Eduardo Galeano on Ayotzinapa: I Read and I Share
The orphans of the Ayotzinapa tragedy are not alone in their determined search for their lost loved ones in the chaos of burning garbage dumps and ditches filled with human remains.
Year: 2014
Bolivian women fight back against climate of violence
Source: The New Internationalist Women in Bolivia – and across the world – face multiple forms of systemic violence; to those we can now add climate-change impacts. One women-led community in peri-urban Bolivia is working […]
Community Democracy Confronts Mining in El Salvador
“All of us, [even] our animals—we don’t want mining!” said the elderly María Isabel as she left the voting center on November 23. By a staggering vote of 235 to 2, she and fellow residents of San Isidro Labrador municipality, located in the northern Salvadoran department of Chalatenango, voted to ban mining in their territory.
Lessons from Bolivia: Re-nationalizing the Hydrocarbon Industry
Source: The Center for Economic and Policy Research and Open Democracy President Evo Morales came to power in Bolivia in 2006 amid widespread discontent. The country had been experiencing a long-term economic growth failure, with […]
Lima’s Leftist Mayor Defeated by Four Years of Right-Wing Attacks
Source: NACLA Report on the Americas Susana Villarán’s electoral defeat in Lima is instructive for left-wing leadership in Latin American cities where the left remains weak. On October 5, 2014, a resounding 50.6% of voters […]
Mexico: In the Land of Zapata, a Community Fights Natural Gas Development
General Emiliano Zapata would roll over in his grave. The Morelos Integral Project, or PIM for its initials in Spanish, is a 160-kilometer natural gas pipeline and two thermo-electric plants in the heart of Mexico’s fertile central valleys, and in the shadow of an active volcano, Popocatépetl. […]
Colombia’s Land Restitution Process Failing Those Forced Off Their Land
Source: Amnesty International Threats and killings coupled with the weak implementation of flawed legislation are scuppering the Colombian government’s promise to return millions of hectares of land illegally snatched from peasant farmers, Indigenous People and […]
Ecuador: The Breach Dividing Intag
The road to Junín, one of Íntag’s 76 communities, crosses rivers and tree-lined farms. The population here has opposed mining for 20 years. They managed to force two multinationals, Japan’s Bishi Metals in the ‘90s, and Canada’s Ascendant Copper in the first decade of the 2000s, to leave the zone. Today, however, Íntag is divided.