The authorities of the state of Mexico have grown impatient, or perhaps even fearful. Faced with the well-organized and constantly growing resistance to countless megaprojects in the state of Mexico—projects driven by the ruthless pursuit of capital accumulation—political authorities have sought justification and legal protection to violently repress the resistance and see these projects through. […]
Fifteen hundred people from at least 22 countries convened in Honduras from April 13-15, 2016 for the “Peoples of ¡Berta Vive!” International Gathering. They came to honor slain global movement leader Berta Cáceres and to commit themselves to keeping her legacy alive.
Two and a half years after she was thrown into a Mexican federal penal facility, arrested without a warrant and charged with kidnapping, indigenous community police leader Nestora Salgado was freed from Tepepan Women’s Social Rehabilitation Center in Mexico City mid-March. […]
On February 10, 2015, thousands of indigenous campesinos from across Guatemala associated with the Committee for Campesino Development (CODECA) took to the streets of Guatemala City in the first large march of the administration of Jimmy Morales. The campesinos were continuing a decade-long struggle to demand that the Guatemalan government nationalize the electrical system.
The debate is part of all new movements in Latin America: how much energy should be spent building something unique and how much should go to dealing with state institutions. There are two sides to the debate on public policies (participation in the management of public institutions at the local level): fear of being co-opted by the State and fear of isolation. It is the need to choose between creating popular community or governing without power.
Early in the morning of March 3, Berta Cáceres was assassinated as she slept. Berta is not alone, nor is her story unique to Honduras. Across the Global South, mega hydroelectric projects are expanding — driven by governments and multinationals as a source of cheap energy, they also displace communities, destroy the local social fabric and spiritual ties to land, lead to privatization of land and water, and generate food insecurity.
As the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro quickly approach, Brazil continues to debate the introduction of a new counterterrorism law. Despite strong criticism from Human Rights Watch that the bill is “overbroad and vague”, the bill has passed in both the Brazilian Senate and, as of February 24, the House of Representatives. As the bill makes its way to President Rousseff’s desk, we consider the arguments of two politicians.
More or Less Dead, author Alice Driver’s first book, is a critical and timely look at the ethics of portraying violence against women in the media. The book’s title refers to the ways that disappearances leave families in limbo, robbing the victim of even having the right to death. Although Driver focuses on the issue in the context of Mexico, the ideas and conclusions she comes to are equally applicable to other cultures and geographies.
The coup in Honduras hasn’t just been against Honduras. It’s been against all emancipatory processes. It’s been a clear, threatening message to the progressive and leftist governments in our continent. It’s a message that the ultra-right and the imperialists aren’t going to stop. They want to reclaim power, and they know very well that they need our resources. – Berta Cáceres […]
The sole eyewitness to Honduran social movement leader Berta Cáceres’ assassination on March 3, 2016 has gone from being wounded victim to, effectively, political prisoner. Now Gustavo Castro Soto may also be framed as the murderer of his long-time friend, Berta Cáceres. Both the Mexican Ambassador, Dolores Jiménez, and Castro himself are worried that he will be charged by the government for the killing, they told the National Commission of Human Rights of Honduras on March 16.
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