Following an outburst of angry protest across the country, Peru’s third president in less than a week was sworn in Nov. 16, with a coalition cabinet aimed at bringing the country back from the brink of chaos. The crisis was… Read morePeru: after deadly repression, protesters win a round
Peru’s National Coordinator for Human Rights (CNDDHH) and Oxfam Peru have issued a report finding that there have been hundreds of oil spills linked to the NorPeruano Pipeline over the past 20 years. Entitled “La Sombra del Petróleo” (“The Shadow of Oil“), the report counted 474… Read moreHundreds of oil spills in Peru rainforest since 2000
In a decision made very timely amid new mobilizations against oil and mineral operations on peasant and indigenous lands, Peru’s high court last month struck down a provision of the country’s penal code that rights advocates said criminalized the right… Read morePeru: high court rules ‘social protest’ protected
Four months after COVID-19 was first suspected of spreading to indigenous communities in the Amazon Basin, the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a press conference that the WHO is “deeply concerned” by the pandemic’s impact on… Read moreAmazon indigenous concerns grow over COVID-19
A revered leader of Peru’s Awajún indigenous people, Santiago Manuin Valera, 63, died July 1 of COVID-19 at a hospital in the coastal city of Chiclayo. He was first taken from his remote community of Santa María de Nieva in Amazonas region… Read morePeru: Bagua survivor succumbs to COVID-19
Supporters of longtime Peruvian social leader Hugo Blanco are protesting what they call a disinformation campaign launched by the military and political right in response to release of a documentary film about his life. The documentary, Hugo Blanco, Río Profundo, produced… Read morePeru: ‘disinfo’ campaign against Hugo Blanco
Indigenous leaders are warning that a combination of neglect, inadequate preparations, and a lack of lockdown measures is exposing remote and vulnerable communities in the Amazon to potentially devastating outbreaks of COVID-19. The nationwide death toll in Brazil has soared… Read moreCOVID-19: Amazon indigenous groups fear the worst
Peru’s right-wing opposition leader Keiko Fujimori, who had been jailed in January while corruption charges are pending against her, was released from pre-trial detention at Lima’s Chorrillos prison on May 4, ostensibly on fears she could be exposed to the coronavirus. Fujimori… Read morePoliticians exploit COVID-19 in Peru, Bolivia
In countries across the world, the impoverished are in the paradoxical position of being disproportionately impacted both by COVID-19 and by the police-state measures imposed in response to the pandemic—and consequent economic pain. In Lebanon, which had been in the… Read morePoor persecuted in COVID-19 police state
In Episode 50 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg notes frightening advances toward a fascist world order amid the COVID-19 crisis. With police-state measures being imposed worldwide, Donald Trump is claiming “total” executive power and threatening to “adjourn” Congress. That he is doing… Read morePodcast: COVID-19 and impending bio-fascism II
It’s certainly an irony that with police-state measures mounting worldwide to enforce lockdowns and contain COVID-19, Trump is now claiming sweeping executive power to lift lockdowns in the US in spite of the pandemic. Asserting his prerogative to override state governors and… Read moreGlobal COVID-19 police state consolidates
As nations across the globe remain under lockdown, more sweeping powers are being assumed by governments in the name of containing the COVID-19 pandemic. Facing demands for relief from poor barrios running out of resources under his lockdown orders, Philippine… Read moreGrowing police-state measures in face of COVID-19
