Chile’s Codelco suspended copper production for an entire day at one of its four mining divisions July 10 and cut back operations at another plant following violent protests by striking workers, in the most serious flare-up yet in a two-week… Read moreChile: strikes paralyze copper mines
Argentina is preparing for a new human rights trial for crimes committed during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Just days before the start of the latest trial, Argentine police discovered a body thought to be that of a missing witness. Police… Read moreArgentina: rights trial opens; witness found dead?
On June 26, nearly 1,200 people camped out on the BR 428 highway between Cabrobo and Oroco municipalities in Brazil’s Pernambuco state to block national army engineering battalions from proceeding with the construction of a canal project on the Sao… Read moreBrazil: protests block canal project
The Agrarian and Popular Movement (MAP) of Paraguay reported in a June 26 statement that base-level MAP leader Perfecto Irala was abducted and disappeared by police on June 25 from Pariri, in Vaqueria district, Caaguazu department. Since last Feb. 26,… Read moreParaguay: campesinos disappeared, killed
On June 25, some 5,000 campesinos set out from 11 different areas of Argentina on a “national march for rural development.” The mobilization culminated with a rally in the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires on June 28, where the… Read moreArgentina: campesinos march
Thousands of Chileans clashed with police, blocked roads and set fire to buses on Monday to protest Chile’s state-owned mining company Codelco. “We are going to intensify the strike,” said Cristian Cuevas, a spokesman for the newly formed Confederation of… Read moreCopper strike rocks Chile
At least 14 people have been killed, and dozens more injured, amid clashes between police and drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro over the past two weeks. Vila Cruzeiro favela, one of the impoverished districts hardest hit by the violence,… Read moreRio de Janeiro: police, drug gangs turn favelas into war zones
Amnesty International published a report this week exposing Brazil’s public security crisis. “Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have reached a tragic impasse. Criminal gangs … have rushed to fill the vacuum left by the state, Balkanizing the cities into… Read moreAmnesty: Brazilian cities are “violent fiefdoms”
Tens of thousands of people marched on April 29 from Gualeguaychu, in the Argentine province of Entre Rios, to the international bridge that crosses the Uruguay river to protest a pulp plant under construction in Fray Bentos, on the Uruguayan… Read moreArgentina: thousands protest Uruguay pulp mill
On April 18, some 30 police agents accompanied by armed civilians detained and beat up five campesinos in the Paraguayan community of Paraguai Pyahu, in Guajayvi district of San Pedro department. Led by Menelio Orue, chief of the local police… Read moreParaguay: campesinos attacked, tortured
Hundreds of rural workers occupied the offices of the National Agrarian Reform Institute in Brasilia, and thousands more invaded farms and blocked roads on April 16, demanding the government speed up moves to give land to small farmers and peasants…. Read moreLand protests across Brazil
Tens of thousands of people marched throughout Argentina on April 9 as part of a general strike called to protest the death of a teacher, Carlos Fuentealba, who died on April 5 in the southwestern province of Neuquen after being… Read moreWork stoppage in Argentina
