from Weekly News Update on the Americas On Jan. 5, paramilitaries who identified themselves as members of the “Autodefensas del Llano” (Plains Self-Defense) group murdered four people in the community of Matabambu, in Puerto Lleras municipality, in the southern Colombian… Read moreCOLOMBIA: PARAMILITARY ATTACKS IN META
Continue ReadingCOLOMBIA: PARAMILITARY ATTACKS IN METAfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas On Dec. 20, a group of about 20 guerrillas from the Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) rebel group ambushed a police contingent and killed eight agents in Aucayacu, Leoncio Prado province, in the… Read morePERU: SENDERO RESURGENT?
Continue ReadingPERU: SENDERO RESURGENT?Palestine Activists Expose Truth in UK Direct Action Trial by Sarkis Pogossian On Jan. 26, seven Palestine solidarity protestors from London and Brighton were acquitted of “aggravated trespass” charges for their Nov. 11. 2004 arrests in a blockade outside the… Read moreBITTER FRUITS OF JORDAN VALLEY APARTHEID
Continue ReadingBITTER FRUITS OF JORDAN VALLEY APARTHEIDby Benjamin Dangl After winning a landslide victory on Dec. 18th, Bolivian president-elect Evo Morales announced plans to nationalize the country’s gas reserves, rewrite the constitution in a popular assembly, redistribute land to poor farmers and change the rules of… Read moreBOLIVIA: A COMING TRIAL BY FIRE?
Continue ReadingBOLIVIA: A COMING TRIAL BY FIRE?Chavez Bloc Races with Oil Cartel to Grid the Continent by Bill Weinberg As the left-populist Evo Morales takes office in Bolivia, a clear anti-imperialist bloc is consolidating in South America, led by Venezulea’s Hugo Chavez and also including Brazil,… Read moreSOUTH AMERICAN PIPELINE WARS
Continue ReadingSOUTH AMERICAN PIPELINE WARSThe Nuts, Bolts and Crimes of Biological Warfare by Mark Sanborne In Part 1 of this series, which ran in our December issue, journalist and researcher Mark Sanborne noted how the media-fueled fear of microbes—with waves of “bionoia” over anthrax,… Read more“BIONOIA” Part 2
Continue Reading“BIONOIA” Part 2from Weekly News Update on the Americas EL SALVADOR: FMLN BACKS ANTI-CAFTA PROTESTS Thousands of Salvadorans participated in a nationwide day of protest on Nov. 30 against the neoliberal economic policies of President Antonio Saca. The demonstrations, organized by the… Read moreCENTRAL AMERICA: CAMPESINOS BLOCK HIGHWAYS
Continue ReadingCENTRAL AMERICA: CAMPESINOS BLOCK HIGHWAYSfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas BUENOS AIRES: HOTEL WORKERS ATTACKED Early on Dec. 8, a delegation of 12 cooperative members from the autonomous worker-controlled Bauen hotel were violently ousted from the Buenos Aires municipal legislature as they sought… Read moreARGENTINA: AUTONOMOUS WORKERS UNDER ATTACK
Continue ReadingARGENTINA: AUTONOMOUS WORKERS UNDER ATTACKfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas MATO GROSSO DO SUL: GUARANI-KAIOWA EVICTED On Dec. 15 some 100-200 Brazilian federal police agents, backed by a helicopter and armed with tear gas and rifles that fire rubber bullets, forcibly evicted more… Read moreBRAZIL: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES EVICTED FROM LANDS
Continue ReadingBRAZIL: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES EVICTED FROM LANDSfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas Residents of the Machiguenga and other indigenous communities of the lower Urubamba river area in Peru’s Ucayali region began a 72-hour strike on Dec. 2 to protest the government’s failure to address the… Read morePERU: INDIGENOUS PROTEST GAS SPILLS
Continue ReadingPERU: INDIGENOUS PROTEST GAS SPILLSfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas The 31 new judges of Ecuador’s Supreme Court of Justice were sworn in, along with 21 alternate judges, on Nov. 30 by Carlos Estarellas, president of a four-member commission appointed to choose the… Read moreECUADOR: MOVES TOWARDS NEW CONSTITUTION
Continue ReadingECUADOR: MOVES TOWARDS NEW CONSTITUTIONfrom Weekly News Update on the Americas With 79% of the votes counted on the evening of Dec. 4, the six parties supporting left-populist Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez Frias had won all 167 seats in the National Assembly in national… Read moreVENEZUELA: CHAVISTAS SWEEP ELECTIONS
Continue ReadingVENEZUELA: CHAVISTAS SWEEP ELECTIONS
