In a recent article, Montero (2008) sought to clarify the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Latin America. Testing a number of competing hypotheses, he found that macroeconomic stability, as measured by the current account, had the most consistent effect on FDI flows across countries in the region. Although Montero was interested in the role of macroeconomic stability, he also explored the impact of governance factors, including human rights and regime type. His results suggest that the effects of rights and regime type are inconsistent. Briefly, in his models that focused on governance and cost-related factors, the coefficient for the terror scale (rights abuse) had a positive and significant effect in two of three trials; in the same trials, the coefficient for Polity IV (regime) was negative and statistically significant, which suggests that politically competitive regimes received less FDI. Nevertheless, when Montero modeled the effects of economic reform, rights abuse and regime type were no longer statistically significant (Montero 2008, Table 1). Given the inconclusive nature of his findings with regard to rights and regime type, and the ongoing controversy in the literature, a brief comment on his article is potentially instructive.

Charles II named the Duque de la Palata as viceroy of Perú in 1680 with the hope that he would be able to revitalize the production of royal revenue in the realm. The key to accomplishing that goal, the king believed, was to assign more Indians to the mines and silver mills of Potosí because the crown ostensibly received 20 percent of the silver marked in the Villa Imperial. One-seventh of the adult population of male originarios (Indians living in their assigned pueblos) in the obligated provinces could be assigned to Potosí in any one year under Francisco de Toledo's ordinances, and the Duque was authorized to extend this mita obligation to any or all of the fourteen previously exempted altiplano (highland) corregimientos, that is, to increase the base from which the one-seventh ratio was taken. The number of new corregimientos to be added would depend upon the results of a prerequisite census in the thirty corregimientos of Alto Perú (sixteen mita and fourteen exempted).

The study of political participation in Latin America has, until very recently, been too narrowly conceived by social scientists, focusing largely on elites and violence. The former is illustrated by studies of the military (Lieuwen, 1961, 1966; Johnson, 1964; Horowitz, 1967; Fagen and Cornelius, 1970; Schmitter, 1973), the Church (Dillon Soares, 1967; Solari, 1967; Petersen, 1970; Suchlicki, 1972), industrialists (Cardoso, 1967; Polit, 1968; Petras and Cook, 1973), and large landholders (Whetten, 1948; Carroll, 1966; Feder, 1971; Cockroft, 1972). Attention to violent forms of political participation is found in studies of revolution and the military coup d'état (Payne, 1965; Needler, 1968; Von Lazar and Kaufman, 1969; Moreno and Mitrani, 1971; Kohl and Litt, 1974). Those studies that have centered on nonviolent mass participation (Horowitz, 1970) have generally been limited to elections (for example, Martz, 1967; Petras, 1970), political parties (Fitzgibbon, 1957; Ciria, 1974), and labor unions (Payne, 1965; Angell, 1972; Erickson et al., 1974). As a result of the narrowness of these approaches, we have only a partial image of the faces of the Latin American citizen political activity; we have underestimated the scope of such activity and have failed to investigate its many forms.

This article with commentaries is presented experimentally in response to suggestions made to the editor by representatives of the LARR Board at the Ithaca meetings that topical articles of the type developed in Current Anthropology be solicited for the Review. The Current Anthropology (*) treatment consists of commissioning a specific article on a theme of moment, then circulating it prior to publication among a group of experts for commentary and publishing both together with a rebuttal by the author. Time did not permit a complete imitation of the process, but with the kind cooperation of the author and his sponsoring organization we have obtained permission to circulate in advance an article of interdisciplinary import which has appeared only recently in Spanish and printed the reactions of a selected group of experts in distinct disciplines. Neither did time allow the author his rebuttal in this issue, but we shall reserve space in Number 3 should he care to make use of it.

This study considers whether there are gender differences in the ability of international migrants as well as remittance managers in households of origin to channel remittances to physical and financial asset accumulation. Drawing on a national-level survey of household assets for Ecuador, we show that while only a small share of male or female migrants are able to channel their remittances to asset accumulation, women are as likely to do so as men. Moreover, female migrants tend to exert greater control over their remittances than men, particularly when these are to be used for the acquisition of assets. In addition, women managers in households of origin are a majority of those owning the assets purchased with remittances. These results suggest that processes of international migration may strengthen the economic autonomy of women and facilitate greater gender equality.

Durante los últimos años, varios países de América Latina han bajado las tasas de impuesto a las utilidades de las empresas, entre otras razones, con el objetivo de atraer más inversión extranjera. Sin embargo, dicha política sólo puede tener resultados significativos si la inversión extranjera es relativamente sensible a la tasa de impuestos. De lo contrario, el efecto principal se limitaría a una fuerte reducción en la recaudación tributaria. Desafortunadamente, para América Latina no hay evidencia empírica en la literatura económica que indique la magnitud de dicha elasticidad. Una primera contribución de este trabajo consiste precisamente en estimar la magnitud de los efectos tributarios en la inversión extranjera en América Latina. Una segunda contribución consiste en considerar explícitamente en el análisis empírico el hecho de que los inversionistas extranjeros tienen una outside option en sus alternativas de inversión y pueden decidir no invertir en ningún país de América Latina. La evidencia empírica en este trabajo, utilizando un modelo de elección discreta y un panel de once países en Latinoamérica para el período 1990–2002, muestra una elasticidad impuesto de la inversión extranjera entre –0.8 y –1.

This article examines support for the restriction of human rights in Latin America, arguing that rising crime rates and personal experience with crime are only part of the story. Despite an emphasis on the protection of human rights in the aftermath of military regimes and civil war in Latin America, some citizens contest the defense of these rights across the region. Arguing that protecting human rights only keeps criminals out of jail, these citizens support policies and crime control measures that violate the rights of criminal suspects and other marginalized groups. Using public opinion data, this article demonstrates a relationship between individuals’ worldviews and their attitudes toward the human rights abuses committed against criminal suspects.

Since the 1980s, liberalized and newly stable markets have helped usher in an unprecedented mining boom across the Latin American region. However, despite the fact that this boom contributes to notable economic growth, protests in opposition to the expansion and practices of mining companies have also grown, often with violent results. How protests are policed matters, but more important for democracy is how state actors respond when violence is employed. We examine two instances of police repression of mining protests: one in Cajamarca, Peru, and the other in Catamarca, Argentina. We argue that, despite significant differences in context, there are important similarities in state discourse between countries. In particular, a vocabulary of protester wrongdoing and calls for a remedy of “dialogue” are employed in both cases as a way to facilitate the continuation and expansion of both mining and the repression of protests.

Several years ago, students of Latin American politics discovered with some alarm that the subdiscipline of comparative politics had not only been ignoring their scholarly efforts, but the area altogether. At that time the principal focus of discontent was conceptualization. Classification systems, typologies, checklists, functions and isolated concepts about the politics of transition were being derived and applied without reference to and relevance for Latin America. While the terminological estrangement has by no means ended, some reconciliation has subsequently occurred. Recent theoretical works make occasional references to the area. It has become essential for all readers or collections of essays on political development to contain at least one (often the same) article on Latin American politics. Conversely, new research in Latin America has been increasingly sensitive to approaches prevalent in the general comparative politics literature.

Writing of nineteenth-century Peru, historian Jorge Basadre observed, “To discuss the commercial life of the country is to discuss the role of the foreigner.” Historian Francisco Calderón similarly stated that during the late nineteenth century, “it may be affirmed that various foreign houses with great capital generally dominated Mexican overseas commerce.” A visitor to nineteenth-century Brazil remarked of Rio de Janeiro's foreign trading houses, “these large firms are the main prop of Brazilian commerce; almost every shopkeeper in the country is, more or less directly, dependent on them.” Nor were Peru, Mexico, and Brazil atypical. In almost every Latin American nation, foreigners dominated international trade during the nineteenth century. As the above authorities imply, this domination was not only economic but numerical: the majority of overseas traders in most Latin American nations were aliens (only Colombia constituted a clear-cut exception). Foreign numerical domination among overseas traders may have had a profound effect on Latin American development.

Social insurance entitlements represent one of the more controversial aspects of social sector development in Latin America. The most comprehensive critique of social security views the system's coverage and organization as a reflection of the region's social stratification (Mesa-Lago 1978). According to this view, power groups in public administration, private industry, and labor unions exercise control over the organization and financing of sickness, invalidity, and pension funds, and they seek to restrict benefits to their respective memberships. The noninsured lack market power and political organization because of their low levels of human resources development and lack of social cohesion. Mesa-Lago's critique may be more justified for the lower-income than for the higher-income countries in Latin America, however, at least regarding medical care, which is the system's largest single entitlement program in most Latin American countries.

This article contributes to the current debate on social movements and popular politics in Latin America by exploring the trajectory of organizations within the unemployed workers movement in Argentina, also known as the piqueteros. Analysts agree that the recent history of this movement is characterized by a pronounced decline due to closing political opportunities. I suggest that a shift in the level of analysis toward organizational dynamics indicates a more complex scenario. While the influence of the movement as a political actor has declined, some piquetero organizations have in some aspects strengthened. I argue that this strengthening took place not despite the post-2003 context, but rather because of it. I advocate for an alternative conceptualization of piquetero groups, emphasizing their immersion in a particular political context and culture rather than their separation from it. I use interviews, participant observation, databases of contentious events, and a diverse literature to sustain my claims.

In-depth interviews and a three-wave longitudinal study of workers in international export-processing plants (maquiladoras, referred to here as maquilas) of the central highlands of Guatemala were conducted to explore the effects of labor turnover on individuals and households. The data suggest a framework in which labor conditions and sources of support at home are linked to turnover of youths working in the maquila. Turnover in the study is associated with decreased input into important household decisions and a lowered sense of adjustment and life satisfaction. Despite this, turnover is often volitional, representing a form of resistance and response on the part of workers to adverse working conditions in the factories. The study reveals the complex dynamics underlying both involuntary and voluntary turnover in the maquilas.

The cargo system is composed of a series of ranked offices, both civil and religious, that male members of indigenous communities assume. Usually the term for each office lasts one year. Adult men who are active in village affairs pass through the various “cargos,” as these offices are called, taking on civic duties one year, sponsoring important religious fiestas celebrated in the community the next, and so on. Finally, as old men, they attain the status of elders, or “principales,” and have considerable authority in local decision-making (see Cancian [1967] for a concise, traditional interpretation and Smith [1977] for a more critical appraisal of the literature).

In fact, for the chimas, the defense of their patrimony is a fundamental part of their history.... What is new is the growing interest of different branches of government and of national and international groups, which have realized the importance of the Chimalapas. Voces en la selva

Although often individually weak and marginalized in Mexico, environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and indigenous communities coalesced in the early 1990s around the issue of preserving the Chimalapas rain forest in southeastern Mexico. They then brought the problem to national and international attention and eventually helped force the redrawing of a proposed highway route. This research note will analyze the formation and activities of the Comité Nacional para la Defensa de los Chimalapas (CNDCHIM), a network of environmental NGOs, artists and intellectuals, activists and researchers, and representatives of forty-five indigenous communities in the Chimalapas. CNDCHIM formed in 1991 in response to a proposed highway that was to run through La Reserva El Ocote in the Chimalapas, one of Mexico's last two rain forests. The Chimalapas issue is extremely complex, entailing social justice, land tenure, megaprojects, federal and state politics, and environmental policy. This study will focus mostly on CNDCHIM and its relationship with the Mexican government, placing the organization within the context of agrarian conflict and the political and ecological issues surrounding the potential destruction of the Chimalapas.

A review of the literature on migrant regional and village associations in Latin American cities reveals an emphasis on the forms and functions of such groups (Doughty 1970; Orellana 1973; Jongkind 1974; Skeldon 1976, 1977; Altamirano 1984a). Far less has been written about why such associations are formed (Kerri 1976, 34). The paucity of explanations appears to be the result of two analytic extremes.

After a decade of revolution, Cuba is more than an open question to be answered, an experiment to be observed. It has become an exciting research topic which appeals to social scientists throughout the world. Yet several problems have obstructed the scholar in his research on Cuba and its revolution. Primarily, travel limitations have forced him to gather his material mainly from secondary sources (or from primary sources whose objectivity is questionable) rather than from direct observation. Even when travel barriers are overcome, free movement and inquiry are not always possible. The government's screening of visitors to Cuba introduces another problem, i.e., the ideological bias of the outsider has often been a distorting factor in the search for truth. In a sizeable number of cases, articles and books on Cuba written by the visitor or observer are frustrating: either the author has been limited in his information and therefore does not present a total picture of the subject in question, or he is biased either in favor of or against the socialist regime of the island, and has allowed this to interfere with an accurate presentation of the facts.