Some 400,000 Chilean public employees staged a two-day strike on Nov. 11 and 12 to push for a 14.5% pay increase. The National Association of Government Employees (ANEF), which includes 15 unions and associations, said the job action was 90%… Read moreChile: government workers strike
Two leaders of the Argentine teachers’ unions—Stella Maldonado, general secretary of the Federation of Education Workers of the Argentine Republic, and Alejandro de Michelis, press secretary for the Union of Education Workers—were among those injured on Oct. 20 when Buenos… Read moreArgentina: police fight teachers
Brazilian military exercises along the border with Paraguay are escalating tensions between the South American neighbors. Operation Southern Border II mobilized 3,500 soldiers from the Brazilian armed forces Oct. 19 along the border, as part of a larger force of… Read moreBrazilian military exercises heighten tensions with Paraguay
On Oct. 15 the Chilean Supreme Court sentenced the 88-year-old retired general Sergio Arellano Stark to six years in prison for the killing of four people shortly after a Sept. 11, 1973 coup that brought the late dictator Gen. Augusto… Read moreChile: Pinochet-era general sentenced
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
