil decided to stop trading with Germany once Germany started attacking offshore trading ships resulting in Germany declaring a blockade against the Americas in the Atlantic Ocean. Furthermore, Germany also ensured that they would be attacking the Americas soon.

Once the German submarines attacked unarmed Brazilian trading ships, President Vargas met with United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt to discuss how they could retaliate. On January 22, 1942, Brazil officially ended all relations with Germany, Japan, and Italy becoming a part of the Allies.

The Brazilian Expeditionary Force was sent to Naples, Italy to fight for democracy. Brazil was the only Latin American country to send troops to Europe. Initially, Brazil wanted to only provide resources and shelter for the war to have a chance of gaining a high postwar status but ended up sending 25,000-men to fight.^[23]

After World War II, the United States and Latin America continued to have a close relationship. For example, USAID created family planning programs in Latin America combining the NGOs already in place, providing the women in largely Catholic areas access to contraception. ^[24]

Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Cuba, Ecuador, and Bolivia’s participation in World War II[link]

There was Nazi influence in certain parts of the country, but Jewish migration from Europe during the war continued. Only a small population of people recognized or knew about the Holocaust.^[25] Furthermore, there were numerous military bases built by the U.S, but also by the Germans, during the war. Even now there are still remaining bombs from the war, which needed to be destroyed. ^[26]

[edit] Cold War (1946–1990)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2011)

Military dictators Jorge Rafael Videla of Argentina and Augusto Pinochet of Chile.

Economy[link]

The Great Depression caused Latin America to grow at a slow rate, separating it from leading industrial democracies. The two world wars and U.S. Depression also made Latin American countries favor internal economic development, leading Latin America to adopt the policy of import substitution industrialization. ^[27] Countries also renewed emphasis on exports. Brazil began selling automobiles to other countries, and some Latin American countries set up plants to assemble imported parts, letting other countries take advantage of Latin America’s low labor costs. Columbia began to export flowers and cocaine, becoming the world’s second leading flower exporter and leading supplier of cocaine. ^[28] Economic integration was called for, to attain economies that could compete with the economies of the U.S or Europe. Starting in the 1960’s with the Latin American Free Trade Association and Central American Common Market, Latin American countries worked toward economic integration. ^[29]

Reforms[link]

Large countries like Argentina called for reforms to lessen the disparity of wealth between the rich and the poor, which has been a long problem in Latin America that retards economic growth. ^[30]

Advances in public health caused an explosion of population growth, making it difficult to provide social services. Education expanded, and social security systems introduced, but benefits usually went to the middle class, not the poor. As a result, disparity of wealth increased. Increasing inflation and other factors caused countries to be unwilling to fund social development programs to help the poor.

Bureaucratic authoritarianism[link]

Bureaucratic authoritarianism was practiced in Brazil after 1964, in Argentina, and in Chile under Augusto Pinochet, in a response to harsh economic conditions. It rested on the conviction that no democracy could take the harsh measures to curb inflation, reassure investors, and quicken economic growth quickly and effectively. Though inflation fell sharply, industrial production dropped with the decline of official protection. ^[31]

U.S. Relations[link]

After World War II and the beginning of a Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, U.S. diplomats became interested in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and frequently waged proxy wars against the Soviet Union in these countries. The U.S. sought to stop the spread of communism. Latin Americans generally resented the U.S. superiority over them. Latin America also complained of the U.S. support to locals in overthrowing nationalist governments, and intervention through the CIA. Still, Latin America respected the U.S. during this time, and Latin American countries generally sided with the U.S., even though they complained of being neglected by the U.S.’s concern with communism in Europe and Asia, not Latin America. In 1947, the U.S. Congress passed the National Security Act, which created the National Security Council in response to America’s growing obsession with anti-communism. ^[32]

In 1954, when Jacobo Arbenz of Guatemala accepted the support of communists and attacked holdings of the United Fruit Company, the U.S. decided to assist Guatemalan counterrevolutionaries in overthrowing Arbenz. These interventionist tactics featured use of the CIA rather than the military, which would be used in Latin America for the majority of the Cold War in events like the overthrow of Salvador Allende. Latin America was more concerned with issues of economic development, while the United States focused on fighting communism, even though the presence of communism was small in Latin America. ^[33]

Cuban Revolution[link]

By 1959, Cuba was afflicted with slow economic growth and a corrupt dictatorship under Batista, and Fidel Castro ousted Batista that year and set up the first communist state in the hemisphere. The U.S. imposed a trade embargo on Cuba, and combined with Castro’s expropriation of private enterprises, this was detrimental to the Cuban economy. ^[34] Around Cuba, rural guerrilla conflict and urban terrorism increased, inspired by the Cuban example. The United States put down these rebellions by supporting Latin American countries in their counter guerrilla operations through the Alliance for Progress launched by President John F. Kennedy.This thrust appeared to be successful. A Marxist, Salvador Allende, became president of Chile in 1970, but was overthrown three years later. Despite riots and political instability, most Latin American countries besides Cuba adopted democracies.

Bay of Pigs Invasion[link]

Encouraged by the Guatemala success, Kennedy, in 1960, decided to launch an attack on Cuba. The Bay of Pigs invasion was an abortive invasion of Cuba in 1961, financed by the U.S. through the CIA, to overthrow Castro. The incident proved to be very embarrassing for the new Kennedy administration. ^[35]

Alliance for Progress[link]

President John F. Kennedy initiated the Alliance for Progress in 1961, to establish economic cooperation between the U.S. and Latin America.The Alliance would provide $20 billion for reform in Latin America, and counterinsurgency measures. Instead, the reform failed because of the simplistic theory that guided it and the lack of experienced American experts who could understand Latin American customs.

Cuban missile crisis[link]

The Cuban Missile crisis nearly brought the U.S. and the Soviet Union to war in October of 1962. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev had installed several missiles in Cuba that could hit must of the Eastern United States. President Kennedy decided to place a naval blockade on Cuba to prevent further Soviet shipments of missiles. In the end, Khrushchev submitted, taking missiles away. In return, Kennedy agreed never to invade Cuba, and to withdraw nuclear-arms from Turkey. ^[36]

Washington Consensus[link]

The set of specific economic policy prescriptions that were considered the "standard" reform package were promoted for crisis-wracked developing countries by Washington, D.C.-based institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and the US Treasury Department during the 80s and 90s.

In recent years, several Latin American countries led by socialist or other left wing governments—including Argentina and Venezuela—have campaigned for (and to some degree adopted) policies contrary to the Washington Consensus set of policies. (Other Latin countries with governments of the left, including Brazil, Chile and Peru, have in practice adopted the bulk of the policies). Also critical of the policies as actually promoted by the International Monetary Fund have been some U.S. economists, such as Joseph Stiglitz and Dani Rodrik, who have challenged what are sometimes described as the "fundamentalist" policies of the International Monetary Fund and the US Treasury for what Stiglitz calls a "one size fits all" treatment of individual economies.

The term has become associated with neoliberal policies in general and drawn into the broader debate over the expanding role of the free market, constraints upon the state, and US influence on other countries' national sovereignty.

This politico-economical initiative was institutionalized in North America by the 1994 NAFTA, and elsewhere in the Americas through a series of like agreements. The comprehensive Free Trade Area of the Americas project, however, was rejected by most South American countries at the 2005 4th Summit of the Americas.

Turn to the left[link]

Left-leaning leaders of Bolivia, Brazil and Chile at the Union of South American Nations summit in 2008.

In most countries, since the 2000s left-wing political parties have risen to power. Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Lula da Silva in Brazil, Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, Néstor Kirchner and his wife Cristina Fernández in Argentina, Ollanta Humala in Peru, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Manuel Zelaya in Honduras, Rafael Correa in Ecuador, are all part of this wave of left-wing politicians who also often declare themselves socialists, Latin Americanists, or anti-imperialists (often implying opposition to US policies towards the region). There are also some leaders who, although aren't exactly leftist, are closer to the centre-left in the political spectrum. Examples of this are Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet in Chile, Tabaré Vázquez and José Mujica in Uruguay, Laura Chinchilla in Costa Rica, and Mauricio Funes in El Salvador. A development of this has been the creation of the eight-member ALBA alliance, or "The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America" (Spanish: Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América). In the 2010, only three countries in Latin America had right-wing presidents. These were Sebastián Piñera in Chile, Felipe Calderon in Mexico, and Juan Manuel Santos in Colombia.

The return of social movements[link]

In 1982, Mexico announced that it could not meet its foreign debt payment obligations, inaugurating a debt crisis that would discredit Latin American economies throughout the decade.^[37] This debt crisis would lead to neoliberal reforms that would instigate many social movements in the region. A “reversal of development” reigned over Latin America, seen through negative economic growth, declines in industrial production, and thus, falling living standards for the middle and lower classes.^[38] Governments made financial security their primary policy goal over social security, enacting new neoliberal economic policies that implemented privatization of previously national industries and informalization of labor.^[37] In an effort to bring more investors to these industries, these governments also embraced globalization through more open interactions with the international economy. Significantly, as democracy spread across much of Latin America, the realm of government more inclusive (a trend that proved conductive to social movements), the economic ventures remained exclusive to a few elite groups within society. Neoliberal restructuring consistently redistributed income upward while denying political responsibility to provide social welfare rights, and though development projects took place throughout the region, both inequality and poverty increased.^[37] Feeling excluded from these new projects, the lower classes took ownership of their own democracy through a revitalization of social movements in Latin America.

Argentinazo riots in December 2001.

Both urban and rural populations had serious grievances as a result of the above economic and global trends and have voiced them in mass demonstrations. Some of the largest and most violent of these have been protests against cuts in urban services, such as the Caracazo in Venezuela and the Argentinazo in Argentina.^[39]

Children singing the International Communist Hymn, 20th Anniversary of MST.

Rural movements have made diverse demands related to unequal land distribution, displacement at the hands of development projects and dams, environmental and indigenous concerns, neoliberal agricultural restructuring, and insufficient means of livelihood. These movements have benefited considerably from transnational support from conservationists and INGOs. The Movement of Rural Landless Workers (MST), is perhaps the largest contemporary Latin American social movement.^[39] As indigenous populations are primarily rural, indigenous movements account for a large portion of rural social movements, including the Zapatista rebellion in Mexico, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), indigenous organizations in the Amazon region of Ecuador and Bolivia, pan-Mayan communities in Guatemala, and mobilization by the indigenous groups of Yanomami peoples in the Amazon, Kuna peoples in Panama, and Altiplano Aymara and Quechua peoples in Bolivia.^[39] Other significant types of social movements include labor struggles and strikes, such as recovered factories in Argentina, as well as gender-based movements such as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina and protests against maquila production, which is largely a women’s issue because of how it draws on women for cheap labor.^[39]

These various social movements have continued today along with a broader political shift to the left. They are credited with raising social awareness across the globe of important issues affecting indigenous peoples in Latin America and through their work with NGOs and other international organizations. Moreover, they have provided tangible alternatives to the principles of neoliberalism, spurring constitutional changes and legislative policy while demonstrating the merits of active representative democracies.^[40]

Commodity boom and increasing relations with China[link]

The 2000s commodities boom caused positive effects for many Latin American economies. Another trend is the rapidly increasing importance of the relations with China.

Demographics[link]

Ethnic groups[link]

Ethnic Composition by the 21st Century in Latin America.

Benito Juárez was an Amerindian Mexican of Zapotec ancestry.

Juniti Saito, head of the Brazilian Air Force and one of over a million Japanese Brazilians.

Porfirio Díaz was a Mexican Mestizo of Mixtec and Spanish ancestry.

The inhabitants of Latin America are of a variety of ancestries, ethnic groups, and races, making the region one of the most diverse in the world. The specific composition varies from country to country: many have a predominance of European-Amerindian, or Mestizo, population; in others, Amerindians are a majority; some are dominated by inhabitants of European ancestry; and some countries' populations are primarily Mulatto. Black, Asian, and Zambo(mixed Black and Amerindian) minorities are also identified regularly. Europeans/Whites are the largest single group, and along with people of part-European ancestry, they combine to make up approximately 80% of the population,^[41] or even more.^[42]

Language[link]

Linguistic map of Latin America. Spanish in green, Portuguese in orange, and French in blue.

Spanish and Portuguese are the predominant languages of Latin America. Portuguese is spoken only in Brazil, the biggest and most populous country in the region. Spanish is the official language of most of the rest of the countries on the Latin American mainland, as well as in Cuba, Puerto Rico (where it is co-official with English), and the Dominican Republic. French is spoken in Haiti and in the French Overseas department Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, and the French Overseas territory (France) of Saint Pierre and Miquelon; it is also spoken by some Panamanians of Afro-Antillean descent. Dutch is the official language in Suriname, Aruba, and the Netherlands Antilles. (As Dutch is a Germanic language, these territories are not necessarily considered part of Latin America.)

Native American languages are widely spoken in Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Paraguay and, to a lesser degree, in Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, and Chile amongst other countries. In Latin American countries not named above, the population of speakers of indigenous languages is either small or non-existent.

In Peru, Quechua is an official language, alongside Spanish and any other indigenous language in the areas where they predominate. In Ecuador, while holding no official status, the closely related Quichua is a recognized language of the indigenous people under the country's constitution; however, it is only spoken by a few groups in the country's highlands. In Bolivia, Aymara, Quechua and Guaraní hold official status alongside Spanish. Guaraní, along with Spanish, is an official language of Paraguay, and is spoken by a majority of the population (who are, for the most part, bilingual), and it is co-official with Spanish in the Argentine province of Corrientes. In Nicaragua, Spanish is the official language, but on the country's Caribbean coast English and indigenous languages such as Miskito, Sumo, and Rama also hold official status. Colombia recognizes all indigenous languages spoken within its territory as official, though fewer than 1% of its population are native speakers of these languages. Nahuatl is one of the 62 native languages spoken by indigenous people in Mexico, which are officially recognized by the government as "national languages" along with Spanish.

Other European languages spoken in Latin America include: English, by some groups in Argentina, Nicaragua, Panama, and Puerto Rico, as well as in nearby countries that may or may not be considered Latin American, like Belize and Guyana; German, in southern Brazil, southern Chile, Argentina, portions of northern Venezuela, and Paraguay; Italian, in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Venezuela; and Welsh,^{[43][44][45][46][47][48]} in southern Argentina.

In several nations, especially in the Caribbean region, creole languages are spoken. The most widely spoken creole language in Latin America and the Caribbean is Haitian Creole, the predominant language of Haiti; it is derived primarily from French and certain West African tongues with some Amerindian and Spanish influences as well. Creole languages of mainland Latin America, similarly, are derived from European languages and various African tongues.

Religion[link]

Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels located in Cartago, Costa Rica.

The vast majority of Latin Americans are Christians, mostly Roman Catholics.^[49] About 70% of the Latin American population consider themselves Catholic.^[50] Membership in Protestant denominations is increasing, particularly in Brazil and Venezuela.

Migration[link]

Due to economic, social and security developments that are affecting the region in recent decades, the focus is now the change from net immigration to net emigration. About 10 million Mexicans live in the United States.^[51] 28.3 million Americans listed their ancestry as Mexican as of 2006.^[52] According to the 2005 Colombian census or DANE, about 3,331,107 Colombians currently live abroad.^[53] The number of Brazilians living overseas is estimated at about 2 million people.^[54] An estimated 1.5 to two million Salvadorans reside in the United States.^[55] At least 1.5 million Ecuadorians have gone abroad, mainly to the United States and Spain.^[56] Approximately 1.5 million Dominicans live abroad, mostly in the United States.^[57] More than 1.3 million Cubans live abroad, most of them in the United States.^[58] It is estimated that over 800,000 Chileans live abroad, mainly in Costa Rica, Mexico and Sweden. Other Chilean nationals may be located in countries like Spain and Sweden.^[59] An estimated 700,000 Bolivians were living in Argentina as of 2006 and another 33,000 in the United States.^[60] Central Americans living abroad in 2005 were 3,314,300,^[61] of which 1,128,701 were Salvadorans,^[62] 685,713 were Guatemalans,^[63] 683,520 were Nicaraguans,^[64] 414,955 were Hondurans,^[65] 215,240 were Panamanians,^[66] 127,061 were Costa Ricans ^[67] and 59,110 were Belizeans.

For the period 2000–2005, Chile, Costa Rica, Panama, and Venezuela were the only countries with global positive migration rates, in terms of their yearly averages.^[68]

Education[link]

World map indicating literacy by country (2011 Human Development Report) Grey = no data

Despite significant progress, education coverage remains unequal in Latin America. The region has made great progress in educational coverage; almost all children attend primary school and access to secondary education has increased considerably. Most educational systems in the region have implemented various types of administrative and institutional reforms that have enabled reach for places and communities that had no access to education services in the early 90's.

However, there are still 23 million children in the region between the ages of 4 and 17 outside of the formal education system. Estimates indicate that 30% of preschool age children (ages 4 –5) do not attend school, and for the most vulnerable populations, the poor and rural, - this calculation exceeds 40 percent. Among primary school age children (ages 6 to 12), coverage is almost universal; however there is still a need to incorporate 5 million children in the primary education system. These children live mostly in remote areas, are indigenous or Afro-descendants and live in extreme poverty.^[69]

Among people between the ages of 13 and 17 years, only 80% are full time students in the education system; among them only 66% advance to secondary school. These percentages are lower among vulnerable population groups: only 75% of the poorest youth between the ages of 13 and 17 years attend school. Tertiary education has the lowest coverage, with only 70% of people between the ages of 18 and 25 years outside of the education system. Currently, more than half of low income children or living in rural areas fail to complete nine years of education.^[69]

Crime and violence[link]

Colombian policemen standing by drug lord Pablo Escobar's dead body.

Crime and violence prevention and public security are now important issues for governments and citizens in Latin America and the Caribbean region. In 2004, violence was the main cause of death in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, El Salvador, Mexico and Honduras.^[70][71] Homicide rates in Latin America are among the highest in the world. From the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, homicide rates increased by 50 percent. The major victims of such homicides are young men, 69 percent of whom are between the ages of 15 and 19 years old. Many analysts agree that the prison crisis will not be resolved until the gap between rich and poor is addressed. They say that growing social inequality is fuelling crime in the region. But there is also no doubt that, on such an approach, Latin American countries still have a long way to go.^[72] Countries with the highest homicide rate per year per 100,000 inhabitants were: Guatemala 57.9, El Salvador 49.1, Venezuela 48, Honduras 59, Colombia 33, Belize 30.8, Brazil 25.7, Dominican Republic 23.56, Puerto Rico 18.8, and Ecuador 16.9.^{[citation needed]} More than 500,000 people have been killed by firearms in Brazil between 1979 and 2003.^[73][74] Countries with relatively low crime are Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay.^[75]

Economy[link]

Standard of living, consumption, and the environment[link]

The Panama Canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key conduit for international maritime trade.

According to Goldman Sachs' BRIC review of emerging economies, by 2050 the largest economies in the world will be as follows: China, United States, India, Brazil, and Mexico.^[76] On a per capita basis most Latin American countries, including the largest ones (Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, and Colombia), have per capita GDPs greater than that of China in 2009. As of 2010 Latin America included five nations classified as high-income countries: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico and Panama.^{[citation needed]}

The following table lists all the countries in Latin America indicating a valuation of the country's GDP (Gross domestic product) based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP), GDP per capita also adjusted to the (PPP), a measurement of inequality through the Gini index (the higher the index the more unequal the income distribution is), the Human Development Index (HDI), the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), and the Quality-of-life index. GDP and PPP GDP statistics come from the International Monetary Fund with data as of 2006. Gini index, the Human Poverty Index HDI-1, the Human Development Index, and the number of internet users per capita come from the UN Development Program. The number of motor vehicles per capita come from the UNData base on-line. The EPI index comes from the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Quality-of-life index from The Economist Intelligence Unit. Green cells indicate the 1st rank in each category, while yellow indicate the last rank.

Summary of socio-economic performance indicators for Latin American countries

Country	GDP (PPP)[77] (2012 estimates) Billions of USD	GDP per capita (PPP)[78] (2012 estimates) USD	Income equality[79] (2000–2010) Gini index	Poverty Index[80] (2009) HPI-1 %	Human Develop.[81] (2011) HDI	Envirnm. Perform.[82] (2010) EPI	Real GDP growth[83] (2010) %	Emissions per capita[84] (2008) ton CO2
Argentina	732.223	18,411	48.8	3.7	0.797 (VH)	61.0	7.5	4.4
Bolivia	51.796	5,084	57.2	11.6	0.663 (M)	44.3	4.0	1.3
Brazil	2,310.998	11,767	55.0	8.7	0.718 (H)	63.4	7.5	1.9
Chile	311.546	17,482	49.1	3.2	0.805 (VH)	73.3	5.0	4.4
Colombia	519.866	10,445	58.5	7.6	0.710 (H)	76.8	4.7	1.4
Costa Rica	56.130	12,332	48.9	4.6	0.744 (H)	86.4	3.8	1.5
Cuba	111.1[85]	9,700[85]	N/A	4.7	0.776 (H)	78.1	1.4[85]	2.7
Dominican Republic	95.391	9,648	48.4	9.1	0.689 (M)	68.4	5.5	2.0
Ecuador	133.825	8,952	54.4	7.9	0.720 (H)	69.3	2.9	1.9
El Salvador	48.640	8,442	46.9	14.6	0.674 (M)	69.1	1.0	1.0
Guatemala	72.958	5,071	53.7	19.7	0.574 (M)	54.0	2.4	0.8
Haiti	11.056	1,122	59.5	31.5	0.454 (L)	39.5	-8.5	0.2
Honduras	38.537	4,405	55.3	13.7	0.625 (M)	49.9	2.4	1.1
Mexico	1,849.671	15,766	51.6	5.9	0.770 (H)	67.3	5.0	3.8
Nicaragua	17.269	3,370	52.3	17.0	0.589 (M)	57.1	3.0	0.7
Panama	43.725	14,398	54.9	6.7	0.768 (H)	71.4	6.2	1.9
Paraguay	31.469	5,915	53.2	10.5	0.665 (M)	63.5	9.0	0.6
Peru	324.276	10,781	50.5	10.2	0.725 (H)	69.3	8.3	1.2
Uruguay	54.140	16,242	47.1	3.0	0.783 (H)	59.1	8.5	2.3
Venezuela	346.973	12,589	43.4	6.6	0.735 (H)	62.9	-1.3	5.2
Total	6,270.231	12,519		10.1		76.2	4	2.3

Notes: (H) High human development; (M) Medium human development; (L) Low human development

Poverty and inequality[link]

Slums on the outskirts of a wealthy urban area in São Paulo, Brazil: an example of poverty common in Latin America.

Poverty continues to be one of the region's main challenges; according to the ECLAC, Latin America is the most unequal region in the world.^[86] Inequality is undermining the region's economic potential and the well-being of its population, since it increases poverty and reduces the impact of economic development on poverty reduction.^[87] Inequality in Latin America has deep historical roots that have been difficult to eradicate since the differences between initial endowments and opportunitites among social groups have constrained the poorest's social mobility, thus making poverty to be transmitted from generation to generation, becoming a vicious cycle. High inequality is rooted in exclusionary institutions that have been perpetuated ever since colonial times and that have survived different political and economic regimes. Inequality has been reproduced and transmitted through generations because Latin American political systems allow a differentiated access on the influence that social groups have in the decision making process, and it responds in different ways to the least favored groups that have less political representation and capacity of pressure.^[88] Recent economic liberalisation also plays a role as not everyone is equally capable of taking advantage of its benefits.^[89] Differences in opportunities and endowments tend to be based on race, ethnicity, rurality and gender. Those differences have a strong impact on the distribution of income, capital and political standing.

According to a study by the World Bank,the richest decile of the population of Latin America earn^[90] 48% of the total income, while the poorest 10% of the population earn only 1.6% of the income. In contrast, in developed countries, the top decile receives 29% of the total income, while the bottom decile earns 2.5%. The countries with the highest inequality in the region (as measured with the Gini index in the UN Development Report^[79]) in 2007 were Haiti (59.5), Colombia (58.5), Bolivia (58.2), Honduras (55.3), Brazil (55.0), and Panama (54.9), while the countries with the lowest inequality in the region were Venezuela (43.4), Uruguay (46.4) and Costa Rica (47.2).

According to the World Bank the poorest countries in the region were (as of 2008):^[91] Haiti, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Honduras. Undernourishment affects to 47% of Haitians, 27% of Dominicans and Nicaraguans, 23% of Bolivians and 22% of Hondurans.

Many countries in Latin America have responded to high levels of poverty by implementing new, or altering old, social assistance programs such as conditional cash transfers. These include Mexico's Progresa Oportunidades, Brazil's Bolsa Escola and Bolsa Familia, and Chile's Chile Solidario.^[92] In general, these programs provide money to poor families under the condition that those transfers are used as an investment on their children's human capital, such as regular school attendance and basic preventive health care. The purpose of these programs is to address the inter-generational transmission of poverty and to foster social inclusion by explicitly targeting the poor, focusing on children, delivering transfers to women, and changing social accountability relationships between beneficiaries, service providers and governments.^[93] These programs have helped to increase school enrollment and attendance and they also have shown improvements in children's health conditions.^[94] Most of these transfer schemes are now benefiting around 110 million people in the region and are considered relatively cheap, costing around 0.5% of their GDP.^[95]

Trade blocs[link]

Rafael Correa, Evo Morales, Néstor Kirchner, Cristina Fernández, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, Nicanor Duarte, and Hugo Chávez at the signing of the founding charter of the Bank of the South.

The major trade blocs (or agreements) in the region are the Union of South American Nations, composed of the integrated Mercosur and Andean Community of Nations (CAN). Minor blocs or trade agreements are the G3 Free Trade Agreement, the Dominican Republic – Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). However, major reconfigurations are taking place along opposing approaches to integration and trade; Venezuela has officially withdrawn from both the CAN and G3 and it has been formally admitted into the Mercosur (pending ratification from the Paraguayan legislature). The president-elect of Ecuador has manifested his intentions of following the same path. This bloc nominally opposes any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States, although Uruguay has manifested its intention otherwise. Chile has already signed an FTA with Canada, and along with Peru, Colombia and Mexico are the only four Latin American nations that have an FTA with the United States, the latter being a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Metropolitan economies[link]

The following table provides estimated GDP figures for the largest metropolitan areas in Latin America in 2008.^[96]

Mexico City

Panama City

Rank	Metropolitan area	Country	GDP (PPP) Billions of USD	Metro. pop. in 2006[97] Millions	GDP (PPP) per capita USD
1	Mexico City	Mexico	390	19.24	20,300
2	São Paulo	Brazil	388	18.61	20,800
3	Buenos Aires	Argentina	362	13.52	28,000
4	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil	201	11.62	17,300
5	Santiago	Chile	120	5.70	21,100
6	Brasilia	Brazil	110	3.48	31,600
7	Lima	Peru	109	8.35	13,100
8	Caracas	Venezuela	105	5.98	25,500
9	Bogotá	Colombia	112	7.80	15,800
10	Monterrey	Mexico	102	3.58	28,500

Note: The GDP data are for 2008 while the population data are for 2006. The GDP per capita figures were obtained by dividing these two sets of data, so the results may not accurately reflect the GDP per capita for 2008.

Tourism[link]

Patagonia Located in Argentina and Chile.

Income from tourism is key to the economy of several Latin American countries.^[98] Mexico receives the largest number of international tourists, with 22.3 million visitors in 2010, followed by Argentina, with 5.2 million in 2010; Brazil, with 5.1 million; Dominican Republic, with 4.1 million;, Puerto Rico, with 3.6 million and Chile with 2.7 million.^[99] Places such as Cancún, Galápagos Islands, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, Cartagena de Indias, Cabo San Lucas, Acapulco, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Margarita Island, São Paulo, Salar de Uyuni, Punta del Este, Santo Domingo, Labadee, San Juan, La Habana, Panama City, Iguazu Falls, Puerto Vallarta, Poás Volcano National Park, Punta Cana, Viña del Mar, Mexico City, Quito, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Lima, Maceió, Florianópolis, Cuzco and Patagonia are popular among international visitors in the region.^{[citation needed]}

Performance indicators for international tourism in Latin America

Country	International tourist arrivals 2010[100] x1000	International tourism receipts 2010[100] Millions of USD	Receipts per arrival (2)/(1) 2010 (USD/Tourist)	Receipts per capita 2009[100][101] USD	Revenues as % of exports goods and services[98] 2003	Tourism revenues as % GDP[98] 2003	% Direct & indirect employment in tourism[98] 2005	World Ranking Tourism Compet.[102] TTCI 2011	Index value TTCI[102] 2011
Argentina	5,288	4,930	932	120	7.4	1.8	9.1	60	4.20
Bolivia	671*	279*	415	28	9.4	2.2	7.6	117	3.35
Brazil	5,161	5,919	1,146	29	3.2	0.5	7.0	52	4.36
Chile	2,766	1,636	591	98	5.3	1.9	6.8	57	4.27
Colombia	2,385	2,083	873	47	6.6	1.4	5.9	77	3.94
Costa Rica	2,100	2,111	1,005	496	17.5	8.1	13.3	44	4.43
Cuba	2,507	2,080*	829*	181*	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Dominican Republic	4,125	4,240	1,027	439	36.2	18.8	19.8	72	3.99
Ecuador	1,047	781	745	53	6.3	1.5	7.4	87	3.79
El Salvador	1,150	390	339	54	12.9	3.4	6.8	96	3.68
Guatemala	1,219	1,378	1,130	103	16.0	2.6	6.0	86	3.82
Haiti*	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	19.4	3.2	4.7	N/A	N/A
Honduras	896	650	725	82	13.5	5.0	8.5	88	3.79
Mexico	22,395	11,872	530	106	5.7	1.6	14.2	43	4.43
Nicaragua	1,011	309	305	52	15.5	3.7	5.6	100	3.56
Panama	1,317	1,676	1,272	498	10.6	6.3	12.9	56	4.30
Paraguay	465	217	466	31	4.2	1.3	6.4	123	3.26
Peru	2,299	2,274	989	76	9.0	1.6	7.6	69	4.04
Uruguay	2,352	1,496	636	428	14.2	3.6	10.7	58	4.24
Venezuela	615*	618	1,004	23	1.3	0.4	8.1	106	3.46