Jonathan Goldberg

A common joke in Latin America begins, “Why has there never been a coup d’état in the United States?” The punch line: “Because there are no U.S. embassies there.” The mirth stirred in Latin America by this joke owes much to the U.S. role in the military overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende 30 years […]

SANTIAGO, Chile — Last month, Chilean Foreign Minister María Soledad Alvear signed a free-trade treaty with the United States, a major step forward for a country that is seeking to overcome its small size and physical isolation through free trade. The Chilean government’s handling of the treaty was emblematic of the center-left Concertación coalition’s deep […]

NEW YORK — The threat of terrorism on American soil after September 11 changed the way many in this city saw their jobs: Being a postal worker or a downtown investment banker was no longer simply about delivering mail or making deals but also about refusing to give in to fear. And so it was […]

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA — Workers in the Industria Metalúrgica Plástica Argentina aluminum factory pushed cardboard boxes containing tin trays to the sides of the building’s top-floor assembly hall one weekend last month. They then erected a stage made of metal crates and covered the floor with plastic lawn chairs. For an entire Saturday afternoon, performers […]

With an Argentine presidential election looming this Sunday, TAP Online contributor Jonathan Goldberg has been looking at how electoral politics shapes the lives of the country’s poor (read part one here and part two here). Today, he talks to a powerful local politician and the would-be three-time president of Argentina, Carlos Menem. The last in […]

Yesterday, TAP Online contributor Jonathan Goldberg previewed this Sunday’s presidential election in Argentina. Today, he examines how electoral politics shapes the lives of Argentina’s poor — and how the legacy of one woman shapes Argentina’s politics. The second in a three-part series. LANÚS, ARGENTINA — In a shantytown called Hope, in a municipality that borders […]

This Sunday, Argentines will go to the polls to vote for a new president. TAP Online contributor Jonathan Goldberg spent the last two months speaking to Argentines about the upcoming election. Today we publish part one of his three-part report. LANÚS, ARGENTINA — Estela Cabrera, who lives in a shantytown outside Buenos Aires, attended a […]

SANTIAGO, CHILE — As the United States contemplates trying to build democracy in Iraq, it nevertheless finds itself saddled with a number of undemocratic — even odious — allies in the war on terrorism. Countries such as Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia may be partners the United States needs, but they also have reprehensible human-rights […]

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA — When then-Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill visited Buenos Aires last August, he toured a metallurgical plant, a middle school and a children’s soup kitchen. To his credit, the three stops were in working-class neighborhoods hit hard by Argentina’s economic crisis. But O’Neill did not set foot in one of the capital’s shantytowns, […]

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA — In a warehouse in the poor Buenos Aires municipality of Lomas de Zamora, heaps of garbage reach to the ceiling and spill out the doors. It is a sight — and smell — that would make some cringe, but to garbage pickers across the city who dream of duplicating this experiment […]