Archives – Page 142 – Upside Down World

The Obama Style and Latin America

August 3, 2009 Raul Zibechi 0

Six months have passed since Barack Obama was installed in the White House. Not much time, but enough to observe changes and continuities in the United States relationship with Latin America. Prominent analysts have emphasized the changes. In his Le Monde Diplomatique column entitled "Positive Balance", Ignacio Ramonet argues that Obama has not made serious mistakes, maintains a high level of popularity and has fulfilled his main promises, including beginning a new era in relations with Latin America. […]

Honduras and Washington: Semantics and Contradictions

July 31, 2009 Michael Fox 0

On Tuesday, July 28 the United States government announced that it had revoked the visas of four leading members of the Honduran coup. More than a month after the Honduran military awoke President Manuel Zelaya at gunpoint and sent him packing to Costa Rica, it appears that Washington is finally beginning to put its foot down- a little. But the U.S. still has a way to go, and so does Honduras. […]

Peru and Ecuador: A Common Enemy

July 30, 2009 Jennifer Moore 0

They had been at war twice in the last century, but today they’ve found a common enemy: the governments of Peru and Ecuador have singled out their own citizens who resist extractive industry expansion. […]

The Honduran Coup: Fiction and Fact

July 29, 2009 Adrienne Pine 0

On June 28, the entire hemisphere suffered a blow to democracy with the military ouster of the constitutional president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya. Since then, business groups behind the coup have waged an all-out PR war in Washington. As a result, there have been fabrications and distortions peddled by politicians and pundits which have aided in replacing facts with fiction. […]

Obama Stays the Course in Latin America

July 28, 2009 Cyril Mychalejko 0

On June 23 while hosting Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, President Barack Obama was asked by a Chilean journalist whether he would apologize for Washington’s role in that country’s 1973 military coup which overthrew the democratically elected government and replaced it with a dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet. […]

Dissecting Utopia: New Book Assesses Latin American Left

July 27, 2009 Benjamin Dangl 0

The conflict in Honduras has been an ongoing challenge for governments across the political spectrum in Latin America. In the years leading up to this tense and decisive event a number of leaders and social movements have pushed the region to the left. It is this regional shift that is the focus of The New Latin American Left: Utopia Reborn. […]

Independent Candidate Challenges Chilean Political Establishment

July 23, 2009 Jason Tockman 0

For the first time since Chile’s return to democracy, the country’s ruling political coalition may lose the presidency. The centrist "Concertación" coalition is being challenged from both the left and the right, facing perhaps its toughest electoral battle yet. […]

Surreal Honduras: Putting the Narrative Together in the Local Press

July 23, 2009 Clifton Ross 0

Gabriel Garcia Màrquez could easily have written "A Hundred Years of Solitude" in any country of Central America. It’s a region replete with characters and magical landscapes and myths with power to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck when you merely hear them. […]

Damming Magdalena: Emgesa Threatens Colombian Communities

July 22, 2009 Jonathan Luna 0

A small path descends from the town of La Jagua, crossing a field and forest until it ends at a cliff overlooking the Magdalena River. Pairs of buff-necked ibis take flight announcing their local name, “cocli cocli.” Above the beach where children swim, the rock is carved by erosion and dotted with small holes occupied by birds. The landscape is dotted, too, every 100 meters, with concrete markers declaring the land, river, and everything else a “public utility” that Colombia has given to the energy company Emgesa as part of the Quimbo Hydroelectric Project. […]

Argentina: Turning Around – An Interview with Mark Dworkin and Melissa Young

July 21, 2009 Mark Dworkin, Melissa Young and Benjamin Dangl 0

Argentina: Turning Around is an exciting film which captures the spirit of Argentina’s grassroots response to economic meltdown. Drawing from diverse interviews and incredible footage, the film offers an inside look at the victories and challenges of Argentina’s neighborhood assemblies, protest movements and worker-run factories. […]