South America

indymedia.org July 8, 2008
features about betancourt

In order to understand the "rescue operation" of Ingrid Betancourt and the Northrop Grumman Corporation mercenaries who were released with her, it is necessary to piece together articles published in the media, filter the content and out of this is formed a true understanding of the facts of what happened here.  read more »

BombsandShields June 18, 2008

Moquegua, Peru - Poor residents of the copper rich southern state of Moquegua have taken 48 police officers hostage and captured a police station, which they burned.  read more »

By Ana Maria Fabbri June 9, 2008

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Thousands of supporters of leftist president Evo Morales protested outside the U.S. Embassy in La Paz on Monday, demanding the United States send home for trial two right-wing Bolivian politicians.

The protest followed comments by former Defense Minister Carlos Sanchez Berzain, who told a local radio station last week that a U.S. court had granted him political asylum.  read more »

ainfos May 21, 2008

"This is going to be a different type of occupation," say the people of Tierra y
Libertad (Land and Freedom), a land occupation on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The name of their group gives an idea of what they intend. The occupation began on March 29th this year when 40 families entered a small parcel of land in La Matanza and began setting up a community. Since then the occupation has grown to over 135 families and has continued to organize and resist eviction in the face of intimidation and violence.  read more »

From: EL NUEVO TOPO <giltapia@igc.org>

May 3, 2008 10:51 Two peasants were murdered on or about April 25, according to the Frente Campesino Ezequiel Zamora. (FNCEZ)

The FNCEZ states: "A group of criminals who hide behind police uniformssilenced the lives of two noted peasants, Fabricio Duglas Ivan Perez Heredia and his brother Engel Alexander Hernesto Perez Heredia. Their bodies were found in the zone of Pavia. Witnesses confirmed that the companeros were transported in a police car shortly before their bodies were found.  read more »

By Alonso Soto Sat Apr 5, 2005

QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador's president accused the CIA on Saturday of controlling many of his country's spy agencies, in comments that could fray ties with Washington and drag it into Ecuador's feud with neighboring Colombia.  read more »

SANTIAGO, March 30 (Reuters) - A man died, a police officer was wounded, and 122 people were arrested in Santiago on Saturday night in riots marking the anniversary of the 1985 police slaying of two leftist brothers during the Pinochet dictatorship, police said.

A 28-year-old died after he was shot by protesters who accused him of being a police infiltrator, a police spokesman told Reuters.

A police officer was also serious wounded in the protests, he said. Angry demonstrations to mark the "Day of the Young Combatant," an unofficial commemoration of the anniversary, have become an annual event in the Chilean capital.  read more »

By BILL CORMIER, Associated Press Mar 24, 2008

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Thousands of Argentines marched to mark Monday's anniversary of a 1976 military coup that launched seven years of dictatorship, carrying banners bearing photographs of the people who disappeared under the junta.  read more »

Film and Talk Wed. April 2, 7pm at Media Island
816 Adams St. SE Olympia (across from the Downtown Library)

And discussion about current Colombia/ Venezuela Situation

Wednesday March 5, By Tales Azzoni

Brazil Activists Protest Police Violence After Invasion of Farm Run by Stora Enso

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Landless workers blocked roads in southern Brazil to protest alleged violence by police who ousted activists from a tree farm run by a Swedish-Finnish paper maker, protesters said Wednesday.

Members of the Landless Workers Movement blocked eight roads in the Rio Grande do Sul state to call attention to Tuesday's police operation, which they say injured 50 activists of the farm workers' rights group Via Campesina.

"We want to denounce the violence and the abuse committed by (authorities)," the movement said in a statement.  read more »

Dear comrades,

We are writing to introduce the Solidarity Without Borders Campaign, a
coordinated, sustained, three-pronged campaign in solidarity with
immigrant and indigenous struggles across North and Latin America.

Anti-authoritarian groups from across the Northeast and Midwest USA have
come together to form the Solidarity Without Borders Group.

This working group came out of the recent Consulta of the Northeast
Anarchist Network (NEAN) and Midwest Action Network (MAN). The proposal
was initiated by the Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement (BAAM) and NYC
Local Union of the North East Federation of Anarchist Communists (NEFAC),
and has been joined by anarchists from over a dozen other towns and cities.  read more »

By Alex Emery

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg ) -- Peruvian farmers ended a two-day protest that disrupted transportation and left four dead and hundreds under arrest, the government cabinet chief said today.  read more »

Fri Feb 15, 2008

PANAMA CITY, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Nearly 300 protesters were arrested in Panama on Friday as construction workers clashed with police for the third day running over the shooting death of a fellow worker earlier this week.

A dozen police were injured in Friday's protest, which kept much of the capital paralyzed, with piles of tires burning on busy roads and highways across the city.

Police reported 286 arrests, bringing the number of people detained since Tuesday to around 780, police said.

Protesters also threw stones at riot police in the affluent Paitilla area of the city, home to many of Panama's glass-covered skyscrapers, local television images showed.  read more »

indymedia.org 20 Jan 2008

In an operation that began at 5:00 today [January 15], using a helicopter and coordinated by the police, Patricia Troncoso Robles, a political prisoner in hunger strike since October 10th 2007, is being transferred to a hospital. Patricia, condemned by the Antiterrorist Law, has spent five years in prison and will spend other five to serve her 10-year term, due to the irregular judgment of the case "Poluco Pidenco".  read more »

Mapuche Student Shot Dead; Political Prisoner Slowly Dying From Hunger Strike

13th January 2008

A peaceful protest by the Mapuche met a bloody end on 3rd January when police opened fire into the crowd, killing 22-year-old university student Matias Catrileo Quezada. The young Mapuche man was shot in the back upon retreating, when Chilean police began firing indiscriminately into the crowd with machine guns. Among the protestors were elderly civilians and children, and it was a miracle that nobody else was killed.

For years the Chilean judicial system has refused to deliver justice and
return the indigenous land illegally taken by the estate Santa Margarita,  read more »

http://www.calleymedia.org/ 2004 documentary on the impact of financial neo-liberalism on Latin America and other parts of the world and what Hugo Chavez is doing to stop its spread in Venezuela.

Joao Paulo Pereira, a coordinator of the peasants rights group Via Campesina, said hundreds of protesters overran the farm belong to Syngenta AG near the town of Cajazeiras, blocking access to workers, knocking down fences and destroying some greenhouses before leaving.

In a statement, Syngenta said about 80 protesters took part in the events and that none of its employees were at the site at the time: security personnel were told to leave the property in order to avoid any conflicts.  read more »

"SHUTTING UP VENEZUELA'S CHAVEZ " by Roger Cohen: A Critique
by Thomas Riggins

Roger Cohen is an editor at The New York Times and columnist for its op ed page and for The International Herald Tribune. The above column appeared in the Times on 11-29-07. It is tendentious in the extreme, poorly argued and factually incorrect.

Cohen is in Caracas, presumedly to observe Sunday's constitutional referendum,
and this column reveals the thoughts of a man who has no sympathy at all for the interests of the people of Venezuela but every sympathy for the interests of US imperialism and its supporters.  read more »

(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-30 09:30

QUITO - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa on Thursday declared an Amazonian province under a state of emergency to quell a protest that has slashed the state's oil output by 20 percent, said a presidential spokeswoman.

He also removed Interior Minister Gustavo Larrea, a close adviser, for not stamping out the protest of villagers in the oil-rich province of Orellana, the spokeswoman said. They are demanding more funding for infrastructure projects.

The state of emergency bans public gatherings and marches and sets curfews.

Earlier on Thursday, Correa replaced the head of the state's oil company, Petroecuador, and called on a high-level government commission to negotiate with protesters.  read more »

by Mira Oberman Sun Nov 25, 6:17 PM ET

CHICAGO (AFP) - Dozens of teens dressed in uniforms provided by the US Marines stand at attention in the gym of a Chicago public high school as a drill sergeant goes through a list of the day's do's and don'ts.

Bring your books to class. Come for extra help if you need it. And wear your uniform with pride.  read more »

Sunday, 11 November 2007 BBC

Tens of thousands of Argentines have marched to the Uruguayan border in one of the biggest protests so far against a controversial pulp paper mill.

They have been demonstrating against the construction of the factory for more than two years, saying it will pollute the environment.

This week Uruguay President Tabare Vazquez said the mill could start work.  read more »

Following the November Vigil to Close the SOA (see
http://www.soaw.org ), our friends in Immokalee, Florida are going to
organize a major mobilization to take place in Miami at the Burger
King headquarters on Friday, November 30. They are mobilizing folks
from across the state of Florida, the southeast US, and the rest of
the country to take a stand for fair wages and working conditions,
fundamental human rights and an end to modern-day slavery in the
agricultural industry. Click here for more information:
http://www.ciw-online.org/2007_BK_March/index.html  read more »

The Associated Press October 23, 2007

CARACAS, Venezuela: Thousands of university students scuffled with police and government supporters during a protest Tuesday demanding that civil liberties be respected under constitutional reforms being drafted by allies of President Hugo Chavez.

Police tossed tear gas canisters into the crowd of opposition students after clashes broke out with a smaller group of pro-Chavez demonstrators near the National Assembly. Journalists estimated the crowd at about 20,000 protesters, but pro-Chavez lawmakers said there were far fewer.

There were no reports of arrests or serious injuries, though student leader Stalin Gonzalez said at least five demonstrators suffered minor injuries during the bottle and rock-throwing melee.  read more »

Oct. 10, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia - Police clashed with hundreds of protesters who blocked roads and burned trucks in Colombia on Wednesday in demonstrations called by unions, farmers and indigenous groups who accuse the government of ties to right-wing militias.  read more »

President Uribe urged to protect SINALTRAINAL leaders, stem paramilitaries

Pittsburgh – Leo W. Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers (USW) today released a letter sent to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez to urge “all actions necessary to protect the lives of the SINALTRAINAL members, its leaders and their families.”  read more »

By Rebecca Trotzky Sirr
Originally published at www.UpsideDownWorld.org

Though new laws guarantee all Venezuelans the right to healthcare, birth control and sexual education, poorer women disproportionately face health problems including higher rates of disease, STDs, unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions.

Sara walks into the neighborhood clinic where I am volunteering in rural Venezuela, in a municipality of less than 15,000 people situated in the Andes mountains. Besides tourism, agriculture fuels the local economy, which is dependent on small farms. Sara visited today for her checkup. She’s 35 and has lived here all her life. "Before this clinic was here, I never went to the doctor," she explains.  read more »

July 26, 2007 Written by Kyle Weinberg Infoshop News  read more »

By Dan Collyns BBC News, Lima

Nationwide protests and a general strike have brought Peru to a near standstill over the last week.

Thousands of people in every major town and city took to the streets, and three people are reported to have been killed in clashes around the country.

The protests are widely seen as a show of disapproval with the government of President Alan Garcia.  read more »

By EDISON LOPEZ July 12, 2007 Forbes

Some 300 public school teachers protesting a new law that will require them to take periodic competency tests took over a train station in southern Peru, setting some of the cars on fire on Thursday.

Gonzalo Rojas, a spokesman for the privately owned PeruRail company said service from the southern Andean city of Juliaca to Cuzco - a popular tourist route - has been suspended.

"The group clashed with the police, took control of the station and started to set the cars on fire," Rojas told The Associated Press. He added that there are 1,600 gallons of oil on the 15 cars, "putting the city in danger."  read more »

Download this Public Service Announcement and post it on your own website to help us spread the word about the SOA and close this terrorist training school. It's free and easy! Contact us to receive VHS, Betacam copies.

Closing the School of Assassins (School of the Americas)  read more »

By JOSHUA GOODMAN, Associated Press Jun 15, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombia is set to become the first Latin American country to give established gay couples full rights to health insurance, inheritance and social security under a bill passed by its Congress. The plan approved Thursday is expected to take effect soon. It is backed by the country's conservative President Alvaro Uribe.  read more »

June 10, 2007 Bombs and Shields

Colombia - Public university students and teachers have been absent from classes since they walked out of school on the eve of a May 23rd nation-wide general strike that was observed by hundreds of thousands of people opposed to the government's ongoing Free Trade Agreement negotiations and related economic reforms.  read more »

U.S. newspapers seem to overlook what Venezuela used to be like as they today discuss the actions of the current government. I have lived in Venezuela for most of the past 22 years and have never experienced such freedom as that which the Venezuelan population enjoys today under Hugo Chavez. That would include freedom of information. Never, in the past 22 years, has the mass media experienced the freedom it has had during the presidency of Chavez. One can freely buy anti-Chavez newspapers on streets and the airwaves and television channels are amply filled with anti-Chavez commentators.  read more »

May 24, 2007

By Peter Muello, Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) -- Brazil's president ordered troops to expel hundreds of demonstrators who invaded a large Amazon hydroelectric dam to protest a lack of electricity for the region's poor.

But by Wednesday evening, the official Agencia Estado news agency reported that the protesters had already begun to leave after dam operator Centrais Eletricas do Norte do Brasil SA, or Eletronorte, negotiated their departure by offering them food.

There were no reports of clashes or injuries, and Eletronorte said power generation was not affected because it was able to operate the dam remotely.  read more »

By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Associated Press May 21, 2007

10 CARACAS, Venezuela - Thousands of protesters carried a blocks-long "SOS" banner through Venezuela's capital on Monday, condemning threats to freedom of expression days before the country is set to lose one of its few remaining opposition-aligned TV stations.  read more »

May 12, 2007

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP)- Striking teachers and public workers tossed eggs and flour at President Nestor Kirchner's sister on Saturday, jostling the Cabinet minister as she visited the president's home province of Santa Cruz.  read more »