from Weekly News Update on the Americas On Sept. 11, Peruvian police agents entered the community of Sion, San Martin department, in the Alto Huallaga region, and physically attacked a group of campesino coca growers (cocaleros). The agents fired tear… Read morePERU: POLICE ATTACK COCALEROS
Continue ReadingPERU: POLICE ATTACK COCALEROSfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas In the early hours of Sept. 1, a fight broke out in Bolivia’s Constituent Assembly in the Gran Mariscal theater in the city of Sucre. The Assembly was elected on July 2 and… Read moreBOLIVIA: CHAOS IN CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
Continue ReadingBOLIVIA: CHAOS IN CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLYfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas BOLIVAR: ARMY KILLS MINING UNION LEADER On Sept. 19 troops from the Colombian National Army’s Nueva Granada Anti-Aircraft Battalion murdered campesino leader and [independent, small-scale] mining union activist Alejandro Uribe in a rural… Read moreCOLOMBIA: GOLD MINING LINKED TO STATE TERROR
Continue ReadingCOLOMBIA: GOLD MINING LINKED TO STATE TERRORCanadian Mining Project Tainted by Rights Abuses by Cyril Mychalejko, Upside Down World “Welcome to Ascendant Copper, a socially responsible corporate citizen,” states the Canadian mining company’s website. Ascendant also boasts of being a member of the UN Global Compact…. Read moreECUADOR: CAMPESINO RESISTANCE TO ASCENDANT COPPER
Continue ReadingECUADOR: CAMPESINO RESISTANCE TO ASCENDANT COPPERAn Interview with Pachakutik Presidential Candidate Luis Maca by Rune Geertsen, Upside Down World The powerful Ecuadorian indigenous movement faces one of its biggest challenges yet in the October 15th presidential elections—for the first time they are presenting their own… Read moreFOR THE “TOTAL TRANSFORMATION” OF ECUADOR
Continue ReadingFOR THE “TOTAL TRANSFORMATION” OF ECUADORThere is a distinct and unseemly tone of gloating here, but this article does point to Evo Morales’ unenviable dilemma: already being accused of treason by hardliners to his left, while the right-wing opposition openly salivates for his assassination. Simon… Read moreBolivia: Evo caught between opposing hardliners
La huelga de piernas cruzadas. Long overdue. Maybe it will catch on globally. From the London Times, Sept. 24: A SEX strike organised by the girlfriends of gang members in one of Colombia’s most violent cities to protest against a… Read moreColombian women go on sex strike
The Sept. 22 Daily News carries the front-page headline: “BIG APPLE TO BIG MOUTH: ZIP IT!” It gleefully quotes various New York politicians bashing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for calling Bush a “devil,” including Sen. Chuck Schumer (“despicable and disgusting”),… Read moreUS politicians bash Chavez …but that doesn’t mean he isn’t really getting a little wacky
A textbook case in how Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is viewed differently by the Imperium and the global south. First this, from the Voice of America, Sept. 20, on day two of the annual UN General Assembly debate: Chavez brought his… Read moreChavez calls Bush “Devil”, proposes “Bank of the South”
From Indian Country Today, Sept. 19: NEW YORK – Tribal leaders and the Aymaran president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, held a historic meeting September 18 before Morales’ speech at the United Nations, where they discussed the dangers facing the natural… Read moreEvo Morales meets with Native American leaders
Like his pal Ahmadinejad in Iran, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez now loans credibility to 9-11 conspiracy theory, if this report is to be trusted. From England’s right-wing Daily Mail Sept. 13: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the United States could have… Read moreChavez weighs in on 9-11 conspiracy theory
As populist leaders in Bolivia and Venezuela are determined to nationalize their oil industries, Colombia’s government is insisting on a privatization plan for its state-run oil company. By selling off 20% of Ecopetrol, Colombia hopes to net some $5 billion… Read moreColombia announces 20% privatization of state oil company
