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Neoliberalism Needs Death Squads in Colombia
In her new book Blood & Capital: The Paramilitarization of Colombia, Jasmin Hristov seeks to expose the rational motivations behind state violence for capitalism’s economic elites in the US and Colombia. In meticulous detail, Hristov shows how the super-rich benefit from state repression and how the violators of human rights have essentially become immune from any consequences for their actions. If death squads are truly to be abolished in Colombia, we must look honestly at how and why they exist today. […]
Moving Beyond Representation: Participatory Democracy and Communal Councils in Venezuela
Participatory democracy is a model that is becoming increasingly popular in Latin America, taking many different forms in the region. This form of democracy relies on the abilities of the people and creates a system that emphasizes the importance of direct and active involvement of citizens in political structures. […]
Resurrecting the “Guatemalan Dream”
When Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán was overthrown as a result of a CIA orchestrated coup in June of 1954 because he was pushing land and labor reforms, hopes for economic and social justice, the building blocks for a “Guatemalan Dream,” were crushed.
Remembering a Champion of the Poor in Haiti
The international community and the Preval administration recently forgot the anniversary of the brutal assassination of Father Jean-Marie Vincent in Haiti. Fifteen years ago he was felled in a hail of bullets in front of his rectory at Montfortain in the Port au Prince neighborhood of Christ-Roi. […]
Honduran Crisis Necessitates New Sanctions
Failure on the part of the Organization of American States to reach an agreement for the return of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya yesterday signals the beginning of a new stage, says Radio Progreso correspondent Félix Molina. As the diplomatic mission left Tegucigalpa on Tuesday without approval for the San José Accord from de facto leader Roberto Micheletti Bain, the Honduran journalist says new sanctions are needed “that should include trade, economic, financing, and migratory elements.” […]
What is Behind the Bolivia-Islam Connection?
Bolivian Islamic Center Logo
It is a strange and unexpected sight in the middle of
Reclaiming a Continent: Latin American Experiments in Democracy
Reclaiming Latin America: Experiments in Radical Social Democracy provides an in depth and accessible introduction to Latin American politics for people seeking to understand this past tumultuous and hopeful decade. While avoiding superficial analysis and simplistic leftist cheerleading, this book addresses the complexity and diversity of the new Latin American left. […]
Latin America: Social Movements in Times of Economic Crises
The most striking aspect of the prolonged and deepening world recession/depression is the relative and absolute passivity of the working and middle class in the face of massive job losses, big cuts in wages, health care and pension payments and mounting housing foreclosures. […]
Uribe’s “New” Colombia
Civil conflict, high-profile kidnappings, and entire cities run by drug cartels; these are just some of the images of violence and terror that steered tourists away from Colombia for over thirty years. […]