Archives – Page 48 – Upside Down World

Congress’ Last Stand: Privatizations among New Laws in Honduras

January 28, 2014 Sandra Cuffe 0

A new President has taken the helm in Honduras, but the more significant developments took place in Congress, where outgoing representatives spent their last few days passing a barrage of laws in a frantic final dash. Dubbed a “legislative hemorrhage,” more than 100 laws and almost as many contracts were passed between January 17 and January 20 following two weeks of already unprecedented activity that included Constitutional reforms.

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In the Fog: The Struggle for Power, Territory, and Justice in the Mexican State of Michoacán

January 28, 2014 Clayton Conn 0

Although in Mexican law it is illegal for citizens to bear most firearms, especially those of military grade and caliber, the self-defense groups adamantly declare that it is their right to protect themselves and their communities against equally armed criminal groups. “We are doing nothing wrong, we are protecting the people, people who are tired of injustice and organized crime,” said Estanislao Beltrán Torres, one of the movement leaders, in an interview with the newspaper Milenio.

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Beyond Reform: It’s Time to Shut Down the World Bank

January 23, 2014 Cyril Mychalejko 0

Recent conflicts surrounding World Bank-supported projects in Honduras demonstrate that the World Bank is beyond reform, and needs to be shut down.

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Four Years After Haiti’s Earthquake, Still Waiting for a Roof

January 22, 2014 Jane Regan and Milo Milfort 0

Overall, of the $6.43 billion disbursed by bilateral and multilateral donors to Haiti from 2010 to 2012, just nine percent went through the Haitian government while the rest went to foreign contractors. “It’s a really profitable business for U.S. contractors to make money off of this disaster,” CEPR’s Dan Beeton told IPS. “This was an opportunity to turn a disaster into something that could benefit Haitians as they rebuild their own country, but they were just bypassed.”

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Mexico: First Statement from the Self-Defense Group of Aquila, Michoacán

January 21, 2014 The Self-Defense Council of Aquila, Michoacán, Translated by Scott Campbell 0

Let it be clear that our self-defense movement was born of social necessity, against organized crime. It seeks to reestablish peace and order for our people. We invite other towns, villages and communities in the municipality of Aquila to join our struggle, as we seek only well-being and social peace.

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U.S. Government Holding World Bank and IADB Accountable to Ensure Reparations for Chixoy Dam Victims in Guatemala

January 21, 2014 Grahame Russell, Rights Action 0

Thirty-two years after the Chixoy Dam/Rio Negro massacres in Guatemala, the U.S. government is calling on the World Bank (WB) and Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) to ensure implementation of a $154,000,000 reparations plan for the surviving victims.

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Construction of Nicaraguan Canal to Begin in Late 2014

January 17, 2014 Diego Cupolo 0

Exactly 100 years after its inauguration, the Panama Canal may soon become one of two waterways linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In a move that would alter world commerce, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Chinese telecoms billionaire Wang Jing have announced plans to start construction on a $40-billion canal across Nicaragua this December.

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Descendants of Slaves Report Military Abuses in Brazil

January 16, 2014 Fabiola Ortiz 0

“In the community you can’t tell that the military dictatorship is over,” Marisa Viegas, a lawyer with Justiça Global, one of the human rights groups that brought the complaints, told IPS. “The military continue to use repression against the local residents, who are unable to achieve minimal living conditions.”

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Southwest Antioquia: Microcosm of Social Conflict in Colombia’s New Gold Rush

January 14, 2014 James Rodríguez 0

Twenty kilometers west, in the municipality of Ciudad Bolivar, locals have carried out protest marches and painted numerous anti-mining murals throughout the municipality. Diego Tobón, president of the Friends of the Arboleda Environmental Corporation (Corporación Ambiental Amigos de la Arboleda, COAMAR, in Spanish), states: “Ciudad Bolivar is a farming municipality and [the government] wants to impose a mining culture that nobody here wants.”

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The Permanent People’s Tribunal and the Counterinsurgency War in Chiapas

January 13, 2014 Orsetta Bellani, Translation by Nancy Piñeiro 0

Being close to Miguel Alemán, operational base of the paramilitaries of Desarrollo, Paz y Justicia, the small Chol Maya community of Susuclumil (Municipality of Tila) had been chosen to host the pre-hearing of the Permanent People’s Tribunal (TPP, as per its Spanish acronym), in a chapter that is focused on the counterinsurgency war unleashed in Chiapas after the 1994 Zapatista uprising.

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