Month: October 2008
Militarization and the War on Drugs in Peru: Interview with Ricardo Soberón
The government of Alan García has initiated Plan VRAE, a military offensive in the South Andean region of Ayacucho, specifically with the object of exterminating the surviving militias of the Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path and defeating drug trafficking. At the same time, more than a hundred North American marines have settled in Ayacucho. Upside Down World interviews Peruvian lawyer Ricardo Soberón Garrido, a specialist in militarization and drug issues on possible interpretations of this offensive. […]
Dos muertos y más de 20 heridos dejan protestas en República Dominicana
Fuente: TeleSur Fuertes protestas se registraron en Dominicana dejando al menos dos muertos y 20 heridos. (Foto: Archivo). Dos muertos, 20 heridos y al menos 20 personas fueron detenidas en medio de violentas protestas por […]
Incrementan protestas en Colombia con huelga de funcionarios y camioneros
Fuente: TeleSur Indígenas reclaman sus tierras ancestrales y denuncian el genocidio al que están sometidos sus pueblos. (Foto: Archivo) La huelga de funcionarios y camioneros se convertirá en una nueva protesta contra el Gobierno, que […]
Bolivia: Congress Approves Referendum on Constitution
March to La Paz
After months of street battles and political meetings, a new draft of the Bolivian constitution was ratified by Congress on October 21. A national referendum on whether or not to make the document official is scheduled for January 25, 2009. "Now we have made history," President Evo Morales told supporters in La Paz. "This process of change cannot be turned back… neoliberalism will never return to Bolivia." […]
Refugees in Ecuador: Organizing for Human Rights
If getting chased out of Colombia at gunpoint wasn’t bad enough, 94 percent of the quarter-million Colombian refugees in Ecuador are undocumented. They have no right to work, no right to report abuses and no right to stay. But they’re not silently accepting this fate as “refugees without refuge”. By organizing and joining in the Latin American movement of movements, refugees are demanding their right to have rights. […]
The Reggaetón Factor in the U.S. Elections
Who would have thought when Daddy Yankee released "Gasolina" in 2004 that four short years later the song would become the butt of jokes about John McCain and offshore drilling? If there were still sectors of U.S. society that didn’t know about reggaetón, this year’s presidential race certainly changed that. […]