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Rebel Currents
January 3, 2014
Bolivian workers received an unexpected gift this past Christmas: an extra payment equal to one month’s wages, mandated by President Evo Morales on November 20. Is this a redistributive measure to socialize profits, or an electoral strategy to shore up key voting sectors and finance the presidential campaign?
Extractives in Latin America
December 31, 2013
In past weeks, the governments of Ecuador and Bolivia moved to shut down or expel major NGOs (non-government organizations) that work on issues of the environment, extractivism, and indigenous rights. Is this a reasoned assertion of sovereignty against foreign intervention or a move against social movements and democracy through an attack on their bases of foreign support?
Red Hot Burning Peace
December 26, 2013
As we approach the end of the year, Red Hot Burning Peace takes the opportunity to report on some overlooked stories from the last couple of months and tie up some loose ends, covering President Santos' apology to the comunidad de Paz de San Jose de Apartado, Drummond's fine, Petro's ongoing battle for reinstatement, and the current FARC ceasefire.
Cuadernos Colombianos
December 26, 2013
In a report published on December 21, the Washington Post brought the U.S. role in the Colombian conflict into sharper focus when it revealed the role of the CIA and the NSA in the assassination of the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) commander Raul Reyes in March of 2008. According to the report, the U.S. covert military operations were funded by a multibillion dollar “black budget.”
Red Hot Burning Peace
December 24, 2013
Bogotá has been rocked by indignados protesting the past two weeks due to a possibly unconstitutional removal of the city's Mayor Gustavo Petro. The Procurador Alejandro Ordoñez was behind the move, banning him from holding public office for 15 years. But the institutional force behind Ordoñez, and the consequences the removal will have in the new year, remain to be seen.
NACLA-CLACS Student Blog
December 24, 2013
Evo Morales’s 2005 election brought an end to a long period of U.S.-Bolivia relations. Since at least 1952, the United States held Bolivia under its sway as a client state. Although it is important to acknowledge Morales’s push-back against U.S. imperialism, other forms of imperialism loom large.
NACLA-Global Voices
December 24, 2013
Despite the low salaries and the dangers that come with being a reporter in one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in the Americas, some Mexican female journalists continue working and thriving in the profession. In this post, we introduce you to four of these brave female journalists.
Border Wars
December 23, 2013
While southern Arizona continues to be ground zero for the most extreme measures of border militarization today, it is also home to powerful nodes of civil resistance. On December 8, local residents from Arivaca and the surrounding area held their first protest at a Border Patrol checkpoint—one out of about a dozen located throughout the region. I documented the event in the video posted below.
Rebel Currents
December 21, 2013
Newly-annointed President Juan Orlando Hernández is gearing up to lead the most authoritarian administration in Honduran history, under the cloud of a tainted election, a violence-plagued society, and a failed economy. Can Honduran social movements curtail the abuses of the regime through the combined efforts of a viable political opposition party and massive popular resistance?
Mexico, Bewildered and Contested
December 18, 2013
In a move that appears to complete Mexico’s loss of national sovereignty to international capital, the senate has finally passed a sweeping and far-reaching reform of the country’s oil industry. The restructuring is treated with widespread skepticism—polls suggest that about 65-75 percent of the population oppose the initiative.