MARIA DUARTE recommends a remarkable study of the friendship between a Palestinian and a Pakistani, broken by a hostile state
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Gang warfare and class struggle
GAVIN O’TOOLE welcomes a masterful study of gang behaviour in the favelas of Sao Paulo
PILED UP DESPAIR: Poverty and unemployment define Rio de Janeiro favelas
[Chris Jones/flickr/CC]
MATTHEW HAWKINS rakes through un-fancy words and flair-free summaries to find who and what might be flamboyant
PETER MASON is exhilarated by an exciting, well-considered and historically minded tribute to the great Trinidadian instrument
Reducing historical lives to ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles, we lose the nuance of those lives and a clearer understanding of past societies, suggests CLAIRE ISABELLA GILMOUR
CHRIS SEARLE relishes the genius of pianist Alexander Hawkins, his many ensembles, and his new album
Inside Criminalized Governance: How and Why Gangs Rule the Streets of Rio de Janeiro
Nicholas Barnes, Cambridge University Press £26.99
THE recent extradition by Mexico to the US of 29 drug cartel leaders reminds us of the scale of organised crime in the Americas. Up to 100 million people in the most marginalised communities of Latin America may be subject to the control of criminal gangs.
Crime in all its permutations visits fear, bloodshed and mayhem on vast swathes of the region, particularly its cities, as rival groups compete for territory and illicit spoils.
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Latin America is being swept by a series of right-wing electoral victories. But behind that shift to the right lies less of an ideological conversion than anger, fear, insecurity, and a deep crisis of democracy, asserts MARC VANDEPITTE
DAVID RABY explains the background of the recent upheavals in Mexico
Far-right forces are rising across Latin America and the Caribbean, armed with a common agenda of anti-communism, the culture war, and neoliberal economics, writes VIJAY PRASHAD
