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June 11, 2008
While it’s still unclear what kinds of policies Obama might pursue towards South America if he's elected president, his mere presence in the White House would have enormous emotional and symbolic value, particularly in Brazil, a country whose African roots are strong but where many blacks still struggle against racism and discrimination.
June 9, 2008
Touted as the first step in a major regional integration project, the 225 kilometer TransCaribe pipeline travels underground across Colombia's Guajira Peninsula to the gas refineries of Maracaibo, Venezuela. Protesting the mega project's impacts on the peninsula's indigenous communities, the Wayúu community of Mashiis-Manaa is leading the struggle against oil giant Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).
June 6, 2008
With the U.S. military's lease on its base in Manta, Ecuador set to expire in 2009, a new report suggests U.S. military operations in South America might have found a perfect new home in central Colombia's Palanquero air base, one of the region's most state-of-the-art military installations.
June 4, 2008
On May 12, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out its largest ever mass arrest at a single worksite, seizing 389 of the 970 employees at the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa.
June 3, 2008
In a civil conflict such as the one in Colombia, propaganda is an important weapon. It is difficult for journalists and analysts to independently investigate the reality on the ground and so statistics and information are obtained from a variety of sources in order to draw conclusions. However, the mainstream media in the United States is often over-reliant on two sources: Colombian and US government officials. Not surprisingly then, it is the perspectives of the Colombian and US governments that inevitably dominate most news reports. By comparing conflict trends and human rights statistics with media coverage of Colombia's violence, it is possible to understand why and how the public's perception of the conflict has been distorted.
June 2, 2008
In the highlands of Jujuy province, the Warmi women created their own economic model. These perseverant women in northwestern Argentina received a call from Harvard—the academics wanted to know how they did it.
May 30, 2008
The Latin America Solidarity Coalition (LASC) is standing by one of its founding members, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), which is being harassed and intimidated by the U.S. Department of Justice. The government accuses CISPES of being the agent of a foreign government. Sign on to the open letter to reject the criminalization of U.S. solidarity with the people of Latin America.
May 28, 2008
Venezuela analyst Steve Ellner in his new book unties the knots of Venezuelan history providing the reader a better understanding of the present. The book offers a penetrating examination of chavismo’s stages, internal currents, and strategies, as well as Chávez’s foreign policy.
May 23, 2008
A series of photos allegedly found on the laptops of Raúl Reyes, the FARC leader killed when the Colombian government bombed and raided a FARC encampment across the Ecuadoran border, appear to have actually been taken by Colombian intelligence agents—or by allied police or intelligence agents—in Quito, Ecuador.
May 23, 2008
Mexico suffers from a resilient tradition of impunity: the propensity of rulers and contenders alike to place themselves above the law. The student movement of the 1960s and 1970s carried the torch against impunity, but was brutally repressed. In 1989 the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) was formed to carry on the struggle, but by 2008, as the party’s “tribes” vie for power, the PRD itself has reverted to the tradition of impunity within its own internal politics.