Brazil: Challenges of a Landless People
Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST), one of the longest standing and largest social movements in Latin America, continues to be a relevant force in the lives of everyday communities and families.
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Zapatista Women Explain Things
In Compañeras, Hilary Klein focuses in on the period around the time of the Zapatista uprising, which kicked off spectacularly on New Year’s Day 1994, as “a watershed moment” when “a tremendous amount of change was compressed into a very short period.” The book follows the development of the women’s struggle within and as part of the Zapatista trajectory over the ensuing 20 years.
The Fight for Justice for Ecuador’s Amazon Continues
On April 20, U.S. attorney Steven Donziger will help defend one of the most historic class-action court judgments against a large corporation: Ecuador’s Supreme Court decision in 2011 that holds Chevron liable for $9.6 billion of damages for environmental harms affecting an estimated 30,000 Amazonian people.
Three Months of Attacks on the Working Class in Brazil
One could say that the new Rousseff government began to deepen its right-wing, neoliberal turn with her choice of ministers. In the name of governability, Rousseff opted for raffling the already fragile working-class and social movement base of the Workers’ Party (PT) by nominating people such as agribusiness representative Kátia Abreu for the minister of agriculture, and Joaquim Levy, an economist who ensured that the private bank Bradesco had its most profitable year in 2014, as finance minister.
Rural Women in Latin America Define Their Own Kind of Feminism
Rural organizations in Latin America are working on defining their own concept of feminism, one that takes into account alternative economic models as well as their own concerns and viewpoints, which are not always in line with those of women in urban areas.
San José de Apartadó: Lessons from Colombia’s Peace Community
On March 23rd, the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó celebrated its 18 year anniversary. This community of campesinos , located in the war-torn northwestern Urabá region of Colombia, refuses collaboration with any of country’s armed groups, including guerrilla, paramilitary, and State forces.
Nueva Trinidad: 3rd Municipality in El Salvador to Declare Itself a “Mining Free Territory”
In a process of grassroots democracy and popular community engagement, Nueva Trinidad joined its neighboring towns of San Jose Las Flores and San Isidro Labrador in rejecting the presence of mining exploration and exploitation in their territories.
Eduardo Galeano’s Words Walk the Streets of a Continent
The world lost one of its great writers today. Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano died at age 74 in Montevideo. With the small mountain of books and articles he left behind, Galeano gives us a language of hope, a way feel to feel rage toward the world while also loving it, a way to understand the past while carving out a better possible future.
“We Are Defending Life:” The Criminalization of Environmental and Indigenous Rights Activists in Guatemala
The community of Santa Cruz Barillas is protesting the construction of dams in their territory, including the Santa Cruz hydroelectric project owned by the Spanish firm Ecoener Hydro Energy, as part of the regional energy integration project called for in Plan Mesoamerica. The project has been plagued by human rights violations, including the failure of the Guatemalan government and companies to consult the indigenous communities prior to construction. The community fought back, and has paid dearly for their resistance to the projects within their territory.
Guatemala: How a Pseudo-Military Project Was Created to Protect the Escobal Mine
One of the most dramatic events took place on April 27, 2013, when private security guards from the company Alfa Uno – associated with the Israeli company Golan Group – acted on orders of the then-head of security Alberto Rotondo Dall’Orso and indiscriminately shot at community members who were peacefully protesting in front of mining facilities in San Rafael Las Flores. Seven community members were injured.