Archives – Page 75 – Upside Down World

The Chilean Safe Abortion Hotline: Assisting Women With Illegal, But Safe, Misoprostol Abortion

October 23, 2012 Emily Anne, Lesbians and Feminists for the Right to Information 0

Chile is estimated to have one of the highest abortion rates in all of Latin America, but one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world. Abortions are banned under all circumstances, including saving the woman’s life, forcing women to seek abortions outside of the law—with varying levels of safety. Since its launch in 2009, the Chilean Safe Abortion Hotline has received more than 10,000 calls, up to 15 a day. Women call from all over Chile to learn about the correct dosage and administration of misoprostol, and information on abortion law and legal rights.

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Uruguay Rejects “The War on Drugs”: Law Proposes State Control of Marijuana Production and Distribution

October 22, 2012 Raúl Zibechi 0

On Aug. 8 the Uruguayan government sent legislation to the parliament containing only one article: “The state assumes control and regulation of the activities related to the importation, production, acquisition of any title, storage, commercialization, and distribution of marihuana and its associated products, in terms and conditions defined by the respective regulation.”

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Treaty Tolls Death Knell for Mexican Countryside

October 22, 2012 Emilio Godoy 0

The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement negotiations, which Mexico is to join in December, are threatening to eliminate the last defenses of the country’s agricultural sector. Farmers in the United States, one of the future partners in the treaty, have asked their government to negotiate flexibilization of the phytosanitary measures applied by Mexico, which are the final barrier against free entrance of agricultural products that compete against local crops. […]

Women’s Groups Say Uruguay’s New Abortion Law Falls Short

October 19, 2012 Raúl Pierri 0

The Uruguayan Congress passed a law Wednesday decriminalising abortion, making it one of the few countries in the region where abortion is allowed in cases other than rape, incest, malformation of the fetus or danger to the mother’s life. But activists who backed the bill are not pleased with modifications introduced in the final version.

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The Penalty is Exile: How Immigration and Criminalization Collide

October 18, 2012 Cory Fischer-Hoffman 0

Under President Obama more than 1 million people have been deported from the United States. We’re told many of those people are criminals who’ve broken more than just immigration law. On this edition, producer Cory Fischer-Hoffman takes a closer look at how immigration and the criminal justice system work together, to detain and deport hundreds of thousands of people every year.

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Mexican Authorities Urged to End Torture Epidemic

October 16, 2012 Amnesty International 0

In 2011, Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) received 1,669 reports of torture and ill-treatment by police and security forces; up from 1,161 in 2010; 1,055 in 2009 and 564 in 2008. These figures cover reports of abuses by federal officials. In the last three years, Amnesty International has recorded reports of torture in all 31 states and the Federal District.

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Guarani Women Arise! Indigenous Leader Matilde Lucio Wins International Rural Women’s Day Prize

October 14, 2012 Fionuala Cregan 0

In small communities across the Ramal Jujeño in Argentina Guarani women are rising up to defend their rights. On October 15 their struggle will receive international recognition, when Matilde Lucio be awarded one of 10 international prizes for her creativity in rural life in recognition of Rural Women’s Day.

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Latest Step in a Long Road: The Venezuelan Elections

October 12, 2012 Jeffery R. Webber 0

Whatever the internal contradictions of the Bolivarian process, the electoral victory of Chávez was the necessary starting point for addressing them, salvaging the social gains that have been introduced, and radically extending the breadth and depth of a radical conceptualization of democracy in the country and the region – that is to say initiating a transition to socialism.

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Mexico: Arzate against the State

October 11, 2012 Carlos Murillo Gonzalez, Translation by Victoria Robinson 0

The 3rd of February 2010 marked the beginning of a nightmare for Israel Arzate Meléndez. His crime? In a stroke of bad luck he ran into a Mexican army unit just days after the Villas de Salvárcar massacre – an international scandal where 16 young people were killed in Ciudad Juarez. To take pressure off themselves, the Mexican government needed to uncover (or perhaps invent) the culprits of the killings.

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Guatemala under Pressure to Investigate Shooting of Native Protesters

October 9, 2012 Danilo Valladares 0

The deaths of eight indigenous demonstrators taking part in a protest against the Guatemalan government in the southwestern province of Totonicapán have provoked outrage within the country and abroad. “The army should never be involved in actions of law and order,” said Helen Mack, the founder and president of the Myrna Mack Foundation. “Their doctrine is to kill, and what was happening there did not call for any killing.”

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