Archives – Page 53 – Upside Down World

This Is Peace: “Walking The Word” in Colombia

October 24, 2013 Chris Courtheyn 0

Organized by the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, 150 people converged upon the village of Rodoxalí to confirm and confront the presence of death-squad paramilitary groups. The pilgrimage was organized in response to reports that four people had been killed, and paramilitaries had kidnapped and disappeared a young man and demanded that the area’s campesinos (small-scale farmers) give them information and supplies. An estimated 28 families subsequently fled their homes in fear.

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Mexico: San Sebastián Bachajón, Six Months after the Assassination of Juan Vázquez Guzmán

October 23, 2013 Jessica Davies 0

“Although the rulers do not like it, we will continue defending our territory because this is where we come from, and we are not leaving despite their repression and corruption” say the ejidatarios of San Sebastián Bachajón, who denounce the murder with impunity of their leader Juan Vázquez Guzmán, and request the intervention of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to protect their rights and the integrity of their territory.

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Colombia: Paramilitary Group Threatens Indigenous Protesters with ‘Social Cleansing’

October 21, 2013 Amnesty International 0

“Given the reports of excessive force used against indigenous protesters in the past 10 days, we have very serious concerns about the safety of the indigenous leaders and members of the organizations named in the paramilitary death threat,” said Amnesty International’s Marcelo Pollack.

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Lawfare: Ecuador’s New Style of Governance?

October 18, 2013 Manuela Lavinas Picq 0

Ecuador has achieved what most Latin American societies have been dreaming of for decades: a stable leftist government. Yet things did not turn out the way social movements had imagined them. In particular, the list of people accused of terrorism expands each day and things are about to worsen significantly.

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Mexico: Bracero Guestworkers, Unpaid

October 17, 2013 Adam Goodman and Verónica Zapata Rivera 0

Every Tuesday, 76-year-old Miguel Díaz spends the better part of the day outside the House of Representatives in Mexico City. Díaz went to the United States in 1960s as a bracero, a contracted guestworker. Upon returning to Mexico, he and millions of other braceros were never paid the 10 percent of their earnings that had been withheld and sent to the Mexican government in an attempt to ensure braceros’ temporary status.

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Diego de Holguín Boulevard: A Case of Rampant Corruption in El Salvador and One Government’s Quest for Justice

October 16, 2013 Allison Ramírez 0

The upcoming February 2014 elections, however, will be the make-or-break factor in determining whether this case is just a blip in Salvadoran history or whether this truly signals a rupture with previous institutionalized misuse of public funds. Under an ARENA or a Unidad government, unfortunately, the latter scenario is highly unlikely.

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Indigenous March in Chile’s Capital on Columbus Day

October 15, 2013 Charlotte Karrlsson-Willis and Sam Edwards 0

“We are Mapuche and we are here because the Mapuche people, Mapuche children are being repressed, all the time, every day,” said Jessica Mardoqueo, who marched with her daughter. “You watch the TV every day and you see the torture, the deprivation. It is shameful. That’s why I am here, to stand by them against this repression.”

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Conflict Over Proposed Dam Flares Up in Guatemala

October 10, 2013 Kelsey Alford-Jones 0

On September 28, community leader Mynor López was walking by the church in Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango, when he was suddenly seized by men dressed in civilian clothing, taken in a pickup to a waiting military helicopter, and flown to Guatemala City. The response of the population was both immediate and massive. In communities across the region residents took to the streets in peaceful protest, blockading highways and demanding Mynor’s release.

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Berta Cáceres Is Still Alive: Indigenous Resistance Against Transnational Plunder in Honduras

October 10, 2013 Jeff Conant 0

Honduran authorities want Berta Cáceres in prison. Even more, they want her dead. Cáceres is a founder of the National Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, and she went into hiding on September 20. But against all odds, Berta Cáceres is still alive.

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The End of Impunity? Indigenous Guatemalans Bring Canadian Mining Company to Court

October 10, 2013 Arij Riahi 0

For the first time, a Canadian mining company will appear in a Canadian court for actions committed overseas. Hudbay Minerals, Inc, will be standing trial for murder, rapes and attacks committed against Indigenous Guatemalans by security personnel working for Hudbay’s subsidiary, Compañía Guatemalteca de Níquel (CGN).

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