Latin America

The private security industrie is definitely among the sectors that most benefit from mega events. Within a dubious relationship the security industry does not only supply the Brazilian State with surveillance systems and weapons, it also influences the organization of federal police and military forces.

The City of Rio de Janeiro is the stage for several projects, now at the preparation of the city for the 2016 Olympic Games. The population of the city has already realized that the project Rio Olympic City, which comprises the developments for the 2014 World Cup, and the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as large projects such as Porto Maravilha, will not bring the promised benefits.

Lateinamerika hat in Bezug auf Geschlechtergerechtigkeit viel erreicht. Doch Benachteiligung und Ungleichheit zwischen den Geschlechtern sind noch lange nicht beseitigt. Hinzu kommen neue Problembereiche wie Frauenhandel und Organisierte Kriminalität. In der zweiten Ausgabe der perspectivas Lateinamerika lassen wir Autorinnen und Autoren aus unterschiedlichen Regionen zu Wort kommen.

The Rio Olympics have already cost more public money than official numbers show. An analysis by Julia Bustamante and Caio Lima, Instituto Políticas Alternativas para o Cone Sul (PACS).

Democracy is under pressure today in many parts of the world. Institutions of democracy assistance and pioneers of political freedom have been struggling against a significant headwind for some time now. The present publication “For Democracy” outlines and analyzes the state of democracy worldwide as well as the possibilities of democracy assistance.

The football World Cup in Brazil cost the country at least €8.5 billion euros but did not stimulate economic growth. In 2016 the Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games are coming to Rio de Janeiro once again. Dawid Danilo Bartelt illustrates how sporting mega-events have established themselves as a business model. The losers are often the host city’s most vulnerable people, democracy and human rights.

Der Abbau von mineralischen, fossilen oder agrarischen Ressourcen für den Export, der Extraktivismus, dominiert die Ökonomien Lateinamerikas. Dieser Entwicklungspfad ist jedoch zunehmend umstritten. Es mehren sich die Stimmen, die sozial und ökologisch gerechtere Alternativen fordern. In Perspectivas kommen sie zu Wort.

This case study explores the controversies that arise when conservation groups or specialist companies, often supported by international agencies like the World Bank, arrive with their forest carbon pilot initiatives.

Taking a look upon the legacy of the World Cups in Brazil, South Africa and Germany this publication gives detailed information about the financial, political and social impact of the mega-event. 

The international community likes to see Brazil as a socially oriented, economically successful state that is sensitive to environmental and climate-friendly issues – a great power on its way to the top; a champion. But in Brazilian civil society, another perception of its own state and the politics it pursues prevails. This publication takes a closer look at this discrepancy between how Brazil is perceived by those outside of and within its borders.