Upside Down World
 
Sunday, 03 November 2013
Bolivia: The Politics of Extractivism
Written by Devin Beaulieu and Nancy Postero   
Friday, 01 November 2013 16:52

Are there alternatives to this re-embrace of state-led capitalism? Evo Morales gained international attention by staking a strong discursive claim that global climate change was the result of the sins of capitalism. He posed indigenous cosmovision as the alternative: he declared that by embracing indigenous notions of reciprocity and communality, societies could learn to “live well” and sustainably instead of trying to live “better” than others through increased consumption.

 
Latin America: Report from the II Continental Summit on Indigenous Communication
Written by Orsetta Bellani, Translation by Clayton Conn   
Tuesday, 29 October 2013 20:43

In the chilly town of Santa Maria Tlahuitoltepec, perched in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico the Second Continental Summit of Indigenous Communication was held from October 7-13, 2013.

 
This Is Peace: "Walking The Word" in Colombia
Written by Chris Courtheyn   
Thursday, 24 October 2013 12:54

Organized by the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, 150 people converged upon the village of Rodoxalí to confirm and confront the presence of death-squad paramilitary groups. The pilgrimage was organized in response to reports that four people had been killed, and paramilitaries had kidnapped and disappeared a young man and demanded that the area's campesinos (small-scale farmers) give them information and supplies. An estimated 28 families subsequently fled their homes in fear.

 
Colombia: Paramilitary Group Threatens Indigenous Protesters with ‘Social Cleansing’
Written by Amnesty International   
Monday, 21 October 2013 16:32

“Given the reports of excessive force used against indigenous protesters in the past 10 days, we have very serious concerns about the safety of the indigenous leaders and members of the organizations named in the paramilitary death threat,” said Amnesty International's Marcelo Pollack.

 
Mexico: Bracero Guestworkers, Unpaid
Written by Adam Goodman and Verónica Zapata Rivera   
Thursday, 17 October 2013 18:34

Every Tuesday, 76-year-old Miguel Díaz spends the better part of the day outside the House of Representatives in Mexico City. Díaz went to the United States in 1960s as a bracero, a contracted guestworker. Upon returning to Mexico, he and millions of other braceros were never paid the 10 percent of their earnings that had been withheld and sent to the Mexican government in an attempt to ensure braceros’ temporary status.

 
Indigenous March in Chile’s Capital on Columbus Day
Written by Charlotte Karrlsson-Willis and Sam Edwards   
Monday, 14 October 2013 19:20

“We are Mapuche and we are here because the Mapuche people, Mapuche children are being repressed, all the time, every day,” said Jessica Mardoqueo, who marched with her daughter. “You watch the TV every day and you see the torture, the deprivation. It is shameful. That’s why I am here, to stand by them against this repression.”

 
Berta Cáceres Is Still Alive: Indigenous Resistance Against Transnational Plunder in Honduras
Written by Jeff Conant   
Thursday, 10 October 2013 10:19

Honduran authorities want Berta Cáceres in prison. Even more, they want her dead. Cáceres is a founder of the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, and she went into hiding on September 20. But against all odds, Berta Cáceres is still alive.

 
Ecuador: Correa Pushes Mining, Targets International Human Rights Observers in Intag
Written by Glen David Kuecker   
Wednesday, 09 October 2013 14:59

The government of Ecuadorian President Rafeal Correa sent the national mining company, ENAMI, into the Intag region last month in order to begin work necessary for a legally required environmental impact study for the proposed large-scale, open-pit copper mine near the agrarian community of Junín. Community members successfully prevented ENAMI from entering their community by using an age-old peasant community tactic, the road blockade.

 
Repressive Memories: Terror, Insurgency, and the Drug War in Mexico
Written by Dawn Paley   
Thursday, 31 October 2013 15:00

What is happening today with regards to the drug war in Mexico has important precedent elsewhere in the hemisphere, namely, in Colombia. There is a legitimate focus on how events in Colombia preceded what is taking place in the “drug war” in Mexico. Key to the importance of Colombia from 2000 onwards in understanding Mexico today is Plan Colombia and the multi-billion-dollar investment the US government made in the war on drugs there.

 
Latin America Rejects the Extractive Model in the Streets
Written by Raúl Zibechi   
Tuesday, 29 October 2013 14:56

Throughout Latin America, people are opposing a model that destroys the environment and limits the possibilities for communities to continue cultivating the land and living the way they choose. Conflicts over mining, fumigations, and genetically modified organisms are among the most frequent.

 
Mexico: San Sebastián Bachajón, Six Months after the Assassination of Juan Vázquez Guzmán
Written by Jessica Davies   
Wednesday, 23 October 2013 06:02

“Although the rulers do not like it, we will continue defending our territory because this is where we come from, and we are not leaving despite their repression and corruption" say the ejidatarios of San Sebastián Bachajón, who denounce the murder with impunity of their leader Juan Vázquez Guzmán, and request the intervention of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to protect their rights and the integrity of their territory.

 
Lawfare: Ecuador’s New Style of Governance?
Written by Manuela Lavinas Picq   
Friday, 18 October 2013 07:36

Ecuador has achieved what most Latin American societies have been dreaming of for decades: a stable leftist government. Yet things did not turn out the way social movements had imagined them. In particular, the list of people accused of terrorism expands each day and things are about to worsen significantly.

 
Diego de Holguín Boulevard: A Case of Rampant Corruption in El Salvador and One Government’s Quest for Justice
Written by Allison Ramírez   
Wednesday, 16 October 2013 17:01

The upcoming February 2014 elections, however, will be the make-or-break factor in determining whether this case is just a blip in Salvadoran history or whether this truly signals a rupture with previous institutionalized misuse of public funds. Under an ARENA or a Unidad government, unfortunately, the latter scenario is highly unlikely.

 
Conflict Over Proposed Dam Flares Up in Guatemala
Written by Kelsey Alford-Jones   
Thursday, 10 October 2013 18:47

On September 28, community leader Mynor López was walking by the church in Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango, when he was suddenly seized by men dressed in civilian clothing, taken in a pickup to a waiting military helicopter, and flown to Guatemala City. The response of the population was both immediate and massive. In communities across the region residents took to the streets in peaceful protest, blockading highways and demanding Mynor’s release.

 
The End of Impunity? Indigenous Guatemalans Bring Canadian Mining Company to Court
Written by Arij Riahi   
Thursday, 10 October 2013 07:53

For the first time, a Canadian mining company will appear in a Canadian court for actions committed overseas. Hudbay Minerals, Inc, will be standing trial for murder, rapes and attacks committed against Indigenous Guatemalans by security personnel working for Hudbay’s subsidiary, Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN).

 
Re-militarizing the Police: Turning the Clock Back in Honduras
Written by Rosemary Joyce and Russell Sheptak   
Monday, 07 October 2013 09:53

The new military police are better armed than the civilian police they will replace in this mission. For example, they will be armed with Israeli Galil ACE 21 assault rifles carrying 35-round magazines, capable of firing 700 rounds per minute. The prospect of these boots on the ground treating neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula as battlefields should be troubling, even to those who applaud this latest move in the name of increasing security, including the US State Department, which Liberal party congress member Jose Azcona said in July had encouraged the formation of such a force during the previous presidential administration.

 

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