Chavez Bloc Races with Oil Cartel to Grid the Continent by Bill Weinberg As the left-populist Evo Morales takes office in Bolivia, a clear anti-imperialist bloc is consolidating in South America, led by Venezulea’s Hugo Chavez and also including Brazil,… Read moreSOUTH AMERICAN PIPELINE WARS
Continue ReadingSOUTH AMERICAN PIPELINE WARSYou can almost feel blood pressures rising on Wall Street and in corporate board rooms. From Dow Jones Newswire, Jan. 23: Bolivia Pres Names Cabinet; Marxist In Energy Post Bolivian President Evo Morales on Monday announced his 16-member Cabinet, which… Read moreBolivia: Evo appoints rads to cabinet
Days before the historic inauguration of Evo Morales in Bolivia, the Andean nation scored another victory—in its struggle against Bechtel, the California engineering giant which had sued the impoverished nation before a World Bank trade court to demand compensation for… Read moreBolivia: Bechtel surrenders
Evo Morales was sworn in as Bolivia’s president before assembled foreign dignitaries at the congressional building in La Paz Jan. 22, dressed in a sports jacket and white shirt but no tie. One day before, he celebrated with his indigenous… Read moreBolivia: Evo celebrates inauguration at Tiwanaku ruins
From the AP, via Israel’s Ha’aretz, Jan. 22: CARACAS – Hundreds of Venezuelan intellectuals expressed “shock and consternation” in a public condemnation Saturday of allegedly anti-Semitic remarks made recently by President Hugo Chavez. “These dangerous tendencies must be denounced and… Read moreVenezuelan intellectuals speak out on anti-Semitism flap
The lines are drawn ever more sharply in Latin America. Peru could be the next to join the growing anti-imperialist bloc if the indigenist/populist candidate Ollanta Humala takes the presidency in this year’s election. And Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has wasted… Read morePeru-Venezuela tensions as Chavez hails Humala
From AP, via the New York Times, Jan. 10: President-elect Evo Morales of Bolivia met with President Hu Jintao of China in Beijing and called China an “ideological ally,” a day after he invited it to develop Bolivia’s vast gas… Read moreBolivia: Evo woos China on gas investment
On Dec. 21, police agents from Chile’s militarized Carabineros Special Forces attacked the Mapuche community of Juan Paillalef in Cunco commune in the 9th region (Araucania). The attack came as community members were protesting a decision by the Ministry of… Read moreChile: Mapuche community attacked
from Weekly News Update on the Americas BUENOS AIRES: HOTEL WORKERS ATTACKED Early on Dec. 8, a delegation of 12 cooperative members from the autonomous worker-controlled Bauen hotel were violently ousted from the Buenos Aires municipal legislature as they sought… Read moreARGENTINA: AUTONOMOUS WORKERS UNDER ATTACK
Continue ReadingARGENTINA: AUTONOMOUS WORKERS UNDER ATTACKfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas Residents of the Machiguenga and other indigenous communities of the lower Urubamba river area in Peru’s Ucayali region began a 72-hour strike on Dec. 2 to protest the government’s failure to address the… Read morePERU: INDIGENOUS PROTEST GAS SPILLS
Continue ReadingPERU: INDIGENOUS PROTEST GAS SPILLSfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas The 31 new judges of Ecuador’s Supreme Court of Justice were sworn in, along with 21 alternate judges, on Nov. 30 by Carlos Estarellas, president of a four-member commission appointed to choose the… Read moreECUADOR: MOVES TOWARDS NEW CONSTITUTION
Continue ReadingECUADOR: MOVES TOWARDS NEW CONSTITUTIONfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas With 79% of the votes counted on the evening of Dec. 4, the six parties supporting left-populist Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez Frias had won all 167 seats in the National Assembly in national… Read moreVENEZUELA: CHAVISTAS SWEEP ELECTIONS
Continue ReadingVENEZUELA: CHAVISTAS SWEEP ELECTIONS
