The EZLN Announces Upcoming Meetings in its Territory

February 4, 2013 Upside Down World 0

The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) ended “a phase on the path” of the Sixth  Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and announced the start of its next political steps, which include upcoming meetings (encuentros) in its territory and the explicit selection of those who will accompany future initiatives, that will have as its main objective: “to be in direct contact with the Zapatista support bases in the way that, in my long and humble experience,  is the best: as students,” said Subcomandante Marcos.

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Cold War Policies Revived by Honduran Intelligence Law

February 4, 2013 Upside Down World 0

The doctrine of national security imposed by the United States on Latin America, which fostered the dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s, is making a comeback in Honduras where a new law is combining military defense of the country with police strategies for maintaining domestic order. “We are back again with old national security concepts dating from the Cold War era in Central America, and the danger is that the former anti-communist rhetoric may be used against the ‘new threats’, such as allegedly criminal youth, dissidents against the regime, social protests or for the imposition of absolute powers,” said sociologist Mirna Flores.

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Exorcising the Ghosts of Brazil’s Dictatorship

January 31, 2013 Upside Down World 0

At 8 a.m. on Oct. 25, 1975, Brazilian journalist Vladimir Herzog voluntarily reported to the São Paulo headquarters of the government’s intelligence agency and was never seen alive again. He died under torture. His death had profound repercussions, triggering a wave of protests and setting off a mass movement that played an instrumental role in bringing down the dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. Now, more than 37 years later, Herzog’s murder could be the case that finally sets Brazil on the path of investigating the crimes and abuses committed throughout its long dictatorship.

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Sovereignty vs. Intervention: A Review of Haiti’s New Dictatorship

January 30, 2013 Upside Down World 0

Justin Podur, Associate Professor in environmental studies at Toronto’s York University, in his new book, Haiti’s New Dictatorship: The Coup, the Earthquake and the UN Occupation, offers a timely and concise political history of contemporary Haiti and a case study in “how a multilateral violation of sovereignty is organized and carried out.” He draws on a wide range of academic, journalistic, and human rights reports, as well as U.S. embassy cables released by Wikileaks, to document how Haiti became a laboratory “experiment in a new kind of imperialism.”

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