The public trial for the Argentine government’s clandestine sale of arms to Ecuador and Croatia from 1991 to 1995 in violation of international agreements began in Buenos Aires on Oct. 16. There are 18 defendants; the best known, former president… Read moreTrial opens in Argentine arms smuggling scandal
Farmers in Argentina began a six-day strike Sept. 3, halting delivery of grain crops and beef and holding public assemblies by the side of roads in several areas around the country. The strike comes after farmer leaders broke off talks… Read moreArgentina: farmers strike again
Clashes erupted in the Chilean capital of Santiago the night of Sept. 11 as protesters erected burning barricades and battled police with firearms and rocks on the anniversary Augusto Pinochet’s 1973 military coup. Authorities said two police officers were hospitalized… Read moreViolence on Chile’s 9-11 commemoration
Infuriated by a delay in service, hundreds of Argentines attacked trains and facilities of the TCB company in two stations outside Buenos Aires on Sept. 4. Protests started when a commuter train broke down near the Castelar station west of… Read moreArgentina: irate passengers torch commuter train
On Aug. 28 a federal criminal court in the northwestern Argentine province of Tucumán sentenced former generals Antonio Domingo Bussi and Luciano Benjamin Menendez to life in prison for the kidnapping, torture and disappearance of ex-senator Guillermo Vargas Aignasse in… Read moreArgentina: two generals get life
Margarita Mbywangi, a 46-year-old Ache tribal chief who says she was captured in the jungle and sold into forced labor as a child, has been appointed Paraguay’s minister of indigenous affairs by President Fernando Lugo, who was inaugurated Aug. 15…. Read moreParaguay: former slave becomes indigenous affairs minister
On the morning of July 17, after 16 hours of debate, Argentina’s Senate rejected a law proposed by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to raise the tax on soy exports from 34% to 44%. The Chamber of Deputies had approved… Read moreArgentina: senate kills export tax following farmer protests
On June 14 Argentine police in Entre Rios province removed a group of farmers and truckers who were blocking Route 14, an important link with Uruguay. Agents arrested 19 protesters, including Alfredo de Angeli, head of the provincial branch of… Read moreArgentina: 19 arrests in farmers strike
From June 10 to June 12 thousands of Brazilians demonstrated in 13 states to protest the power of transnational corporations and the growth of the agribusiness model in the country. Rallies, marches and sit-ins organized by two groups—Via Campesina (Campesino… Read moreBrazil: protesters take on agribusiness
Argentine food outlets and gas stations are preparing for shortages as truckers, blocking highways to protest business lost to a farm strike, shut down the nation’s road transport system. Traffic is halted on routes through the agricultural provinces of Buenos… Read moreArgentine truckers bock highways
On May 26 Chilean judge Victor Montiglio ordered 98 former police agents and military people to face trial for their involvement in the 1975 "Operation Colombo," in which 119 opponents of dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet were kidnapped and murdered. This… Read moreChile: “Operation Colombo” suspects to be tried
On May 15 Chilean judge Juan Eduardo Fuentes Belmar found retired army colonel Mario Manriquez Bravo guilty in the Sept. 16, 1973 murder of the internationally renowned singer Victor Jara; the judge then closed the case, despite testimony that other… Read moreChile: conviction in Victor Jara murder
