Venezuela’s left-populist President Hugo Chavez made history this weekend with a visit to New York for an appearance at the UN summit. His brief sojourn in La Manzana Grande consciously evoked his mentor Fidel Castro’s historic 1960 debut address at… Read moreChavez does New York City, blasts US aggression
The US government has yet to respond to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s offer to send planeloads of aid, including 2,000 soldiers, firefighters, volunteers and other disaster specialists to Louisiana. Venezuela, the world’s fifth largest oil exporter, also pledged $1 million… Read moreChavez offers US disaster aid, warns of global energy disaster
from Weekly News Update on the Americas EMBERA INDIGENOUS MASSACRED On Aug. 17, hooded assailants armed with assault rifles arrived at the home of an indigenous Embera Chami family in the community of Ubarba, in the Nuestra Senora Candelaria de… Read moreCOLOMBIA: INDIGENOUS, CAMPESINOS MASSACRED
Continue ReadingCOLOMBIA: INDIGENOUS, CAMPESINOS MASSACREDfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas HUANCABAMBA: TWO DEAD AT MINING CAMP In the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 1, some 3,000 to 6,000 residents of campesino communities in northern Peru seized control of the Henry Hills mining camp, owned… Read morePERU: CAMPESINOS OCCUPY MINE CAMPS, CABINET RESIGNS
Continue ReadingPERU: CAMPESINOS OCCUPY MINE CAMPS, CABINET RESIGNSfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas On Aug. 4, residents of the southern Bolivian city of Camiri, in Santa Cruz department, lifted their general strike after Hydrocarbons Minister Jaime Dunn signed an agreement promising to speed up the re-establishment… Read moreBOLIVIA: REGIONAL STRIKE OVER OIL DEAL
Continue ReadingBOLIVIA: REGIONAL STRIKE OVER OIL DEALfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas On Aug. 15, residents of the Amazon provinces of Sucumbios and Orellana in northern Ecuador began an open-ended civic strike–backed by local elected officials–to demand higher wages, more jobs and the construction of… Read moreECUADOR: STRIKE HALTS AMAZON OIL PRODUCTION
Continue ReadingECUADOR: STRIKE HALTS AMAZON OIL PRODUCTION“Robertson Apologizes for Chavez Remark” reads the Fox News headline Aug. 24. Actually, what he did was lie about what he said. From Blog for America, Aug. 25: Pat Robertson announced yesterday that his comments on last weekend’s “700 Club”… Read morePat Robertson: liar
Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson has given Hugo Chavez ample reason for his paranoia, calling for the US to assassinate the Venezuelan president, calling him “a terrific danger” bent on exporting Communism and Islamic extremism across the Americas. “If he thinks… Read morePat Robertson: whack Chavez
In the belly of the beast, the Business section of the NYT, appeared today an unbelievably nice article about the Venezuelan socialist revolution underway. The articles describes Chavez’ push to transform both public and private enterprises into worker-managed and worker-owned… Read moreThe Bolivarian revolution goes mainstream
A lot of attention is paid to the possible impacts of the climate crisis on international migration—particularly the potential movement of people from the Global South to the Global North. Now, a new report from the World Bank says that climate change could force 216 million people to migrate within their countries by 2050. People living in under-developed regions, including much of Africa, are the most likely to be forced to move. The report is a reminder of what gets overlooked in the focus on South-North migration: There are currently 48 million internally displaced people compared to 20.7 million refugees. Of those refugees, 80% live in countries neighboring their country of origin, and only 16% live in countries in the Global North. (Photo of displaced families in Somalia: UN Photo/Tobin Jones via Flickr)
Close to 80,000 people have been displaced in South Sudan's Western Equatoria, as a result of fighting between government forces and the opposition SPLA-IO–even though both sides are supposed to be forming a new unified army. A delay to security sector reform continues to set back implementation of a 2018 peace agreement. Faction fighting within SPLA-IO has added to the insecurity. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme is suspending aid to more than 100,000 displaced people—part of a "prioritization exercise" driven by a finance crunch. The fall in funding is despite the country experiencing the highest rate of food insecurity since independence in 2011, with more than 60% of South Sudanese going hungry. Months of flooding has added to that toll. (Photo: Phillip Mbugo/UNMISS via ReliefWeb)
The latest report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic stated that Syria is "not fit for safe and dignified returns of refugees." The report found that between July 2020 and June 2021, armed conflict increased in the country. The report documented 243 civilian deaths, but estimated that the total number of fatalities is actually far greater. The report also stressed the humanitarian crisis and ongoing human rights abuses in the country. Conditions were also found to be precarious for the 6.7 million displaced persons within the country. The report estimated that 40,000 children are being detained in camps for suspected ISIS collaborators in the Kurdish-controlled east of the country. Paulo Pinheiro, chair of the Commission of Inquiry, said that these conditions indicate that the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is being "completely forgotten." (Photo: UNHCR)
