Articles by Upside Down World
Two Years of the Autodefensas Movement in Michoacán, Mexico: Persecution and Politics
Two years ago, citizens of the Mexican state of Michoacán, rose up in armed resistance against the Knights Templar cartel. Sick of the violence, the abuses and the indifference and complicity with which the authorities were treating the narcotraffickers, the citizens decided to solve the problems that none of the three levels of government: municipal, state and federal, had dared to confront up to that date. The Self-Defenses of Michoacán had been born. Two years later, the future of Michoacán and the Autodefensas [Self-Defenses] Movement remains in question.
In Brazil, a Struggle to Protect Indigenous Land From an Oil Society
Source: Truthout In 2006, the Brazilian government announced the discovery of oil and gas reserves in extremely deep ocean waters, beneath a layer of salt 2,000 meters thick, which they called “pre-salt” petroleum. These reserves […]
An Interview with Uruguay’s José Mujica: From Armed Struggle to the Presidency
“It’s worth fighting for people to have a bit more food, a better roof over their heads, better health, better education, and be able to spend their days on this earth the best they can.” – José Mujica
Costa Rica goes 75 days powering itself using only renewable energy
Source: The Independent Costa Rica has achieved a clean energy milestone by using 100 per cent renewable energy for a record 75 days in a row. The feat was achieved thanks to heavy rainfall, which […]
Indigenous communities from all over Latin America express identity in unprecedented soccer tournament
Source: Al Jazeera BOGOTA, COLOMBIA — Few of the 20 young men from the Yucuma tribe had ever left their community in Colombia’s Amazon Forest when they boarded a boat on the Apaporis River last […]
Women up in Arms: Zapatistas and Rojava Kurds Embrace a New Gender Politics
Resistance and strength manifest like weeds through cracks in Chiapas, Mexico and transnational Kurdistan where the respective Zapatista and Kurdish resistance movements are creating new gender relations as a primary part of their struggle and process for building a better world. In both places, women’s participation in the armed forces has been an entry-point for a new social construction of gender relations based on equity.
Bolivia: A Country That Dared to Exist
Bolivia’s road toward decolonization is a rocky and contested one. But, as Bolivia’s Vice Minister of Decolonization Félix Cárdenas argues below, in a bleak world full of capitalist tyrants, bloody wars and racist exploitation, the country’s Process of Change under President Evo Morales continues to shine as an alternative to the dominant global order.
“They Use Bullets Because They Don’t Like the Truth:” New Violence Against Journalists and Community Radio in Guatemala
Community radio is the heart of rural communities across Guatemala and Latin America. These radios stations are spaces for the transmission of not just news, but spaces for sharing the voice of the people in their own languages, and sharing their culture. Yet community radio stations have increasingly come under assault, especially in communities that are in resistance to mega-projects in their territory.
China Stakes Its Claim in Latin America
“The United States is no longer our privileged partner. Now the privileged partner is China,” Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño stated at the close of the third summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in Costa Rica on January 29.