[Due to other commitments, we are again unable to send out an Update. We'll be back next week. Below are links to stories from other sources.]
Ex-Argentine police commander in televised suicide
http://ww4report.com/node/6380
Bolivia: martial law lifted in Pando; prefect still imprisoned
http://ww4report.com/node/6384
Bolivia: Reform and Reaction in the Hemisphere
http://nacla.org/node/5221
Bolivia's Evo Morales seeks "improved relations" with Obama White House
http://ww4report.com/node/6359
007 Bolivian socialist?
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1590/68/
The United States Orchestrating a Civic Coup in Bolivia
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1587/68/\
Bush protested at Lima APEC summit
http://ww4report.com/node/6381
Peru: "If I Don't Come Back, Look For Me in Putis"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1580/1/
Copper Mesa Mining Expected to Lose Junin Project in Ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1586/68/
Mass Indigenous Protest In Defense of Water Caps Week of Mobilizations in Ecuador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1591/1/
In Ecuador, Mass Mobilizations Against Mining Confront President Correa http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1588/1/
Colombia: indigenous march arrives in Bogotá
http://ww4report.com/node/6382
Eric Holder: death-squad defender
http://ww4report.com/node/6357
Obama's AG Pick Defended Chiquita in Death Squad Casehttp://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1585/68/
Colombia: protests after arrest of populist outlaw banker
http://ww4report.com/node/6365
Colombia declares state of emergency over financial scams
http://ww4report.com/node/6353
Colombia: coke users snort rainforest
http://ww4report.com/node/6364
Venezuela: Elections Will Put Chávez to the Test
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1582/68/
Venezuela: elections mandate or "hard blow" for Chávez?
http://ww4report.com/node/6383
Post-electoral violence continues in Nicaragua
http://ww4report.com/node/6352
Six beheaded in Guatemala prison riot
http://ww4report.com/node/6379\
El Salvador: FMLN Starts Out Ahead
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1583/68/
El Salvador: Company Promoters Shred Social Fabric of Communities http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1584/1/
Despite National and Global Distractions, the Popular Minga Marches on to Bogotá http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1579/1/
What's Driving El Salvador's Left Turn?
http://nacla.org/node/5238
Mexico's ex-drug czar busted for cartel collaboration
http://ww4report.com/node/6363
Obama: ominous appointments for Homeland Security, NSC
http://ww4report.com/node/6360
Obama and Myths of Racial Democracy
http://nacla.org/node/5229
Monday, 24 November 2008
Monday, 17 November 2008
WNU #967: Chilean Government Workers Strike
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #967, November 16, 2008
1. Chile: Government Workers Strike
2. Latin America: G20 Holds First Summit
3. Costa Rica: Hu Visits, CAFTA Gets OK
4. Cuba: Castro Assesses the FARC
5. Puerto Rico: Right Wins Elections
6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, US policy
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Chile: Government Workers Strike
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% effective, with professors, health workers, administrative workers and municipal workers honoring the strike call. Government service offices were closed, garbage collection stopped in some areas, and some medical services were shut down. The government of Socialist president Michelle Bachelet called the protest "blackmail"; Interior Minister Edmundo Pérez Yoma said workers wouldn't be paid for the two days they missed.
"We're not about to pay for the effects of the financial crisis," ANEF president Raúl de la Puente said, noting that inflation would eat up most of the raise. Chile's inflation rate reached 0.9% in October, bringing the projected annual rate to 9.9%, the highest since 1994. On Nov. 13 the government offered an increase of 5%, raising the offer to 6.5% on Nov. 14. The unions responded with a call for an open-ended strike to start on Nov. 17. (La Jornada (Mexico) 11/12/08 from correspondent; Servicio Informativo "alai amlatino" 11/12/08; Agence France Presse 11/15/08)
*2. Latin America: G20 Holds First Summit
The leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) nations met in Washington, DC on Nov. 15 for the group's first summit--an emergency session to discuss the world financial crisis. The G20 combines the Group of 8 (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US) with growing industrial powers like China and India; together the G20 nations account for as much as 90% of the world's gross domestic product. The Latin American members are Argentina, Brazil and Mexico [see Update #966]; this year Brazil holds the group's rotating leadership.
The meeting failed to meet many members' hopes for a global agreement on regulation of financial speculation. Instead, the final 10-page declaration committed the members to undertaking reforms before Mar. 31. The G20 is to meet again on Apr. 30, 101 days after Barack Obama replaces George W. Bush as US president. But Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva considered the summit an advance. "We are talking about the G20 because the G8 doesn't have any more reason to exist," he said when leaving Brazil for the summit. "In other words, the emerging economies have to be taken into consideration in today's globalized world." At the summit he said that "existing multilateral organizations" like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been "rejected by history. Both the IMF and the World Bank should open themselves to bigger participation of developing economies." (International Herald Tribune 11/15/08 from AP; La Jornada 11/16/08 from DPA, AFP, Reuters and unidentified wire services)
Former Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz was less optimistic. In an article published on Nov. 15, he noted that the G20 leaders were saying nothing about "the nonrenewable resources of the planet" or about ending the arms buildup. He added, alluding to president elect Obama, that "many people dream that with a simple change of office in the leadership of the empire, this [empire] will be more tolerant and less bellicose... It would be naive to believe that the good intentions of one intelligent person could change what centuries of interests and egoism have created. Human history demonstrates something else." (Granma (Cuba) 11/15/08)
*3. Costa Rica: Hu Visits, CAFTA Gets OK
After the Nov. 15 Group of 20 (G20) summit in Washington, Chinese president Hu Jintao flew to Costa Rica for the first visit by a Chinese president to Central America. He and Costa Rican president Oscar Arias were to sign 11 accords, including the creation of a joint enterprise of Refinería Costarricense de Petróleo and China National Petroleum Corporation to modernize Costa Rica's plant; a line of credit from a Chinese bank to the state-owned Banco de Costa Rica; funding for Chinese language instruction in the Universidad de Costa Rica; and $73 million for the construction of a new sports stadium in San José. China has been moving aggressively into economic activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the refinery accord opens the possibility that China may invest up to $1.2 billion in a new refinery. (Univisión 11/16/08 from AFP)
On Nov. 11 the Legislative Assembly passed the last enabling laws necessary for the implementation of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), a trade accord strongly promoted by the US. President Arias said it would take effect on Jan. 1. The accord was signed in 2004, and all the other members have implemented it, but Costa Rican legislators wouldn't move on the issue until it was approved in a referendum on Oct. 7, 2007 after a bitter campaign [see Update #918]. (Miami Herald 11/11/08 from AP)
*4. Cuba: Castro Assesses the FARC
On Nov. 12 Cuba released La Paz en Colombia ("Peace in Colombia"), a 265-page book by former president Fidel Castro giving new information about the Cuban government's relations with Colombia's leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In the book, which Castro says took 400 hours of work, the former president repeats criticisms he made last July of the FARC's treatment of prisoners of war and "the capture and holding of civilians not involved in the war" [see Update #953]. In the book he also notes that holding "prisoners and hostages deprived the combatants of the ability to maneuver."
Castro says he tried to convince former FARC leader Manuel Marulanda Vélez, who died in March of this year, that he could make a peace agreement with then-president Andrés Pastrana during negotiations in 1999, but Marulanda didn't negotiate seriously because he thought the US was planning an intervention that would lead to a prolonged war and possibly a "continental struggle." The Cubans told him that "the international situation was entirely different from the way he saw it." Castro says he admired Marulanda's "revolutionary firmness" but felt that armed struggle was no longer viable, noting that Cuba aided the rebels in Nicaragua in the 1970s and in El Salvador in the 1980s. Castro mocks the US insistence that the rebels are terrorists; in 1999, Castro says, a US representative met with the FARC's chief negotiator, the late Raúl Reyes, in Costa Rica to discuss cooperation on an antinarcotics program. (Granma (Cuba) 11/15/08; La Jornada 11/13/08, 11/14/08, 11/15/08 )
*5. Puerto Rico: Right Wins Elections
Puerto Rico's conservative New Progressive Party (PNP) gained easily over the centrist Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in elections on Nov. 4, with PNP gubernatorial candidate Luis Fortuño winning 52.8% of the vote to 41.3% for the PPD candidate, current governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá. Rogelio Figueroa of Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico (PPR), a new party with an environmental orientation, got 2.8% of the vote, while Edwin Irizarry of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) followed with 2%. The PNP won 60 of the 78 seats in the legislature, and the PPD won the remaining 18. The PNP won 48 mayorships to 30 for the PPD.
Governor Elect Fortuño is a member of the US Republican party, which lost heavily in elections the same day in the US. Analysts attribute the PPD loss to popular resentment against Acevedo, who raised sales taxes and alienated an important part of the labor movement [see Update #963]; he also faces federal corruption charges. The PNP only gained 31,000 votes over its total in 2004, but the PPD total fell by 183,000 votes as many former supporters stayed home. (Servicio Informativo "alai amlatino" 11/10/08)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, US policy
Connecting Struggles: Documentation from the Social Forum of the Americas
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1567/1/
Buenos Aires: The Poorest Resist "Social Cleansing"
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5652
Uruguay: Congress Votes to Legalise Abortion, But Veto Likely http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1573/68/
Paraguay: Agreement with Rural Activists Puts End to Protest
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1570/68/
Police Repression and Presidential Promises: The Fight for Social Justice in Paraguay http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1574/1/
Bolivia requests extradition of ex-president from US on "genocide" charge
http://ww4report.com/node/6311
Anti-Bases Coalition Pushes U.S. Military Base out of Ecuador
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5652
Ecuador Protests Colombian Paramilitary Incursion, Documents CIA Infiltration
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1571/68/
Danger Ahead: Correa Gives Mining the Green Light in Ecuador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1575/1/
US blocks aid to tainted Colombian army units: report
http://ww4report.com/node/6307
One dead in Colombian riots over financial scam
http://ww4report.com/node/6317
Colombian investors riot over pyramid scheme
http://ww4report.com/node/6312
Emanuel: Obama won't link Colombia FTA to stimulus package
http://ww4report.com/node/6306
Colombia: An Open Letter From ACIN to U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1566/68/
Salvadoran officers could face charges in Spain for 1989 massacre
http://ww4report.com/node/6323
Mexico: gunmen kill reporter, kidnap farmworkers
http://ww4report.com/node/6324
Colombia good model for Mexico: Uribe
http://ww4report.com/node/6308
Another Economic Casualty: Mexican Remittances
http://nacla.org/node/5218
Larry Summers, Champion of Wall Street Greed Attained by Impoverishing the Mexican People
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5662
Afro-Latino Voices Shout: Obama! Obama!
http://nacla.org/node/5192
Latin America Sends Obama Congratulations--and a Piece of its Mind
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5654
Will Obama recognize Latin America is no longer "America's backyard?"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1569/68/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly
Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #967, November 16, 2008
1. Chile: Government Workers Strike
2. Latin America: G20 Holds First Summit
3. Costa Rica: Hu Visits, CAFTA Gets OK
4. Cuba: Castro Assesses the FARC
5. Puerto Rico: Right Wins Elections
6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, US policy
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com. It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com/
*1. Chile: Government Workers Strike
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% effective, with professors, health workers, administrative workers and municipal workers honoring the strike call. Government service offices were closed, garbage collection stopped in some areas, and some medical services were shut down. The government of Socialist president Michelle Bachelet called the protest "blackmail"; Interior Minister Edmundo Pérez Yoma said workers wouldn't be paid for the two days they missed.
"We're not about to pay for the effects of the financial crisis," ANEF president Raúl de la Puente said, noting that inflation would eat up most of the raise. Chile's inflation rate reached 0.9% in October, bringing the projected annual rate to 9.9%, the highest since 1994. On Nov. 13 the government offered an increase of 5%, raising the offer to 6.5% on Nov. 14. The unions responded with a call for an open-ended strike to start on Nov. 17. (La Jornada (Mexico) 11/12/08 from correspondent; Servicio Informativo "alai amlatino" 11/12/08; Agence France Presse 11/15/08)
*2. Latin America: G20 Holds First Summit
The leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) nations met in Washington, DC on Nov. 15 for the group's first summit--an emergency session to discuss the world financial crisis. The G20 combines the Group of 8 (Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the US) with growing industrial powers like China and India; together the G20 nations account for as much as 90% of the world's gross domestic product. The Latin American members are Argentina, Brazil and Mexico [see Update #966]; this year Brazil holds the group's rotating leadership.
The meeting failed to meet many members' hopes for a global agreement on regulation of financial speculation. Instead, the final 10-page declaration committed the members to undertaking reforms before Mar. 31. The G20 is to meet again on Apr. 30, 101 days after Barack Obama replaces George W. Bush as US president. But Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva considered the summit an advance. "We are talking about the G20 because the G8 doesn't have any more reason to exist," he said when leaving Brazil for the summit. "In other words, the emerging economies have to be taken into consideration in today's globalized world." At the summit he said that "existing multilateral organizations" like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had been "rejected by history. Both the IMF and the World Bank should open themselves to bigger participation of developing economies." (International Herald Tribune 11/15/08 from AP; La Jornada 11/16/08 from DPA, AFP, Reuters and unidentified wire services)
Former Cuban president Fidel Castro Ruz was less optimistic. In an article published on Nov. 15, he noted that the G20 leaders were saying nothing about "the nonrenewable resources of the planet" or about ending the arms buildup. He added, alluding to president elect Obama, that "many people dream that with a simple change of office in the leadership of the empire, this [empire] will be more tolerant and less bellicose... It would be naive to believe that the good intentions of one intelligent person could change what centuries of interests and egoism have created. Human history demonstrates something else." (Granma (Cuba) 11/15/08)
*3. Costa Rica: Hu Visits, CAFTA Gets OK
After the Nov. 15 Group of 20 (G20) summit in Washington, Chinese president Hu Jintao flew to Costa Rica for the first visit by a Chinese president to Central America. He and Costa Rican president Oscar Arias were to sign 11 accords, including the creation of a joint enterprise of Refinería Costarricense de Petróleo and China National Petroleum Corporation to modernize Costa Rica's plant; a line of credit from a Chinese bank to the state-owned Banco de Costa Rica; funding for Chinese language instruction in the Universidad de Costa Rica; and $73 million for the construction of a new sports stadium in San José. China has been moving aggressively into economic activities in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the refinery accord opens the possibility that China may invest up to $1.2 billion in a new refinery. (Univisión 11/16/08 from AFP)
On Nov. 11 the Legislative Assembly passed the last enabling laws necessary for the implementation of the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), a trade accord strongly promoted by the US. President Arias said it would take effect on Jan. 1. The accord was signed in 2004, and all the other members have implemented it, but Costa Rican legislators wouldn't move on the issue until it was approved in a referendum on Oct. 7, 2007 after a bitter campaign [see Update #918]. (Miami Herald 11/11/08 from AP)
*4. Cuba: Castro Assesses the FARC
On Nov. 12 Cuba released La Paz en Colombia ("Peace in Colombia"), a 265-page book by former president Fidel Castro giving new information about the Cuban government's relations with Colombia's leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In the book, which Castro says took 400 hours of work, the former president repeats criticisms he made last July of the FARC's treatment of prisoners of war and "the capture and holding of civilians not involved in the war" [see Update #953]. In the book he also notes that holding "prisoners and hostages deprived the combatants of the ability to maneuver."
Castro says he tried to convince former FARC leader Manuel Marulanda Vélez, who died in March of this year, that he could make a peace agreement with then-president Andrés Pastrana during negotiations in 1999, but Marulanda didn't negotiate seriously because he thought the US was planning an intervention that would lead to a prolonged war and possibly a "continental struggle." The Cubans told him that "the international situation was entirely different from the way he saw it." Castro says he admired Marulanda's "revolutionary firmness" but felt that armed struggle was no longer viable, noting that Cuba aided the rebels in Nicaragua in the 1970s and in El Salvador in the 1980s. Castro mocks the US insistence that the rebels are terrorists; in 1999, Castro says, a US representative met with the FARC's chief negotiator, the late Raúl Reyes, in Costa Rica to discuss cooperation on an antinarcotics program. (Granma (Cuba) 11/15/08; La Jornada 11/13/08, 11/14/08, 11/15/08 )
*5. Puerto Rico: Right Wins Elections
Puerto Rico's conservative New Progressive Party (PNP) gained easily over the centrist Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in elections on Nov. 4, with PNP gubernatorial candidate Luis Fortuño winning 52.8% of the vote to 41.3% for the PPD candidate, current governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá. Rogelio Figueroa of Puerto Ricans for Puerto Rico (PPR), a new party with an environmental orientation, got 2.8% of the vote, while Edwin Irizarry of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP) followed with 2%. The PNP won 60 of the 78 seats in the legislature, and the PPD won the remaining 18. The PNP won 48 mayorships to 30 for the PPD.
Governor Elect Fortuño is a member of the US Republican party, which lost heavily in elections the same day in the US. Analysts attribute the PPD loss to popular resentment against Acevedo, who raised sales taxes and alienated an important part of the labor movement [see Update #963]; he also faces federal corruption charges. The PNP only gained 31,000 votes over its total in 2004, but the PPD total fell by 183,000 votes as many former supporters stayed home. (Servicio Informativo "alai amlatino" 11/10/08)
*6. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador, Mexico, US policy
Connecting Struggles: Documentation from the Social Forum of the Americas
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1567/1/
Buenos Aires: The Poorest Resist "Social Cleansing"
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5652
Uruguay: Congress Votes to Legalise Abortion, But Veto Likely http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1573/68/
Paraguay: Agreement with Rural Activists Puts End to Protest
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1570/68/
Police Repression and Presidential Promises: The Fight for Social Justice in Paraguay http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1574/1/
Bolivia requests extradition of ex-president from US on "genocide" charge
http://ww4report.com/node/6311
Anti-Bases Coalition Pushes U.S. Military Base out of Ecuador
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5652
Ecuador Protests Colombian Paramilitary Incursion, Documents CIA Infiltration
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1571/68/
Danger Ahead: Correa Gives Mining the Green Light in Ecuador http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1575/1/
US blocks aid to tainted Colombian army units: report
http://ww4report.com/node/6307
One dead in Colombian riots over financial scam
http://ww4report.com/node/6317
Colombian investors riot over pyramid scheme
http://ww4report.com/node/6312
Emanuel: Obama won't link Colombia FTA to stimulus package
http://ww4report.com/node/6306
Colombia: An Open Letter From ACIN to U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1566/68/
Salvadoran officers could face charges in Spain for 1989 massacre
http://ww4report.com/node/6323
Mexico: gunmen kill reporter, kidnap farmworkers
http://ww4report.com/node/6324
Colombia good model for Mexico: Uribe
http://ww4report.com/node/6308
Another Economic Casualty: Mexican Remittances
http://nacla.org/node/5218
Larry Summers, Champion of Wall Street Greed Attained by Impoverishing the Mexican People
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5662
Afro-Latino Voices Shout: Obama! Obama!
http://nacla.org/node/5192
Latin America Sends Obama Congratulations--and a Piece of its Mind
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5654
Will Obama recognize Latin America is no longer "America's backyard?"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1569/68/
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and
alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly
Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Monday, 10 November 2008
Links but no Update for November 9, 2008
[Due to other commitments, we are unable to send out an Update this week. We'll be back next week. Below are links to stories from other sources.]
Buenos Aires: The Poorest Resist "Social Cleansing" http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1559/68/
Paraguay: The Struggle for Land
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1557/68/
Paraguay: New 'Archives of Terror' Unearthed http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1555/68/
Next in Bolivia: lithium wars?
http://ww4report.com/node/6296
Whither Ecuador? An Interview with Indigenous Activist and Politician Monica Chuji
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1563/1/
Colombia: more threats, displacement at Peace Community
http://ww4report.com/node/6291
Colombia: armed forces chief resigns in human rights scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6273
Colombian Government Allegations of Indigenous and Popular Mobilization Terrorism False
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1560/68/
No End in Sight: Indigenous and Popular Minga Continues, Debate with Colombian President Stalls
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1556/1/
Venezuela to militarize Colombian border
http://ww4report.com/node/6297
Mexico: narco-Satanism in Ciudad Juárez?
http://ww4report.com/node/6295
Mexico: interior secretary killed in (mysterious?) air crash
http://ww4report.com/node/6272
Mexico: Zetas planning attacks on US Border Patrol?
http://ww4report.com/node/6271
Mexico: another Gulf Cartel kingpin busted, guns blazing
http://ww4report.com/node/6290
Activists Decry Arrest of APPO Members in Brad Will Murder
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1565/1/
Obama and the Americas: A Window of Opportunity
http://nacla.org/node/5198
Eduardo Galeano on Obama's Victory
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1562/68/
Latinobarómetro US Election Poll: Latin Americans Have Other Concerns
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1554/1/
Chávez, Evo hail Obama's victory, call for "new relations"
http://ww4report.com/node/6284
Buenos Aires: The Poorest Resist "Social Cleansing" http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1559/68/
Paraguay: The Struggle for Land
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1557/68/
Paraguay: New 'Archives of Terror' Unearthed http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1555/68/
Next in Bolivia: lithium wars?
http://ww4report.com/node/6296
Whither Ecuador? An Interview with Indigenous Activist and Politician Monica Chuji
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1563/1/
Colombia: more threats, displacement at Peace Community
http://ww4report.com/node/6291
Colombia: armed forces chief resigns in human rights scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6273
Colombian Government Allegations of Indigenous and Popular Mobilization Terrorism False
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1560/68/
No End in Sight: Indigenous and Popular Minga Continues, Debate with Colombian President Stalls
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1556/1/
Venezuela to militarize Colombian border
http://ww4report.com/node/6297
Mexico: narco-Satanism in Ciudad Juárez?
http://ww4report.com/node/6295
Mexico: interior secretary killed in (mysterious?) air crash
http://ww4report.com/node/6272
Mexico: Zetas planning attacks on US Border Patrol?
http://ww4report.com/node/6271
Mexico: another Gulf Cartel kingpin busted, guns blazing
http://ww4report.com/node/6290
Activists Decry Arrest of APPO Members in Brad Will Murder
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1565/1/
Obama and the Americas: A Window of Opportunity
http://nacla.org/node/5198
Eduardo Galeano on Obama's Victory
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1562/68/
Latinobarómetro US Election Poll: Latin Americans Have Other Concerns
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1554/1/
Chávez, Evo hail Obama's victory, call for "new relations"
http://ww4report.com/node/6284
Sunday, 2 November 2008
WNU #966: Paras Threaten Colombian Peace Community
Weekly News Update on the Americas
Issue #966, November 2, 2008
1. Colombia: Paras Threaten Peace Community
2. Latin America: Leaders United on Crisis?
3. Cuba: Diplomats Woo UN, Brazil, Mexico
4. Haiti: Storm Victims Starve
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, US policy
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com
*1. Colombia: Paras Threaten Peace Community
The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in Colombia's northwestern Antioquia department reported on Oct. 31 that rightwing paramilitaries were threatening to murder community members. A joint operation of paramilitaries and the army's 17th Brigade murdered eight people in San José de Apartadó on Feb. 21, 2005 [see Updates #787, 788, 791]; retired colonel Guillermo Armando Gordillo confessed this year that his troops participated in the massacre. Peace communities refuse to collaborate with any armed forces, including rebels, paramilitaries and the army.
According to the peace community, paramilitaries stopped three people on Oct. 30 and told them that residents of La Esperanza settlement, part of the peace community, had to leave if they wanted to avoid being massacred; the paramilitaries said they had a list of six people they were going to murder. Similar threats preceded the 2005 massacre, and the military has been pressuring the community recently. On Oct. 28 and 29 army troops spent the day in homes and the school in La Esperanza, keeping children from attending classes; when asked to leave, they called the community a "nest of guerrillas." Soldiers have also photographed residents and conducted an illegal census. The US-based Colombia Support Network (CSN) is urging people to contact US Congress members, US embassy attaché Scott Fagan (FaganSR@state.gov), Colombian defense minister Dr. Juan Manuel Santos (siden@mindefensa.gov.co, infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co and mdn@cable.net.co), and others to demand a stop to the planned massacre and respect for the rights of civilians. (Agencia Bolivariana de Prensa 11/2/08 from Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó communiqué 10/31/08; CSN urgent action 10/31/08; World War 4 Report 8/2/08)
*2. Latin America: Leaders United on Crisis?
The official theme of the 18th Ibero-American Summit, held Oct. 29-31 in San Salvador, El Salvador, was "Youth and Development," but the global financial crisis was the main topic of discussions by the representatives of Spain, Portugal and 19 Latin American countries.
Despite strong differences among the 19 heads of state who attended--from supporters of neoliberalism like Salvadoran president Elías Antonio Saca and Mexican president Felipe Hinojosa Calderón to supporters of state intervention like Bolivian president Evo Morales and Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa--the participants agreed on a united message for Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to take to a meeting in Washington, DC of the Group of 20 (G20, the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations plus the largest "emerging economies"). They are to call for a sharp change in the advanced nations' policies of extreme deregulation, which Latin American leaders blamed for the crisis.
Latin American economies were initially somewhat resistant to the global meltdown, in part because of a recent policy of "unhitching" or "decoupling" their economies from the US [see Update #962]. But the crisis began to hit Latin America seriously the week of Oct. 6 as the Brazilian real and the Mexican peso plunged violently. Argentina's economy is now suffering from a fall in the price of the grains that represent 45.2% of its exports, while Venezuela faces a sharp drop in the price of oil, which accounts for 90% of its exports. Brazil is also affected by lower prices for oil, while the real's drop has forced the Central Bank to intervene in the private banking system. Mexico, which is exceptionally dependent on the US economy, has had to use 10% of its foreign reserves to support the peso.
Last year Latin America's overall gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5.6%; this year the increase is expected to be 4% or less. Since the beginning of the month the two largest economies, Brazil and Mexico, have been growing at a 3% and 1.5% annual rate respectively. (La Jornada (Mexico) 10/28/08 from Economist Intelligence Unit, 10/31/08 from correspondent; AlterPresse (Haiti) 10/31/08 from correspondent; Xinhuanet (China) 10/31/08)
*3. Cuba: Diplomats Woo UN, Brazil, Mexico
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Oct. 29 to condemn the US embargo on trade with Cuba that has been in effect since 1962. This is the 17th time the group has supported a nonbinding resolution against the embargo. The vote was 185-3 with one abstention, a slight change from last year's 184-4 vote [see Update #920]. The US, Israel and Palau voted against the resolution; the Marshall Islands, which voted with the US in 2007, joined Micronesia in abstaining. Albania, which was absent in 2007, backed this year's resolution. (Prensa Latina (Cuba) 10/29/08)
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in Havana the evening of Oct. 30 for a 24-hour visit after he had attended the Ibero-American Summit. He immediately met with President Raúl Castro, personally inviting the Cuban leader to the Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean on Integration and Development, to be held Dec. 16-17 in Salvador de Bahía. Lula's main official business on the island appeared to be signing a treaty for joint petroleum exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, but the larger goal was clearly to raise Brazil's profile as a trading partner with Cuba. With $450 million in trade a year, Brazil is Cuba's second most important Latin American partner, after Venezuela. This was Lula's second visit to Cuba in 2008 [see Update #931]. (La Jornada 10/31/08 from correspondent)
Improved relations between Cuba and Mexico were evident in the Oct. 19-21 visit of Cuban foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque to Mexico City. On Oct. 20 he and Governance Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño signed a memorandum of understanding on immigration policy; the two countries agreed to cooperate in ending the practice by which hundreds of Cubans enter Mexico illegally by sea on their way to the US [see Update #964]. On Oct. 21 Roque met with Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and invited him to visit Cuba. Relations between the countries had been minimal starting in 2002 under Calderón's predecessor, Vicente Fox Quesada, who, like Calderón, is a member of the center-right National Action Party (PAN) and a supporter of the US. Trade between Cuba and Mexico is now up by 80% over what it was in the same period in 2007. (LJ 10/20/08, 10/21/08, 10/22/08)
*4. Haiti: Storm Victims Starve
About a dozen people reportedly died of starvation in the Baie d'Orange communal section in Belle-Anse in Haiti's Southeast department towards the end of October. Local authorities say malnutrition is a major problem in the area, which was hit by a series of storms two months ago; people are also suffering from dysentery, fevers and skin diseases. Apparently food relief failed to reach Baie d'Orange until recently because of the area's isolation, which was worsened by the storms. (AlterPresse 10/30/08)
International institutions have sent minimal aid to Haiti after the storms [see Update #964]. There is still no sign they will offer the country debt relief, or even admit that there is a problem. During a visit to Port-au-Prince on Oct. 20, World Bank president Robert Zoellick reportedly told journalists that Haiti's $1.7 billion debt was "half-forgiven" and promised "the rest of the debt" could soon be cancelled. $500 million of Haitian debt had already been cancelled, he said, according to reports. Local and international groups say that in fact none of Haiti's debt stock has been cancelled by the World Bank, and in recent weeks the World Bank has delayed debt cancellation for Haiti by six months. (AlterPresse 10/31/08)
In other news, on Oct. 28 former rightwing paramilitary leader Emmanuel ("Toto") Constant was given a 12 to 37 year prison sentence for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme in New York state [see Update #956]. Justice Abraham Gerges of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn said schemes like the one by Constant and his associates "played a role" in "the nationwide economic meltdown and the foreclosure crisis." In asking for leniency Constant said he worked for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Haiti from December 1991 to December 1994. (New York Times 10/29/08; Brooklyn Daily Eagle 10/28/08)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, US policy
Latin America's New Consensus
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5631
Revealed: McCain's Private Visit With Chilean Dictator Pinochet
http://nacla.org/node/5140
El "Técnico" y el "Pepe": Seeking Electoral Unity in Uruguay http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1548/1/
Bolivia boots DEA
http://ww4report.com/node/6256
Winds of Civil War in Bolivia: Understanding a Four-party Conflict
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5632
Multi-Layered Conflict Poses Uncertain Future for Bolivian Reforms
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5598
What did Bolivian Society Say Through the Recall Referendum?
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5486
The Bolivian Crisis, the OAS, and UNASUR
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5567
The Failure of U.S. "Democracy Promotion" in Bolivia
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5638
Militarization and the War on Drugs in Peru: Interview with Ricardo Soberón http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1542/1/
Colombia: officers purged over "false positive" executions
http://ww4report.com/node/6233
Colombia's Indigenous march against President Uribe
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2611&updaterx=2008-10-23+09%3A19%3A35
U'wa Fight New Oil Exploration
http://nacla.org/node/5151
Colombia: Uribe stands up indigenous leaders
http://ww4report.com/node/6223
Colombia: Where Dialogue Seems Impossible
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1546/68/
Colombia: FARC agrees to peace dialogue
http://ww4report.com/node/6234
Colombia: "We Are not Subversives, and We Demand Respect"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1544/68/
Creation of an Urban Guerrilla
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1552/1/
Honduras: All That Glitters Isn't Gold - A Story of Exploitation and Resistance
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1545/1/
Hemispheric Conference against Militarization Says No to Merida Initiative, U.S. Military Bases
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5605
Mexico: federal police chief steps down in narco-scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6257
Mexico: Sinaloa Cartel spies infiltrated Prosecutor General, US Embassy
http://ww4report.com/node/6235
Mexico: Tijuana Cartel kingpin busted
http://ww4report.com/node/6219
The Failure of Operation Chihuahua
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5626
Will an Obama Administration act differently towards South America?
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2608&updaterx=2008-10-22+09%3A23%3A30
Over 360 Latin America Experts Call on Obama to Improve U.S.-Latin American Relations
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1547/68/
Toward a New US-Latin America Foreign Policy
http://nacla.org/node/5148
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly
Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
Issue #966, November 2, 2008
1. Colombia: Paras Threaten Peace Community
2. Latin America: Leaders United on Crisis?
3. Cuba: Diplomats Woo UN, Brazil, Mexico
4. Haiti: Storm Victims Starve
5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, US policy
ISSN#: 1084-922X. Weekly News Update on the Americas covers news from Latin America and the Caribbean, compiled and written from a progressive perspective. It has been published weekly by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York since 1990. For a subscription, write to weeklynewsupdate@gmail.com . It is archived at http://weeklynewsupdate.blogspot.com
*1. Colombia: Paras Threaten Peace Community
The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó in Colombia's northwestern Antioquia department reported on Oct. 31 that rightwing paramilitaries were threatening to murder community members. A joint operation of paramilitaries and the army's 17th Brigade murdered eight people in San José de Apartadó on Feb. 21, 2005 [see Updates #787, 788, 791]; retired colonel Guillermo Armando Gordillo confessed this year that his troops participated in the massacre. Peace communities refuse to collaborate with any armed forces, including rebels, paramilitaries and the army.
According to the peace community, paramilitaries stopped three people on Oct. 30 and told them that residents of La Esperanza settlement, part of the peace community, had to leave if they wanted to avoid being massacred; the paramilitaries said they had a list of six people they were going to murder. Similar threats preceded the 2005 massacre, and the military has been pressuring the community recently. On Oct. 28 and 29 army troops spent the day in homes and the school in La Esperanza, keeping children from attending classes; when asked to leave, they called the community a "nest of guerrillas." Soldiers have also photographed residents and conducted an illegal census. The US-based Colombia Support Network (CSN) is urging people to contact US Congress members, US embassy attaché Scott Fagan (FaganSR@state.gov), Colombian defense minister Dr. Juan Manuel Santos (siden@mindefensa.gov.co, infprotocol@mindefensa.gov.co and mdn@cable.net.co), and others to demand a stop to the planned massacre and respect for the rights of civilians. (Agencia Bolivariana de Prensa 11/2/08 from Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó communiqué 10/31/08; CSN urgent action 10/31/08; World War 4 Report 8/2/08)
*2. Latin America: Leaders United on Crisis?
The official theme of the 18th Ibero-American Summit, held Oct. 29-31 in San Salvador, El Salvador, was "Youth and Development," but the global financial crisis was the main topic of discussions by the representatives of Spain, Portugal and 19 Latin American countries.
Despite strong differences among the 19 heads of state who attended--from supporters of neoliberalism like Salvadoran president Elías Antonio Saca and Mexican president Felipe Hinojosa Calderón to supporters of state intervention like Bolivian president Evo Morales and Ecuadoran president Rafael Correa--the participants agreed on a united message for Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to take to a meeting in Washington, DC of the Group of 20 (G20, the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations plus the largest "emerging economies"). They are to call for a sharp change in the advanced nations' policies of extreme deregulation, which Latin American leaders blamed for the crisis.
Latin American economies were initially somewhat resistant to the global meltdown, in part because of a recent policy of "unhitching" or "decoupling" their economies from the US [see Update #962]. But the crisis began to hit Latin America seriously the week of Oct. 6 as the Brazilian real and the Mexican peso plunged violently. Argentina's economy is now suffering from a fall in the price of the grains that represent 45.2% of its exports, while Venezuela faces a sharp drop in the price of oil, which accounts for 90% of its exports. Brazil is also affected by lower prices for oil, while the real's drop has forced the Central Bank to intervene in the private banking system. Mexico, which is exceptionally dependent on the US economy, has had to use 10% of its foreign reserves to support the peso.
Last year Latin America's overall gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 5.6%; this year the increase is expected to be 4% or less. Since the beginning of the month the two largest economies, Brazil and Mexico, have been growing at a 3% and 1.5% annual rate respectively. (La Jornada (Mexico) 10/28/08 from Economist Intelligence Unit, 10/31/08 from correspondent; AlterPresse (Haiti) 10/31/08 from correspondent; Xinhuanet (China) 10/31/08)
*3. Cuba: Diplomats Woo UN, Brazil, Mexico
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Oct. 29 to condemn the US embargo on trade with Cuba that has been in effect since 1962. This is the 17th time the group has supported a nonbinding resolution against the embargo. The vote was 185-3 with one abstention, a slight change from last year's 184-4 vote [see Update #920]. The US, Israel and Palau voted against the resolution; the Marshall Islands, which voted with the US in 2007, joined Micronesia in abstaining. Albania, which was absent in 2007, backed this year's resolution. (Prensa Latina (Cuba) 10/29/08)
Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in Havana the evening of Oct. 30 for a 24-hour visit after he had attended the Ibero-American Summit. He immediately met with President Raúl Castro, personally inviting the Cuban leader to the Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean on Integration and Development, to be held Dec. 16-17 in Salvador de Bahía. Lula's main official business on the island appeared to be signing a treaty for joint petroleum exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, but the larger goal was clearly to raise Brazil's profile as a trading partner with Cuba. With $450 million in trade a year, Brazil is Cuba's second most important Latin American partner, after Venezuela. This was Lula's second visit to Cuba in 2008 [see Update #931]. (La Jornada 10/31/08 from correspondent)
Improved relations between Cuba and Mexico were evident in the Oct. 19-21 visit of Cuban foreign minister Felipe Pérez Roque to Mexico City. On Oct. 20 he and Governance Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño signed a memorandum of understanding on immigration policy; the two countries agreed to cooperate in ending the practice by which hundreds of Cubans enter Mexico illegally by sea on their way to the US [see Update #964]. On Oct. 21 Roque met with Mexican president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa and invited him to visit Cuba. Relations between the countries had been minimal starting in 2002 under Calderón's predecessor, Vicente Fox Quesada, who, like Calderón, is a member of the center-right National Action Party (PAN) and a supporter of the US. Trade between Cuba and Mexico is now up by 80% over what it was in the same period in 2007. (LJ 10/20/08, 10/21/08, 10/22/08)
*4. Haiti: Storm Victims Starve
About a dozen people reportedly died of starvation in the Baie d'Orange communal section in Belle-Anse in Haiti's Southeast department towards the end of October. Local authorities say malnutrition is a major problem in the area, which was hit by a series of storms two months ago; people are also suffering from dysentery, fevers and skin diseases. Apparently food relief failed to reach Baie d'Orange until recently because of the area's isolation, which was worsened by the storms. (AlterPresse 10/30/08)
International institutions have sent minimal aid to Haiti after the storms [see Update #964]. There is still no sign they will offer the country debt relief, or even admit that there is a problem. During a visit to Port-au-Prince on Oct. 20, World Bank president Robert Zoellick reportedly told journalists that Haiti's $1.7 billion debt was "half-forgiven" and promised "the rest of the debt" could soon be cancelled. $500 million of Haitian debt had already been cancelled, he said, according to reports. Local and international groups say that in fact none of Haiti's debt stock has been cancelled by the World Bank, and in recent weeks the World Bank has delayed debt cancellation for Haiti by six months. (AlterPresse 10/31/08)
In other news, on Oct. 28 former rightwing paramilitary leader Emmanuel ("Toto") Constant was given a 12 to 37 year prison sentence for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme in New York state [see Update #956]. Justice Abraham Gerges of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn said schemes like the one by Constant and his associates "played a role" in "the nationwide economic meltdown and the foreclosure crisis." In asking for leniency Constant said he worked for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Haiti from December 1991 to December 1994. (New York Times 10/29/08; Brooklyn Daily Eagle 10/28/08)
*5. Links to alternative sources on: Latin America, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, US policy
Latin America's New Consensus
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5631
Revealed: McCain's Private Visit With Chilean Dictator Pinochet
http://nacla.org/node/5140
El "Técnico" y el "Pepe": Seeking Electoral Unity in Uruguay http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1548/1/
Bolivia boots DEA
http://ww4report.com/node/6256
Winds of Civil War in Bolivia: Understanding a Four-party Conflict
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5632
Multi-Layered Conflict Poses Uncertain Future for Bolivian Reforms
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5598
What did Bolivian Society Say Through the Recall Referendum?
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5486
The Bolivian Crisis, the OAS, and UNASUR
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5567
The Failure of U.S. "Democracy Promotion" in Bolivia
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5638
Militarization and the War on Drugs in Peru: Interview with Ricardo Soberón http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1542/1/
Colombia: officers purged over "false positive" executions
http://ww4report.com/node/6233
Colombia's Indigenous march against President Uribe
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2611&updaterx=2008-10-23+09%3A19%3A35
U'wa Fight New Oil Exploration
http://nacla.org/node/5151
Colombia: Uribe stands up indigenous leaders
http://ww4report.com/node/6223
Colombia: Where Dialogue Seems Impossible
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1546/68/
Colombia: FARC agrees to peace dialogue
http://ww4report.com/node/6234
Colombia: "We Are not Subversives, and We Demand Respect"
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1544/68/
Creation of an Urban Guerrilla
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1552/1/
Honduras: All That Glitters Isn't Gold - A Story of Exploitation and Resistance
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1545/1/
Hemispheric Conference against Militarization Says No to Merida Initiative, U.S. Military Bases
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5605
Mexico: federal police chief steps down in narco-scandal
http://ww4report.com/node/6257
Mexico: Sinaloa Cartel spies infiltrated Prosecutor General, US Embassy
http://ww4report.com/node/6235
Mexico: Tijuana Cartel kingpin busted
http://ww4report.com/node/6219
The Failure of Operation Chihuahua
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/5626
Will an Obama Administration act differently towards South America?
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=2608&updaterx=2008-10-22+09%3A23%3A30
Over 360 Latin America Experts Call on Obama to Improve U.S.-Latin American Relations
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1547/68/
Toward a New US-Latin America Foreign Policy
http://nacla.org/node/5148
For more Latin America news stories from mainstream and alternative sources:
http://nacla.org/articles
For immigration updates and events:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.blogspot.com/
END
Your support is appreciated. A print edition of the Update is also available via first class mail (a contribution of at least $30 is suggested to cover printing and postage within the US). Back issues and source materials are available on request. Update subscribers also receive, as a supplement, our own weekly
Immigration News Briefs.
Order The Politics of Immigration: Questions & Answers, from Monthly Review Press, by Update editors Jane Guskin and David Wilson:
http://thepoliticsofimmigration.com/
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