IRC - Since the early nineties, criminal gang networks operating across the border between the United States and Central America have exploded in power and number. The gangs take advantage of loopholes in international immigration and deportation policies to spread their influence through extreme violence.
The Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, has become one of the “Most Wanted” of these gangs. What began as a loosely-connected group of Salvadoran immigrant youth banded together for protection (…)
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Latin America and the Caribbean
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AMERICAS - Deportation Feeds a Cycle of Violence in Central America (by Sam Logan, Ben Bain and Kate Kairies, IRC)
11 May 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
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MEXICO - Dirty Democracy Sullies Mexican Presidential Campaigns (by Laura Carlsen, IRC)
9 May 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IRC - Mexicans have fought long and hard to bring democracy to their country. That’s why the spectacle of the current presidential elections is particularly lamentable.
As the July 2 vote nears, the level of campaigning has descended. Felipe Calderón, candidate for the National Action Party (PAN), has been criticized for a series of nasty television spots-one that compares front-runner Andrés Manuel López Obrador with Hugo Chávez, and another that inexplicably attacks Elena Poniatowska, a (…) -
MEXICO - Police Brutality in San Salvador Atenco (by John Gibler, Znet)
8 May 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
Znet - San Salvador Atenco, Mexico - At 7 AM this past Wednesday, May 3rd, state police blocked 60 flower vendors from setting up their stands at the Texcoco local market in the State of Mexico, about 20 miles east of Mexico City. The police beat and arrested those who resisted. The flower vendors called to the residents of neighboring San Salvador Atenco for help and the Atenco residents blocked the highway that borders their town and leads to Texcoco.
The police response was (…) -
MEXICO - Migrantes Mexicanas Presentes en la Marcha del 1ro de Mayo (por Lourdes Godínez, Cimacnoticias)
2 May 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
Cimacnoticias - Documentadas o indocumentadas, las mujeres migrantes mexicanas que marchan este primero de mayo en Estados Unidos con la ilusión de concretar “el sueño americano”, contribuyen a la mejora económica de sus hogares y del país.
Como es sabido, la falta de empleo en los lugares de origen o la reunificación familiar aleja a mujeres y hombres de sus comunidades en busca de mejores oportunidades, sin embargo “no se puede seguir pensando que la mujer se va sin preparación a los (…) -
CUBA - Media Intoxication and the Case of the False Cuban Political Exiles
Salim Lamrani, Voltairenet
19 April 2006, posted by Amando BasurtoVoltairenet- During the World Social Forum of Caracas, Salim Lamrani used the Cuban example, which he has thoroughly studied, to show how the alternative media can act against the lies of US propaganda. That is possible to achieve by mobilizing the means necessary to carry out comparative research to place the facts in their context.
Thanks to the control achieved by information transnationals , the world elites imposed on humanity a vision of reality that is very limited to a given (…) -
COLOMBIA - Latest News on FARC (by Constanza Vieira, IPS)
19 April 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IPS - In Colombia, which has been steeped in civil war for decades, every reporter has refrained from writing up hundreds of stories to avoid endangering people or communities merely by mentioning or revealing specific places like villages or roads, or repeating conversations.
But Colombian journalist Jorge Enrique Botero, who has reaped both prizes and criticism, has now provided another glimpse into the world of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia’s largest rebel (…) -
LATIN AMERICA - The Sunset of U.S. Empire Building: The Rise of a New Latin America
Michael Hogan
13 April 2006, posted by Michael HoganA century and a half of interventions, costly miscalculations, even outright invasions, did not do much to push Latin America away from its sometimes passive-aggressive, sometimes envious, but always dependent relationship with the United States. It took the generalized failure of neo-liberalism, coupled with four years of U.S. indifference to the region following the events of 9/11 and the unilateral megalomania of pre-emptive war, for Latin Americans to decide it was time to determine (…)
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CHILE - Leaders of German Enclave “Colonia Dignidad” and Dictature’s Intelligence Agency Charged with Human Rights Abuses
Gustavo González, IPS
12 April 2006, posted by Amando BasurtoIPS - During the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, the regime’s notorious secret police and a colony of German immigrants in southern Chile cooperated closely to commit human rights abuses, according to a Chilean judge, who indicted 18 members of the two organisations.
"We see Zepeda’s decision as very positive," Lorena Pizarro, head of the Group of Families of the Detained/Disappeared, told IPS. "We hope that it will pave the way for learning the truth about the murders (…) -
BRAZIL - The Difficult Path to Multilateralism
Raúl Zibechi, IRC
7 April 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio, Raúl ZibechiThe United Nations Multinational Interim Force in Haiti (UNMIF), led by Brazil, represents a step forward for the regional power in establishing a multilateral policy agenda. Nevertheless, Brazil’s rise as a regional power is running into difficulties, both domestic and international.
A century ago, the baron of Rio Branco, the Brazilian foreign minister who forged his country’s foreign policy for the 20th century, said, “Brazil must not dwell on what it has already accomplished; it must (…) -
MEXICO - On immigration reform Mexico still wants the whole enchilada
Diego Cevallos, IPS
7 April 2006, posted by Amando BasurtoIPS - A bipartisan immigration reform agreement reached by the U.S. Senate Thursday, which would offer a path to citizenship for as many as seven million undocumented immigrants while creating a guest worker programme, met with mixed reactions in Mexico.
Although the agreement, which must now be reconciled with an earlier bill approved by the lower house of Congress, is not the comprehensive reform that the Mexican government had hoped for, it comes fairly close.
In December, the U.S. (…)