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Increasingly Critical Situation For Brazil's Indigenous Peoples, José Pedro Martins
Increasingly Critical Situation For Brazil's Indigenous Peoples, José Pedro Martins
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
This articles discusses the critical developments with regards to the situation of Brazil's indigenous peoples. The article outlines recent events, such as the razing of a Rio de Janeiro building that house indigenous families; the death of three indigenous children as a result of becoming stranded in poor urban living condition; and threats of collective suicide as an alternative to being driven off their ancestral lands. The article describes in-depth the issue of suicide within indigenous communities, also documenting the support and solidarity they have received from various Brazilian religious agencies and figures--namely, Catholic bishops.
President-Elect Enrique Peña Nieto Tours Six Latin American Countries To Discuss Cooperation, Offers Insights On Domestic Plans In Key Areas, Carlos Navarro
President-Elect Enrique Peña Nieto Tours Six Latin American Countries To Discuss Cooperation, Offers Insights On Domestic Plans In Key Areas, Carlos Navarro
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
This article discusses the significance of 2012 president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto's tour of Latin American countries in September 2012. In Brazil, Peña Nieto met with President Dilma Rousseff to strengthen cooperative and collaborative relations regarding their oil industries. Petrobras represents a potential model that Mexico's state-owned oil company PEMEX could follow in its efforts to modernize its practices and increase productivity.
Venezuela's Full Membership Changes Face Of Mercosur, Andrés Gaudin
Venezuela's Full Membership Changes Face Of Mercosur, Andrés Gaudin
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
This article discusses the issues surrounding Venezuela's admittance as a full member of MERCOSUR. One of the primary results of this membership is the increased collaboration between member countries regarding oil and gas exploitation, as well as discounted prices of crude.
Brazil Sues Chevron Following Oil Spill, Andrés Gaudín
Brazil Sues Chevron Following Oil Spill, Andrés Gaudín
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Thanks to operations that lacked both integrity and reliability and which produced a spill of at least 300 barrels of crude a day for eight days, Chevron will have to pay millions of dollars in fines and damages. Chevron has become accustomed to such emergencies; in Ecuador, the court found it guilty but so far it has evaded compliance with the verdict thanks to a legion of lawyers who know well how to move through the corridors of power. The Brazil case seems to confirm environmentalists' fears: everything indicated that, after Nov. 8, 2011, the courts would exclude Chevron from …
Cuba's Sugar Industry Tries To Recover After Production Falls To Century-Old Levels, Daniel Vázquez
Cuba's Sugar Industry Tries To Recover After Production Falls To Century-Old Levels, Daniel Vázquez
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
The Cuban sugar crop is being harvested, and a new management system is being put to the test. This model required the end of the historic Ministerio de Azúcar (MINAZ) last September to reduce bureaucratic organizations, modernize technology, and enhance business administration after production fell to 1.1 million tons in 2010, comparable to 1905. The industry, which produced more than 8 million tons of sugar in 1990, now faces disruptions because of equipment breakdowns as well as antiquated machinery in sugar mills built before 1959 when Fidel Castro took power on the island. The official target for the 2012 harvest …
Proposed Highway Pits Bolivia's Indigenous Against Each Other And President Evo Morales, Andrés Gaudín
Proposed Highway Pits Bolivia's Indigenous Against Each Other And President Evo Morales, Andrés Gaudín
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Native peoples from the Bolivian Amazonia—the lowlands—who do not feel represented by President Evo Morales are staging a prolonged protest against the construction of a highway through a natural park that is also their ancestral habitat. On Aug. 15, they began a more than 600 km march to La Paz, the capital, planning to arrive in the second half of October. They will meet directly with Morales, who is also indigenous and the first head of state to receive an indigenous delegation at the Palacio Quemado, the seat of government.
Brazil Opens First Commercial Solar Power Plant, But Continues To Underutilize Solar Energy Potential, Ana Cristina Powell
Brazil Opens First Commercial Solar Power Plant, But Continues To Underutilize Solar Energy Potential, Ana Cristina Powell
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
While the unstoppable growth of solar power seems to have gained a foothold in Brazil, countries with a temperate climate and much smaller territory, such as Germany and Spain, produce much more solar energy. Brazil, which has the largest territorial area in the tropics, meaning a huge amount of sun, is simply not taking advantage of its situation.
In Colombia, Blossoming Biofuel Industry Driven By Top-Down Targets And Incentives, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
In Colombia, Blossoming Biofuel Industry Driven By Top-Down Targets And Incentives, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
In the span of just a few short years, Colombia--already a major oil and coal producer--has developed an entirely different energy industry: biofuels. The industrys pedal-to-the-metal production surge has attracted no shortage of admirers, who hail the biofuel bonanza as a model worth emulating. Others, however, question the social, economic, and even environmental implications of harvesting fuel from the country's fertile fields.'
Brazilian Government Attempts To Stabilize Ethanol Supply With New Regulation, Ana Cristina Powell
Brazilian Government Attempts To Stabilize Ethanol Supply With New Regulation, Ana Cristina Powell
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
For the past four decades, Brazil has moved to replace petroleum with highly efficient sugarcane-based ethanol, primarily to protect against recurring global oil crises and address concerns about the effect of greenhouse-gas emissions on the environment. Despite the immense promise of the ethanol industry, however, Brazilian drivers who choose to fill their tanks with the biofuel continue to face uncertain supplies and unstable prices. Even before being sworn in on Jan. 1, 2011, Brazil's President-elect Dilma Rousseff met with her agriculture minister-designate Wagner Rossi to request that he confer with ethanol producers to inform them how dissatisfied the government was …
Brazilian Environmental Agency Gives Belo Monte Dam Green Light As Government Continues To Invest In Hydroelectric Power, Ana Cristina Powell
Brazilian Environmental Agency Gives Belo Monte Dam Green Light As Government Continues To Invest In Hydroelectric Power, Ana Cristina Powell
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
On June 1, 2011, the Brazilian environmental agency, the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA), gave the government the green light to proceed with construction of the controversial Belo Monte dam. After 30 years of planning and struggle against opposition to the project, the Belo Monte hydroelectric power plant will be built in the Xingu river basin. This would be the third-largest such facility in the world, after the Three Gorges Dam in China and the Itaipú dam, shared by Brazil and Paraguay. IBAMA conceded the license despite national and international criticism and a recommendation …
Biofuels Fighting For Space In Central America And Cuba, Adriana E. Sánchez
Biofuels Fighting For Space In Central America And Cuba, Adriana E. Sánchez
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Brazil has found great success building its ethanol industry with the use of sugarcane, and there are suggestions that other countries in Latin America might replicate this feat, allowing them to use biofuels to increase their energy independence. Central American countries and Cuba share some similarities with Brazil, and they are the ones often mentioned for potential growth in biofuels. These countries face significant obstacles because of a lack of infrastructure and inadequate energy policies, which make them particularly dependent on foreign imports of fossil fuels to partially satisfy their populations' growing energy demand.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Proceeding With Nuclear Power Despite Fukushima Accident, Graziela Aronovich
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff Proceeding With Nuclear Power Despite Fukushima Accident, Graziela Aronovich
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
The disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan has increased pressure on the Brazilian government to justify the use of nuclear power, but there is little evidence that President Dilma Rousseffs administration plans to make any major changes to Brazil's nuclear-power program (Programa Nuclear Brasileiro, PNB). Rousseff has made no direct public comments about the PNB since the accident in Japan, but Secretary of Science and Technology Aloizio Mercadante reiterated the government's intention to continue the program, launched in 1985 with the inauguration of the Angra 1 power station during the administration of then President José Sarney …
After Fukushima, South America Reassesses Nuclear-Power Push, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
After Fukushima, South America Reassesses Nuclear-Power Push, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
The recent nuclear disaster in Japans tsunami-damaged Fukushima reactor has shaken--but not buried--plans for an atomic energy surge in South America, which right now has just four of the world's 442 nuclear power plants. Prior to the accident, analysts had anticipated something of a nuclear renaissance in South America. Non-nuclear countries like Chile, Venezuela, and Uruguay were seriously flirting with the atomic-energy option, investing public funds in exploratory studies and/or signing nuclear-technology accords with countries like Russia and France. At the same time, Brazil and Argentina--the two South American countries with atomic power facilities already in place--had begun expanding their …
Argentina Promises Nuclear Power Surge, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
Argentina Promises Nuclear Power Surge, Benjamin Witte-Lebhar
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Left for decades on the proverbial back burner, Argentinas once cutting-edge but now very much dusty nuclear power sector is experiencing a real renaissance. For the first time in more than a quarter century, the country is preparing to open a new nuclear power plant, its third. More may be on the way as Argentina looks to ease its dependence on fossil fuels, particularly natural gas. Then a regional pioneer, Argentina opened South America's first nuclear power plant in 1974: the 335 megawatt Atucha I facility. Approximately 115 km northwest of Buenos Aires in the town of Lima, Atucha I …
South American Leaders Propose Massive Trans-Amazonian Gas Pipeline From Venezuela Through Brazil And Argentina, Notisur Writers
South American Leaders Propose Massive Trans-Amazonian Gas Pipeline From Venezuela Through Brazil And Argentina, Notisur Writers
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has pledged to build a natural-gas pipeline that would stretch from his country to Argentina. He has met with Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to begin a preliminary-planning process for the megapipeline, although energy-industry analysts have expressed doubts about the economic viability of such a gigantic project and environmental groups have fears that its construction would damage the Amazonian ecosystem. The project would run between 8,000 km and 10,000 km and would supposedly require an investment of US$20 billion, though cost estimates have varied widely.
Five Southern Cone Countries Form "Energy Ring" To Integrate Natural Gas Network, Notisur Writers
Five Southern Cone Countries Form "Energy Ring" To Integrate Natural Gas Network, Notisur Writers
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Countries in the Southern Cone Common Market (MERCOSUR) have proposed an "energy ring" that would distribute natural gas through a gas line network that would connect five countries. The project is slated to be completed by 2007 and represents an effort to alleviate the shortages of natural gas that have been aggravating citizens and businesses in the region. Although Bolivia, the continent's second-largest holder of natural gas reserves, is not currently included in the energy ring, the current government in La Paz has made efforts to keep future partnerships open.
Bolivia Gets Brazil To Agree To Pay Higher Prices For Natural Gas, Notisur Writers
Bolivia Gets Brazil To Agree To Pay Higher Prices For Natural Gas, Notisur Writers
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Bolivian President Evo Morales has successfully negotiated a commitment from the Brazilian government to pay higher prices for the natural gas it imports from Bolivia. Negotiations had been a long-term strain between the two neighbors, with Brazil's state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) seeking to maintain lower purchase rates as it bought Bolivia's ample natural-gas resources. The announcement of the higher price helped Morales somewhat in domestic politics, with his administration's party the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) facing corruption allegations and allegations of bungling negotiations of the gas-extraction contracts with foreign petroleum companies.
Bolivia And Brazil Inaugurate Gas Pipeline, Notisur Writers
Bolivia And Brazil Inaugurate Gas Pipeline, Notisur Writers
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Bolivian President Hugo Banzer and Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso inaugurated Latin America's longest natural-gas pipeline Feb. 9. The binational pipeline, completed at a cost of US$2 billion after decades of arduous negotiations, is considered crucial to developing Bolivia's mostly untapped gas reserves and to supplying the ever increasing energy demands of Brazilian industry.
Energy: Brazil And Neighbors Turn Tentatively Toward Renewables, Notisur
Energy: Brazil And Neighbors Turn Tentatively Toward Renewables, Notisur
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
For all their differences, Brazil and its Southern Cone neighbors share a common challenge as they struggle to balance rising energy demand against resource constraints and environmental concerns. Wind and other renewable-energy sources may well be part of the solution, but so far investment in green technologies has been cautious at best. In size, composition, and structure, the countries\' electricity sectors vary tremendously. Brazil, the largest country in the region, boasts what is by far the most extensive power grid in the region, with installed capacity of roughly 100,000 megawatts--more than twice the electricity available in nearby Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, …
Nicaragua: Energy-Hungry Country Opts For Large-Scale Hydro Dam, Noticen
Nicaragua: Energy-Hungry Country Opts For Large-Scale Hydro Dam, Noticen
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
In an effort to diversify its heavily fossil-fuel-dependent electricity sector and at the same time meet rising demand, Nicaragua is putting its eggs in the hydroelectricity basket, opting for conventional large-scale dams despite growing international awareness about their social and environmental drawbacks. Currently about 80% of Nicaragua's electricity comes from petroleum-burning generating plants, making the impoverished, non-oil-producing Central America nation particularly vulnerable to external market factors. Sky-high oil prices put a serious crimp in electricity production in 2006, when Nicaragua suffered periodic blackouts. Nowadays, the problem has more to do with supply, as delays in shipments of subsidized oil from …
Brazil: Government Moves Forward On New Nuclear Plants Despite Opposition, José Pedro Martins
Brazil: Government Moves Forward On New Nuclear Plants Despite Opposition, José Pedro Martins
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
A large coalition is being formed to oppose two nuclear-power plants that the Brazilian government plans to build in the northeast. At the same time, sectors of some states in the area are competing for the plants in the hope of generating income and jobs. Social and environmental organizations believe that the region, which has the greatest inequality in the country, cannot afford this project. The announced construction of the two nuclear plants has renewed criticism of the Programa Nuclear Brasileiro, which oversaw construction of two nuclear facilities in the city of Angra dos Reis in Rio de Janeiro state. …
Mexico Attempts To Recapture Leadership Role In Latin America At Regional Summit; Energy, Sustainability On Agenda, Sourcemex Writers
Mexico Attempts To Recapture Leadership Role In Latin America At Regional Summit; Energy, Sustainability On Agenda, Sourcemex Writers
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
President Felipe Calderon succeeded to some extent in repositioning Mexico as a leader in Latin America, hosting what was generally perceived as a successful summit of Latin American and Caribbean countries in Quintana Roo state on Feb. 20-23. As host, Mexico took a lead in pushing through a proposal to create a regional consultative bloc that excludes the US and Canada. Calderon was also at the forefront in renewing regional awareness on issues related to energy and environmental sustainability. Although the summit's 10-point action list did not mention energy policy or environmental sustainability, these topics were included in an 88-point …
Mexico Attempts To Recapture Leadership Role In Latin America At Regional Summit; Energy, Sustainability On Agenda, Sourcemex
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
President Felipe Calderon succeeded to some extent in repositioning Mexico as a leader in Latin America, hosting what was generally perceived as a successful summit of Latin American and Caribbean countries in Quintana Roo state on Feb. 20-23. As host, Mexico took a lead in pushing through a proposal to create a regional consultative bloc that excludes the US and Canada. Calderon was also at the forefront in renewing regional awareness on issues related to energy and environmental sustainability. Although the summit's 10-point action list did not mention energy policy or environmental sustainability, these topics were included in an 88-point …
Paraguay: Itaipu Dispute Could Go To International Arbitration, Andres Gaudin
Paraguay: Itaipu Dispute Could Go To International Arbitration, Andres Gaudin
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
After four rounds of negotiations aimed at reaching an agreement on economic and political differences regarding their joint operation of the world's largest hydroelectric dam, the governments of Paraguay and Brazil have not found common ground, and the situation could lead to the least desirable of all options--submitting the matter to international arbitration. "We are looking at a huge paradox. Before Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva [Brazil] and Fernando Lugo [Paraguay] were in office, both agreed that the 1973 treaty initiating the huge Itaipu project needed revising because it established unequal treatment that was obviously damaging to Paraguay. Now, …
Brazilian Society On Offense Against Nuclear Plans Of President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, Notisur Writers
Brazilian Society On Offense Against Nuclear Plans Of President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, Notisur Writers
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Various sectors of civil society began an offensive against the unexpected announcement by the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that it would resume expansion of its nuclear-energy program. Minister of Mines and Energy Edison Lobao, who made the announcement, said the government plans to construct between 50 and 60 new nuclear plants in Brazil in the next 50 years. Lobao made the announcement Sept. 12 at Angra dos Reis, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, at the site where the Lula administration wants to finish the country's third nuclear plant.
General: Hydroelectric Projects In Brazilian Amazon Spark Concern Over Cross-Border Environmental Impacts, Notisur Writers
General: Hydroelectric Projects In Brazilian Amazon Spark Concern Over Cross-Border Environmental Impacts, Notisur Writers
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Bolivian environmentalists have strong concerns over dams Brazil is planning to build along the Madeira River. "The consequences of the dams on the Madeira River will add to the process that has been destroying the Amazon for decades," said Bolivian public health specialist Pablo Villegas, researcher in the Foro Boliviano Sobre Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo (FOBOMADE). The impact caused by the Madeira River Hydroelectric Complex, according to environmentalists\' predictions, will be the greatest ever caused by an infrastructure project, giving all the more reason for alarm.
El Salvador A Microcosm Of The Biofuels Macrocosm, Noticen Writers
El Salvador A Microcosm Of The Biofuels Macrocosm, Noticen Writers
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Having proved itself a worthy ally in the Iraq war by steadfastly continuing to send its troops into that inferno, El Salvador has earned a place on a new front in US global policy, the ethanol wars. US President George W. Bush has chosen El Salvador as the site of a feasibility study for producing the fuel. The plan calls for a biofuels plant to be built in the country, even though El Salvador is already producing and exporting ethanol to the US under the provisions of the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The recently ignited conflagrations pit biofuel …
Brazil Pushes To Expand Ethanol Industry With Multiple International Deals, Notisur Writers
Brazil Pushes To Expand Ethanol Industry With Multiple International Deals, Notisur Writers
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
Brazil's government has been aggressively promoting its ethanol industry, seeking to capitalize on high fuel costs by selling the fuel derived from various crops like corn and sugar. In the drive to triple the volume of ethanol exports, Brazil has signed multiple international energy agreements, most notably with the US, its biggest customer. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's effort to expand ethanol production has faced criticism externally from Latin American leaders like Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez and Cuba's President Fidel Castro and internally from poor people's movements and environmentalists. Among these criticisms are assertions that using food crops for …
Central America Caught In The Changing Political And Moral Environment Of Ethanol, Noticen Writers
Central America Caught In The Changing Political And Moral Environment Of Ethanol, Noticen Writers
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
One of the outcomes of US President George W. Bush's recent trip to Latin America was a rare convergence of opinion between London's The Economist and Havana's Fidel Castro. The newspaper could not resist calling Castro "Cuba's tottering Communist dictator," but it nevertheless gave him full credit for warning against the "sinister idea of converting food into fuel." The glossy publication noted huge increases in the price of corn and explained, "As more land is used to grow corn rather than other food crops, such as soy, their prices also rise. And since corn is used as animal feed, the …
Region Could Suffer Severely From U.S Ethanol Policy, Noticen Writers
Region Could Suffer Severely From U.S Ethanol Policy, Noticen Writers
NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America
The tortilla paradox is coming to Central America. First seen in Mexico (see SourceMex, 2007-01-10 and SourceMex, 2007-01-31), the phrase has come into use to denote a price reversal by which tortillas now cost more in the lands where they are the staple food than they do in New York. The World Food Organization (FAO) says cereal grains, particularly corn and wheat, have reached their highest prices in a decade. The spike, says theFAO, is the result of the US choice to feed corn to its cars as well as to livestock and people, as much of the world's corn …