Latin America and the Caribbean

The fortunes of Latin America’s 73 billionaires surged by $48.2 billion since the beginning of the pandemic even as the region buckles as one of the worst-hit regions in the world, said Oxfam today. 

This report analyzes the beliefs of young people aged 15 to 25 from eight Latin American and Caribbean countries, about violence and partner relationships. These beliefs lead young people to reproduce the inequalities they see in society and to view acts of male violence as “normal”.

Many supermarket shelves in northern Haiti are now empty and many people in coastal areas are being evacuated inland to schools and public buildings in preparation for the worst of Hurricane Irma today and tomorrow. Oxfam’s Tania Escamilla is in Cap Haitien with a 27-person team that is assisting the evacuation. 

The number of murders, attacks, and acts of repression against human rights activists in Latin America has reached historic levels, according to a report published today by Oxfam.

Oxfam is deeply concerned about the worsening levels of violence, murder and repression against the men and women defending human rights in Latin America. This situation is linked to an economic model that fosters extreme inequality and has a negative impact on people’s basic rights.

Oxfam has calculated that if inequality in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region were to be reduced by five points between 2011 and 2019, some 17.4 million people could move out of poverty. If the opposite were to occur, a five-point increase could result in an additional 18 million people living in poverty.