Jamie Sokalsky, CEO of the Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation, announced on July 26 that major problems were delaying the opening of the company’s controversial Pascua Lama gold and silver mine, located in the Andes on both sides of the border… Read moreArgentina: gold mine problems spook Barrick investors
Some 200 carabineros militarized police violently removed about 60 Mapuche on July 23 from land the indigenous people had occupied hours earlier near their homes in the Temucuicui community in the southern Chilean region of AraucanĂa. The carabineros threw tear gas grenades and fired… Read moreChile: Carabineros attack Mapuche children
The Chilean Catholic foundation Sisters of the Good Samaritan announced on July 6 that it was turning down an offer from the Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation to donate 800 million pesos (about US$1.64 million) to build a shelter for the sick and disabled in… Read moreChile: Catholic charity rejects Barrick Gold donation
On July 20 soldiers, police and supposed “pro-mining activists” broke up an encampment that environmentalists and area residents had set up at Cerro Negro in the northwestern Argentine province of Catamarca to protest open-pit mining. The environmentalists–who came from CĂłrdoba,… Read moreArgentina: activists continue struggle against ‘mega-mining’
Former Argentine dictator Jorge Videla was condemned to 50 years in prison for the abduction of babies of “disappeared” dissidents. Another former dictator, Reynaldo Bignone, received 15 years on related charges.
In the biggest demonstration so far this school year, Chilean students marched again for free, quality education—and to protest the tricks through which “nonprofit” schools turn a profit.
US generals reportedly met with Paraguayan legislators at the same time that President Fernando Lugo was being removed from office. The topic: building a military base near the border with Bolivia.
Peasants throughout Paraguay have called for a national mobilization to oppose the impeachment and removal of populist President Fernando Lugo—called an “express coup d’etat” carried out in violation of legal norms.
At least 16 people were killed and dozens injured in armed clashes that erupted as police evicted landless campesinos who had invaded a privately-owned “forest reserve” in eastern Paraguay’s fertile Canindeyu region.
Paraguay’s Indigenous Affairs Department is investigating after ranchers attempted to forge the signature of Ayoreo indigenous leaders after to failing to win their consent for a new road through their already threatened territory.
While continuing to fight for a complete educational overhaul at home, Chilean students are also expressing solidarity with a similar struggle in Canada’s Quebec province.
A new US military training center in Chile will be used for exercises “clearly oriented toward the control and repression of the civilian population,” more than 20 human rights groups say.
