Latin America and the Caribbean in 2011 and Beyond: A conversation among Latin America and Caribbean Specialists.

For the first time in more than fifty years, the domestic and external conflicts in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are not primarily ideological in nature. Democracy continues to thrive and its promise still inspires hope. In contrast, the illegal production, consumption, and trading of drugs – and its links to criminal gangs and organizations – represent major challenges to the region, undermining several States’ already weak capacity to govern. While LAC macroeconomic stability has remained resilient, illegal economies fill the region, often offering what some States have not historically been able to provide – elements of human security, opportunities for social mobility, and basic survival. Areas controlled by drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) are now found in Central America, Mexico, and the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, reflecting their competition for land routes and production areas. Cartels such as La Familia, Los Zetas, and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC-Brazil), among others, operate like trade and financial enterprises that manage millions of dollars and resources, demonstrating significant business skills in adapting to changing circumstances. They are also merciless in their application of violence to preserve their lucrative enterprises. The El Salvador-Guatemala-Honduras triangle in Central America is now the most violent region in the world, surpassing regions in Africa that have been torn by civil strife for years. In Brazil’s favelas and Guatemala’s Petén region, the military is leaving the barracks again; not to rule, however, but to supplement and even replace the law enforcement capacity of weak and discredited police forces. This will challenge the military to apply lessons learned during the course of their experience in government, or from the civil wars that plagued the region for nearly 50 years during the Cold War. Will they be able to conduct themselves according to the professional ethics that have been inculcated over the past 20 years without incurring violations of human rights? Belief in their potential to do good is high according to many polls as the Armed Forces still enjoy a favorable perception in most societies, despite frequent involvement in corruption. Calling them to fight DTOs, however, may bring them too close to the illegal activities they are being asked to resist, or even rekindle the view that only a “strong hand” can resolve national troubles. The challenge of governance is occurring as contrasts within the region are becoming sharper. There is an increasing gap between nations positioned to surpass their “developing nation” status and those that are practically imploding as the judicial, political and enforcement institutions fall further into the quagmire of illicit activities. Several South American nations are advancing their political and economic development. Brazil in particular has realized macro-economic stability, made impressive gains in poverty reduction, and is on track to potentially become a significant oil producer. It is also an increasingly influential power, much closer to the heralded “emerging power” category that it aspired to for most of the 20th century. In contrast, several Central American States have become so structurally deficient, and have garnered such limited legitimacy, that their countries have devolved into patches of State controlled and non-State-controlled territory, becoming increasingly vulnerable to DTO entrenchment. In the Caribbean, the drug and human trafficking business also thrives. Small and larger countries are experiencing the growing impact of illicit economies and accompanying crime and violence. Among these, Guyana and Suriname face greater uncertainty, as they juggle both their internal affairs and their relations with Brazil and Venezuela. Cuba also faces new challenges as it continues focusing on internal rather than external affairs and attempts to ensure a stable leadership succession while simultaneously trying to reform its economy. Loosening the regime’s tight grip on the economy while continuing to curtail citizen’s civil rights will test the leadership’s ability to manage change and prevent a potential socio-economic crisis from turning into an existential threat. Cuba’s past ideological zest is now in the hands of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, who continues his attempts to bring the region together under Venezuelan leadership ideologically based on a “Bolivarian” anti-U.S. banner, without much success. The environment and natural disasters will merit more attention in the coming years. Natural events will produce increasing scales of destruction as the States in the region fail to maintain and expand existing infrastructure to withstand such calamities and respond to their effects. Prospects for earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes are high, particularly in the Caribbean. In addition, there are growing rates of deforestation in nearly every country, along with a potential increase in cross-sector competition for resources. The losers might be small farmers, due to their inability to produce quantities commensurate to larger conglomerates. Regulations that could mitigate these types of situations are lacking or openly violated with near impunity. Indigenous and other vulnerable populations, including African descendants, in several Andean countries, are particularly affected by the increasing extraction of natural resources taking place amongst their terrain. This has led to protests against extraction activities that negatively affect their livelihoods, and in the process, these historically underprivileged groups have transitioned from agenda-based organization to one that is bringing its claims and grievances to the national political agenda, becoming more politically engaged. Symptomatic of these social issues is the region’s chronically poor quality of education that has consistently failed to reduce inequality and prepare new generations for jobs in the competitive global economy, particularly the more vulnerable populations. Simultaneously, the educational deficit is also exacerbated by the erosion of access to information and freedom of the press. The international panorama is also in flux. New security entities are challenging the old establishment. The Union of South American Nations, The South American Defense Council, the socialist Bolivarian Alliance, and other entities seem to be defying the Organization of American States and its own defense mechanisms, and excluding the U.S. And the U.S.’s attention to areas in conflict, namely Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan – rather than to the more stable Latin America and Caribbean – has left ample room for other actors to elbow in. China is now the top trading partner for Brazil. Russian and Iran are also finding new partnerships in the region, yet their links appear more politically inclined than those of China. Finally, the aforementioned increasing commercial ties by LAC States with China have accelerated a return to the preponderance of commodities as sources of income for their economies. The increased extraction of raw material for export will produce greater concern over the environmental impact that is created by the exploitation of natural resources. These expanded trade opportunities may prove counterproductive economically for countries in the region, particularly for Brazil and Chile, two countries whose economic policies have long sought diversification from dependence on commodities to the development of service and technology based industries.

A visual critical ethnography of youth develoment in a Rio de Janeiro favela

Favelas are Brazilian informal housing settlements that are areas of concentrated poverty. In Rio de Janeiro, favelas are perceived as areas of heightened criminal activity and violence, and residents experience discrimination, and little access to quality education and employment opportunities. In this context, hundreds of non-formal educational arts and leisure programs work to build the self-esteem and identity of youth in Rio's favelas as a way of preventing the youth from negative local influences. The Morrinho organization, located in the Pereira da Silva favela in Rio, uses art as a way for the local male youth to communicate their lived reality. This study used a visual critical ethnographic methodology to describe the way in which the Morrinho participants interpret living in a favela. Seventeen semi-structured interviews with young men aged 15 to 29, the feature-length documentary film on the organization, 206 researcher produced documentary style photographs of the Morrinho artwork, and the researcher's field notes were analyzed. Truth claims, ways of seeing as communicated through words and actions, were induced through a cyclical process of reconstructive horizon analysis that incorporated the societal context and critical theory. The participants communicated their concerns about life in a favela; however, they did not describe their societal positions in terms of complete marginalization. They named multiple benefits of living in Pereira da Silva, discussed positive and negative experiences in school, and described ways they circumvented discrimination. Morrinho as an organization was described as an enthralling game and a social project that benefited dozens of local youth. Character development was a valuable result of participation at Morrinho. The Morrinho artwork communicates a nuanced vision of both benevolent and violent social actors, and counters the overwhelmingly negative dominant characterization of Rio de Janeiro's favelas. This study has implications for an inclusive critical pedagogy and the use of art as a means to facilitate a transformative education. Further research is recommended to explore terminology used to refer to favelas, and perceptions that favela residents have of their experiences in public education.

O descompasso de uma experiência: avaliação do Programa Habitar Brasil na Comunidade África-Natal/RN

This research deals with the evaluation of the Programa do Governo Federal para Urbanização de Favelas Habitar Brasil(1993) carried out in the Africa slum - Redinha neighbourhood in Natal-Rn. This study carried out in period from 2005 to 2006 searches to identify the effects of the actions proposed by Program in 1993-1994 about the current urbanistic configuration of the Africa community. It analyzes the effectiveness in the process of achievement of the considered objectives to habitation, communitity equipments, infrastructure and agrarian regularization. On the evaluation process, it has been as reference the works developed by Adauto Cardoso (2004), Blaine Worthen (2004), Ronaldo Garcia (2001) and Rosângela Paz (2006). About the Habitational Policy with approach to the Urbanistic Right and the right to the housing, the reflections by Raquel Rolnik, Nabil Bonduki, Ermínia Maricato, Saule Júnior, Betânia de Moraes Alfonsin and Edésio Fernandes are main references. To gauge the execution of the objectives proposed by Habitar Brasil in 1993, it has searched in the documentary data of the time and in information gotten in interviews with technicians that had participated of the program, consistent references on what was considered, what was executed and the process of the intervention of Habitar Brasil in the Africa community. The area analysis in 2005-2006 has developed on the base of the urbanistic survey of the current situation from the four performance lines of the Program: habitation, infrastructure, community equipments and agrarian regularization, with a current urbanistic evaluation of Africa considering the intervention carried out in 1993 and 1994. The study points out the context of Brazilian Habitational Policy where the Programa Habitar Brasil was launched, explaining the main principles of the Program. In terms of local, it empahsizes the administrative-political factors that had contributed so that Natal-Rn city has been pioneering in the resources captation of Habitar Brazil (1993). Considering Habitar Brazil in Africa, the work argues and presents the intervention diagnosis and the proposal, developed by Program in 1993 evidencing the local problem of the time. After that, it makes a current reading of the area, identifying in 2006 representative elements of Habitar Brasil (1993-1994) for the Africa community. It identifies significant advances in the constitution of the institucional apparatus of the plaining system of Habitation of Social Interest for the city of Natal and points the fragilities in the implementation of the urban infrastructure actions and above all in the achievement of the objectives of the agrarian regularization

O processo de urbanização de Mossorò: dos processos históricos à estrutura urbana atual

The general objective of this academic work is to analyze the relationship between the territorial division and the urban expansion process of Mossoró city, understood here as the production and occupation of space. The urban expansion in Mossoró, since its formation as settlement in 1772 until current days, identifies with the Brazilian urbanization process whose growth is determined by the capitalist development. Thus, the expansion was determined by several economical specializations imposed by the territorial division of work which occurs at an interregional level, and, sometimes at an international level. Then, each specialization determined a moment of the urban expansion of the city, as follows: a) The cattle farmer specialization, between 1772 and 1857, when the urban expansion was shy, is summarized to a commercial square that received goods from Aracati aiming to cover a wide rural area; b) The commercial emporium specialization, between 1857 and 1930, when the urban expansion took an important impulse with the concentration of public and private capitals; c) The salt industry and the agricultural-industrial exporter specialization inside a state of development policy, between 1930 and 1970, when the urban expansion, joined to the settlement of the working class in the urban soil, developed along an important axis -the railway; d) The render of services specialization inside a state of intervention policy, between 1970 and 1990, when the urban expansion was characterized by the accelerated growth rhythm, by the reuse of some spaces, and by space segregation of demanding people; e) The render of services policy inside a neoliberal state policy, since 1990 until current days, when the urban expansion reduced its rhythm abruptly, when only small alterations occurred in the existing spaces. It focused on social policies and on several slums eradication programs. Finally, the territorial structure is deeply articulated with others, no territorial, but economical, social and political, which happens at a national, regional and local rate. Only within a historical and conceptual panorama, it was possible to explain the urban expansion in Mossoró from its formation in 1772 until current days. Therefore, this work is a several discipline analysis of the urbanization process existing in Mossoró

O descompasso de uma experiência: avaliação do Programa Habitar Brasil na Comunidade África-Natal/RN

This research deals with the evaluation of the Programa do Governo Federal para Urbanização de Favelas Habitar Brasil(1993) carried out in the Africa slum - Redinha neighbourhood in Natal-Rn. This study carried out in period from 2005 to 2006 searches to identify the effects of the actions proposed by Program in 1993-1994 about the current urbanistic configuration of the Africa community. It analyzes the effectiveness in the process of achievement of the considered objectives to habitation, communitity equipments, infrastructure and agrarian regularization. On the evaluation process, it has been as reference the works developed by Adauto Cardoso (2004), Blaine Worthen (2004), Ronaldo Garcia (2001) and Rosângela Paz (2006). About the Habitational Policy with approach to the Urbanistic Right and the right to the housing, the reflections by Raquel Rolnik, Nabil Bonduki, Ermínia Maricato, Saule Júnior, Betânia de Moraes Alfonsin and Edésio Fernandes are main references. To gauge the execution of the objectives proposed by Habitar Brasil in 1993, it has searched in the documentary data of the time and in information gotten in interviews with technicians that had participated of the program, consistent references on what was considered, what was executed and the process of the intervention of Habitar Brasil in the Africa community. The area analysis in 2005-2006 has developed on the base of the urbanistic survey of the current situation from the four performance lines of the Program: habitation, infrastructure, community equipments and agrarian regularization, with a current urbanistic evaluation of Africa considering the intervention carried out in 1993 and 1994. The study points out the context of Brazilian Habitational Policy where the Programa Habitar Brasil was launched, explaining the main principles of the Program. In terms of local, it empahsizes the administrative-political factors that had contributed so that Natal-Rn city has been pioneering in the resources captation of Habitar Brazil (1993). Considering Habitar Brazil in Africa, the work argues and presents the intervention diagnosis and the proposal, developed by Program in 1993 evidencing the local problem of the time. After that, it makes a current reading of the area, identifying in 2006 representative elements of Habitar Brasil (1993-1994) for the Africa community. It identifies significant advances in the constitution of the institucional apparatus of the plaining system of Habitation of Social Interest for the city of Natal and points the fragilities in the implementation of the urban infrastructure actions and above all in the achievement of the objectives of the agrarian regularization

O processo de urbanização de Mossorò: dos processos históricos à estrutura urbana atual

The general objective of this academic work is to analyze the relationship between the territorial division and the urban expansion process of Mossoró city, understood here as the production and occupation of space. The urban expansion in Mossoró, since its formation as settlement in 1772 until current days, identifies with the Brazilian urbanization process whose growth is determined by the capitalist development. Thus, the expansion was determined by several economical specializations imposed by the territorial division of work which occurs at an interregional level, and, sometimes at an international level. Then, each specialization determined a moment of the urban expansion of the city, as follows: a) The cattle farmer specialization, between 1772 and 1857, when the urban expansion was shy, is summarized to a commercial square that received goods from Aracati aiming to cover a wide rural area; b) The commercial emporium specialization, between 1857 and 1930, when the urban expansion took an important impulse with the concentration of public and private capitals; c) The salt industry and the agricultural-industrial exporter specialization inside a state of development policy, between 1930 and 1970, when the urban expansion, joined to the settlement of the working class in the urban soil, developed along an important axis -the railway; d) The render of services specialization inside a state of intervention policy, between 1970 and 1990, when the urban expansion was characterized by the accelerated growth rhythm, by the reuse of some spaces, and by space segregation of demanding people; e) The render of services policy inside a neoliberal state policy, since 1990 until current days, when the urban expansion reduced its rhythm abruptly, when only small alterations occurred in the existing spaces. It focused on social policies and on several slums eradication programs. Finally, the territorial structure is deeply articulated with others, no territorial, but economical, social and political, which happens at a national, regional and local rate. Only within a historical and conceptual panorama, it was possible to explain the urban expansion in Mossoró from its formation in 1772 until current days. Therefore, this work is a several discipline analysis of the urbanization process existing in Mossoró

Turismo de Favela y Seguridad “La puesta en valor del Turismo Justo como herramienta para el desarrollo turístico sostenible del Museo a cielo abierto de la Favela da Providência en Rio de Janeiro

Esta investigación realiza una observación etnográfica profunda a uno de los programas más exitosos de Turismo de Favela en Rio de Janeiro, los esfuerzos para el controle de la violencia y para la sostenibilidad del Turismo Justo como forma de incluir los habitantes de la comunidad entre los actores de esto destino peculiar denominado Favela da Providência. A partir del análisis de esta experiencia, se buscan extraer líneas de acción que permitan generar nuevas políticas para el controle de la violencia en áreas marginales y acciones que incluyen los habitantes de las Favelas en la actividad turística. Este trabajo presupone, por ende, una exhaustiva descripción de las dinámicas sociales al interior de esta comunidad, de su configuración histórica, de sus espacios y actores, y de las condiciones socio-culturales que permitieron el éxito y manutención de este proceso de desarrollo turístico Sostenible.

Maleta pequeña y relatos cortos: Crónicas de un viajero

Este trabajo de grado es un conjunto de crónicas que carácter experiencial, desde las cuales se narran las historias que viven los turistas en sitios inhóspitos como el desierto de la Tatacoa y la selva del Amazonas. Estos textos están orientados a mostrar el desarrollo del periodismo de turismo en Colombia.

A PRECARIZAÇÃO DA PESCA ARTESANAL E REPRODUÇÃO DO ESPAÇO NA REGIÃO METROPOLITANA DO RIO DE JANEIRO (RMRJ )

Vivemos a partir do século XXI um processo de modernização industrial com repercussão no aumento de serviços e comércio na RMRJ. A reestruturação produtiva, principalmente para atender ao setor de petróleo e gás em busca do “desenvolvimento” tem gerado impactos ambientais que influenciam diretamente o trabalho e a vida dos pescadores artesanais, num processo tanto acelerado quanto complexo de precarização da atividade, que resulta no surgimento de desigualdades sociais. Apesar da importância econômica no que tange ao abastecimento do mercado de alimentos via economia familiar, devido à falta de investimentos no setor, a pesca vem perdendo espaço para outras atividades urbanas, o que trás a necessidade de políticas de compensação. Diante da modernização do espaço, as contradições existentes orientam a favelização das áreas costeiras, processo comum na RMRJ. Essa pesquisa está em andamento e suas conclusões integrarão a tese de mestrado, onde o objetivo é investigar, via estudo de casos, a importância da produção de espaços tradicionalmente pesqueiros construídos em torno da baía de Guanabara, a existência de habitações precárias, popularmente denominadas, julgadas e desvalorizadas pelo rótulo de favelas, apesar da importância da atividade, tanto no sentido da sua reprodução econômica quanto no sentido da tradicional e cultural

AS RELAÇÕES DE PODER NO PROCESSO (DES) OCUPAÇÃO DA MATA ATLÂNTICA NA AV. PARALELA, SALVADOR, BAHIA – BRASIL

Este trabalho apresenta uma realidade comum nos grandes centros urbanos no mundo, e que acontece hoje de forma intensa e acelerada na cidade de Salvador, Bahia – Brasil: ocupações regularizadas das áreas de Florestas Tropicais (Mata Atlântica), neste caso, na Avenida Paralela, um dos lugares que vem passando por transformações na sua paisagem natural, com construções de condomínios residenciais para as classes média e alta, shoppings centers, lojas, abertura de ruas e avenidas e, principalmente, a expulsão dos moradores de áreas de “invasão” (favelas) que existem há décadas, como o Bairro da Paz, com a intensificação da especulação imobiliária e, como mecanismo de redução da violência urbana nesta localidade. Para o poder público, o desmatamento e a ocupação informal dessa mesma área há anos atrás era inaceitável, hoje, com a implementação de políticas “publicas”, como o gestado no Plano Diretor de Desenvolvimento Urbano – PDDU, acontece não somente a devastação da Mata Atlântica, bem como o incentivo à ocupação formal e à segregação social dos grupos menos favorecidos.

FAVELA DA VERGUEIRO E MODERNIZAÇÃO À BRASILEIRA: APONTAMENTOS SOBRE INDUSTRIALIZAÇÃO E TRABALHO NA FORMAÇÃO DO CAPITALISMO NO BRASIL

A presente pesquisa trata da favela da Vergueiro, em São Paulo. Surgida nos anos 1950, foidespejada na década de 1970, representando um momento em que o fenômeno das favelas ainda não assumira grandes proporções na cidade. Sua análise se integra num estudo mais amplo sobre a modernização brasileira. Retomam-se debates sobre a indústrialização e o desenvolvimento do capitalismo brasileiro, que frequentemente situaram as favelas enquanto marginalidade ou atraso; inversamente, pressupõe-se que o desenvolvimento do capital amplia tais fenômenos. Recoloca-se a noção centro-periferia enquanto oposição necessária. Faz-se leituras de "O Capital" de Marx considerando a determinação da socialização mediada por abstrações, assumindo potencia explicativa a teoria do valor, o fetiche e a crise enquanto imanência do processo reprodutivo do capital. Coloca-se a discussão sobre o trabalho produtivo x improdutivo e a autonomização da reprodução do capital e capital fictício, verificando a importância das condições de trabalho para o surgimento e formação de favelas. Até o momento, verificou-se que a população daquela favela empregava-se na construção civil e serviços domésticos, tendo sido posteriormente deslocada para os extremos da metrópole (para outras favelas e loteamentos periféricos). Este trabalho é um mestrado em andamento.

VISITA A CORTIÇOS EM SÃO PAULO UMA EXPERIÊNCIA DIDÁTICA

Este trabalho é fruto da disciplina AUP 5707 - ÁREAS RESIDENCIAIS - LOCALIZAÇÃO E PLANEJAMENTO: favelas e cortiços, ministrada no segundo semestre de 2008[1] como atividade da linha de pesquisa Habitat do curso de Pós- Graduação da Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo. A metodologia do curso envolveu seminários associados tanto aos textos sugeridos pelos professores como à avaliação dos trabalhos de campo. Tais  visitas  foram   direcionadas para o caso dos cortiços, das favelas e dos conjuntos habitacionais de São Paulo. Para a elaboração deste painel, selecionamos o trabalho de campo que teve como foco os cortiços de São Paulo localizados na rua João Teodoro, bairro do Peri.  Os aspectos captados pelas fotografias e entrevistas revelam o predomínio de uma situação de precariedade das condições sociais e de habitabilidade dos cortiços, contrastando em parte com as condições de infraestrutura de seu entorno, considerando a sua localização próxima ao centro da cidade.

VISITA A CORTIÇOS EM SÃO PAULO – UMA EXPERIÊNCIA DIDÁTICA

Este trabalho é fruto da disciplina AUP 5707 - ÁREAS RESIDENCIAIS - LOCALIZAÇÃO E PLANEJAMENTO: favelas e cortiços, ministrada no segundo semestre de 2008 como atividade da linha de pesquisa Habitat do curso de Pós- Graduação da Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo. A metodologia do curso envolveu seminários associados tanto aos textos sugeridos pelos professores como à  avaliação dos trabalhos de campo. Tais visitas  foram   direcionadas para o caso dos cortiços, das favelas e dos conjuntos habitacionais de São Paulo.Para a elaboração deste painel, selecionamos o trabalho de campo que teve como foco os cortiços de São Paulo localizados na rua João Teodoro, bairro do Peri.  Os aspectos captados pelas fotografias e entrevistas revelam o predomínio de uma situação de precariedade das condições sociais e de habitabilidade dos cortiços, contrastando em parte com as condições de infraestrutura de seu entorno, considerando a sua localização próxima ao centro da cidade.