Stories written by Daniela Estrada
Daniela Estrada joined IPS in 2004 and has been the Santiago correspondent since July 2006. Also in 2006, her story titled "Pascua-Lama sí, pero no tocar glaciares" was singled out among 24 others from all over the world to receive the Project Censored Award from Sonoma State University in California.
Born in Santiago in 1981, Daniela Estrada has a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile and has worked for several media outlets in the field of technology.
"In Chile, women carry the entire burden of maternity," says teacher Fabiola Quiñones, who applauds the government's proposal to extend pre- and post- natal leave to six months -- but only if all new mothers who work can have that option.
South Africa, where the FIFA Football World Cup is to kick off Jun. 11, has introduced cleaner transportation, while Brazil is planning ecological stadiums for the championship it will host in 2014. But these and other initiatives clash with the countries' overall environmental performance.
A wide range of strategies are being followed in the southeastern Uruguayan province of Rocha to counteract the environmental damages of activities like soy cultivation, plantation forestry and tourism. But challenges abound.
Providing technology to communities to ensure food security doesn't work if local traditions and social dynamics are not taken into account, concluded the participants in a forum here at the Fourth Assembly of the Global Environment Facility.
Civil society organisations called for more funds, less bureaucracy and greater decision-making power, at the opening of the Fourth Global Environment Facility (GEF) Assembly Monday in this Uruguayan resort town.
"The situation is critical," said activist Iván Salazar, referring to the slow progress in providing emergency housing to people left homeless in his native Cauquenes, one of the Chilean towns hit hardest by the devastating Feb. 27 earthquake.
More than 60 percent of Chileans surveyed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are opposed to full equality between women and men, according to a new national report released by the agency on Friday.
The construction of the world's largest telescope in the northern region of Antofagasta could make Chile an international leader in astronomy research and provide a launch pad for developing other scientific disciplines.
If control of the media was not so heavily concentrated in Latin America, the situation of inequality in the region would be more actively challenged, says Martín Becerra, an Argentine media specialist who presented his latest research study here in the Chilean capital this week.
"I want to film the few untouched natural resources we have left and show the injustices that have been committed against our communities," Claura Anchio, who took part in an innovative free filmmaking course for young Mapuche Indians in Chile, told IPS.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to Latin America and the Caribbean, which fell 42 percent in 2009 due to the global economic crisis, will grow 40 to 50 percent this year, says a new report released by ECLAC Wednesday.
Chilean scientists are touting the benefits of the European Southern Observatory's choice of this country for a site to scan the far reaches of the universe.
A small group of feminists demonstrated outside the Metropolitan Cathedral in the Chilean capital Thursday to express their condemnation of an influential Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing at least five teenagers.
Chile's right-wing President Sebastián Piñera is seeking congressional approval of a plan to finance the reconstruction of the country in the wake of the devastating Feb. 27 quake, which includes a temporary tax on business that the centre-left opposition would like to make permanent.
Latin America owes Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón, who is facing prosecution in his country for trying to investigate Franco-era abuses, for the groundbreaking invocation of legal principles that have led to trials for crimes against humanity in Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Peru and Uruguay, human rights lawyers say.
The success of the climate change conference taking place in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba will depend on how unified civil society ultimately is in its efforts to influence the United Nations climate summit, in Mexico, say Latin American activists.
Activists from across the Americas are in Bolivia for an event with little government participation. They are looking for ways to join forces ahead of the next global climate summit, to be held in Mexico at the end of this year.
Alongside crucial emergency relief efforts, numerous organisations are offering free movies, concerts, plays, comedy performances and other cultural events aimed at lifting the spirits of people suffering the after-effects of the earthquake and tsunami that struck central and southern Chile on Feb. 27.
"Women help to reduce poverty and raise family incomes, but they pay too high a price for it, because in every country their working days are longer than men's," said Sonia Montaño, head of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean's (ECLAC) Division for Gender Affairs.
The attorneys representing Chilean Judge Karen Atala, a lesbian who brought her case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights claiming discrimination in the loss of custody of her three daughters, accused the Chilean state of sending out "unequivocal" signals of a lack of will to implement the regional body's recommendations.
Trade with the European Union has not significantly improved the situation of workers in Latin America, in spite of its volume having doubled between 1990 and 2007, according to a study by two Chilean academics.