Latin America Roundup -- April 14

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In Mexico, Ken Ellingwood writes about the bloqueo, a time-honored form of social protest that involves blocking traffic to draw attention to one’s cause. Citing protest fatigue, some legislators in the Mexico City assembly are pushing a new bill that would bar bloqueos and other protests during rush hour and require organizers to warn authorities at least 72 hours before taking to the streets.

Picture: Participants in the farmers’ protest carry a replica of an ear of corn. Protesters say disrupting traffic can be the surest way to get a bureaucrat to feel your pain. (Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press)

Oil spills, industrial pollution, drug trafficking and over-harvesting are quickly reducing the clam population in the mangroves of Tumaco, Colombia, and snuffing out the livelihoods of many poor families, writes Chris Kraul. But even more at risk is an Afro-Colombian culture unique to Narino state that economists and ethnologists describe as one of South America’s most unusual in its spirit of altruism, cooperation and equality.

Picture: Mari Garcia returns from a day of clam-digging with half a basket of the mollusks, barely enough for a meal. Chris Kraul / Los Angeles Times

Gregory Rodriguez slams Swedish vodka maker Absolut for its controversial advertisement campaign in Mexico, covered by La Plaza. He argues that the advertisement, which featured a map of the American Southwest as Mexican territory, is fueling ethnic secessionism. The campaign, which is no longer running, “played on an age-old canard that has historically been used to justify discrimination against Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans here in the United States,” writes Rodriguez.

From Washington, Julian E. Barnes considers the future of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo, Cuba. With all three major presidential candidates vowing to abolish the prison, where would the detainees go and what rights would they have on U.S soil?

In Los Angeles, City Council members are learning Spanish in order to be able to speak to a growing constituency. Nearly 40% of Los Angeles County residents older than age 5 speak Spanish at home -- about 3.7 million people, according to 2006 estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. Until recently, however, only a handful of City Council members were bilingual. Ari B. Bloomekatz and Francisco Vara-Orta report.

And county supervisors are considering new restrictions on mobile vendors and taco trucks in Los Angeles, as restaurants are complaining that they’re hurting business. Jean-Paul Renaud reports from East L.A.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City