II. Abandoning Steel: Capital Finds the Better Way
It's going to take a lot more than publicity campaigns about the evils of foreign steel to get U.S. mills
Tijuana’s Toxic Waters
On a typical Saturday morning in the United States, millions of people will be relaxing at home, watching television or
PROPOSED WASTE DUMPS SPARK PROTEST
Proposals for two large toxic-waste dumps in Texas, both of which would be located within 20 miles of the Rio
FREE TRADE The Politics of Toxic Waste
The border town of Matamoros, located in northeastern Mexico across the river from Brownsville, Texas, was once a quiet ranching
TOURISM RUN AMOK
The completion in 1990 of an asphalt highway connecting Ciudad Guayana in the northeast to Santa Elena de UairCn on
VENEZUELA The Treasure of Estado Bolivar
The states of Bolivar and Amazonas in southeast Venezuela had until recent years been all but ignored. Left to their
Bioprospecting and Biopiracy in the Americas
In the 1570s, a physician named Francisco Hernández led the first colonial scientific expedition to the New World. He traveled Mexico collecting plants that might prove valuable in curing European diseases. Since Hernández was clueless when it came to the properties of local plant species, he depended on knowledgeable indigenous healers who guided him to medicinal plants.
Mega-Dams in the Amazon: Brazil’s Three Gorges?
The Madeira River in western Brazil is the Amazon's longest tributary and one of the best-preserved tropical waterways and jungle corridors in the world. A project for two massive dams on its remote upper reaches has long been a matter of controversy, not only among environmentalists, but also among Brazilian technocrats unsure of the risks.
Waiting for Nationalization in Bolivia
On May 1st, the day the Bolivian government announced the "nationalization" of the country's vast oil and gas reserves, I went out to witness the symbolic takeover of a former Bolivian refinery that was privatized in the late 1990s. A cheering crowd looked on as a young employee of Bolivia's state oil and gas company, Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), strung a YPFB banner over the metal letters spelling out the name of the Brazilian company Petrobras. Another banner hung on the front gate proclaimed, "Nationalized: Property of Bolivia."
The MST’s Difficult Construction of a New World
Breaking down the fences of the large estates was not as difficult as fighting the technological packages of the transnationals," Huli recounts as he sits in his kitchen and pours hot water into the mate we share while his son romps around the house. He says the campesinos of Brazil's Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST, for the Portuguese initials) dreamed for years of reclaiming their land, believing that it would solve all their problems: food for their children, a dignified life of hard work on the farm, education, health, and housing. However, the reality would prove much more difficult, for surprises they had never imagined lay ahead.
