Epilogue Self-assessment

. Which of the following statements about the Zika virus is FALSE?

It is native to tropical Central America.

It most likely arrived in Brazil in 2014, when the country hosted international sporting events including the soccer World Cup.

Its vector, the aedes aegypti mosquito, lives mostly in cities, not rural areas.

Between 2014 and 2016 it spread throughout the Americas as far north as the southern US.

. Which of the following statements about the 2010 earthquake in Haiti is FALSE?

The city of Port-au-Prince was especially vulnerable because building codes were scarcely enforced.

Much of the international aid that arrived was mismanaged or diverted by corrupt intermediaries.

It was the strongest earthquake ever to strike the Americas.

It was the most deadly natural disaster in the history of the Americas.

. The El Niño climate phenomenon causes or worsens all of the following EXCEPT

Heavy rains in Peru.

More intense hurricanes in Mexico.

Drought in areas of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Forest fires in the Amazon.

. It is likely that climate change has recently become an important driver of migration from Central America to the US.

True

False

. Which of the following statements about Carlos Slim is FALSE?

He has spent several years past he world's richest person.

He benefited handsomely from the privatization of formerly state-owned assets.

Limited to Mexico, his business exemplifies the increasing difficulty of doing business across multiple Latin American countries due to the fragmentation of the region's markets.

His company pioneered the innovation of selling mobile-phone service using prepaid phone cards.

. In the 1970s and 1980s, Fidel Castro's Communist government in Cuba was more progressive on LGBT issues than the right-wing military dictatorships of Brazil and Argentina.

True

False.

. The MS-13 gang originated in

Mexico

California

Honduras

El Salvador

. Recent points of similarity or convergence between the United States and Latin America include all of the following EXCEPT

Both regions have seen a widening gap between the financial elite and the rest of the population.

Both regions experience high levels of gun violence.

Both regions are marked by the persistence of racial discrimination and inequality.

Both have seen a decline or even reversal of the trend toward urbanization in recent years.

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