GovBlog: UC Berkeley » Latin America

United States Congressional Serial Set Now Available through LexisNexis Congressional

Jesse Silva — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:38:56 +0000

UC Berkeley has recently acquired full-text access to the United States Congressional Serial Set (1789-1969) through LexisNexis Congressional. The Serial Set contains the legislative history of United States, and also includes many historic agency annual reports, House and Senate Reports, and many other official government documents (for a more complete summary of what is contained in the Serial Set, click here). Prior to this acquisition, citations to the Serial Set found in LexisNexis Congressional had to be searched in the Readex United States Congressional Serial Set database. With this purchase, you can now search LexisNexis Congressional for all your congressional research needs. Off-campus access to LexisNexis Congressional is restricted to current UCB student, faculty and staff, though anyone in the Library may access the database.

National Security Archive Posts Declassified Evidence Used in Fujimori Trial

Susana Hinojosa — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:39:42 +0000

The National Security Archive recently posted key declassified U.S. documents that were submitted as evidence in the former President Fujimori’s trial which began on December 10, 2007, in Peru. Fujimori was Peru’s president from 1990 to 2000 when he was forced to resign. The declassified records contain intelligence gathered by U.S. officials on the secret creation of “assassination teams” that were part of Fujimori’s counterterrorism operations. Six of the 21 declassified U.S. records are provided on the NSA website. These were originally obtained through the Freedome of Information Act (FOIA).

New Database: LexisNexis Statistical Datasets

Jesse Silva — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 18:25:29 +0000

The Library has just subscribed to LexisNexis Statistical Datasets. The database provides fast and easy one-stop shopping to more than 5.3 billion (and growing) data points from licensed and public domain datasets. Sources of data include local, state and international governments and organizations. Datasets allows you to customize the data by selecting subjects, variable(s) of interest, and the ability to view your data in side-by-side tables, charts and even maps. Datasets also provides quick graphs and chats for statistics in the news, and when you download or print, you are given citation information from where the data originated. Anyone may access LexisNexis Statistical Datasets from the public computers in the Library, however, off-campus access to is restricted to current UCB faculty, staff and students through the proxy server or VPN.

Remittances to Latin America from Japan

Susana Hinojosa — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:36:25 +0000

Most of us think of remittances from the US to Latin America, but this interesting report, Remittances to Latin America from Japan, reminds researchers that remittances also are sent from other countries. This brief report from the Inter-American Development Bank, Multilateral Investment Fund, gives a broad overview of the growing international labor market. As part of the process of workers looking for better lives for their families, tens of millions of Latin Americans have been migrating to the US and Europe and now increasingly to Japan. Japan with its relatively high wages is the preferred destination for the descendents of the Japanese Diaspora to Latin America in the first half of the 20th century. These “Dekassegui” or migrant workers go to Japan, save their money and send remittances back to family. According to the report there are currently more than 435,000 Latin American adults living in Japan with about 305,000 sending money home regularly. In 2005, it was estimated that over $2.65 billion in remittances were sent home. The report includes a profile of these migrant workers (age, education, income).

Databank on Indigenous Legislation

Susana Hinojosa — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:33:29 +0000

The Inter-American Development Bank offers on its website various links to ’statistics and tools’ and one such tool is the Databank on Indigenous Legislation. The databank has three sections which in different ways make available legal texts, legislation at various levels and also case law. The National Legislation by Country section contains legal rules, text from constitutions, laws and case law. The section, National Legislation by Theme offers 20 themes such as cultural diversity, territories, health, environment, and indigenous women and within the themes lists legal rules in constitutions, laws and legislation. The third section, International Legislation includes the text of international conventions such as the American Convention on Human Rights, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, also includes international case law by country, and Inter-American Court of Justice rulings.