The Free Market Versus Regional Integration
The difficulties regional integration faces come from distortions caused by the free market—asymmetries, inequalities, and contradictions—that are virtually insurmountable.
Archives
Showdown in the Andes: Bolivian Election Likely to Shift Latin America Further to Left
Morales, ©Jeremy Bigwood
In Washington he’s been referred to as a "narco-terrorist" and a "threat to stability". In Bolivia he’s simply called "Evo." For many in the Andean country, Presidential candidate Evo Morales represents a way out of poverty and marginalization. He has pledged to nationalize the country’s natural gas reserves, reject any US-backed free trade agreement and join the growing ranks of Latin America’s left-of-center governments. He makes the Bush administration nervous and corporate investors cringe. Yet when Bolivians head to the polls Morales is expected to win a majority. However, the range of scenarios that could result from the election suggests that the show may be far from over by the end of Election Day on December 18th. […]
Bolivia: The Agarian Reform That Wasn’t
According to the United Nations, as of October 2005, 100 families control over 25 million hectares of land in Bolivia while 2 million campesino (farmer/peasant) families have, combined, access to 5 million hectares of land. In other words, the wealthiest 100 landowners possess five times more land then 2 million small landowners.*
AFTA talks stalled
The U.S., Ecuador, Peru and Colombia have hit an impasse in negotiations for an Andean Free Trade Agreement. The Andean pact includes many of the components that made CAFTA so contentious. Intellectual property provisions in […]
Ecuador’s “Bolivarian threat”
The Miami Herald, an unabashed free trade/right wing newspaper, especially when concerning Latin American affairs, recently published two articles that echo U.S. government claims that Venezuela is a threat to the region. In "Report: Diplomat […]
“Plan Guatemala”
A top DEA official is claiming that Guatemala is at risk of becoming a "mini-Colombia." According to U.S. officials, "Guatemala has quietly become the transshipment point for more than 75 percent of the cocaine smuggled […]
Nicaragua: Sustaining Solidarity
During the Reagan administration’s Contra War against Sandinista-run Nicaragua, sympathetic foreigners flooded the country with material aid, support and solidarity for the left-leaning government. Quite a few of these visitors were from Vermont, operating through Burlington’s sister city program with Puerto Cabezas, a city on the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua.
Continued Impunity Could Aggravate Pending Political Conflict in Bolivia
“Goni”
Over two years have passed since Bolivian security forces killed 59 and left over 200 people seriously injured during widespread demonstrations protesting the management of Bolivia’s gas reserves in September and October of 2003. As with other social conflicts in Bolivia, there have not been legal consequences for the human rights violations committed during the "Gas War."
In Defense of Democracy in Venezuela
For the past six years we have witnessed how, in the midst of great adversity, millions of Venezuelans have taken their destiny into their own hands and worked together to achieve the construction of a society rooted in the values of solidarity, democracy and social justice.
Genocide in Guatemala
A recent discovery of millions of pages of files from Guatemala’s National Police could help the country’s citizens, as well as the global community, take another small step towards ending impunity and establishing justice. The […]