Por primera en vez Chile una mujer triunfó en las elecciones presidenciales. Sugerimos que la victoria de Michelle Bachelet se explicó, en primer lugar, por sus atributos personales. Los chilenos la evaluaron como la candidata más confiable y con mayor cercanía, valorando además sus condiciones como posible gobernante. En segundo lugar, se vio favorecida por un ambiente político y económico derivado de la reconocida gestión del ex presidente Ricardo Lagos. Un tema crucial que atraviesa todo el escrito corresponde a la solidaridad de género. Se sostiene que el apoyo de las mujeres fue determinante para el triunfo de Bachelet, cuestión que se corrobora tanto a nivel de encuestas en términos de intención de voto como de resultados electorales finales por comuna.

The authors discuss the various ways in which liberationist Catholicism and the Catholic charismatic movement in Brazil take positions in the overall globalizing and homogenizing cultural forces in universal Catholicism and wider society. They argue that in their discourses and practices, these two contemporary Catholic movements refer to notions of both local and global and identify with specific parts of global Catholicism by confronting processes of syncretism, acculturation, and inculturation. Through an analysis of the meaning of tradition and roots, the use of music, and the practice of pilgrimage, the authors show how both movements manage the construction of distinctive religious cultures and forms of inculturation in the context of tension between the local and the global.

Numerous studies on the determinants of foreign direct investment flows in Latin America underscore the importance of risk- and cost-mitigating institutions that support good governance, political and economic freedom, and demonstrate a credible commitment to economic reform by regional governments. This study tests these variables against market size, macroeconomic policy, and factor controls to assess which combinations of variables explain the distribution of foreign inflows. Using a time-series cross-sectional data set of fifteen Latin American economies from 1985 to 2003, the study concludes that past performance on the current account provides sufficient commitment by regional governments and that regime, good governance, and reform variables are, by comparison, inconsistent predictors of foreign direct investment.

Partiendo de la discusión reciente sobre la integración económica en dos regiones periféricas, Asia y América del Sur, este artículo evalúa si existen condiciones de convergencia económica en el ámbito de los grupos denominados Asociación de Naciones del Sudeste Asiático más China, Japón y la República de Corea (ASEAN+3, por sus siglas en inglés) y el Mercado Común del Sur (Mercosur), que puedan llevar a una mayor integración monetaria o financiera en ambas regiones. Por una parte, se analizan los aspectos históricos e institucionales de la construcción de los acuerdos de integración regional, destacando los elementos económicos y políticos que están favoreciendo o dificultando un mayor acercamiento económico-financiero entre los países miembros de los dos bloques regionales. Y, por otra, utilizando el referente analítico de la teoría de áreas monetarias óptimas, se estima si ambas regiones obtendrían ventajas al abandonar su autonomía en la gestión macroeconómica, especialmente en lo que se refiere a la política monetaria y cambiaria, a cambio de una adhesión a un sistema monetario coordinado internacionalmente.

Desde una perspectiva cualitativa, el artículo (i) analiza cómo un grupo de migrantes españoles de alta calificación percibe, valora y representa su espacio vivido y cómo construye un sentido de lugar en la Ciudad de México, (ii) explora la identificación de este grupo con la ciudad y los lugares de residencia, sus relaciones interpersonales, de ocio, así como los vínculos con el país de origen y sus intenciones de estancia y (iii) evalúa hasta qué punto sus valoraciones, percepciones e identificaciones son válidas para entender los procesos migratorios y de asentamiento en el país de destino. El artículo se basa en un trabajo de campo realizado en la Ciudad de México desde mayo a septiembre de 2005 que consistió en veintinueve entrevistas en profundidad con migrantes españoles de alta calificación. El artículo concluye que estas personas mantienen vínculos con los lugares de proximidad, aunque no necesariamente impliquen un sentido claro de pertenencia y, en todo caso, estos vínculos geográficos sólo explican parcialmente las intenciones de estancia en México.

Previous research suggests that Mexican female migrants face more barriers than their male counterparts. However, few studies examine how the educational characteristics of female migrants differ from those of male migrants and how selectivity may have changed in the context of evolving gender dynamics in both countries. This study uses U.S. and Mexican census data from 1960 to 2000 to compare the educational attainments of recent Mexican immigrants to Mexican nonmigrants. Both male and female immigrants are positively selected—that is, more educated than nonmigrants in Mexico—and that selectivity increased from 1960 to 2000. Women are more highly selected than men throughout the past four decades, but earlier female migrants tended to have more education than more recent female migrants, who tend to come from the middle of the educational distribution.

The Dominican Republic has emerged as the world's foremost exporter of organic bananas and cocoa, a top exporter of organic coffee, and an export pioneer in new commodities like organic mangos. Pursuing a contextualized commodity network approach, I explain the rise of organic products within the broader forces fueling nontraditional agro-export growth and identify the key factors configuring organic export networks today. The article analyzes the implications of global organic market trends for Dominican exports and for the thousands of small producers involved. My research finds that despite their historical prominence, rising international competition and buyers' quality expectations are working to displace or disempower small Dominican organic producers. Strong producer associations and transnational movement ties are critical in shoring up the position of small organic producers in the Dominican Republic and may be similarly crucial in other Latin American countries.

This paper analyzes two aspects of China's economic relationship with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). First, we examine the extent to which China's economic growth is affecting trade and investment flows between China and LAC. Second, we analyze the extent to which the emergence of China as a world exporter affects the ability of LAC countries to compete in world markets both in terms of exports as well as in the capacity to attract foreign investment. For each of these questions, we provide a critical assessment of a new body of work in this area, as well as offer a series of analyses that build on and confirm some of this previous work. Furthermore, we offer implications for policy and future research. We show that there is an emerging consensus regarding China and LAC. With respect to trade and investment flows, China accounts for a significant amount of the boost in LAC exports and foreign investment in recent years, but is exporting more than it imports. In terms of global competitiveness, LAC is not significantly threatened by Chinese exports in global markets, with the exception of Mexico.