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March 12, 2009

In a repeat of interventionist statements by U.S. officials made during El Salvador's 2004 elections, congressional Republicans have once again openly threatened Salvadoran voters from the floor of the House by claiming Washington would have to review its polices on "cash remittances and immigration" should the FMLN win Sunday's election. One congressman even ridiculously referred to the opposition as the "pro-terrorist FMLN party." Please take action.

March 12, 2009

Commemorating International Women's Day, thousands of landless women engaged in protests across Brazil. Several of the protests targeted large eucalyptus plantations for pulp production, as part of a renewed effort by the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) and Vía Campesina to fight against multinational agribusiness corporations. As activists turn the screws on agribusiness, state repression against the landless movement has also increased.

March 9, 2009

More than 140 Latin America experts criticize the campaign of fear being waged by the ruling party in El Salvador. In an open letter, they ask the Secretary of State to declare that the United States government stands ready to work with whichever candidate is democratically elected by the Salvadoran people, and publicly disavow the ruling party's dirty campaign, which has used President Obama's image in an attempt to coerce Salvadorans from voting for the opposition.

March 9, 2009

A huge dam complex on the Amazon's Madeira River pits the imperatives of economic growth and integration in South America against the conservation of an environmentally sensitive area. Environmental conflicts such as the one underway on the Madeira will become increasingly common in South America as the initiative for the Integration of South American Regional Infrastructure (IIRSA) – of which the Madeira Complex is a part – reaches ever-widening implementation.

March 3, 2009

Should constructive criticism of Latin America's left-leaning governments play a role in North American solidarity activism? Can this criticism be made without playing into the hands of reactionaries? Can critiques be made without reproducing paternalistic North American finger wagging? Yes, but with an important caveat.

March 2, 2009

For centuries, carnivals throughout Latin America have given revelers the chance to enjoy a brief suspension of a typically rigid social order. A group of activists have been using the carnival model as a collective weapon of peaceful transformation against violence, fear, and silence. From Colombia to Guatemala, the carnival is taking back the streets one block at a time, and what began as a carnival procession has turned into a movement.

February 26, 2009


To get a sense of what Barack Obama’s foreign policy will be, we should watch Latin America. The region has long lived like the proverbial canary in a coal mine, a reliable indicator of what’s in store for the rest of the world when circumstances prompt Washington to shift diplomatic direction. There’s been much talk lately about Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal, some of it generated by Obama himself, who has cited FDR’s Four Freedoms—of speech and religion and from want and fear—to signal what his diplomatic priorities will be.

February 25, 2009

Polls on the March 15 presidential vote show the election will likely open a new progressive chapter in El Salvador's long, violent history of war and dictatorships with a victory by the leftist FMLN, which is promising to build a people-centered government. But the right is not taking its impending defeat lightly; it has been orchestrating a massive fear campaign and has worked feverishly to secure corporate-driven development contracts before its rule is set to expire.

February 24, 2009

A long-time Zapatista supporter responds to an article by journalist John Ross in which he harshly criticizes EZLN spokesman Subcomandante Marcos and dismisses the Zapatistas' Dignified Rage Festival. Klein writes, "Ross criticizes the New York Times article about tourism in Chiapas as a 'self-serving hit piece' and then goes on to write a hit piece himself."

February 23, 2009

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his Workers' Party (PT) have faced strong criticism from the left since the beginning of Lula's first term in 2003. Although the 2010 presidential elections are still distant, some sectors disillusioned by the Lula administration are already attempting to build a left-leaning alternative to the PT. And, for now, it seems that effort is resonating with the Brazilian electorate.

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