The Andes
Colombia: campesino strike in oil zone
The feared riot squad of the Colombian National Police has been mobilized to Arauca to break up peasant blockades of roads leading to Occidental Petroleum’s oilfields.
Day: February 25, 2013
Vigilante justice in Mexico
In Episode 35 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg interviews Emily Ramos, Pilar DeJesus and Kara Bhatti of the worker-owned marijuana consumer cooperative High Mi Madre, on their lobbying and activist efforts in support of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, still pending in the final countdown to the close of the New York State legislative session. They especially emphasize the demand for "Day One Equity" with cannabis legalization in the Empire State—reparative justice and reinvestment in the communities that had for generations been criminalized and oppressed by cannabis prohibition. Listen on SoundCloud, and support our podcast via Patreon. (Photo via High Mi Madre)
CAN VIGILANTE JUSTICE SAVE MEXICO?
The Democratic Republic of Congo's Senate once again extended martial law in two of the country's eastern provinces, despite increasing criticism of the measure, which has done nothing to stem decades of violence. Since May, civilian officials in North Kivu and Ituri provinces have been replaced by police and military figures. The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo has thrown its weight behind the measure, even as local rights groups accuse authorities of using the "state of siege" to curtail civil liberties. And attacks by armed groups have continued at the same rate as before, with at least 1,000 civilians killed since May, according to the Kivu Security Tracker. More than one million people have been internally displaced in eastern Congo so far this year. (Photo: MONUSCO via Defense Post)