Search

Background: Hypertension, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, overweight, obesity, and tobacco (smoking, chewing, and vaping), together with a pro-inflammatory and procoagulant state, are the main risk factors related to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Objective and methods: A group of experts from the Americas, based on their clinical expertise in cardiology, cardiovascular prevention, and cardiometabolic (CM) diseases, joined together to develop these practical recommendations for the optimal evaluation and treatment of residual CM risk factors in Latin America, using a modified Delphi methodology (details in electronic TSI) to generate a comprehensive CM risk reduction guideline, and through personalized medicine and patient-centered decision, considering the cost-benefit ratio The process was well defined to avoid conflicts of interest that could bias the discussion and recommendations. Results: Residual risk reduction should consider therapeutic options adapted to specific patient needs, based on five treatment objectives: triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, inflammation, impaired glucose metabolism, high blood pressure, and prothrombotic status. Comprehensive control of all CM risk factors should be a priority to deal with this important public health problem and prevent premature deaths. The recommendations in this paper address the evidence-based treatment of CM risk and are intended for clinical application in Latin American countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the product of doctoral research and aims to introduce the discussion and analysis of Ubuntu and traditional African philosophy as a contribution to thinking about the fragmentation of democracy in Latin America, giving way to the role that African movements and organizations have in assuming a political and ethical struggle to build a relational democracy as a necessary proposal to the crisis of liberal democracy. The methodology consists of a bibliographic review of literature and intellectuals from the social sciences and African thought to highlight a trend that is not only framed in the questioning of the democratic model in force in Latin America, but also provides some clues for the construction of a community society project in the region, based on relational ontology. It concludes that, in the crisis of the Western political model, the struggles of Afro-descendant movements must transcend the logic of strengthening liberal democracy, to propose the ethical path of Ubuntu as a route to deconstruct the political and societal structures in place, promoting a message of humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationalisation of the curriculum (IoC) is typically approached very differently across national, institutional and disciplinary contexts. This paper reports on research on internationalisation of the curriculum in Latin America and discusses its potential to provoke disruptive innovation in higher education internationalisation. Traditionally, approaches to internationalisation of the curriculum in Latin American universities have been focused almost solely on student mobility programs. The research reported in this paper was conducted by a project team from Brazil and Australia in 2021–2022. A qualitative methodology was used. Methods included a tri-lingual literature review of scholarly publications on curriculum internationalisation in English, Portuguese and Spanish and a modified e-Delphi methodology with a panel of experts comprising international higher education scholars and practitioners working in Latin America (and conducted in Spanish, Portuguese and English). The purpose of the research was to identify ways in which existing approaches to internationalising the curriculum in Latin America might be enhanced in order to provide more students with opportunities to develop international perspectives and intercultural knowledge and skills. The research found that there is significant potential to achieve this outcome if the process of internationalising the curriculum is approached as a long-term project involving complex collaborative boundary work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2015, UNESCO has developed a variety of programmes for preventing violent extremism through education (PVE-E), under the framework of Global Citizenship Education and Target 4.7 of Agenda 2030. There have been formal board decisions to promote PVE-E, regional and international conferences and three key publications: a Teacher's Guide (2016), a Guide for Policy-makers (2017), and a Youth-Led Guide (2017 and 2018). Through a discourse analysis of these key documents and a critical engagement with the institutional politics of UNESCO, the paper delineates the discursive constructs of PVE-E that are mobilised and sheds light on the under-researched politics of production that affect the nature of these texts. Taking a comparative perspective, the paper shows how PVE-E is represented within and between these different texts, exposes the normative values and ideological assumptions underpinning these representations and argues that we are ultimately witnessing a declining legitimacy of UNESCO's normative power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary health care (PHC) has increased in global relevance as it has been demonstrated to be a useful strategy to promote community access to health services. Multilateral organizations and national governments have reached a consensus regarding the basic principles of PHC, but the application of these varies from country to country due to the particularities of local health systems. This article aims to review and summarize PHC strategies and the configuration of health networks in Latin American and Caribbean countries. The review was carried out using keywords in at least 9 databases. Papers in languages other than English, Portuguese, and Spanish were excluded, while non-refereed articles and regional gray literature were incorporated. As a result, 1,146 papers were identified. After three instances of analysis, 142 articles were selected for this investigation. Data were analyzed according to an analysis by theme. The evidence collected on health reforms in the region reflects the need to intensify care strategies supported by PHC and care networks. These must be resilient to changes in the population's needs and must be able to adapt to contexts of epidemiological accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a change in international politics since the 2008 financial crisis, thanks to a greater spread of economic resources and military capabilities. For many, it is a radical transformation that could spell the end of US hegemony in Latin America. This paper examines the proposition, beginning with a review of the concept of hegemony, which rather than being viewed as a structural characteristic is conceived of here as a "nuanced hegemony", in other words a network of asymmetric and hierarchical relations. We can observe not just one transformation then, but the emergence of a hemispheric context that could be described as "differentiated hegemony". The United States still occupies a central position, but its foreign policy is marked by subregional fragmentation and the externalisation of electoral priorities. The paper explores the effects at subregional level, focusing on the opportunities and challenges it presents to Latin American countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses Latin America's role in an international system in flux, with high levels of uncertainty and transformations that signal a shift in the geoeconomic and geopolitical landscape across the world. Against this backdrop, the paper examines the challenges (both old and new) the region must face, focusing on the impact of global changes on regional dynamics and the capacity of the different countries to find answers both to the international situation and old and new internal problems. In addition, as an introductory paper to this monograph entitled "Geopolitics from Latin America: a change of cycle and multipolarity", it identifies the fulcrums of these changes, their impact, the main actors involved and the processes underway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the role of the Spanish legal ecology in maintaining social cohesion, bolstering the popular legitimacy of the imperial project, and setting the boundaries of economic development. Drawing the connections between Hapsburg and Bourbon governance through two (inconclusive) legal cases, the first lasting throughout the Spanish War of Succession (1700-1713), and the second occurring during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). The ambiguity of missing appeals and references to previous legal actions corresponds to the reality for Africans and their descendants in the Spanish Indies for whom there was rarely a clear endpoint in their dealings with the courts. The first case follows two sisters, Maria Josefa Copete and Lorenza Elena, as they defend their freedom against their half-brother. In the second case Nicolás Quintana, an African slave, fights to avoid being sent to the gold mines and separated from his family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an executive summary made by a group of experts named Latin American Academy for the study of Lipids (ALALIP). In the current clinical guidelines, atherogenic dyslipidemia (AD) is a poorly recognized entity. Due to the frequent lipid alterations associated with AD in Latin America (LA), we organized a group of experts named (ALALIP) to generate a document in order to analyze their prevalence and to offer practical recommendations. Methodology: using the Delphi methodology, we conducted a comprehensive literature review with emphasis on those publications related to LA. Subsequently, we developed key questions for discussion. As a convention, those recommendations that had a 100% of acceptance were considered unanimous, those with >80% were consensual, and those with <80% were in disagreement. Results: a systematic analysis of national health surveys and regional cohort studies showed a consistently high prevalence of the lipid abnormalities that define AD: low levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) range from 34.1% to 53.3% and elevated triglycerides (TG) range from 25.5% to 31.2%. These abnormalities could be related to high consumption of food with a high caloric density, cholesterol and trans fats, a sedentary lifestyle and perhaps epigenetic changes Conclusions lipid abnormalities that define AD have a high prevalence in LA. The interaction between an unfavorable lifestyle, inheritance and epigenetic changes is probably their cause. It is important to design a global study of risk factors in LA to know its true prevalence in the region, its consequences and to derive from its treatment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for the decolonial feminist potential of multi-layered arts-research collaborations for critical research committed to advancing migrant justice. It reflects on the art-research collaborative project, 'stitching voices, stitching bodies', investigating the gendered, racialised, colonial and geopolitical dynamics of violence and resistance of Latin American migrant women. Collaborators included the author and visual artist Nina Franco, twenty anonymous Latin American survivors of violence, three Latin American women activists and a filmmaker, a British-Caribbean sound engineer and an Irish-Caribbean video editor. Through our art-research methodological engagements, the relationship between the researcher, artists and participants was significantly altered as we alternated between and simultaneously occupied those positions. Exchanging and complementing our skills and sensibilities, we tried new ways of working and overlapped various layers of expression to collectively produce knowledge that enhanced understandings of and multiplied affects concerning intimate border violence. Through our art, we were able to envision, explore and represent intimate border violence, coloniality and resistance to these in audio-visual and visceral ways that grasped and multiplied embodied affects not only for research participants and collaborators but also audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of the International Baccalaureate (IB) has grown impressively on a global scale. In Latin America, the IB has been mainly introduced in private schools that cater for the most affluent sectors of society and, consequently, has been mostly interpreted as contributing to processes of social reproduction and the widening of inequalities However, since the mid-2000s the IB has been promoted in state schools in countries such as Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica and in the City of Buenos Aires in Argentina. This paper analyses the enactment of the IBDP in public schools in Costa Rica and Peru drawing on a mixed methods multiple case study. It shows how, in countries with significant socioeconomic disparities, the possibility of offering the IBDP to students at public schools was mostly justified as a matter of equity, understood as opening access to an educational programme that was only available to the most privileged sectors of society. By problematising the notions of privilege and eliteness, we discuss the complex relations between inequalities and educational opportunities and question the extent to which these programmes are affecting social structures in Costa Rica and Peru. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a Latin American perspective on ESD, with a focus on transformative and participatory learning in community contexts. With a long history of critical pedagogies, Latin America provides a fertile ground for exploring alternative forms of education as a means to address deep-rooted challenges in western traditional strands of education. We start by providing an overview of pertinent educational currents present in Latin America, then ground these perspectives in two case studies carried out by the authors – one from Colombia, the other from Brazil – which explore grassroots initiatives in community settings that utilise different forms of education and learning. We then propose an integrative model to foster alternative educational approaches that might lead to decolonial and regenerative praxis, finishing with a discussion on how Latin American-rooted regenerative decolonisation perspective and praxis can inform global ESD discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the emergence of the paper as a kind of writing in the area of the Humanities that, in recent times, and with institutional support, has been imposed as the nearly unique and acceptable kind of academic discourse. The aim of this paper is, first, to study the main characteristics of this kind of writing, based on information in the manuals and instructions for paper writing and, secondly, to signal its implications for the intellectual work in general and for the work in Latin America in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper discusses the stages of health system resilience (HSR) and the factors underlying differences in HSR during the covid-19 pandemic, especially the vaccination challenge. We studied the relationship between vaccination strategies and macro-context backgrounds in 21 Latin American countries. Our objective was to capture the impact of those aspects in the SR and identify potential improvements for future crises and for vaccination programs in general. Methods: The study uses mixed-methods research to provide insights into how the countries' backgrounds and vaccination strategies impact the HSR. Particularly, we used explanatory sequential mixed methods, which entails a quantitative-qualitative two-phase sequence. The quantitative phase was conducted using cluster and variance analysis, in which the HSR was measured using as a proxy the covid-19 vaccination outcomes in three cut-offs of reaching 25%, 50%, and 75% of population coverage. This approach allows us to discriminate covid-19 vaccination progress by stages and contrast it to the qualitative stage, in which we performed a country-case analysis of the background conditions and the changes in vaccination strategies that occurred during the corresponding dates. Results: The paper provides a rich comparative case analysis of countries, classifying them by early, prompt, and delayed performers. The results show that differences in vaccination performance are due to flexibility in adapting strategies, cooperation, and the ability to design multilevel solutions that consider the needs of various actors in the health ecosystem. These differences vary depending on the vaccination stage, which suggests the importance of acknowledging learning, diffusion, and feedback processes at the regional level. Conclusions: We identified the importance of societal well-being as an ideal country antecedent for high and sustained levels of performance in covid-19 vaccination. Whereas in other countries where the set-up and beginning phases were rough, the value of the operational decisions and the learning on the move regarding their own and their peers' trajectories were crucial and were reflected in performance improvement. A contribution of this study is that the above-mentioned analysis was done using vaccination coverage cut-off points that allow a performance view that takes into consideration the stages of the vaccination progress and the learning process that goes with it. As well as framing this into the HSR shock cycles that allow to differentiate the stages of resilience on which countries must act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global university rankings (GUR) have become increasingly influential as a proxy measure of higher education quality. The more recent development of regionalised forms of rankings has increased their global reach, drawing a greatly expanded range of institutions into their orbit. As a result, regionalised GUR have developed an increasing potential power to shape social perceptions, institutional actions, and everyday academic practices. In this paper, the perceived impact of regionalised forms of GUR is analysed from the perspective of Latin American higher education. Based on a critical meta-synthesis framed by a glonacal heuristic (Marginson and Rhoades, Higher Education 43:281–309, 2002), the tensions arising around the application of regionalised forms of global rankings are mapped. Specifically, the impact of rankings on conceptions of the mission of universities is foregrounded. The meta-synthesis identifies three primary tensions around the regional application of GUR in Latin American contexts: how conceptions of regional higher education quality are most effectively developed, how the local university is imagined under the weight of global expectations, and the relativised value of local agency in assessing quality outcomes. The findings suggest that GUR have created strong fissures in Latin American higher education regarding the missions of institutions, particularly in confronting the powerful hegemonies of the epistemologies of the Global North imposing themselves on Latin American higher education. The paper concludes that the stratification and social anxiety caused by the regional applications of GUR may not be necessarily productive in encouraging regional institutional diversity or in enhancing the local relevance of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dependency theory had great influence in Latin America between 1940 and 1970, but since then it has lost political and academic relevance. However, in recent years, the dependency agenda has been increasingly revisited, incorporating new analytical axes and conceptual bridges with other theories. Despite this, this agenda remains largely blind to gender and racial-ethnic inequalities. This paper aims precisely to address this gap by combining the dependency school with feminist economics to address the links between gender inequalities and Latin American peripheral position. In particular, I propose to develop two analytical axes resulting from the combination of both currents. First, I argue that gender inequalities function as 'adjustment variables' in the 'up' and 'down' economic cycles of Latin American countries. Thus, women's wages and more precarious working conditions constitute a central axis of peripheral countries in the international competition for attracting capital. Second, I argue that the large wage gap and high informality derived from the productive structure of the periphery catalyse the commodification of 'low-cost' paid domestic work. This 'cheap' care work satisfies the care needs not only of the upper-middle sectors of the peripheries, but also of the central markets through Global Care Chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores the evolution of the humanitarian disarmament initiative toward the TPNW and the links and influences from Latin America civil society efforts. Shifting away from traditional military objectives, humanitarian disarmament integrates civil society organizations, prioritizes Human Security over State security, and emphasizes the humanitarian impact of weapons. The paper examines key campaigns, including the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), the Control Arms Campaign, the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), elucidating their advocacy strategies. It highlights the unique features of humanitarian disarmament, stressing obligations beyond elimination, addressing challenges in multilateral forums, and presenting Latin America's distinct approach. The essay concludes by discussing the status of nuclear disarmament in the region, emphasizing universalization efforts and contextual challenges, including the rise of alt-right movements and the region's historical commitment to nuclear disarmament. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ties between Latin America and Asia by moving beyond the homogenisation of the two regions through elevating the importance of opposition to a third party, in this case an "imperialist" and developed North. In contrast to normative analyses based on outmoded conceptions of world history, it proposes an intellectual exercise that problematises the interregional bond by placing the emphasis on heterogeneities rather than broad bush approaches that ignore the complex and diverse national and regional realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international system is in a period of transition, marked by a weakening of multilateralism, challenges to the liberal order and the consolidation of new global leaderships. In addition, various cross-border crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic, have compounded the effects of these changes at a regional level. Given this context, what room is there for regional cooperation in Latin America? As a tool for regional coordination and integration into international flows and dynamics, regionalism can boast achievements, but challenges remain. In analytical terms, this paper proposes an approach that enables an examination of the combination of interests, ideas and institutions at play on a regional level in Latin America. The central argument is that the changing dynamics of regionalism are a product of the way in which states' interests interact with ideas about the region in a specific institutional environment over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a world of growing international competition and rivalry between China and the United States, Latin America and the European Union (EU) are caught in the same thorny dilemma. Positioned between these global giants, both regions are facing a retorn to a Westphalian system of nation-states, which undermines their roles as emerging regional players. In view of these new global challenges in Latin America and the EU, this paper uses a qualitative and comparative approach to explore foreign policy discourses on autonomy in both regions. It examines their goals and priorities and assesses the potential regional and interregional consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes to read Michael Taussig's My Cocaine Museum (2004) as a forerunner of recent research on the Latin American extractive zone (Gómez-Barris). In his remarkable book, the Australian anthropologist writes on the relation between two prime materials that have an important impact on the past and present of Colombia: gold and cocaine. Focusing on a region close to the Pacific Coast, more specifically the gold-mining village of Santa María, Taussig's creative work of nonfiction explores the fact that multiple forms of violence (ecological, colonial, extractivist, political) converge in the Timbiquí region. It also makes an innovative move by including cocaine within the discussion on capitalist extractivism. Returning to Taussig's book is also productive at this stage because it offers a theoretical and artistic starting point for thinking through the social ecologies and the resistance encountered in the extractive region of the Colombian South-West Pacific. Ultimately, this paper argues, My Cocaine Museum constitutes an example of anti-extractivist non-fiction, as it uses montage techniques to create shock, wonder, and hope, to establish unexpected connections between the past and the present, and to revitalise both the Timbiquí region and the official Colombian Gold Museum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Integration in health and care can improve quality and outcomes, but it is challenged by expansion of medical knowledge, social pressures on patient needs, and demands to deliver critical information. In Latin American and in other lower and middle-income countries integrated care remains in development. This paper examined the available literature on integrated care to understand how Latin American countries identify and measure integration, and what factors influence success. Methods: This integrative literature review included systematic searches in Global Health, PubMed, SciELO and BVSPsi databases for articles on integrated care in Spanish, Portuguese, and English in the period from January of 1999 to December 2020. The articles were screened for selection and assessed independently by five reviewers that used the inclusion criteria of papers about integration in health care systems. The sample excluded articles that did not deal with the integration of health care, which addressed issues related to public health campaigns, programs to control endemics and epidemics, reports on the experience of implementing health services, health promotion guidelines, food safety, oral health, and books evaluation. Results: 24 articles were included: qualitative (75%), quantitative (12,5%), and mixed-method research (4%) published between 2000 and 2017. All studies were undertaken in Brazil, and two of them were also conducted in Latin American countries. In 15 articles there was an interchangeable use between concepts of integration of services and integrated care, while nine studies did not define integration. Barriers to integration included absence of shared understanding of knowledge among members of interprofessional teams, lack of clarity on professional roles, missing consensus on a definition and measurement of integrated care, power struggles between professionals, poor institutional support, insufficient team preparation and training and unequal valuation of professions by society. Conclusion: Several types of integration and factors contributing to the success of implementation of integrated care in various contexts in Brazil were identified. The concept of integration reflected the varied local and regional realities including different health settings and levels of health and care, suggesting a need for further clarifications on its objective and components especially in LMIC contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Towards the end of the colonial period the east coasts of the General Captaincy of Venezuela were the setting of an intense movement of ideas, papers and people, as well as of conspiracies and confrontments (both armed and unarmed). In that context emerged the figure of Francisco Isnardi, who would soon be imprisoned for alleged intentions to conspire. The study of this case of treason, especially of the suspect's library, which was confiscated, allows us to present a set of problems regarding the diffusion of enlightened values in Tierra Firme during that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of these interviews is to explore the development of Muslim philanthropy in Brazil as well as the role of dawah and its relation to philanthropy. The interviews deal with specific terms such as zakat, fitra, sadaqah, and waqf to explore how they are interpreted and applied in Latin American contexts. The interviews were conducted with the person in charge of Centro de Divulgação do Islam para América Latina (CDIAL, Center for the Promotion of Islam in Latin America) and the director of affairs at Al-Madina School in São Bernardo, São Paulo, Brazil. This paper also provides some perspective on how the Brazilian government provides facilities for Islamic institutions, the way Muslim nonprofit organizations spend their zakat, and how they manage to help others in Brazilian civil society. Both through interviews and the author's personal involvement, this paper offers multiple first-person accounts of Muslim philanthropy in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Latin America has been usually portrayed as an ill geographical space, with no possibility of healing in order to change its current destiny. It is also frequent to think about the crises and setbacks that accompany its history. This essay studies interventions of Latin American intellectuals and publicists who, between the end of the 19th century and the 1920s, resorted to the image of disease --and other associated medical notions-- to explain the tragic destinies of the region and thus defined a repertoire of ideas that seem to have endured. The paper focuses on two moments because of their importance in the emergence of repertoires of ideas, images and metaphors. On the one hand, the 1898 war between Spain and the United States, and European imperialism as a backdrop; on the other, the Great War and its effects, overlapping with the setting of the Latin-American centennials (1910-24), the Mexican Revolution (1910) and the Reforma Universitaria (University Reform, 1918), which began in Argentina but created a university movement in other Latin American countries. Therefore, as a general argument, theis paper argues that it is feasible to organize a body of texts produced in different Latin American countries between the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th that has formed an interpretative repertoire, which operates as a matrix to characterize the Latin American region and associate its destiny to notions such as disease, condemnation, impossibility and failure. Particularly, the paper highlights how references to illnesses in literal and metaphorical senses show the overlap between notions such as disease-conquest-colonization and diseaseimperialism-European decadence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: The paper provides a comprehensive overview of Latin American mining history, exploring cross-pollination opportunities between mining historians and scholars of the emerging field of the new history of capitalism. The analysis spans from the region’s integration into global markets during the 1500s to the twilight of export-led growth in the early twentieth century. Methodology: The study builds on an overview of both classic and contemporary literature, offering new insights into understanding existing data on mining history within a global context. By incorporating perspectives from geology, ecology, and economics, the article investigates the connections between specific mineral deposits and different paths of capitalistic development across Latin America. Originality: The paper sketches some of the gaps in the analysis of global and local flows of minerals and comments on notable contributions to the broader field of Latin American history. It introduces innovative approaches for the study of output cycles, geological and ecological endowments, technological spillovers, and mining economics. Conclusions: First, the existing literature has predominantly focused on precious metals, with few scholars studying non-precious metals and non-metallic minerals. Second, the narratives surrounding mining history have been primarily centered on silver, overshadowing the significance of bimetallism in understanding the emergence of global capitalism. Thirdly, examining the microeconomic dynamics of mining in the region may present fresh opportunities to explore the impact of mining on sectoral and managerial transformations. Finally, studies of the two-way interaction of capitalism and mining need to include research on the energy and environmental systems that underpinned mineral extraction and production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a reprint of the article "Aptitud de la mujer para ejercer todas las profesiones," by Soledad Acosta de Samper, presented at the Congreso Pedagógico Hispano-Lusitano-Americano in Madrid, Spain in 1892. Acosta discusses women's roles in 19th-century society, particularly in Latin America, and examines the intense academic and social debate surrounding this topic. She also analyzes the schooling women receive in educational systems and compares women's roles in various countries in Latin America and Europe.

This article examines the educational dimension of the General Agreement on Trade in Services of the World Trade Organisation (WTO/GATS), with a special focus on its potential implications for the Latin American region. This ambitious strategy to transform education into a tradable commodity in a global economy cannot be isolated from other international treaties and from the neoliberal policies that have impacted Latin American societies for the last two decades. In this regard, we argue that the WTO/GATS educational agenda has the potential to further the project of privatisation to a higher level, opening the door for international competition. In a continental political economy characterised by large asymmetries in educational export markets and in interactive technologies, such competition will not take place on an even playing field, as the USA is better positioned than most countries in the region to take advantage of a 'free educational market'. If the proposed WTO/GATS goes ahead in such a context, Latin American countries can be adversely affected in terms of their sovereignty on cultural policy, the quality and accessibility of their public education systems, the training of scientists and researchers oriented towards national development, and the contribution of their education systems to the common good and to the equalisation of opportunities in largely unequal societies. We recommend that Latin American governments do not commit themselves to the educational agenda of the WTO/GATS before holding a wide process of public participation, information and reflection in national parliaments and in civil society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cystic fibrosis (CF), an autosomal recessive disease, is caused by variants in both alleles of the CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. A new assay based on allele-specific polymerase chain reaction and high-resolution melting analysis was developed for the detection of 18 CF-causing CFTR variants previously identified in Cuba and Latin America. The assay is also useful for zygosity determination of mutated alleles and includes internal controls. The reaction mixtures were normalized and evaluated using blood samples collected on filter paper. The evaluation of analytical parameters demonstrated the specificity and sensitivity of the method to detect the included CFTR variants. Internal and external validations yielded a 100% agreement between the new assay and the used reference tests. This assay can complement CF newborn screening not only in Cuba but also in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying a comparative regionalism approach to study regionalism(s) in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Latin America (LA), and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), this paper outlines what lessons Latin America and ASEAN regionalism(s) hold for CARICOM based on its current updated model of that concept. With the rise of deglobalisation and the retreat towards regionalism, analysing how different regionalism models approach global, regional, and national power dynamics outlines how these regional institutions manage the externalities of colonialism and imperialism over time. The article concludes by recommending what further policies and principles CARICOM might 'borrow' from these counterparts to strengthen its regional project for the next 50 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to identify the contributions that internal communication has on the functioning of higher education organizations by analyzing the current state of research on the subject. For this purpose, a systematic review was carried out following the PRISMA methodology. The search for articles in the open databases Redalyc and Dialnet and in the closed databases Ebsco-Academic Search Ultimate, Ebsco-Business Source Complete, Web of Science was based on 328 articles to which four filters were applied, resulting in a fi- nal corpus of 18 articles. The main findings determined that the topic has been developed mostly by authors from Latin America; the research takes into account all educational agents (students, teachers, administrators and managers) and mainly has four approaches: internal communication and its relationship with other elements; from the approach of the inclusion of digital media; as part of organizational functioning and from the training of communication professionals. It is concluded that internal communication is considered an important element for the fulfillment of organizational objectives and the generation of motivation, sense of belonging and integration of all personnel. However, it is considered as implicit in the functioning of educational organizations and therefore specific planning, development and evaluation processes are not carried out. Greater attention should be paid to internal communication in order to exploit its potential as a strategy for the improvement of educational organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from a question about the "diasporic" position of certain authors of cultural criticism in Latin America, always halfway between academic affiliation and a kind of fractious position regarding their increasingly bureaucratized practices of knowledge administration, this paper proposes a reading of three representative texts by the Brazilian-Argentine critic Raul Antelo: Crítica acéfala, Archifilologías latinoamericanas. Lecturas tras el agotamiento and A ruinologia. These strange and problematic texts seem to be articulated from a position that not only (post)critically revises the foundations of more conventional criticism, but also moves toward the behavior of the most radical bids of artistic conceptualism; in other words, in them criticism becomes an act: intervention. And therein lies its forceful emergence in the framework of contemporary literary and cultural studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim and background: Short, pragmatic measures of interpersonal violence are needed to facilitate effective evaluation and equitable translation of prevention interventions in low-resource contexts. Measures need to be (1) valid in contexts of high vulnerability, (2) capable of efficiently evaluating multiple forms of violence perpetration/victimization in diverse settings, (3) brief and inexpensive to users/implementers, and (4) sensitive to change. This study reports on the development and evaluation of a measure of adolescent interpersonal violence for use in lowresource contexts. Materials and methods: Informed by the “Psychometric and Pragmatic Evidence Rating Scale” (PAPERS) process, we followed a four-step process: (1) define violence using qualitative interviews with local stakeholders, (2) develop items for a pragmatic measure, (3) pilot the survey measure with target populations in two different low-resource contexts to evaluate the psychometric properties, and (4) review and revise the measure to maximize future use. Results: We synthesized qualitative interviews, community engagement (CE) studios, and expert reviews to generate 20 perpetration and 20 matched victimization items across eight categories of interpersonal violence. We then deployed the measure on adolescents from Nicaragua (N = 101) and the Dominican Republic (DR) (N = 111) who were participating in school-based violence prevention interventions. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) resulted in an eight-item, one-factor measure in Nicaragua and a 10-item, one-factor measure in the DR. The psychometric evaluation demonstrates acceptable reliability but limited statistically significant findings for some validity tests. Conclusion: Drawing from existing measures and sequential mixed methods analysis in low-resource contexts in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), we present a pragmatic measure for tapping into adolescent interpersonal violence. Additional refinement and cultural adaptation may be needed in each specific context to achieve maximum practicality. Clinical significance: Synthesizing existing measures into pragmatic ones improves researchers’ ability to evaluate outcomes of psychosocial health interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Latino populations are at high risk of developing diabetes; however, few scales measure self‐efficacy to change health behaviours in at‐risk Latino individuals. The Diabetes Empowerment Scale was translated into Spanish, and its psychometric properties were tested. Methods: This descriptive investigation was conducted with adults in a predominately Latino Midwest community. Participants (N = 141) completed a modified version of the Diabetes Empowerment Scale, which measures self‐efficacy in exercising and healthy eating. Factor analysis was performed on completed surveys. Recruitment in Latino cultural centres and parishes took place from June 2016 to May 2017. Results: Three factors emerged: self‐efficacy to exercise, emotional eating and social eating. Three scale questions had low scores during analysis; however, overall, the tool demonstrated adequate validity. Conclusions: The Diabetes Empowerment Scale Modified Version–Spanish demonstrated adequate reliability and validity. Healthy dietary preferences and physical activity in populations at‐risk for diabetes should be assessed by nurses to ascertain level of self‐efficacy in individuals by assessing confidence to engage in specific healthy behaviours. Summary statement: What is known about this topic? There is an increasing prevalence of diabetes among immigrant communities.Individuals at risk for diabetes often remain unaware of their risk factors.There are few culturally competent tools which measure risk of diabetes in immigrant communities. What this paper adds? The cross‐cultural adaption of the Diabetes Empowerment Scale Modified Version demonstrated reliability among a Spanish speaking immigrant population.The Diabetes Empowerment Scale Modified Version–Spanish had two categories of eating self‐efficacy and one category of exercise.The meaning of item 7 needs to be clarified, since it loaded on the emotional eating factor despite measuring exercise self‐efficacy. The implications of this paper: Measuring self‐confidence to exercise and to eat a healthy diet among at‐risk communities is important, especially in communities that face structural barriers.Addressing a gap in diabetes prevention, this study addresses the paucity of instruments to measure self‐efficacy in Spanish‐speaking individuals at risk for diabetes.Health‐care professionals including nurses can use this culturally competent tool to support diabetes prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russia has been a powerful ally in Venezuela's complex crisis, having developed political, economic and cultural relations with the Venezuelan state by employing various foreign policy instruments such as mutual support in multilateral fora, foreign aid, loans, commodity trading, military support and cultural diplomacy. What explains this support, despite Venezuela's severe political and economic crisis? Different perspectives have contributed to discussions on shifts in Russian foreign policy towards Latin America since the end of the Cold War. However, studies subscribing to traditional international relations theories have occasionally focused on a single issue or dimension. Such a focus may be problematic when analysing the multifaceted portfolio applied to Russian foreign policy. Based on the Two‐Good Theory approach, its focus on change and maintenance of the status quo, and the concept of substitutability, this research paper elaborates on Russia's foreign policy strategy towards Venezuela to explain policy priorities by examining the alliance with the Venezuelan Maduro regime. Furthermore, the paper highlights the link between the tangible characteristics of energy security and arms sales and intangible aspects, such as cultural diplomacy, which are important explanatory factors of Russian support for Venezuela. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration sought to improve relations between with Latin America and strengthen the Inter-American system through the Good Neighbor Policy. In 1940, to combat the spread of Axis influence, the Roosevelt administration formed the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (CIAA). Tasked with improving perceptions of the United States in Latin America and of Latin America in the United States, the CIAA worked closely with U.S. organizations and businesses to achieve these ends. One frequently cited success story of this period was sending Walt Disney to South America and its resulting films. This paper places the role of the CIAA and Walt Disney Studios within the broader strategic context of the Good Neighbor Policy. In addition, this paper attempts to glean lessons from the CIAA-Disney partnership that epitomize best practices and potential pitfalls in U.S.-Latin American Cultural Diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article I move forward with the development of a new theory of World Society, and in particular of a theory of capitalism rooted in the history of the 20th Century, which follows from a proposal for paradigmatic renewal that I call the "World Paradigm". To this end, I engage in a selective dialogue with Marx's work. I start from the assumption that the World Society is created in the middle of the 20th century and, along with it, that the economy is only at that time mundialised, generating a new capitalist formation which I call the "Intercapital System". In this paper I assimilate Marx's methodological contributions to the study of social change and focus on two decisive aspects of the Marxian vision: the genesis and the historical evolution of capitalism. Attention to this last point allows me to analyse - among other aspects - the way in which Marx approaches the "colonial question". Each section of the paper is preceded by my preliminary view of the issue, and the conclusions seek to highlight the value of this proposal for renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For young children, positive parenting is predictive of their prosocial development and positive emotional well-being. Understanding the factors that promote or undermine positive parenting is of particular importance for families at risk of child welfare involvement. For Latinx families, conceptualizations of risk are better viewed through a cultural lens. This paper explores predictors of positive parenting among Latinx families (Mexican and Puerto Rican) who are vulnerable to child welfare involvement. Weighted data were drawn from Wave 1 of the National Survey on Child and Adolescent Well-being II—Restricted Release (NSCAW-II), a national sample that approximated a probability sample of child welfare involved families. After controlling for all other variables in the model, being married and using only non-violent parenting were related to higher positive parenting scores. Experiencing IPV within the last 12 months was related to significantly lower positive parenting scores. Results from the study highlight the need for a trauma-informed approach to culturally specific services for Latinx families who are vulnerable to the child welfare system. The connection between IPV experiences and the context of positive parenting is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses citations of doctrine in handbooks of administrative law published in the nineteenth century in the Civil Law World – that is, Europe and Latin America. I scanned through 81 books, finding c 25,000 citations to c 5000 different texts. I built a graph with all citations to find relations of proximity and distance between different books and national groups of books. I found that French lawyers were the most cited, but they lost ground in the late nineteenth century. 'Germans' and, to a less extent, 'Italians' gained ground. Germans and Austrians constituted a mostly separated citation circuit. Spanish and Hispano Americans tended to cite Spanish and French authors but were less integrated. Italians mixed a large number of Italian references with French ones. Brazilians and Portuguese heavily cited the French. Latin Americans did not constitute a unified group. Mediterranean countries shared more characteristics and references with Latin Americans than with Germans and the Dutch. These findings challenge essentialist ideas of 'continental law' and 'Latin America'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statues of the Virgin Mary have been embarking on various types of movement and migration for centuries. They are the fixed points around which religious activities are carried out in communities in Spain and Latin America and play significant roles in the personal and social lives of their devotees. Until recently, however, scholarship has largely overlooked the potential richness of what religious material cultures can tell us about religious transformation in Latin America. This paper therefore offers a theoretical and methodological advance by way of a ground-up, 'material' approach to understanding religious change through the religious statues themselves. It utilises the statue of the Virgen de la Regla in Chipiona, Spain as a node on a map from which to trace the lines of movement from Spain into Cuba where a replica of the same Virgin, another nodal point, is worshipped as both Virgin Mary and Santeria Orisha Yemayá. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Latin American prison population has grown faster than anywhere else globally over the past two decades, reaching a total of 1.7 million people at any given time. However, research on mental health prevention and treatment interventions in Latin American prisons remains scarce. Aims: This study aimed to systematically review and synthesize research on prison mental health interventions conducted in the region. Methods: We used a two-stage scoping review design guided by the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis. Searches took place in December 2021 in nine databases using descriptors and synonyms. First, all prison mental health research in Latin America was retained. Secondly, using title and abstract screening, all research possibly related to interventions was retained for full text evaluation. Studies reporting interventions were assessed by country, language, institution, population, intervention type, intervention focus and outcomes. Results: N = 34 studies were included in this review. These were 13 case reports, seven expert consensus papers and 14 quantitative studies (four randomized controlled trials, nine cohort studies, one quasi-experimental study). Fourteen interventions were targeted at promoting prosocial behavior, seven studies each aimed to improve mental health and to treat substance use disorders. Six studies involved the treatment of sexual offending behavior, and 3 focused on reducing criminal recidivism. Psychoeducation (n = 12) and motivational interviewing (n = 5) were the most frequent intervention types studied. Promising data from trials showed that anger management, depression, substance use and reoffending could be successfully addressed through interventions. Conclusions: Implementation and effectiveness research of mental health interventions in Latin American prisons is scarce. Addressing mental health, substance use and prosocial behavior outcomes should be considered in future research. There is a particular dearth of controlled trials describing quantifiable outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some Latin American countries have introduced presidential recall in the last three decades. This exceptional and spontaneous mechanism by which somebody can remove a servant elected through a popular vote from office before the end of his term aims to broaden participation, empower citizens, and improve the responsibility and accountability of servants. However, the recall faces the challenge of being an instrument serving interests outside of its normative ideal. What are the consequences of holding a recall referendum? Under what conditions can the recall yield better results and be more effective? This paper answers these questions by comparing the presidential recall held in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Mexico. The evidence suggests that the mechanism can have substantial advantages and fulfill its objective when its holding is justified, there is no intervention from relevant political actors, and the institutional design does not hinder or discourage participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper wants to share the project called "Participative Community methodologists in ludoteca felt and thought from education". It stared in 2022. The idea is part of a process in the subject Community and Institutional Psychology, that belongs to the career of University technicality in Social Education of the Faculty of Education of the National University of Cuyo. This process began 5 year ago and aims deepening and building bridges of knowledge and meanings between Social Education and Community Psychology. Furthermore, this experience is part of the Educational Social Practices Program (PSE) belonging to the Secretariat of Extension and Linkage of the UNCuyo. This project sought to ensure that students who were studying the university subjectof Community and Institutional Psychology, of the FED - UNCuyo, applied participatory community methodologies. They recived the tutoring of advanced students and graduates of the carrear and teachers. The project was carried out in a place called "ludoteca" in the "Nucleus of Innovation and Development of Opportunities" (NIDO). In addition, the specific objectives were: 1- Carry out methodologies that promote understanding of the socio-historical context; 2- Analyze current problems and needs that afflict the child population; 3- Understand the population dynamics involved and 4- Maintain, through play, a healthy space that favors the construction of strategies to address the problems of daily life. The starting point was theoretical references that put in a constant dialogue between community psychology and social education knowledges in latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Presentation" of the magazine "Utopía y Praxis Latinoamericana" addresses the rights of peoples from an intersectional perspective in Latin America. It questions Eurocentrism, patriarchy, racism, and anthropocentrism as oppressions that affect individuals and peoples. The dossier includes research papers from various Latin American countries, such as Panama, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile, which address the issues of oppressions from different dimensions. In addition, book reviews are presented on topics such as the rights of transnational companies, the history of education in Argentina, and society during the pandemic. [Extracted from the article]

In a context of rapid technological innovation and expensive new products, the paper calls for the generation of real-world data to inform decision-making and an international discussion on the affordability of new medicines, particularly for low- and middle-income countries. Without these, the challenges of health judicialization will continue to grow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the main pricing policies in Latin American countries, discussing their shortcomings. It also gives an overview of the most common pricing and reimbursement policies in Europe and describes in detail three well-established approaches — international price referencing, value-based pricing, including setting up of health technology assessment, and generic and biosimilar policies — building on country examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1990, the participation of China in the global imports of Latin America (LAC) was incipient, while by 2019, China had become the second largest supplier of the region. This paper uses a sample of 14 LAC countries, estimates the effects of imports from China on each LAC country's economic growth, and verifies if these effects are evidenced in these countries' non-exporting or exporting sectors. This study proposes a Seemingly-Unrelated-Regressions (SUR) system for each sector. Results show that before China entered into World Trade Organization (WTO), LAC imports from China positively affected the economic growth of some LAC countries. However, beneficiary countries increased after China's adhesion to WTO. Imports from China drive the economic growth of the non-exporting sectors of Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and El Salvador, the exporting sector of the Dominican Republic, and both sectors of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Except for the Dominican Republic, the countries whose export sectors benefit from China's imports are primary exporting countries. Adverse or null effects are estimated for the rest of the countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contribution to a body of scholarship that examines teaching as a form of learning, the paper addresses a central question: What can be learnt from organised mobilisation to educate in communities eager to strengthen their unique biocultural heritage? The question is explored through an examination of two grassroots education projects in Latin American provincial locations rich in history. Studied ethnographically over a period of fifteen years from the point of view of the educators who run them, these two projects offer a unique opportunity to examine the formation and the mobilisation of value in education. I show how popular education and agroecology methods are used in both cases to face socio-ecological conflicts and refocus developmental tensions. I conclude with a short reflection on UNESCO's 2020 approach to education and its vital role in radically reconfiguring humanity's place and agency on planet Earth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the vocabulary of sustainability born in the struggles against extractivism in Latin America and the Caribbean, by focussing on the Pacto Ecosocial e Intercultural del Sur/Ecosocial and Intercultural Pact of the South – an initiative launched in 2020 by a group of critical scholars and activists. In the era of Green New Deals, the Pact calls for a socially conscious green transition benefiting the many. The article shows that the Pact is a counter-hegemonic proposal with a strong biocentric component. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the care regime literature, Latin American countries have often been classified as familist or familist by default, characterised by the absence of policies to support families in the function of caring for their dependents. Drawing on novel data, this paper investigates the development of policies to support family care responsibilities for children, in Latin America, during the 2010s. Using a descriptive comparative method, it identifies an increase in the family policy effort across the region, despite favouring targeted programmes for the poor, with an emphasis in some cases on the service provisions (Chile, Colombia, and Peru) and in others on cash benefits (Argentina and Brazil). However, these efforts have been insufficient, particularly when compared to the average level of provision among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Union (EU) countries. We argue that only Uruguay has actually moved away from the pattern of familism by default, promoting an extensive state co-responsibility for the caring function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]