Month: March 2009
An Exception to Lula’s Rule
Now and then there emerges somewhere in the world a social movement that is really exceptional for its integrity, astuteness and mass appeal. For me one of those rare movements is Brazil’s Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST, the Landless Workers’ Movement). Ever since it was founded in the early 1980s it has confounded predictions of its imminent demise. […]
Rock Bottom Mining: Unemployment and Crisis in Peru
The mining bubble in Perú has popped. With world demand at it’s lowest, international metal prices have cascaded and as of November 2008 more than 8 thousand mining workers have joined the ranks of the unemployed. […]
Ecuador: Mining and the Right of Way
Indigenous leaders delivered a lawsuit in Quito last Tuesday before Ecuador’s Constitutional Court asking that the country’s new mining law be declared unconstitutional. The case is the next step that the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) is taking to try to put the brakes on large scale metal mining which has achieved unwavering support from President Rafael Correa’s administration. […]
Historical Archives Lead to Arrest of Police Officers in Guatemalan Disappearance
Following a stunning breakthrough in a 25-year-old case of political terror in Guatemala, the National Security Archive today [March 17,2008] is posting declassified U.S. documents about the disappearance of Edgar Fernando García, a student leader and trade union activist captured by Guatemalan security forces in 1984. The documents show that García’s capture was an organized political abduction orchestrated at the highest levels of the Guatemalan government. […]
Ecuador: La lógica del desarrollo choca con los movimientos
Fuente: Programa de las Américas Pese a proclamarse socialista y defender el "buen vivir", el presidente Rafael Correa impulsa la gran minería a cielo abierto, que en toda la región viene provocando graves daños ambientales […]
Peru: Few Benefits from Boom for Poorest Mining Districts
(IPS) – The poorest district in Peru is in an area of intense mining activity, in a country where the mining industry accounts for nearly 60 percent of all export revenues. But the people of […]
Ecuador: The Logic of Development Clashes with Movements
President Rafael Correa
In spite of proclaiming himself socialist and a defender of the general "well being," President Rafael Correa has been promoting the open-pit mining industry, which has provoked serious environmental and social damage throughout the region. […]