Brazil’s government is facing an outcry from rights groups and social movements following a violent Jan. 22 eviction of a favela (informal settlement) that the media have dubbed the “Massacre do Pinheirinho.” Some 2,000 troops from the Military Police of São Paulo… Read moreBrazil: outrage follows “Massacre of Pinheirinho”
Brazilian prosecutors plan to file criminal charges against Chevron officials for November’s 3,000-barrel oil spill off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state. The spill has not yet been contained, with oil still seeping from the ocean floor.
Buenos Aires subway workers protested a 127% increase in the fare by opening the turnstiles during rush hours for about a week and letting passengers ride for free.
A series of raids in southern Chile followed the the government’s suggestion that Mapuche activists were responsible for recent major forest fires in the Biobío and Araucanía regions.
Following a wave of forest fires in the southern Araucania and Bio-Bio regions that left seven fire-fighters dead this week, Chile’s government suggested that “terrorism” by indigenous Mapuche activists may have been responsible.
The US has sent the Argentine human rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo a fully declassified 1982 memo on the abduction of prisoners’ babies under the 1976-1983 dictatorship.
After eight months of mobilizations, strikes and campus occupations, Chilean university and secondary students held their last protest of the 2011 school year.
A Chilean judge charged former U.S. Navy Capt. Ray E. Davis with involvement in the murders of two US citizens in the days after the 1973 military coup that overthrew President Salvador Allende.
Talks are underway between the government in Argentina’s Neuquén province and local indigenous Mapuche communities after a days-long protest occupation of a natural gas plant owned by the Houston-based Apache Corporation.
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, women’s organizations throughout Latin America said regional governments have failed to take measures to reduce “femicides” and end impunity in such crimes.
Tens of thousands of students marched in more than a dozen Latin American cities in a coordinated regional demonstration to support free and high-quality public education.
Hundreds of riot police and navy commandos invaded the Rio de Janeiro favelas of Rocinha, Vidigal and Chacara do Ceu. Brazilian authorities say they plan to pacify dozens more favelas ahead of the 2014 World Cup.
