Written by Upside Down World
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Friday, 30 July 2010 15:05 |
It has been a great year so far for independent reporting on Latin America here at Upside Down World. Over the recent months we have provided exclusive reports and analysis on the new wave of violence in Oaxaca, conflicts over resources in Ecuador, ongoing struggles in post-earthquake Haiti and more. In order to keep publishing on these and other important issues, we need your help! Seven years after we started publishing, we remain 100% reader-funded, and Upside Down World won't be able to continue without your financial support.
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Written by Mark Weisbrot
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Thursday, 29 July 2010 09:55 |
This dispute highlights the importance of the institutional changes that the left-of-center governments in Latin America are trying to make. The increasing importance of UNASUR, displacing the OAS, has become vital to Latin American progress and stability.
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Written by Meredith DeFrancesco
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Tuesday, 27 July 2010 14:10 |
Activists in Cerro de San Pedro, Mexico, blocked a highly unpopular gold mine on July 22 that continues to operate despite government orders to desist. Activists announced that if the Canadian company, New Gold Inc., and its subsidiary, Mineria San Xavier, continue their illegal operations, there would be more blockades of the mine in the future.
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Written by Daniel McCool
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Monday, 19 July 2010 19:05 |
As of this writing, the hunger strikers camped out in Mexico City’s main plaza are up to Day 86 of their protest, and deteriorating health has led many of them to abandon the encampment. With little sign the government is interested in negotiating, it remains to be seen if the hunger strikers will get any resolution of their demands, or if one or more of them will die in their frustrated efforts.
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Written by Benjamin Dangl
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Saturday, 17 July 2010 17:48 |
Dispersing Power: Social Movements as Anti-State Forces by Raúl Zibechi offers an exciting account of why social movements in Bolivia are so resilient and powerful, making the publication of this book timely; it focuses on the most vibrant social movements that preceded the election of one of the most dynamic and intriguing presidents among the region’s new left.
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Written by Joseph Shansky
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Thursday, 15 July 2010 10:51 |
Tensions are high in Costa Rica following the announcement of the impending arrival of US military vessels. In the past year alone, a sudden expansion of United States military presence around Latin America has alarmed many in the region. Now it is spreading to the one nation which had previously been known for the absence of any standing permanent army, foreign or national.
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Written by David Hill
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Wednesday, 14 July 2010 09:16 |
One year since the tragic events at Bagua in northern Peru, when armed police attacked indigenous Awajún and Wampis protesters, it is clear Peru’s government has no intent to change its hostile relationship with the country's indigenous population. In a move that has provoked outrage in many quarters, President Alan Garcia recently blocked a law, voted by Congress, that would have recognized indigenous people's right to consultation about projects affecting their land – precisely one of their demands when protesting the year before.
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Written by David Hill
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Wednesday, 07 July 2010 12:24 |
On June 19 hundreds of barrels of oil were spilled in a remote part of the Peruvian Amazon, leading to calls for a ‘state of emergency’ to be declared and an appeal to the United Nations to intervene. Tragically, this is nothing new in northern Peru where oil has devastated indigenous land and lives for decades.
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Written by Federico Fuentes
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Friday, 30 July 2010 14:58 |
When right-wing billionaire Ricardo Martinelli was elected Panama’s president in May 2009, political commentators heralded it as a sign that Latin Americans were becoming disillusioned with the “pink tide” of progressive and leftist governments. But one year later, the Martinelli government is facing a wave of resistance to its anti-labour and anti-union laws. Resistance has grown in the face of deadly repression.
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Written by Daniel McCool
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Thursday, 29 July 2010 00:00 |
Mexico’s poor performance both politically and economically over the past few years cannot only be blamed on external factors, according to López Obrador. He is critical of the neo-liberal model being followed by the National Action Party of Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and has an alternative plan which he presented to the nation on July 25th in the main plaza of Mexico City.
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Written by Juan Carlos Ruiz Guadalajara
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Wednesday, 21 July 2010 18:05 |
Mexican activists are poised for an International Day of Action against Open Pit Mining on Thursday, July 22. A major focus will be New Gold’s mine in Cerro de San Pedro, in San Luis Potosi. In April, Juan Carlos Ruiz Guadalajara, a professor and historian from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, visited Canada to speak with Canadian officials and the public on the adverse and illegal actions Canadian company New Gold has had in his area.
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Written by Raúl Zibechi, Translated by Jenny Marie Forsythe
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Monday, 19 July 2010 18:15 |
It seems the presidents of both countries have neglected to realize that they are using the same arguments as their enemies when they accuse social movements of being part of the “international communist subversion” or of being financed by “Moscow gold”. They’re making two mistakes in one: believing that the indigenous can be manipulated, and believing that the manipulation comes from outside the country. It isn’t surprising that the indigenous have interpreted the statements of their presidents as insults meant to distract attention from real problems.
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Written by Jeffery R. Webber
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Saturday, 17 July 2010 16:40 |
I met up with Luis Macas in his office at the Instituto Científico de Culturas Indígenas (Scientific Institute of Indigenous Cultures, ICCI) in Quito, on July 14, 2010. Macas, arguably the most renowned indigenous leader in Ecuador, was born in 1951 in Saraguro, in the Province of Loja. A lawyer by training, he is currently executive director of ICCI. Macas is an ex-President of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), and former congressional deputy (in the late 1990s) and presidential candidate (in 2006) for the Movimiento Pachakutik (Pachakutik Movement, MP) party.
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Written by Jennifer Moore
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Wednesday, 14 July 2010 17:51 |
Ecuador's anti-mining and indigenous movements are denouncing renewed attempts by the Correa Administration to criminalize dissent. Over thirty people, including top leaders of the national indigenous movement, are being investigated for allegations including terrorism and sabotage as a result of their participation in protests related to controversies over gold and copper mining, as well as water and indigenous rights.
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Written by Jeffery R. Webber
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Monday, 12 July 2010 09:54 |
"There has been a series of very interesting processes in Latin America – in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador. However, none of these new processes have managed to overcome the economic structures of extractivism," said Alberto Acosta, ex-President of Ecuador's Constituent Assembly.
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Written by David Solnit
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Wednesday, 07 July 2010 12:14 |
Bolivian social movements have practiced two different paths of social change: by taking government power as Evo Morales and his political party MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) have done, or change from below proposed in the past visionary movement-wide proposal for a Constituent Assembly, and in the well-organized, directly democratic and strategic practices of the movement organizations and mobilizations. Neither model fit’s into simplistic old ideological boxes—anarchist, socialist or progressive.
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