IPS - Congressman-elect Alejandro Aguinaga, a former health minister during the Alberto Fujimori administration (1990-2000), as of Jul. 28 will have to share the legislative chamber with rural activist Hilaria Supa Huamán, who has denounced him for promoting the forced sterilisation of hundreds of thousands of Peruvian women.
Supa, who will occupy a seat representing Union for Peru the party that supported the presidential candidacy of nationalist Ollanta Humala — formally accused (...)
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Latin America and the Caribbean
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PERU - Forcibly Sterilized Women Gain Voice in Congress (by Ángel Páez, IPS)
18 July 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
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MEXICO - Dramatic Vote Count Lacks Credibility (by Laura Carlsen, IRC)
12 July 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IRC - Mexico’s official vote count unfolded more like a suspense novel than an electoral process yesterday. Commentators and common citizens sat poised at television or computer screens as Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s two-and-a-half point lead gradually dwindled until-at four in the morning-the conservative candidate, Felipe Calderón, pulled ahead. The final tally showed an unbelievably thin margin of just over half a percentage point.
The operative word here is “unbelievable.” López (...) -
BRASIL - Campaign ’Send a card to Lula’
7 July 2006, posted by Dial
The following brazilian organizations: Pastoral Land Commission; Caritas; Pastoral Service for Migrants; Reporter Brasil; Rural Bar Association-AATR, Rural Pastoral & Sintagro Bahia; Human Rights Commission in Açailândia MA and Araguaína TO) are launching a three months campaign, during the election campaign, focused on the erradication of slave labour in Brazil. See the text below.
To send your card to Lula, please access
https://sistema.planalto.gov.br/falepr/exec/index.cfm
and (...) -
MEXICO - Voters Bring PRI Dynasty to Definitive End (by Diego Cevallos, IPS)
6 July 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IPS - Mexico’s once-powerful PRI is hanging its head in shame after a disastrous performance in Sunday’s elections, while leading candidates Felipe Calderón, of the governing conservative party, and left-leaning Andrés Manuel López Obrador remain under the microscope for the duration of the definitive recount.
At this point, the presidential elections are mired in uncertainty, but one fact is not debatable — that Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) candidate Roberto Madrazo finished (...) -
MEXICO - Calderón: Conservative Catholic for Continuity (por Diego Cevallos, IPS)
5 July 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IPS - Scarcely one year ago, no one would have dreamed that conservative-party member Felipe Calderón would end up as a presidential candidate at all, much less a favourite going into the elections this Sunday.
Calderón, of the National Action Party (PAN), which currently holds the presidency, defied predictions through a strategy founded primarily on promoting himself as the foil to his closest rival, according to the latest polls, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the left-leaning (...) -
LATIN AMERICA - Education: Reading, Writing and Then What? (by Patricia Grogg, IPS)
22 June 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IPS - María del Carmen Cervantes has learned to read the mysterious signs she couldn’t decipher before, and now she wants to "go on reading and studying," a goal that is not always possible for recently literate adults in Latin America, because of deficiencies in the literacy programmes.
Cervantes was one of the first to benefit from the literacy programme using the Cuban method "Yes, I Can!" in Michoacán, a southwestern Mexican state with a population of 3.9 million people and an (...) -
MEXICO - "Urbane" Debate Reveals Contrasts in Mexican Candidates (by Laura Carlsen, IRC)
13 June 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IRC - If one took the June 7 televised presidential debate at its face value, it would be difficult to understand what’s at stake in Mexico’s upcoming presidential elections. The heavy use of cosmetics and canned speeches left the viewers to read between the lines of what was actually said to ascertain the political proposals being sold over a medium that has indeed become the message.
The test of a televised debate is not what the candidates say but how they do. This makes the end (...) -
SOUTH AMERICA - After Bolivia’s Gas Nationalization, Toward a New Regional Map
Raúl Zibechi, IRC
10 June 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio, Raúl ZibechiIRC- In a single sweep of the pen, Bolivian President Evo Morales has rearranged the continent’s entire geopolitical map. The May 1st decision to nationalize hydrocarbons placed South America’s second largest gas reserves under state control. Oil and gas are powerful weapons, capable of reshaping South American alliances, as evidenced by the close relationship between Venezuela and Bolivia-the continent’s largest reserve holders in both sectors-who have taken the political initiative and (...)
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MEXICO - "Fuimos Botín de Guerra" : Testimonio de una de las Mujeres Violadas y Encarceladas en Atenco (por Cimacnoticias)
18 May 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
Cimac - Las mujeres fuimos un “botín de guerra”, el premio para los policías que ingresaron a San Salvador Atenco el pasado 4 de mayo, denunció María, una de las 23 mujeres violadas en aquel operativo y que hoy exige justicia y castigo a los responsables de la agresión.
Entrevistada por Carmen Aristegui, en W radio, María cuyo nombre permanece en reserva, narró con la voz distorsionada por el miedo a la represión, el abuso sexual, las vejaciones y las violaciones de las que fue víctima (...) -
MEXICO - Human Rights in Fox’s Administration: Bold First Steps, Little Follow-Through (by Diego Cevallos, IPS)
18 May 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IPS - The government of Vicente Fox has marked a radical turning-point with respect to the focus on human rights in Mexico, taking unprecedented steps towards transparency, international scrutiny and public access to government information, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Wednesday.
The New York-based rights watchdog warned, however, that Mexico has yet to "effectively address the human rights problems that this openness and transparency have helped to expose."
"In (...)