Inequality,Ethnicity, Political Mobilisation and Political Violence in Latin America: The Cases of Bolivia,Guatemala and Peru*

The paper explores the relationship between political violence and ‘horizontal’ inequality in ethnically‐divided countries in Latin America. The cases studied are Bolivia, Guatemala and Peru. Preliminary results are reported on the measurement of horizontal inequality, or that between groups, defined in cultural, ethnic and/or religious terms. The Latin American cases are shown to be often more unequal than the cases from Africa and Asia included in the wider study of which the work forms a part. The complex relationship between such inequality, ethnicity and political violence is explored historically. Ethnicity is today rarely a mobilising factor in violence in the Latin American cases, but the degree of inequality based on ethnicity is shown to be highly relevant to the degree of violence which results once conflict is instigated. History explains why.     

Analysis of STR loci in Cartagena, a Caribbean city of Colombia

Allele frequencies, together with some parameters of forensic interest were estimated for nine STRs included in the AmpF/STR Profiler kit (CSF1PO, D3S1358, D5S818, D7S820, D13S317, FGA, TH01, TPOX and vWA) in a sample of 215 unrelated individuals from Cartagena (Colombia). For all loci, no significant deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed. Comparative analysis results between our data and those from other Colombian and African population samples revealed significant differences, except with two Colombian Caribbean Coast sub-regions.     

Genetic variation of 15 STR autosomal loci in the Maracaibo population from Venezuela

Allele frequencies for 15 short tandem repeats (STRs) autosomal loci (D8S1179, D21S11, D7S820, CSF1PO, D3S1358, TH01, D13S317, D16S539, D2S1338, D19S433, vWA, TPOX, D18S51, D5S818 and FGA, included in the AmpFLSTR Identifiler, Applied Biosystems) were studied in the city of Maracaibo, Venezuela and were compared with other published Latin-American populations for the same loci. Population and forensic parameters were estimated.     

Cognizance and Consultation of Randomized Controlled Trials among Ministerial Policy Analysts

Consultation of scientific evidence by policy actors has been the foci of attention of knowledge utilization scholars for decades. The present study questioned the extent to which randomized controlled trials (RCTs)—generally seen as the gold standard of scientific research—are known and consulted by policy analysts in ministerial settings. Using cross‐sectional data collected in 17 ministries in Québec (Canada), our study showed that fairly high levels of policy analysts report never having heard of RCTs, thus possibly hindering effective communication of scientific results to relevant policy makers. Statistical analyses reveal the importance of cognitive factors in explaining both phenomena.