Michael Fox is a Latin America-based audio producer and media maker.
Ecuadorians head to the polls this Sunday, in one of the most hotly contested elections in decades. Thirty-seven-year-old President Daniel Noboa, the son of a banana tycoon, is facing off against former National Assembly member and leftist Luisa González. Security is the top issue on the table, as both candidates promise to tackle the rising narco-gang violence that has given Ecuador one of the highest homicide rates in Latin America. Michael Fox has the story from the capital, Quito.
Chile’s Indigenous Mapuche people have long fought the government over land claims. They’ve faced discrimination and assimilation in Chilean society. But some Mapuche communities are now turning the page. And they’re using an ancestral sport to help protect and revive their culture, customs and language.
In October 2019, huge protests exploded across Chile. They began against increased public transportation fees, but they soon grew into the largest protest movement the country had seen since the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Those in the streets dreamed of transforming the country, but five years later, reforms have yet to be made.
In Paraguay, the Indigenous Guaraní language is spoken as an official language alongside Spanish. Most Paraguayans speak Guaraní or a mixture of Spanish and Guaraní as their first language, whether they are of Indigenous descent or not.
Itaipu is one of the largest hydroelectric plants in the world. It provides electricity to 80 million people in Brazil and Paraguay. Not only is it huge, but it represents a unique model of cross-border energy cooperation.
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