Day: February 28, 2006

BLOGGING IN FARSI

Love and Dissidence Through an Electronic Veil by Melody Zagami WE ARE IRAN The Persian Blogs by Nasrin Alavi Soft Skull Press, New York, 2005 “This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to… Read moreBLOGGING IN FARSI

CENTRAL AMERICA: “BLOC OF RESISTANCE” AGAINST CAFTA

from Weekly News Update on the Americas EL SALVADOR: PROTESTS AGAINST DR-CAFTA On Feb. 1 hundreds of people from labor, student, campesino, street vendor and other social organizations led demonstrations at 10 different locations throughout El Salvador against the Dominican… Read moreCENTRAL AMERICA: “BLOC OF RESISTANCE” AGAINST CAFTA

URUGUAY: CANE WORKERS OCCUPY LAND

from Weekly News Update on the Americas On Jan. 15, a group of 56 Uruguayan sugar cane workers (referred to in local slang as peludos, hairy ones) and supporters occupied a 36-hectare plot near Bella Union in Artigas department, at… Read moreURUGUAY: CANE WORKERS OCCUPY LAND

ARGENTINA: DEADLY VIOLENCE AT OIL WORKERS PROTEST

from Weekly News Update on the Americas SANTA CRUZ: COP KILLED AT OIL WORKERS PROTEST On Feb. 6 some 4,000 oil workers and supporters demonstrated outside the municipal police station in Las Heras–a town of 10,000 people in the southern… Read moreARGENTINA: DEADLY VIOLENCE AT OIL WORKERS PROTEST

PERU: AMAZON INDIGENOUS OCCUPY OIL SITE

from Weekly News Update on the Americas On Feb. 1, some 150 Peruvian indigenous people from the Awajun (Aguaruna) and Achuar tribes took over the Petroperu oil company’s No. 5 pumping station in Saramiriza, Manseriche district, in Daten del Maranon… Read morePERU: AMAZON INDIGENOUS OCCUPY OIL SITE

ECUADOR: STATE OF EMERGENCY IN OIL ZONE

from Weekly News Update on the Americas AMAZON: STRIKE IN OIL PROVINCE Residents of the oil-rich Amazon province of Napo in eastern Ecuador began an open-ended strike on Feb. 20 to demand resources to carry out public works in the… Read moreECUADOR: STATE OF EMERGENCY IN OIL ZONE

VENEZUELA: U.S. ATTACHE EXPELLED

from Weekly News Update on the Americas On Feb. 2, in a ceremony marking the seventh anniversary of his first inauguration, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez Frias announced the expulsion of US naval attache Cmdr. John Correa. “I have evidence,” Chavez… Read moreVENEZUELA: U.S. ATTACHE EXPELLED

WATER PRIVATIZATION FOR EL SALVADOR?

by Paul Pollack The office of SETA, El Salvador’s water workers union, sits like a mouse at the elephant’s feet. The union’s plain, two-room office lies next door to the huge, block-long two-story building which is the headquarters for El… Read moreWATER PRIVATIZATION FOR EL SALVADOR?

THE NEW BOLIVIAN EXPERIENCE

Grassroots Activists Take Reins of Government by Gretchen Gordon The newly elected Bolivian president, Evo Morales, recently swore in the 16 ministers who will form his new government cabinet. For the first time in Bolivia’s 180-year history as an independent… Read moreTHE NEW BOLIVIAN EXPERIENCE

CAFTA’S ASSUALT ON DEMOCRACY

The New Corporate Agenda for Central America by Tom Ricker and Burke Stansbury What does tightening intellectual property laws have to do with “free” trade? That’s the question many people in Central American and the Dominican Republic are asking as… Read moreCAFTA’S ASSUALT ON DEMOCRACY

“OPERATION GREEN COLOMBIA”

Coca Eradication Brings War to Endangered National Parks by Memo Montevino Last June, following months of political contest between the administration of President Alvaro Uribe and environmentalists, Colombia’s government announced that the aerial spraying of glyphosate to wipe out coca… Read more“OPERATION GREEN COLOMBIA”

COLOMBIA: MILITARY TERROR IN CAUCA, ARAUCA, LA GUAJIRA

from Weekly News Update on the Americas CAUCA: ARMY KILLS CIVILIANS On Jan. 8, Colombian army troops from the No. 26 Cacique Piguanza Infantry Battalion, headed by Lt. Hoyos, shot to death 17-year-old Hortensia Neyid Tunja Cuchumbe and Manuel Antonio… Read moreCOLOMBIA: MILITARY TERROR IN CAUCA, ARAUCA, LA GUAJIRA