.

Latinos
in Action
. Colombian singer!
songwriter Fonseca
(below) has joined forces
with his country's
government to launch
a music program for
former FARC members
and some of their
victims. About 100 were
selected for vocational,
psychological and
reintegration training.
Of those, 12 went on to
record their own original
songs, which they'll
perform at a concert
in the town of Carmen
de Bolivar on April 4.

. The Irnpacto Project

Ompactoproject.org) has
just launched an eight-
week pilot after-school
. LATIN AMERICA program in Becas

A Retiree7s Dream del Toro, Panama:

THE OPPORTUliITY has never been
better for Latin countries to cash in on
a new import: America's elderly. Some
73 million U.S.baby boomers are now on
the brink of retirement-amid the worst
financial crisis in decades. Faced with an
averageof$350-a-daynursinghome bills,
The Panama Heritage
Project (also supported
restaurant meals, the American elderly by singer Ceci Bastida)
will teach 10 indigenous
population more than doubled from
children photography,
2003 to 2005. And the buzz is growing: digital media and
International Living,a retirees magazine, entrepreneurial skills
in the hopes that they
named Mexico, Panama, Uruguay and
will use it to preserve
Ecuador the top four retirement havens their culture.
in the world last year. -Dorkys Ramos

a growingnumber would rather moveto a Still, the boom could have a dark side:
warmer, cheaper place and live comfort- wherever foreign retirees flockto, hous-
,. ably. Nations like Costa Rica are touting ing costs zoom up.Then there isthe issue
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'" their recent stability and offering easy oflocal resentment; most Latin coun-
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visas and affordable health care. tries offer few,ifany,benefits to their own
ci So far, it's paying off. In Panama, elderly. But these qualms are unlikely to
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where the government is offering for- stop the tide ofviejitosanytime soon-the
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a: eignpensionados everything from tax pull ofliving large for half the price isjust
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breaks to discounts on movie tickets and too strong. -Franziska Castillo
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Maradona's Second Coming
() ARGENTINA WOULD NEVER entrust its national soccer team to a fonner drug addict, right?
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~ Actually, since that fonner miscreant is Diego Maradona, 48, he was already tapped for
i ~. the coaching job last fall, after Alfio Basile resigned. The big question is whether Maradona
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can lead Argentina back to its fonner glory (and a 2010 World Cup victory).
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oI- He certainly knows his way around the field. Buffs call his 1986 World Cup-winning
,. i goals some of the best in history. He became so popular that his fans started a religion in
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I his honor: La Iglesia Maradoniana. But during the 1990s, Maradona plunged into cocaine
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'" addiction, binge eating and palling around with controversial foreign leaders, even tattooing
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Fidel Castro's face on his leg. And before his new gig, his coaching resume consisted of just
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To Maradona's credit, he's spent recent years kicking old habits and getting into
shape. In his first game coaching, the team beat Scotland 1-0. Since then, Maradona's

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"o been traveling Europe looking for recruits to round out his team, which already includes
I- superstars Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero. With a new hype song by Manu Chao ("La Vida
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a. Tombola"), maybe a comeback is really in the stars. -Re.

APRIL 2009 . LATINA.COM 63