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Axios Latino is the newsletter that summarizes the key news for Latino communities throughout the hemisphere every Tuesday and Thursday.
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1. The topic to highlight: On alert for setbacks in the right to abortion
Activists in defense of the right to abortion in Latin America, who will demonstrate this March 8 within the framework of International Women's Day, denounce that in the region there is an increasingly worrying context of possible setbacks such as those seen in the United States. Joined.
Why it matters
: Some parts of Latin America have long been among the most dangerous in the world for people who want or need to terminate a pregnancy.
Four countries have total bans, including the Dominican Republic.
Last month Adilka FĂ©liz, who was a legislative assistant to a senator, died there.
She died from complications after an emergency procedure for premature birth.
Feliz's mother says that the pregnancy had been declared unviable from the beginning, but that her daughter was denied an abortion.
The bans also carry legal dangers, including for those who suffer
miscarriages
.
In El Salvador (another country with a total ban) more than 180 women were imprisoned over the years;
many were charged only for having sought emergency medical attention for issues such as bleeding, and regardless of whether the resulting abortion had been intended or not.
A ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued in 2021 ordered that those women who suffered obstetric emergencies should no longer be in prison, meaning that almost all of them have regained their freedom.
In contrast, several of the
largest Latin American countriesâMexico, Colombia and Argentinaâhave decriminalized or legalized voluntary abortion in tide since 2020. Brazil is considering decriminalizing abortions in the first 12 weeks of gestation.
Courts and legislators in those countries argued that the bans infringed on individuals' right to autonomy and that the bans pushed people to turn to unsafe alternatives.
When Argentina's Congress legalized abortion up to the 14th week of gestation, for example, lawmakers cited official statistics showing that more than 3,000 women had died from clandestine abortions.
Yes, but
: Some of the rights acquired in those countries are now in danger, according to activists.
Lawmakers from Argentine President Javier Milei's party presented a bill in February to re-criminalize abortion, saying it is an unjustifiable practice.
His government also withdrew funds from the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity â which offers programs for victims of sexist violence and access to menstrual hygiene products â and demoted it to undersecretary.
Access to voluntary abortion is also not completely guaranteed in Mexico and Colombia, despite being decriminalized, because local or state authorities sometimes hinder this right recognized at the federal level.
Abortion pills are difficult to obtain in many areas and some state authorities have not clarified the rules for the procedures in clinics, so providers and doctors still fear repercussions if they carry out the process, says Georgina DĂaz, a Mexican obstetrician and gynecologist who He has campaigned for abortion rights.
Between the lines
: Milei and other conservative politicians in Latin America have become emboldened in their opposition to abortion rights since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v.
Wade, according to a recent report by the group FĂČs Feminista.
In her own words
: "The United States has regressed and is now navigating an environment of restrictions that is generally new there," said Paula Ăvila GuillĂ©n, director of the group Women's Equality Center, during a regional roundtable in February.
"While in Latin America, where we navigated similar restrictions for years, we are now exploring ways to protect the protections achieved, while continuing to push for progress in countries that still have total bans," he added.
To keep an eye on
: In the Dominican Republic, the statements of the president, Luis Abinader, to decriminalize abortions in cases of rape or fetal inviability have not yet been converted into actions, says activist Sergia GalvĂĄn.
Despite cases like that of Adilka FĂ©liz, GalvĂĄn says that the initiative to include exceptions to the total ban on abortion in a proposed reform of the Penal Code has been hindered by legislators in many cases linked to large evangelical churches.
The current Penal Code provides for prison sentences of years for women who have abortions and the doctors who help them.
Since 2021, attempts have been made to have the reform of the code provide for three grounds for abortion, so far without success.
But the general elections that the country will have in May could drive changes, says GalvĂĄn.
Abinader leads the polls, in addition to several legislative candidates who support abortion as part of their campaign platforms.
2. Behind the Latin technology gap
A new report calls for the shortage of people of Latino origins working in the US technology sector to be addressed comprehensively, starting with elementary school education.
Why it matters
: Technology is one of the big drivers of the American economy, and it is a sector with especially well-paying jobs.
But it is also an industry that has given little access to Latinos.
The new report, from the Kapor Foundation, indicates that this demographic group represents only 5% of leadership positions in technology companies, and 6% of those who manage risk capital (
venture capital
, key to establishing and growing companies).
Illustration: AĂŻda Amer/Axios
Context
: Since elementary school, students of Latin descent have less access to the foundations necessary to navigate the technological world or to work in that industry.
According to Kapor's report, an average of 78% of Latino students have access to computer science courses in elementary school, compared to 82% of non-Hispanic white students and 89% of Asian students.
In middle schools and high schools, 29% of students are Latino.
However, they are only 21% of students in basic computer science courses and 20% in advanced computer science or
Advanced Placement courses.
In their own words
: "We want to sound the alarm," says Lili Gangas, director of technology and community issues at the Kapor Center, an organization that promotes diversity and inclusion in the technology sector.
"There's no way that current strategies, current investment approaches, are going to be enough," she says.
Gangas says he is concerned about the percentage of kindergarten through high school students without access to computer science courses.
"Especially if we think about where artificial intelligence is going, it's clear that we need that kind of critical thinking very early on because that's how those kinds of skills are developed," says Gangas.
This is why it is also useful to emphasize to educators and parents with school-age children that many jobs in technology pay well and help generate wealth, according to Gangas.
But he adds that it is also important that leaders at all levels, from politicians to school principals, work together to open paths for Latinos in technology.
3. Reviews of a Latino Pulitzer winner
Carlos Lozada is one of the few Latinos in the world of journalism to have won a Pulitzer Prize.
He has just published a new collection of his reviews, literary criticism and political analysis.
Why it matters
:
The Washington Book: How to Read Politics and Politicians
by Lozada, born in Peru, helps illustrate why this author has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, which honors the best of journalism, literature and musical composition made in the United States. US
Courtesy of Simon & Schuster
The book contains several of the texts that Lozada wrote when he worked at The Washington Post as a literary critic (among them those that won him the Pulitzer in 2019) and also texts that he has written more recently, now that he is an opinion columnist at the newspaper The New York Times.
Up Close
: Lozada tells Axios Latino that it was a strange coincidence to be named the Post's chief literary critic just before Donald Trump launched his presidential bid in 2015.
Lozada says that in that context he did not want to waste the context of political changes in the United States, even if his job was nominally to write about books.
"I decided that would be my coverage: to understand what was happening in the American political arena through books," he says.
4. An unmissable image
Tomorrow the semifinals of the CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup will be played.
The United States will face Canada, and Brazil will face the Mexican team.
Mexico reached this phase after beating Paraguay in the quarterfinals (3-2) on Sunday.
One of the goals was from Jacqueline Ovalle:
Brad Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images
5.
Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean
1. Local Ecuadorian judges and politicians
were among 12 people arrested Monday in an investigation into links to drug traffickers.
The detainees are accused of accepting bribes to impose lenient sentences on criminals, as well as allowing them to bring luxury items to cells or carry out criminal operations from prison.
The defendants have not yet commented on the charges.
2. A Venezuelan dissident
was found dead this weekend in Chile, where he had apparently been living under political refuge status.
Ronald Ojeda Moreno, a 32-year-old former military officer, was kidnapped from a residence in Santiago after Venezuela accused him of alleged participation in an alleged unproven assassination attempt against the Venezuelan leader, NicolĂĄs Maduro.
Chilean authorities said Monday that an unidentified Venezuelan has been detained as a suspect in the murder.
6. Plants for glaciers
One project is planting plants in order to preserve glaciers and snow-capped mountains in Colombia.
Why it matters
: Approximately 7.8% of Colombian glacial areas are lost each year, affecting the ecosystem and also the communities that depend on glacier runoff to access drinking water.
Current situation
: The White Cumbres group was formed five years ago as an interregional collaboration to reduce the worst impacts of climate change in snowy areas.
Directed by Marcela FernĂĄndez, Cumbres Blancas plants frailejones, a species of shrub native to the moors.
The moors trap fog and drizzle, then release water into the land, which helps maintain humidity at high elevations to promote snowfall.
Cumbres Blancas also operates in Ecuador, Peru and Mexico.
Thanks for reading us!
We return on Thursday.
And thanks to Carlos Cunha, Bruno GarcĂa Gallo, and Alison Snyder for helping review and edit.
If you want to share your experiences with us or send us suggestions and comments, send an email to
axioslatino@axios.com
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