Unionists and other activists marked International Workers Day with marches throughout Latin America on May 1 as rising food and fuel costs cut into workers’ standard of living. Demands included increases in the minimum wage, an end to violence against… Read moreLatin America May Day round-up
Some 60 men riding in luxury vehicles and wearing uniforms of the Federal Investigation Agency (AFI) and armed with AK-47s shot nine people dead at the ranch of Rogaciano Alba Álvarez in Petatlán May 4. Two of Alba’s sons were… Read moreMexico: deadly attacks on Guerrero cattle barons
America’s own Tibet in the Pacific? From the New York Times, May 3, links added: Occupation of Palace Area Invigorates Native Hawaiian Movement HONOLULU — A Native Hawaiian independence group laid claim this week to the nation’s only royal palace… Read moreHawaiian kingdom reclaims Iolani Palace
From Amazon Watch, May 2: LOS ANGELES — Leaders of the indigenous Achuar people of Peru accompanied by 40 demonstrators wearing hazmat suits today brought Occidental Petroleum’s Amazon disaster to the company’s doorstep as they marched inside the hotel hosting… Read morePeruvian indigenous protest at Oxy Petroleum
Venezuela‘s President Hugo Chávez convened an extraordinary meeting of member nations of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) in Caracas April 23 to discuss the world food crisis. At the meeting, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, Bolivian President Evo Morales,… Read moreFood crisis: summit in Venezuela, protests in Peru
On the eve of the May 4 autonomy referendum in the lowland department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia is increasingly polarized—with the central government of President Evo Morales refusing to accept the legitimacy of the Santa Cruz vote, and the Santa… Read moreBolivia polarized on eve of autonomy vote
Colombia’s Caño-Limon oil pipeline was paralyzed for a third day after it was blown up by FARC guerillas on April 29. Military-escorted engineers are working to repair the pipeline, which carries 100,000 barrels of oil a day from a field… Read moreColombia: FARC blow up oil pipeline
A new report released by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) demonstrates that intensive aerial herbicide spraying of coca crops in Colombia has backfired badly, contributing to the spread of coca cultivation and cocaine production to new areas of… Read moreColombian herbicide spraying grows —so does coca crop!
A group of Cuban anarchists announced "a new phase in the process of self-emancipation," with the opening of ABRA Social Center and Libertarian Library in Havana's Vedado district. This endeavor of the Alfredo López Libertarian Workshop (an anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist initiative launched in 2012, which forms part of the Anarchist Federation of the Caribbean and Central America), with the collaboration of allied collectives such as the Cuban Critical Observatory, seeks "to build an autonomous and sustainable space in today's Cuba."
Jesús Caballero is one of the latest trade union leaders to be assassinated in Colombia. A labor unionist with the State Training Institute in the Caribbean town of Sabanalarga, Caballero disappeared on April 16 and his body was found two… Read moreColombian government continues attack on rights defenders
In a pre-dawn attack May 1, US missiles destroyed the home of reputed al-Qaeda leader Aden Hashi Ayro in Dusamareeb, Somalia. The attack killed 24 others in the targeted house and nearby homes. “This will not deter us from prosecuting… Read moreSomalia: Shabab pledge revenge on America
We warned a year ago that Yemen was on the brink of sectarian war. It is starting to look like it is going over the brink. From AP, May 2: Motorcycle bomb explodes outside Yemen mosque, killing 18 SAN’A —… Read moreSectarian terror in Yemen
