Marlon Santi, the new president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE, Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador), was elected by consensus on January 12 at 3:30 p.m. in Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, and granted this first interview before the rest of the Governing Council was elected. […]
Wilber Moises Funes, mayor of Alegria, Usulután, was assassinated on January 9 while visiting community projects in the Las Casistas area of his municipality. Wilber Funes, one of the youngest mayors in the country, was dedicated to creating projects for the benefit of the poorest communities in his area while defending the interest of public services still owned by the municipality. […]
In Lima alone, community kitchens provide food for half a million people daily. Over 100,000 women work in the local efforts each day to feed their children, and they do it collectively, seeking mutual support to overcome poverty. […]
Peasant farmers from the southern coast who comprise the Civil Association Pro-Justice Nueva Linda Group celebrated their fourth Christmas in a row along the side of the road. Their resistance continues as they seek justice for the abduction and disappearance of Hector Reyes in 2003 as well as the violent eviction of August 2004, which left 12 dead and 45 injured. […]
One hundred campesino residents were able to block the agrotoxic fumigation of a new soy field. A popular movement is asserting itself more and more forcefully in Paraguay against the application of pesticides to genetically modified soy monoculture crops.
In Chile, on January 2, approximately 30 members of the Yupeco-Vilcun community attempted to occupy a farm located some 20 miles south-west of Temuco, the regional capital. There they were met by armed Carabineros, who fired on the activists, killing 22-year-old Universidad de la Frontera agronomy student Matías Valentín Catrileo Quezada. […]
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his supporters are convinced that the loss of the constitutional reform referendum is a major setback. But there are voices that argue that this is an opportunity in disguise. The failure has provoked the most profound analysis and self-criticism of the Bolivarian movement.
Cuban small farmers are strengthening their traditional ties with the land through a farming project that links scientific know-how with ancestral techniques and encourages greater local autonomy in decision-making on food production. […]
"Let’s go unblock the road, compañeros!" a man in an old baseball cap yells as he joins a group of people hauling rocks and tires from a central intersection in Cochabamba. This group of students and union activists are mobilizing against a civic strike led by middle class foot soldiers of the Bolivian right. These actions in the street are part of a political roller coaster which is dramatically changing Bolivia as it enters the new year. […]
By handing complete impunity to the high-ranking military officials responsible for Genocide between 1978 and 1985, the Guatemalan Judiciary system has stricken a severe blow against Justice. The children and family members of the hundreds of thousands of victims forcibly disappeared, tortured, and massacred, are speaking out to reject the current Guatemalan judiciary system and demand an end to impunity.
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