Truthout - Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who terrorized his opponents for 17 years after taking power in a bloody coup, died Sunday, putting an end to a decade of intensifying efforts to bring him to trial for human rights abuses blamed on his regime. He was 91.
Supporters saw Pinochet as a Cold War hero for overthrowing democratically elected President Salvador Allende at a time when the U.S. was working to destabilize his Marxist government and keep Chile from exporting communism in Latin (…)
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Latin America and the Caribbean
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CHILE - Clashes Break Out After Pinochet’s Death (by Eduardo Gallardo, TruthOut)
11 December 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
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BOLIVIA - Two Cheers for Evo Morales?
Immanuel Wallerstein
11 December 2006, posted by DialFeb. 1, 2006 - The election of Evo Morales as President of Bolivia has sparked an extensive debate about how far left Latin America is moving. Or rather, an extensive debate about what it means to be on the "left" in Latin America (or anywhere). There have been, it seems to me, four different ways of appreciating the electoral victory of Morales, which reflect four different political sociologies.
There is a large group of Latin American left intellectuals, and their sympathizers elsewhere (…) -
LATIN AMERICA - How Has Latin America Moved Left?
Immanuel Wallerstein
11 December 2006, posted by DialJune 15, 2006 - The discussion on the leftward trend of Latin America in recent years reflects all the confusion, worldwide, about what it means to be on the left in the twenty-first century. The confusion is among all wings of world political opinion. There are various explanations for this confusion. The most obvious reason is that different people are measuring different things as the criterion of moving left. The second is that no such political tendency is perfectly linear. It always (…)
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CUBA - Top Cuban Official Ricardo Alarcón on Castro’s Condition and Cuba’s Future
Ricardo Alarcón, Amy Goodman & Jon Alpert, Democracy Now!
6 December 2006, posted by Manuela Garza AscencioTuesday, December 5th, 2006 - Democracy Now! News Program - Cuba is coming off the week-long celebration of the eightieth birthday of President Fidel Castro. Castro’s birthday was in August but celebrations were delayed after Castro fell ill with an unspecified intestinal condition. He has not appeared in public and not did attend any of last week’s events. The Cuban government insists Castro is improving but there is speculation his condition is worse than has been publicly disclosed. (…)
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ECUADOR - Rafael Correa Reaches the Government from the Left
Kintto Lucas, IPS
28 November 2006, posted by Kintto Lucas, MikaIPS - Rafael Correa, a leftist economist who plans to renegotiate Ecuador’s foreign debt and oil company contracts while working with other left-leaning governments towards the consolidation of a South American bloc, won what appeared to be a landslide victory in Ecuador’s presidential runoff Sunday.
An exit poll by the Quito-based Cedatos polling company showed that the leader of the Country Alliance Movement took 55 percent of the vote compared to 45 percent for his rival, banana magnate (…) -
MEXICO - Femicides in Ciudad Juárez Just a Drop in the Ocean of Blood (by Diego Cevallos, IPS)
26 November 2006, posted by Manuela Garza Ascencio
IPS - Ciudad Juárez in Mexico has been dubbed "the femicide capital" of the world by human rights organisations because about 400 women have been killed there in the last 13 years. But murders of women are also frequent elsewhere in Mexico, as well as in Guatemala and El Salvador, and so far there is little public discussion about them.
An average of 1,000 women a year were murdered in Mexico, a country of 103 million, between 1995 and 2005, according to official figures. Ciudad Juárez (…) -
ECUADOR - Presidential Candidate Rafael Correa Closing the Gap With his Rival Álvaro Noboa
Kintto Lucas, IPS
20 November 2006, posted by Kintto Lucas, Manuela Garza AscencioIPS - November, 18, 2006 - With only 10 days to go to the second round of the presidential elections in Ecuador, three surveys have found that leftwinger Rafael Correa has reached a technical draw with his rival, banana magnate Álvaro Noboa, and that voter intentions in his favour are still rising.
The polling firms, whose results were obtained by IPS, have a three percent margin of error either way. No poll results have been published in Ecuadorian media since Nov. 6, in line with (…) -
VENEZUELA - Latin American Catholic Church divided over Chávez
Paola Moiola, Latinamerica Press
14 de noviembre de 2006, puesto en línea por Amando BasurtoFather Jesús Silva, a Uruguayan priest, has lived in the Caracas slum of El Valle for 26 years.
"People of Venezuela’s eternally excluded and exploited social classes live here," Silva said, pointing to the tin roofs and unfinished brick buildings. "Today these people have a man in whom they confide," he continued, referring to President Hugo Chávez.
But Venezuela’s Catholic Church hierarchy has stood against Chávez since he took office in 1999. The late Cardinal José Ignacio Velasco was (…) -
MEXICO - How Many Deaths is the Oaxaca Governor Worth?
Diego Cevallos, IPS
3 November 2006, posted by Manuela Garza AscencioIPS - The governor of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca is clinging to his post, bringing the months-long local conflict to boiling point. More than 15 people are dead, 5,000 police are unsuccessfully trying to quell the social protest, and there political rancour simmers nationwide.
The main demand of those involved in the popular uprising in Oaxaca — which began in May, flared up in June and is now at its worst — is the departure of Governor Ulises Ruiz, member of the (…) -
MEXICO - Tense and Only Relative Calm after Police Crackdown
Diego Cevallos, IPS
1 November 2006, posted by DialMEXICO CITY, Oct 30 - IPS - The Mexican government justified on Monday the violent storming by federal police of social protests in the capital of the southern state of Oaxaca, saying it had restored peace and order. But the evidence tells a different story.
"The situation has got worse. We have been subjected to violent and unacceptable attacks (on Sunday) which left three dead, more than 50 under arrest, several ’disappeared’ and some cases of torture," Florentino López, spokesman for (…)