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November 17, 2008

The U.S. government’s huge new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) was established to battle a new kind of domestic enemy, undocumented immigration. Yet the creation of ICE was not so much motivated by a perceived need to enforce migration policy as by a desire to build up the domestic security apparatus.

November 17, 2008

When Barack Obama clinched the presidency, pundits immediately began claiming the United States was on its way toward becoming a "post-racial" or "color-blind" society. But Latin America shows how claims of an emerging "racial democracy" easily coexist with mass discrimination and racism. Until racial hierarchies are systematically dismantled, myths of racial democracy will continue to mask and perpetuate injustice—both in Latin America and the United States.

November 13, 2008

Nowhere in the hemisphere have recent political tensions between progressive and reactionary forces been sharper than in Bolivia. The country has become a flashpoint for international contests over natural-resource exploitation and revenue, constitutional reform, and U.S. influence in Latin America.

November 12, 2008

Remittances, the money immigrants send to their home countries, have become an essential economic lifeline for several Latin American nations. Mexico receives more remittances from migrants in the United States than any country in the world. But amid a tanking U.S. economy, the amount Mexicans are sending home dropped this year for the first time on record. Strangely, while Mexico reels, remittances to Central American countries have continued to rise—for now.

November 10, 2008

The election of Barack Obama sent shock-waves of pride and excitement through communities of African descent in Latin America. From Colombia to Cuba, and Peru to Venezuela, Afro-Latino activists celebrated Obama's victory at the polls as their own. Although activists noted the symbolic power of an Obama presidency, some remained questioned whether his administration would change U.S. policies negatively affecting their communities and nations.

November 6, 2008

The election of Barack Obama presents us with a unique window of opportunity, but it is a window that will not likely remain open for long. The direction of Obama’s Americas policy is likely to be decided very soon, as he assembles his administration—and we do not have the luxury of complacency. It is up to us, as advocates for justice in the hemisphere, to ensure that an Obama administration ends the long legacy of using Latin America’s blood and gold for U.S. ends. Now is the time to ensure that the next administration brings to the Americas not just change, but justice.

November 5, 2008

Several high-ranking Colombian army officers recently dismissed over the practice of executing innocent civilians to pump up the army's guerrilla-body-count numbers received military training at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas (SOA). Some of the commanders even served as teachers at the SOA, and despite well-documented abuses, their units continued to receive millions in U.S. military assistance under Plan Colombia.

November 3, 2008

Since the Colombian government bombed a guerrilla camp on Ecuadoran soil on March 1, it has orchestrated a highly effective media campaign backed by material allegedly found on laptops belonging to a high-ranking member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The laptops were used almost immediately after the raid to implicate both the Ecuadoran and Venezuelan governments in drug-trafficking and “terrorist” connections to the FARC. A NACLA investigation sponsored by the Samuel Chavkin Investigative Fund finds that Colombia’s media campaign has been based on dubious evidence at best, and that the “magic laptops” are being used to deflect criticism of Colombia’s violation of Ecuadoran sovereignty, distract the public from a domestic political scandal, and justify the government’s policy of total war against the FARC.

October 31, 2008


By scheduling a meeting with movement representatives for November 2, the government succeeded in diffusing the momentum gained in recent weeks by indigenous protests. But behind the headlines a profound process is underway: The indigenous protests are only the most visible sign of a growing coalition of social movements, including labor unions, Afro-descendant organizations, campesino unions, and human rights and women's groups. The coalition is up against the diametrically opposed economic and security doctrines of the Uribe administration and the Colombian establishment.

October 29, 2008

The indigenous U'wa of northeast Colombia are battle-hardened experts at fending off greedy oil companies' attempts to drill on their lands. Up until now, these corporations have been foreign, but the latest threat comes from the homegrown Ecopetrol, Colombia's partly state-owned energy company. As government and corporate officials recently announced new plans for expanded oil explorations, the U'wa have once again started to hunker down, preparing for the long battle ahead.

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