Monthly Archives: July 2016

Así es el corazón de la mayor zona productora de marihuana en Sudamérica VICE News acompañó al equipo de élite antinarcóticos de Paraguay a una redada en una zona que abastece a todo el sur del continente americano. La corrupción y la falta de oportunidades generan una producción masiva de la droga.

Así es el corazón de la mayor zona productora de marihuana en Sudamérica VICE News acompañó al equipo de élite antinarcóticos de Paraguay a una redada en una zona que abastece a todo el sur del continente americano. La corrupción y la falta de oportunidades generan una producción masiva de la droga.
  • July 29, 2016
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Desde las alturas se ven unas largas filas de plantas de marihuana que dan color al bosque seco tropical que divide a Paraguay de Brasil, un territorio que parece no tener ley. Una vez que nuestro helicóptero tipo Huey, de los que se utilizaban en la Guerra de Vietnam, aterriza con los miembros de las fuerzas especiales antinarcóticos, sabemos por qué Paraguay, una pequeña y conservadora nación, es uno de los países productores de marihuana más grandes del mundo. Las tropas fuertemente armadas saltan de la nave y comienzan a derribar los altos…Read more …

Bolivia’s president isn’t lowering his sights despite a scandal worthy of a telenovela

Bolivia’s president isn’t lowering his sights despite a scandal worthy of a telenovela
  • July 24, 2016
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LA PAZ, Bolivia — Most democratic leaders would find their political ambitions curtailed by a referendum result spurning their plans for reelection. But Bolivia’s President Evo Morales is different. Despite a narrow loss in a February vote for a constitutional amendment to allow him to run for a fourth consecutive term, the left-wing populist appears intent on hanging on to power when his current mandate ends in 2020. Morales is also targeting the Bolivian media for covering an outlandishly personal corruption scandal — involving $560 million worth of government contracts and a paternity…Read more …

A surprising move on LGBT rights from a ‘macho’ South American president

A surprising move on LGBT rights from a ‘macho’ South American president
  • July 17, 2016
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LA PAZ, Bolivia — Bolivia has a new gender identity law that might put it in Latin America’s vanguard on LGBT rights — but the story behind the measure reveals how far the Andean nation still has to go before ending homophobia. That’s according to Carlos Parra, aka Paris Galán, the country’s best known drag queen and a prominent gay rights campaigner. Signed into law in May, the measure allows people to change their gender on official identity documents. It means that Bolivia joins Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia as the only four nations…Read more …

We visited the front lines of Paraguay’s slash-and-burn war on weed

We visited the front lines of Paraguay’s slash-and-burn war on weed
  • July 12, 2016
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From the air, the neat rows of cannabis plants in a clearing carved into the tropical dry forest along Paraguay's lawless border with Brazil look like pine saplings. But once our Vietnam-era Huey helicopter carrying members of the country's anti-narcotics special forces lands, it becomes clear why this small, conservative nation is one of the world's biggest producers of marijuana. The heavily-armed troops jump out of the chopper and start hacking down the waste-high sativa bushes with swift swipes of their machetes. They clear the entire area of about seven acres in less…Read more …