Latest news with #LatinAmerican
Miami Herald
8 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Organized crime stifles Latin America's economic development
June 27 (UPI) -- Latin America and the Caribbean rank among the regions with the highest rates of criminal activity worldwide, marked by a strong presence of illicit markets and limited institutional capacity to combat them. Organized crime has become one of the biggest obstacles to economic development in the region, according to a World Bank report. The report points to four main drivers: territorial control, criminal governance, institutional capture and systemic violence. In addition to producing and consuming large quantities of cocaine, Latin American criminal groups play a central role in trafficking the drug to the United States and the European Union. These networks are tightly linked to criminal organizations around the world and have a significant impact on the region's economy, according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, or GI-TOC. Although the region makes up just 9% of the world's population, it accounts for about one-third of global homicides, with rates up to eight times higher than the global average. Twelve Latin American countries are among the 50 most affected by organized crime, according to GI-TOC. A study by the Inter-American Development Bank, led by Argentine researcher Santiago Pérez-Vicent, estimates that criminal organizations cause economic losses equal to 3.5% of the region's gross domestic product. That figure represents 78% of the regional education budget, twice the amount spent on social assistance and 12 times the investment in research and development. Colombia, Peru and Bolivia dominate global cocaine production, while Mexico, Brazil and several Central American countries serve as key transit and distribution routes to major consumer markets in North America and Europe. Cocaine's impact in Latin America goes beyond the global illicit economy, fueling violent clashes among rival cartels across the region. In Mexico, about 30,000 teenagers are involved in organized crime, according to the Legal Research Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. They engage in 22 types of criminal activity, including drug trafficking and kidnapping, with many recruited as hitmen due to their age and vulnerability. Alongside major cartels in Colombia and Mexico, new groups have emerged, including Venezuela's Tren de Aragua and Brazil's Primeiro Comando da Capital, or PCC. These organizations have developed new strategies to traffic drugs -- including substances beyond cocaine -- into the United States and the European Union. Experts and international organizations say organized crime in the region has evolved significantly. Fragmented and diversified networks are expanding through alliances with foreign groups, including Albanian and Italian mafias. While most governments in the region focus on combating drug trafficking, cocaine production is only one part of a broader criminal economy. According to The Evolution of Organized Crime in Latin America, a report by researchers Lucía Dammert and Carolina Sampó, organized crime also drives illegal mining, migrant smuggling and human trafficking -- activities that severely impact communities and threaten regional and global security. Illicit activities have expanded into markets with direct human impact, including logging, livestock operations, the cultivation of prohibited plant species and large-scale illegal and unregulated fishing, according to the report. "Human and arms trafficking, prostitution, the spread of synthetic drugs, counterfeit pharmaceuticals, contract killings and illegal mining -- which in countries like Peru and Colombia generate as much or more revenue than drug trafficking -- are among the criminal enterprises that have taken hold," said Pablo Zeballos, a former intelligence officer and international organized crime consultant, in an interview with the BBC. In recent years, several Latin American countries that were once relatively free of gang-led violence have experienced growing insecurity, violence and lawlessness. Organized crime has shaped life in places like Mexico, Colombia and Brazil for decades, said Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, in a podcast for Americas Quarterly. "Now, historically more peaceful countries such as Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay are starting to experience rising levels of violence," he added. The expansion of organized crime in Latin America has been driven by a lack of effective coordination among regional governments, limiting joint responses to transnational threats such as drug trafficking, arms smuggling and human trafficking, according to reports from GI-TOC and InSight Crime. This structural weakness is compounded by the steady erosion of institutions in several countries, marked by high levels of corruption, impunity and limited operational capacity within law enforcement. Together, these conditions have created power vacuums that criminal groups exploit to establish sophisticated networks of territorial control, infiltrate legal economies and overwhelm national response systems. Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Time of India
10 hours ago
- Health
- Time of India
‘Undermines morality': Muslim groups slam school Zumba sessions
Kozhikode: Several Muslim organisations have come out against the introduction of Zumba dance sessions in schools as part of the general education department's anti-drug campaign, claiming that it undermines morality and promotes boys and girls dancing together. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now AP Sunni leaders had earlier opposed the popular MEC-7 exercise regime on similar lines. Zumba, a popular aerobic fitness programme that blends movements inspired by various styles of Latin American dance and music, was introduced in schools to reduce students' mental stress, following a proposal from chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. On June 20, the director of general education issued a circular directing schools to conduct physical activities, including Zumba and other light exercises, in assemblies from June 23-26 as part of observing the International Day against Drug Abuse. Higher education minister R Bindu reacted sharply to the opposition, saying Zumba was aimed at ensuring the physical and mental health of students and the school community had embraced it with much joy. "What is wrong with that? We are living in 2025 and the first quarter of the 21st century is over. We are not in the 19th century or in the primitive Middle Ages. People should think with the changing times," she said. However, CPM state secretary M V Govindan said the sessions were not mandatory and the govt would take all communities into confidence before introducing such programmes. Sunni Yuvajana Sangham (SYS), the youth wing of the influential Samastha Kerala Jem Iyyathul Ulema, alleged that it was part of a move to foster boys and girls dancing and singing together, just like the earlier attempts to introduce gender neutrality on campuses by making children sit together. "Zumba is actually a form of entertainment incorporating Western dance and rhythms involving both men and women. There are many believers who don't like their daughters participating in such dances," SYS leader Abdussamad Pookottor said, adding that it was against the moral standards of children and there was no such opposition when Yoga was introduced. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Claiming that awareness classes were the best way to spread the message against drug abuse, he said religious scholars in Samastha would approach the govt to withdraw the decision if it was made compulsory in schools. Samastha has asked the management committees of schools under it not to implement such "immoral" tendencies, he said. Samastha Mushawara member Bahauddeen Nadvi alleged that the Communist govt was using this as a covert strategy to disregard religious beliefs and moral values, while subtly introducing religious disrespect and negation of religion in society. Wisdom Islamic Organisation leader T K Ashraf, who himself is a teacher, said strengthening the existing arts and physical education programmes — regular drills, exercises and mass physical education training sessions — would be more appropriate to improve children's mental and physical health. "It must be noted that even today, physical education teachers have not been appointed in 86% of UP schools, 45% of high schools and 10% of LP, HSS and VHSE schools," he said. Muslim Students Federation state president P K Navas said the decision to introduce Zumba sessions was taken unilaterally. SFI national joint secretary Adarsh M Saji supported the initiative, saying: "Unnecessary controversies over this should be avoided, and all religious communities should come together in support of this initiative." Earlier, opposing the MEC-7 exercise regime, the Sunni leaders had said the workouts were being carried out by women along with men and they were an affront to the modesty of women.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Sophie Cunningham rocks ‘Tres Leches' shirt in support of Caitlin Clark, Lexie Hull
The post Sophie Cunningham rocks 'Tres Leches' shirt in support of Caitlin Clark, Lexie Hull appeared first on ClutchPoints. There's a new big three in the WNBA and they reside in Indianapolis as Indiana Fever guards Caitlin Clark, Lexie Hull, and Sophie Cunningham have been in the news quite a bit recently. After their recent scuffles against the Connecticut Sun, the trio has only grown closer and fans all around the world are buying into their bond. Advertisement In true tunnel fit fashion, Sophie Cunningham rocked a custom t-shirt with their new nickname plastered on the front. Tres Leches (Spanish for 'three milks') is a common Latin American dessert consisting of condensed, evaporated, and whole milks to form its absorbent cake. Fans have been both shocked and pleased with the recent nickname and Cunningham wearing the shirt before Indiana's matchup with the Las Vegas Aces. Nevertheless, it's a perfect way to capture the moment and what could be a blossoming core of talented players within the WNBA. Indiana's new 'Big 3' Players like Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell have certainly been more productive throughout this season in terms of scoring, but perhaps this recent surge surround the Fever could be what they need to wake up from a pedestrian 6-7 start. It could serve as a rallying point for the entire team in not taking this season for granted and making their push towards another playoffs appearance. Advertisement Still, this team will only go as far as Boston and Caitlin Clark will take them in terms of their scoring. Both players are two of the league's best in terms of creating their own shots, but they'll need the support of the rest of the team if they want to catch heat at this point of the season. The Fever dropped their last game 89-81 against the Aces with another upcoming road game against the Seattle Storm. Related: Flyers' most realistic trade acquisition in 2025 NHL offseason Related: 2 best trade destinations for Rangers' Mika Zibanejad
Forbes
13 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
Nearshoring Is A Strategic Advantage U.S. Companies Shouldn't Ignore
Luis Peralta is CEO of ParallelStaff, helping U.S. companies scale with elite nearshore tech talent across Latin America. When the Trump administration launched a wide-reaching tariff campaign in 2025, the intention was to protect American manufacturing and rebalance trade relationships. But beyond the immediate impact on goods, the ripple effects of those policies prompted U.S. businesses to reassess how they source services and talent globally—particularly in technology, where speed, adaptability and innovation are essential. In response, some companies began moving away from traditional offshoring hubs, exploring alternatives like nearshoring—especially in Latin America. While not a universal solution, nearshoring has emerged as a viable option for organizations looking to address long-standing challenges in offshore engagements, such as time zone misalignment, communication lags and geopolitical uncertainty. The Tariff Wars Reshaped More Than Just Goods During its peak, the U.S.-China trade conflict imposed over $360 billion in tariffs, increasing costs on everything from electronics to machinery. While much of the spotlight remained on physical supply chains, the downstream effects also impacted digital services. IT leaders began to scrutinize: • How reliant are we on teams in countries vulnerable to policy swings? • Are we sacrificing speed and collaboration in exchange for marginal cost savings? • How quickly can we pivot if geopolitical or logistical variables change? The answers were rarely comforting. Companies that once defaulted to offshore staff augmentation in distant regions like Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe began facing performance issues, not just due to distance and time zones, but also regulatory uncertainty and communication lags. The search for a more resilient, time-sensitive solution pointed south. Nearshoring: A Growing Option, Not A Cure-All Enter nearshore software development: a model built not only on cost-efficiency, but on strategic alignment. By tapping into the talent pool of countries like Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina, U.S. companies have discovered a workforce that is technically skilled, culturally aligned, and geographically proximate. Nearshoring is no longer about saving money but gaining speed, clarity and control. Here's why it's flourishing: Time Zones That Actually Work: Unlike far-shore outsourcing, nearshore partners operate in U.S.-friendly time zones. Daily standups, sprint reviews and real-time collaboration can occur during shared business hours. The result? Faster development cycles and fewer miscommunications. Cultural And Business Alignment: Latin American professionals are known for their strong English skills and familiarity with U.S. work culture. That cultural overlap leads to smoother onboarding, better teamwork and fewer project delays. High-Caliber Engineering Talent: The Latin American tech ecosystem has exploded. Governments and private sectors alike have invested heavily in STEM education and digital infrastructure. Today's LATAM developers are fluent in English and Java, Python, .NET and DevOps. Agility in a Volatile Economy: The global economic landscape is turbulent—rising interest rates, inflationary pressures and labor shortages have made long-term hiring risky. This is where IT staff augmentation through nearshoring becomes a game-changer. Staff Augmentation: A Scalable Safety Net The traditional hiring model—full-time, on-site, with a six-month ramp-up—simply doesn't work in today's tech economy. Projects shift. Roadmaps pivot. Budgets get slashed. Companies need a way to scale teams without locking into fixed costs. That's precisely what nearshore staff augmentation offers: access to vetted software engineers who can plug into your internal teams quickly, work in your time zone and align with your culture, without the overhead of full-time hiring or the lag of offshoring. It's not just about filling seats; it's about enhancing velocity. The Risks Behind The Rewards: A Balanced Look At Nearshore Outsourcing Nearshoring isn't a magic bullet—it's a strategy. And like any strategy, it comes with trade-offs. Here are the common pitfalls leaders should be aware of: Oversight Still Matters: Nearshore teams may be easier to integrate, but they still require structured onboarding, daily engagement and strong documentation practices. Skimping on these can lead to misalignment or missed deadlines. Talent Turnover Can Hurt: Latin America's tech talent is in high demand—meaning your star developers could be poached by competitors if not engaged long term. Continuity isn't guaranteed unless you invest in team loyalty and relationship-building. Communication Gaps Aren't Gone—Just Smaller: While cultural alignment is stronger than with offshore teams, subtle communication issues can still arise. Assumptions around feedback, conflict resolution or even deadlines can vary slightly across borders. Quality Isn't Universal: The LATAM region is home to world-class engineers—but not every firm or freelancer is created equal. Without a rigorous vetting process, companies risk hiring underqualified talent or teams that overpromise and underdeliver. In short, nearshoring offers a smarter, faster alternative to traditional outsourcing—but it still demands strategic execution. Success depends on choosing the right partner, setting clear expectations and treating remote contributors like core team members—not contractors. Looking Ahead As businesses navigate an increasingly complex global landscape—shaped by economic pressures, shifting regulations and evolving workforce expectations—talent strategies need to be both resilient and adaptive. Nearshoring won't replace all forms of global outsourcing, nor will it be the right fit for every company. But for organizations seeking closer collaboration, faster execution and more predictable operations, it offers a pragmatic alternative worth considering—provided it's approached with clear goals and realistic expectations. Rather than ask whether nearshoring is better than offshoring, the better question might be: What mix of talent models will make us most responsive, most competitive and most resilient in the years ahead? Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
CNBC
14 hours ago
- Business
- CNBC
The Home Depot parking lot labor economy at heart of Trump's ICE immigration battle
Home improvement store parking lots were once teeming with aspiring laborers looking for a day's work. Contractors needing temporary help would swing by and scoop up a few workers for the day, and a symbiotic ecosystem thrived. Workers could snag a day's pay, and contractors could get cheap, temporary help without all the paperwork. Since President Trump was reelected, labor experts have warned of unpredictable outcomes for sectors dependent on immigrant labor, including construction and residential housing. The recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles area Home Depot store parking lots sparked protests and put a nationwide pall over the day laborer community. But beyond the deployment of troops and political finger-pointing, labor experts say that the Home Depot parking lot sweeps could have wide-ranging effects on whether critical work in the U.S. gets done. George Carrillo, CEO of the Hispanic Construction Council, estimates there are tens of thousands of "parking lot day laborers" across the country and that the recent ICE raids will have a chilling effect that ripples through the entire economy. "We have members reaching out to us seeing what they should do; they are scared," Carrillo said. The practice of workers gathering in home improvement store parking lots to seek employment is a longstanding part of the labor landscape and many of these workers come from Latin American countries, including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which are among the countries targeted by the Trump administration's tightening immigration policies. "They are trying to earn a living and have a tough decision to make: pop my head out and get deported or don't and can't support my family," Carrillo said. Carrillo says he is hearing more and more reports of ICE raids targeting construction sites where whole groups of workers are rounded up. The day laborer crackdown will exacerbate an already tenuous labor market in the U.S. The Hispanic Construction Council estimates a nationwide construction workforce shortage of 500,000 workers. Carrillo says that construction projects were 14% behind schedule when Trump took office, but that has now risen to 22% as deportations and immigration enforcement have thinned out the construction labor market. "We are getting farther behind on projects, and we are seeing across the country wherever there is a crackdown, people are not showing up for work," Carrillo said. Day laborers are not the workers on massive construction projects, more likely to be picked up by subcontractors who need help painting or reframing closets. But he added, "If the smaller subcontractor can't get those jobs done, it has a ripple effect throughout the construction industry." Jason Greer, a labor consultant and founder and CEO of Greer consulting, says that the crackdown is causing a slowdown in construction due to a shortage in labor. "Day laborers are scared to death to show up at places like Lowes, Home Depot, etc. because they do not want to be arrested by ICE," he said. While ICE has not commented directly on the Home Depot raids, they told the Los Angeles NBC affiliate "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and agents are on the streets every day, prioritizing public safety by locating, arresting, and removing criminal alien offenders and immigration violators from our neighborhoods," ICE's statement read. "All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and if found removable by final order, removed from the U.S. Home Depot tells CNBC while it does not allow laborers to sell their services on the premises, they are also not involved in any ICE operations. "Like many businesses, we have a longstanding no-solicitation policy, which prohibits anybody from selling goods or services on our property," said a Home Depot spokesperson. "I'd also add that we aren't notified when ICE activity is going to happen, and we aren't involved in the operations. We instruct associates to report the incident immediately and not to engage in the activity for their safety. If associates feel uncomfortable after witnessing ICE activity, we offer them the option to go home for the rest of the day, with pay," the Home Depot spokesperson said. Lowe's and Menards did not respond to requests for comment. Rick Hermanns, CEO of staffing agency HireQuest, which places 70,000 workers from the C-suite all the way down to day workers, says the upstream effects from crackdowns on day laborers are complicated and enormous, and neither political party has solved the problem. Lax enforcement, Hermanns said, incentivizes people to directly or indirectly hire unauthorized workers, creating a two-tiered system where some workers are paid under the table while companies like HireQuest and others pay the requisite workers' compensation and social security. Hermanns says those mandated expenses make up at least 20% of the wages paid, so under-the-table day laborers create a competitive disadvantage. However, Hermanns said a crackdown like the one happening now also creates complications because it reduces an already thin labor pool, which forces wages higher and then spreads throughout the economy in the form of inflation. "The ripple effects are much deeper and broader than what anyone understands," Hermanns said. "Candidly to me, our entire political establishment is unserious about looking at all of the effects," he added. Higher wages can be good because they draw people into the labor pool who might otherwise sit at home. "But moving the foundational wage 20 percent higher is incredibly bad for inflation," Hermanns said. For businesses, Hermanns says the whiplash between the administrative approaches breeds uncertainty. "I'd rather have more lax or more strict; the uncertainty is worse. What needs to be done is for people from both camps to come together and realize what we have is unsustainable," he said. Atlanta-based immigration attorney Loren Locke says that the current sweeps of home improvement store parking lots are doing nothing to solve the country's complicated immigration situation. Locke noted that while day laborers who gather at home improvement store parking lots skew heavily toward immigrants and disproportionately lack U.S. work authorization, there is no reason to think the population is a good source of dangerous criminal immigrants. "Rather, they seem more like easy pickings for ICE to hit daily arrest quotas," Locke said. She points to the complex web of immigration programs that have evolved over the years, creating an unsustainable system. "We are in such a mess right now because there are millions of workers in the U.S. who are in this gray immigration status," Locke said. "They were allowed in, and now we are going back to treating them like they are all criminals who need to be deported immediately." Locke pointed out that there are children who were bestowed DACA status and are now grandparents. "This has not been fixed for their entire adult life," Locke said. Meanwhile, contractors and subcontractors throughout the construction food chain are finding a small labor pool heading into the summer season.
