International

Colombia remained the country with the largest amount of Pentagon contracts in continental Latin America, with $77 million. A multi-year contract shared by Raytheon and Lockheed for training, equipment and other drug war activities accounted for more than a third of Pentagon contract spending in Colombia. Honduras, which has become a hub for Pentagon operations in Central America, is the site for more than $43 million in non-fuel contracts signed last year.

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Migration Now is a nationwide visual arts collaboration, led by CultureStrike and the JustSeeds Artist Collective, aimed at raising consciousness about immigration issues and the imperative for just and equitable change to the nation’s immigration system.

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“When we talk about revolutionary change, the only guide we have is history. We cannot let ourselves be guided by ideology, because ideology is a declaration of intentions or an abstract construct,” said Raúl Zibechi, Uruguayan journalist and author of Territories of Resistance: A Cartography of Latin American Social Movements.

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Called “Freeing Hope,” this caravan of 38 mothers — which began on October 15 and ended on November 3 — traveled through El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and across what is known as the “Migrant’s Route” in Mexico. Although many of them have not been able to find their children, they drew attention from the media and authorities, spread awareness of migrants’ issues and put a face to the human rights’ violations that migrants are exposed to on their journeys.

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Under President Obama more than 1 million people have been deported from the United States. We’re told many of those people are criminals who’ve broken more than just immigration law. On this edition, producer Cory Fischer-Hoffman takes a closer look at how immigration and the criminal justice system work together, to detain and deport hundreds of thousands of people every year.

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Tensions are mounting in the indigenous Naso territory in Bocas del Toro province, western Panama, where protestors have blocked access to the Bonyic Hydroelectric project, a 30MW dam currently under construction on the banks of the Bonyic river. The Naso are one of Panama’s most marginalized indigenous groups, currently numbering approximately 4000. Their populations are concentrated in eleven different communities on the forested banks of the Rio Teribe, which they call Tjer’di (Grandmother Water) – a vital source of material and spiritual sustenance.

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