Articles by Upside Down World
Philip Morris vs. Uruguay
Source: Foreign Policy in Focus Philip Morris International believes Uruguay is Marlboro Country. On February 19, the tobacco giant filed a lawsuit against that country, charging that new health measures involving cigarette packaging amount to […]
Argentina: Food Must be Produced Locally
Source: Latin America in Movement Claudia Giaccone is an agronomist and a chief officer at the southern regional office of Sub-secretariat of Family Farming of the Santa Fe Province, one of Argentina´s most important farming […]
Bolivian Women Rise Up
Source: Green Left Weekly In January, Bolivia’s left-wing President Evo Morales began his second term by appointing a new cabinet in which women are equally represented for the first time. Morales, Bolivia’s first president from […]
Brazil as a Key Player
Brazil is now a big league player. In the decade in which it begins its ascent, the country is so important that it is forcing its main competitor in the region, the United States, to redesign its foreign policy to take into consideration Brazil’s prominence, a tactic that might destabilize all of Latin America.
Bolivia: Cash for Checkups to Slash Maternal Deaths
(IPS) – A social programme in Bolivia that prevents the deaths of two mothers a day from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth is making headway despite administrative difficulties, and has the potential to cut […]
Celebrating Compromises in Uruguay: José Mujica Inaugurated as President
The smell of fried food and sausage sandwiches filled the Montevideo air as José “Pepe” Mujica assumed the presidency of Uruguay on Monday, March 1st. Street vendors lined the inauguration parade route selling Uruguayan flags to a boisterous crowd which cheered, “Olé, olé, olé, Pepe, Pepe.”
Peru: Relocating Entire Villages for Mines, Dams
(IPS) – Hundreds of Peruvian communities were displaced as they fled the 1980-2000 civil war. Today the government is pushing for urgent passage of a law that would facilitate the relocation of entire villages or […]
A Future for Agriculture, A Future for Haiti
What would it take to transform Haiti’s economy such that its role in the global economy is no longer that of providing cheap labor for sweatshops? What would it take for hunger to no longer be the norm, for the country no longer to depend on imports and hand-outs, and for Port-au-Prince’s slums no longer to contain 85% of the city’s residents? What would it take for the hundreds of thousands left homeless by the earthquake to have a secure life, with income?
Gold Fever: Artisanal and Industrial Extraction in the Nicaraguan Mining Triangle
Since 1880, güirisería, or artisanal mining, has been the main economic activity in the municipalities that make up the so-called mining triangle in the North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN) of Nicaragua. Artisanal gold extraction begins with the gathering of auriferous mineral from abandoned mines, external outcrop, or river sediments. This is done manually, sometimes with the aid of explosives.The current situation in the mining triangle, where industrial mining and güirisería coexist reinforces high poverty levels and the deterioration of human and environmental health.