Corruption And Deforestation Caused Oaxaca’s Mudslide Disaster

September 29, 2010 Upside Down World 0

On Tuesday morning, the world awoke to the news that a mudslide had buried 80% of Tlahuitoltepec, Oaxaca, a municipality of 10,000 people. Tearful Tlahuitoltepec officials told the press that 300-500 people were feared buried under the mud, while Oaxaca’s Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz placed the number of possible deaths at “up to 1,000.”

[…]

Colombia: The Significance of the Killing of FARC Leader “Mono Jojoy”

September 26, 2010 Upside Down World 0
In many ways, Mono Jojoy encompassed the complexities and contradictions evident in the FARC. He was a ruthless military tactician who in the late 1990s orchestrated a series of large-scale, successful attacks against military bases in eastern Colombia.  At the same time, he implemented some of the FARC’s most progressive social and economic policies, which have benefited peasants in eastern Colombia. […]

Saving Their Seats for the Bicentennial and Beyond: Ex-Political Prisoners of Chile’s National Stadium

September 26, 2010 Upside Down World 0

This September Chile celebrated its bicentennial, and like other nations that have marked this extraordinary milestone it rolled out the proverbial red carpet to commemorate its 200th birthday. At the same time some Chileans commemorated the 37th anniversary of the military coup that overthrew the democratically-elected government of Marxist President Salvador Allende on 11 September 1973. For these commemorators, though, mixing the bicentennial euphoria with the memories of a socialist dream crushed by the evils of dictatorship brought about a bitter-sweet taste.

[…]

Ecuador: Small-Scale Miners Questioning Large-Scale Interests in Southern Amazon

September 22, 2010 Upside Down World 0

Only days after small-scale and artisanal miners pronounced themselves in favor of land use planning and against large scale mining in Ecuador’s southern Amazon, a heavy deployment of police and military was ordered to evict a group of these miners for alleged environmental damages. Approximately 1,500 police and military officers took part in the September 15 operation, or roughly one officer for every resident of the small county of Paquisha in the province of Zamora Chinchipe, where confrontations took place.  

[…]

1 286 287 288 289 290 549