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The objective of this paper is to suggest a mathematical model of unpaid housework and empirically test its main predictions using data from Mexico (2014) and Colombia (2017) time-use surveys. The model, based upon the Marxist-feminist approach, suggests that the magnitude of unpaid housework is determined by the super-exploitation of labor, i.e. the gap between wages and the value of labor-power. The outcome is an equation that relates positively the magnitude of unpaid housework with the super-exploitation of labor. The parametric and nonparametric regression estimates applied in both countries show preliminary empirical support for the theoretical model. The theoretical and empirical findings have several implications for Marxist-feminist literature as well as for empirical research on unpaid housework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of multicultural state-dictated social categories are often governed by those same categories, even while they deconstruct them. Nonetheless, these categories are often used in public spheres such as national imaginary or ethno-political activism. Taking a different point of departure, that of representations rather than the categories themselves, the aim of our paper is to understand the modes of classification that are relevant among four populations in Colombia and Mexico who would, a priori, be categorized as ‘black’ or ‘Indian’. The daily reality of these groups indicates other possible internal, sometimes even intersecting, kinds of categorizations, which, far from naturalizing the ‘Indian’ and ‘black’ categories, in fact reveal place-based social identifications. These identifications seem closer to the everyday lives and practices of the people in question, and underscore the local conceptions of their presence and agency in a given spot. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Political leaders rely on narratives to make sense of crises, but the extent to which such narratives are used to (de)mobilize scientific evidence in policy responses has not been fully explored. Based on the analysis of public messages and communications of the presidents of Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, we discuss how they have narratively approached the Covid-19 crisis, particularly with respect to the degree of their reliance on scientific expertise. Building on debates on policy narratives, crisis management, and evidence-based policymaking, we argue that the narratives presidents devised had significant (and mostly negative) effects on the design of policy responses. Their narratives sidelined (Bolsonaro), leveraged (Duque), or limited (López-Obrador) the role of scientific expertise in policy responses. Thus, in contrast to previous literature, these narratives aligned more with the president's agendas and personal biases, than with the need to explain the crisis for their societies or to design appropriate policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The field of cocaine production and trafficking has become more differentiated and the enterprises have become more heterogeneous. A new generation of traffickers has entered the business. They are low profile, cautious and they organize the trade in an informal way. They have a different style of operation than the druglords in the epoch of the big ‘cartels’. The use of individual couriers smuggling small amounts of cocaine while using normally scheduled flights has increased spectacularly presenting new challenges to law enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]