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Two Killed During Panama Mining Protests

February 8, 2012 Upside Down World 0

Two indigenous Ngöbe-Buglé men were killed and dozens more injured in connection with a police crackdown on dissent over mining and hydroelectric developments in Panama, where Canadian mining companies have a significant presence. Since January […]

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Observations from the World Social Forum in Brazil: The Life and Death of Liberal Democratic Capitalism

February 6, 2012 Upside Down World 0

I have just finished my second World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, 9 years after I attended my first. 2003 was a year marked by the inauguration of Lula, a union-leader turned politician who led the Workers´ Party to multiple electoral victories; this year’s social forum has been marked by Tunisa, Tahrir Square, the Spanish Indignant movement of unemployed youth (Indignados in Spanish), and the Occupy movement that took Wall Street and many US cities, like my home of New Orleans. My observation and summation of these processes focuses on the demise, and temporary survival, of liberal, democratic capitalism.

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Elliott Abrams’ Dark History in Latin America and the Struggle for Justice

February 4, 2012 Upside Down World 0

Elliott Abrams, a former high level State Department official during the 1980s, testified last week that the Reagan administration knew that Argentina’s military junta was systematically stealing babies from murdered and jailed democracy activists and giving them to right-wing families friendly to the regime. But this didn’t deter the State Department at the time from granting Argentina certification indicating that the country’s human rights record was improving.

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