El Salvador’s National Assembly is expected to vote today on whether to host a U.S. run "police training" school. The International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) will train Latin American police officers to combat transnational crime, […]
In what has become a vindictive exchange of words between Mexican President Vicente Fox and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, which on the surface appears to be an ideological battle over trade policy, is in fact rooted in the future development and economic integration of the Americas. Although the Venezuelan president’s words may have isolated him for the moment from the Fox administration, it is actually Fox, and his party, who may be isolated from the Mexican people and government with elections coming up in July of 2006.
The stage was set for a showdown. When the Bush cabinet announced intentions to revive the moribund Free Trade Area of the
"The United States makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbor them because they’re equally guilty of murder," said President Bush on Veteran’s day. However, the 15,000 activists who congregated on November 18-20 at the School of the Americas (SOA) weeks later in Columbus, GA reminded the US president, and the rest of the world, of the U.S. government’s role in training and harboring terrorists throughout Latin America.
Although every Latin American government pays lip service to integration, taking the concrete steps needed to attain it is much more difficult than simply issuing declarations. In the wake of the collapse of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA), Latin America faces the dilemma of remaining divided and at the mercy of the interests of the great powers, or setting out on the road to continental unity. Even if the forces in favor of integration prevail, the type of integration to be constructed remains to be defined.
In June 2005, two weeks of massive street protests and widespread blockades in Bolivia culminated in the resignation of President Carlos Mesa and a subsequent power vacuum in the country. U.S. officials suggested that Bolivian coca leader and Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party head, Evo Morales, manipulated popular protests within the country. Washington has also asserted that the governments of Cuba and Venezuela provoked and funded the social unrest. […]
It is one of the biggest "recuperated factories" in Argentina with exemplary worker management. It has created jobs, conquered the market, and managed to involve a whole community in its defense against repeated threats of eviction. After long legal maneuvering, a bankruptcy judge decided to hand the factory over to the Fasinpat cooperative in exchange for payment of 30,000 pesos (about $10,000) a month in taxes. It was a big step toward final expropriation and a recognition of the solid work of its 470 workers. Here is the story of this struggle, as told in La Vaca‘s book, "Sin Patrón" ("Without a Boss"). […]
The recent shift to the left among Latin American governments has been a cause for concern in the Bush administration. The White House has tried in vain to put this shift in check. Presidential elections in Bolivia on December 18th are likely to further challenge U.S. hegemony. Evo Morales, an indigenous, socialist congressman, is expected to win the election. How far will the U.S. go to prevent a leftist victory in Bolivia? Some Bolivians fear the worst.
As the solidarity movement prepares for another protest and vigil against the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security and Cooperation (WHINSEC, nee School of the Americas and forever known to the movement as the School of Assassins) this November, another threat to peace and democracy in the Americas lurks behind the curtain. […]
Unionized mine workers in Honduras maintained a week-long strike to protest hazardous working conditions, illegal firings and a string of contract violations by the Canadian transnational mining company Glamis Gold. The strike began on October 25 when workers of Minerales Entre Mares de Honduras, S.A., a subsidiary Glamis Gold, occupied the entry and exit points of the San Martín open pit gold mine, thus paralyzing mining activity. […]
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