Archives – Page 39 – Upside Down World

Puerto Castilla, Honduras: Corporate and Military Interests Above Garífuna Community Survival

June 25, 2014 Greg McCain 0

Six children from the community of Puerto Castilla, Trujillo, suffered severe respiratory damage resulting from an attack carried out on May 23, 2014 by the Honduran National Police, Military Police, and in conjunction with the Operation Xatruch III military unit. Hundreds of tear gas canisters were fired into the community in a haphazard manner as a means of dispersing a peaceful protest. After inundating the town with tear gas, the roughly 500 security force members entered the community, dousing anyone within reach with pepper spray.

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Ecuador’s CONAIE Indigenous Movement: A Return to the Bases in a Fight for Water Rights

June 17, 2014 Marc Becker 0

With calls to return power to the bases and to mobilize the grassroots in defense of the rights of community access to water resources, Ecuador’s largest and most powerful Indigenous federation has inaugurated its leadership for the next three years. At a two-day congress in Ambato on May 16-17, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) elected Jorge Herrera as its new president.

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Santos’ Presidential Win in Colombia is a Vote for Peace

June 17, 2014 Mike LaSusa 0

Although polling consistently showed that issues like poverty, crime, education and healthcare featured more prominently in voters’ minds than the peace process, the polarity of the main candidates’ positions on the latter issue largely eclipsed the slight differences between them on others. “The peace talks were the only way [for Santos] to distinguish himself from Zuluaga, especially in the second round,” said Restrepo. “It was also Zuluaga’s weak point. Historically Colombians have always wanted peaceful negotiations over war.”

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Chile Rejects Patagonian Dam Project, Environmentalists Hail Victory

June 16, 2014 Diego Cupolo 0

After eight years of demonstrations and sometimes violent protests, officials rejected the controversial Patagonian dam project last week. The decision halts development of what would have become Chile’s largest energy endeavor in history, the building of five dams in two of South America’s widest rivers along with 1,600 km of power lines through pristine Andean valleys and fjords to carry energy to the nation’s central regions. Patricio Rodrigo, executive secretary of the Patagonia Defense Council, called the moment “the greatest triumph of the environmental movement in Chile.”

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Thank You For Your Support

June 13, 2014 Upside Down World 0

Thanks So Much For Your Support! Your donation will allow us to continue to do the writing, editing and publishing it takes to keep you informed about these important struggles for justice across Latin America. […]

Capitalism’s Bullets in Latin America: Invisible Empires, State Power and 21st Century Colonialism

June 12, 2014 Benjamin Dangl 0

Capitalism, empire and 21st century colonialism come from afar and descend on their victims in Latin America. But these forces are also in the tear gas canisters that Brazil’s security forces use at the World Cup, in the state that extracts natural resources on indigenous territory, and in the free trade deals signed in blood.

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Sporting Shock Doctrine: Dave Zirin on the World Cup, Olympics and Brazilian Democracy

June 11, 2014 Andalusia Knoll 0

In Brazil’s Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, The Olympics and the Struggle for Democracy, Dave Zirin peels back the colorful FIFA curtain of publicity that currently blankets sporting sites across the globe to reveal the repression, deaths, displacement and corruption that paved the way to the 2014 World Cup, and the the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics to follow.

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Book Review: Learning from Latin America’s Social Movements

June 10, 2014 David L. Wilson 0

Until the Rulers Obey is a major advance in the effort to acquaint North American leftists with the Latin American grassroots. The book brings together interviews with representatives from some 70 organizations in 15 South and Central American countries, ranging from indigenous women in a Zapatista community in the mountains of southeastern Mexico to members of an anarchist collective in urban Uruguay.

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Sex Workers Take to the Streets in Honduras to Protest Murders and Discrimination

June 9, 2014 Sandra Cuffe 0

Cries for justice rang out in the streets of the Honduran capital on June 2 as several dozen women of all ages, some with young children in tow, had gathered in a nearby park that morning in preparation for the march. Some donned masks, with multi-colored feathers waving in the air. All wore t-shirts with a message written clearly on the back in pink lettering: We demand the recognition of sex work.

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Book Review: Border Patrol Nation

June 8, 2014 Dawn Paley 0

Todd Miller’s powerful prose belies what one hopes is a growing sense of outrage at the inhuman and racist goals of U.S. border enforcement. His journeys from place to place and the complexities he presents within the Border Patrol itself provide the reader with a comprehensive picture of what’s wrong in the United States.

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