Anti-FTAA Meeting in Cuba
The Fifth Hemispheric Encounter against the FTAA concluded in Havana, Cuba on April 15th. Close to 400 delegates from movements around the Americas debated how to unify forces and defeat the Free Trade Area of […]
Year: 2006
Interview with Oscar Olivera: The Streets and the State in Bolivia
Olivera Voting
"Super dogs especial," yelled the hot dog vendor. His stand was an island in a street packed with World Social Forum participants. Other people sold Che Guevara hats, artesian jewelry, Hugo Chavez dolls and radical buttons in six languages. Drum circles and generators roared as I sat down next to the hot dog stand with Oscar Olivera. […]
La Coca: An Indigenous Perspective
Don Justico is one of thousands of campesinos who live in the uplands of the Andes. When I ask him about coca, he tells me: […]
Protests Turn the Tide on Immigration Debate
The immigration demonstrations held across the country not only marked an historic mobilization of one of the nation’s most silenced sectors. They also turned the tide on a national debate that threatened the basic values and cohesion of U.S. communities.
Social Movements and Progressive Governments: The Current Veins of Latin America
Bolivia has Evo Morales. Mexico has the Zapatista movement. Argentina is Kirchner’s. Where do social movements stop when facing progressiveness that restores power? Are these governments the triumph, or the downfall of these movements? Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, a Mexican with vast experience in Bolivia, visited Buenos Aires to talk about these themes with local movements and with LaVaca.org, offering a deep look to look at the continent in its own mirror.
Latin American Press Enters Immigration Debate
The top story in the Latin American press this week—almost without exception—was the debate over the future of undocumented immigrant workers in the US. In El Salvador, the daily La Prensa Grafica exclaimed, "Thousands march […]
SOA Enrollment Drops
The Defense Ministers of Argentina and Uruguay declared March 28 that they would no longer send armed forces personnel to the US-based "School of the Americas." The "school", known officially as the Western Hemisphere Institute […]
Vendors in San Salvador
Police raided stands selling pirated goods in San Salvador’s main downtown market, last Friday, and organized street vendors shut down a key downtown intersection in response. Open street violence erupted when police from the Order […]
Ollanta Humala: Peru’s Next President?
The first round of Peru’s presidential election makes maverick nationalist Ollanta Humala the favourite. […]
Cocaína No, Coca Sí
Cocaine cuts close to the bone here in New Mexico. An addict lives to either side of me. To the south, it’s the angry Chicano whose proclivities run to shooting off guns and starting fires that require three fire departments to quell; to the north, it’s the waif of a blonde whose high school graduation may have been awaited with joy — but, in the presence of the white temptation, deteriorated into confusion, loss of a job, and ill health. […]