Latin America Bureau (LAB)

Colombia’s Armero tragedy: the dance of memory | Latin America Bureau On the anniversary of the deadliest volcanic eruption of the last 100 years, Colombians are using the power of dance to heal generational trauma and build

On the anniversary of the deadliest volcanic eruption of the last 100 years, Colombians are using the power of dance to heal generational trauma and build a peaceful future. John Boscawen reports from Armero, Colombia
lab.org.uk/colombias-ar...

Shafik’s book Crossed Off the Map: Travels in Bolivia featured in the new Lonely Planet Bolivia

Great to see #CrossedOffTheMap featured in the recommended books section of the new edition of Lonely Planet Bolivia 🇧🇴

📖 @latinamericabureau.bsky.social

www.stanfords.co.uk/crossed-off-...

For them, distance is protection — not isolation.
Uncontacted Indigenous peoples are defending their lands.

Discover their stories, their resilience – and the threats to their survival: uncontactedpeoples.org

#AtTheEdge #uncontacted #uncontactedpeoples #northsentinel #amazon #indigenouspeoples

#JuliaChuñil was a Mapuche land defender murdered and disappeared last November in Southern Chile. On Friday 7th November from 12-2pm we will join together at the Chilean consulate in London to commemorate and protest her disappearance. All are welcome.

Guatemala: Indigenous mayor Dina Juc maintains active hope | Latin America Bureau Indigenous Mayor Dina Juc is a human rights defender, community organizer, nature rights advocate, and Maya woman of Q’eqchi’ and Poqomchi’ heritage raising her children in K’iche’ territory.

How Dina Juc, Indigenous Mayor, human rights defender, community organizer, nature rights advocate, and Maya woman of Q’eqchi’ and Poqomchi’ heritage, maintains active hope. New piece by Leonie Malin Höher up on lab.org.uk
lab.org.uk/guatemala-in...

In Ecuador, the river never forgets — nor do the communities In March 2025, more than 25,000 barrels of crude oil polluted the rivers of Esmeraldas, Ecuador. The government arrived quickly, but left even faster.

Co-published with @latinamericabureau.bsky.social and @globalvoices.org , the Environmental Defenders series highlights community efforts to protect their environments across Latin America, and this article, available in English and Spanish, is a great example.

es.globalvoices.org/2025/09/30/e...

Apply to PEN Presents - Grants for translators - English PEN PEN Presents: Brazil open until 30 November 2025.

PEN Presents: Translators around the world are invited to submit proposals for English sample translations of previously untranslated works of contemporary Brazilian literature, of any form/genre, originally published in any language of Brazil! @englishpen.bsky.social @britishcouncil.bsky.social

In coordination with @peninternational.bsky.social, @amnesty.org has organised a vigil to honour journalists that have been killed in the past year and highlight to the Mexican government their impunity in this crime. London, outside the Mexican Embassy on 16 St. Georges Street. 31 October. 3pm

'You look prettier when you stay quiet' – the struggle of mothers searching for the disappeared in Mexico | Latin America Bureau Nearly 20 years after Mexico declared war on organized crime, the violence has metastasized into a crisis of disappearance which implicates both the state

With over 133,000 people missing, Mexico's ‘madres buscadoras,’ or ‘searching mothers’ stand as the last line of accountability in a country where silence is enforced as brutally as violence itself. Long-read by Charli McMackin for LAB
lab.org.uk/mothers-sear...

Don't miss – Learning with the Kawsak Sacha (Living Forest), Paulo Freire Annual Lecture 2025 delivered by José Gualinga of the Sarayaku in Ecuador.
22nd October, 5.30-7.30 pm
@lborouniversity.bsky.social London (Here East – Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park) + online

NARRATING THE HORROR: HÉCTOR ABAD IN CONVERSATION WITH IRENA TARANYUK A tribute to Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina

Tomorrow @cervanteslondon.bsky.social – NARRATING THE HORROR: Colombian journalist and writer Héctor Abad Faciolince in conversation with Ukrainian journalist and BBC World Service presenter Irena Taranyuk
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/narrating-...

Looking forward to this book launch tonight

Communities in Oaxaca unite to stop the plunder of the Río Grande | Latin America Bureau In Oaxaca, southern Mexico, communities are organizing to resist the large-scale private extraction of sand and gravel from the Río Grande, which is

In #Oaxaca, communities organize to resist the large-scale extraction of sand from the Río Grande, which is wiping out local species & changing the course & current of the river which Indigenous and Afro-Mexican locals have lived beside for centuries. Juana García reports
lab.org.uk/communities-...

Join us for the launch of 'The Congress of the Disappeared', the brand-new novella by Bernardo Kucinski translated by Tom Gatehouse with support from @englishpen.bsky.social
tomorrow, 7 October at Photobook Cafe near Old Street, London, with @brazilmatters.bsky.social and @amnestyuk.bsky.social

Illness, animal deaths and water shortages: life inside Chile’s polluted ‘sacrifice zones’ Allegations of environmental breaches dog Anglo American’s mining operations. Now the company has been given the go-ahead for plans that communities say risk disaster

Anglo American accused of causing:

human illness
animal deaths
contamination of air and water

& drilling under glaciers

My report from Chile

@clascam.bsky.social @ldnminingnetwork.bsky.social @nujlfb.bsky.social @latinamericabureau.bsky.social @waronwant.bsky.social

www.com/global-devel...

São Paulo state buries identified bodies in anonymous graves | Latin America Bureau Despite the Public Prosecutor’s Office denouncing the practice, the state of São Paulo was still burying identified bodies in anonymous graves in public

Despite the Public Prosecutor’s Office denouncing the practice, São Paulo state was still burying identified bodies in anonymous graves until at least 2016, without notifying the affected families. 🖊️ Ali Rocha @brazilmatters.bsky.social tr. Stanton Geyer. @apublica.org
lab.org.uk/sao-paulo-st...

📖 Looking forward to discussing the inspiration behind #SmallEarthquakes - from the Atacama to Patagonia, Easter Island to South Georgia - with @karennedwards.bsky.social at the Book Elephant in south London.

🗓️ 10 Oct, 6.30pm

🎟️ Tickets available now👇🏽

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/shafik-meg...

Chile: the Indigenous women defending the Sea | Latin America Bureau Amid industrial pressure and legal rollbacks, a grassroots women's network fights for ancestral marine rights and cultural survival in Chile. ‘If they

Amid industrial pressure and legal rollbacks, a grassroots women's network fights for ancestral marine rights and cultural survival in Chile.
Marisa Pettit for LAB's #EnvironmentalDefenders series
lab.org.uk/chile-the-in...

Uncontacted tribe risk extinction as global forest certification system fails to act | Latin America Bureau In the Peruvian Amazon, the roar of bulldozers is intruding on the ancestral lands of one of the world’s last isolated tribes. The Mashco Piro, long

Bulldozers tear into the Peruvian Amazon, threatening isolated tribe, the Mashco Piro. Their survival, and the credibility of a global sustainability watchdog, hang in the balance.
✍🏽Maozya Murray for LAB
lab.org.uk/uncontacted-... @forestpeoplesp.bsky.social @survivalinternational.org

Bolivia Burning: ‘We are on the edge of a precipice’ | Latin America Bureau In a record year for forest loss across the tropics, more than a fifth of all the primary forest destroyed in 2024 was in Bolivia, placing the Latin

Watch Bolivia Burning, a @thegeckoproject.org doc following
Bolivian human rights lawyer Alvaro Bozo García & British journalist David Hill as they hear from people impacted by the fires which ripped through over 12.5 million hectares of the country in 2024.
lab.org.uk/bolivia-burn...

Unravelling the thread from colonial England to Uruguay in Monica Perez’s art | Latin America Bureau In her latest project COST, Monica Perez unravels the thread between England and Uruguay, exploring the raw wool trade and the displacement and erasure of Indigenous communities.

Jasmine Haniff visited Monica Perez in her London studio to learn about wool, traces of empire, and Indigenous erasure in the Uruguayan artist's work.
lab.org.uk/colonial-eng...

Voices from the Amazon: our Voices, our solutions | Latin America Bureau In the lead-up to the COP30 Climate Summit, which will take place in Belém, Brazil, 10-21 November 2025, LAB joined forces with the NGO Kayeb to host a

Amazonians come together in London to demand ‘No More History Without Us’.
lab.org.uk/voices-from-...

The Congress of the Disappeared | Latin America Bureau

Aug 30 was International Day of the Disappeared, to remember & honour those who go missing in contexts of war, violence, migration & disaster. Next month LAB publishes The Congress of the Disappeared by B. Kucinski tr. Tom Gatehouse, supported by ‪@englishpen.bsky.social‬
lab.org.uk/the-congress...

‘Amazon, oh beautiful Amazon’ – Dom Phillips | Latin America Bureau How to Save The Amazon: This testimony book by the assassinated journalist lays bare the tragedy of Amazônia – of which he himself came to be one of the most painful examples – but also its uniquely m...

How to Save The Amazon: This testimony book by the assassinated journalist lays bare the tragedy of Amazônia – of which he himself came to be one of the most painful examples – but also its uniquely marvellous nature.
lab.org.uk/amazon-oh-be...

Bolivia: Highland community gathers to protect river from cooperative mining | Latin America Bureau In the Bolivian highlands, the Indigenous community of Cala Cala is waging a battle to defend the headwaters of its river from mining. What began as a

In the Bolivian highlands, the Indigenous community of Cala Cala is waging a battle to defend the headwaters of its river from mining. At stake is not only the community’s water and livelihood, but also the fragile Andean ecosystem that depends on it.
lab.org.uk/bolivia-high...

Desierto Vestido: a territorial solution to the environmental effects of fast fashion | Latin America Bureau In northern Chile’s Atacama Desert, Alto Hospicio has become a dumping ground for the world’s fast fashion waste. Mountains of unsold clothes from Europe, Asia, and North America pile up, creating tox...

Chile’s Atacama Desert has become a dumping ground for fast fashion waste. Mountains of unsold clothes pile up, creating toxic conditions. A local youth collective, Desierto Vestido, is fighting to expose the crisis, demand accountability, and develop circular solutions. ✏️ @mattcarr.substack.com

Photo-Rituals for Disappearance: elegies to the disappeared | Latin America Bureau In this interview with LAB’s Linda Etchart, artist Marilene Ribeiro explains the inspiration behind her recent projects rooted in humans’ relationship

Award-winning Brazilian photographer Marilene Ribeiro is an artist, ecologist & activist. Her most recent work is a handcrafted book of images and artefacts entitled Photo-Rituals for Disappearance. She spoke to LAB's Linda Etchart about the project:
lab.org.uk/photo-ritual...

Brazil: Trump aiming for regime-change | Latin America Bureau President Trump has unleashed a barrage of actions against Brazil in an attempt to prevent Lula from retaining support. He has stated his open support for previous president Jair Bolsonaro, now under ...

Trump introduces 50% tariffs on Brazil, states open support for Bolsonaro, inveighs against judges, all in attempt to prevent Lula from retaining support. The latest from Jan Rocha in São Paulo
lab.org.uk/brazil-trump...

Once known as Colonia Dignidad, it was home to a secretive religious sect founded by a manipulative and abusive leader who collaborated with the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet... Story from @graceliv.bsky.social

Honduras: interactive tool traces developments in Guapinol anti-mining struggles | Latin America Bureau Drawing inspiration from LAB’s Environmental Defenders series, LAB contributor Leon Elliott has created an interactive tool that traces important

Drawing inspiration from LAB’s Environmental Defenders series, LAB contributor Leon Elliott has created an interactive tool that traces important developments in the fight for water and life in Guapinol, Honduras. Learn more about it and check out the tool here:
lab.org.uk/honduras-int...