I understand I need to post a blank post here.
South American Politics
Fri, 2010-01-01 18:51
#1
South American Politics
Fri, 2010-01-01 19:18
#2
I have not posted here in quite some time.
I frequently read here however.
I would like to direct your attention to the Honduras. .
Specifically to Peter Kent and his thoughts on the situation there.
Peter Kent is Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the Americas. He is the member of parliament for the riding of Thornhill. His wiki page is here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kent He was recently quoted saying “Canada congratulates the Honduran people for the relatively peaceful and orderly manner in which the country’s elections were conducted. While Sunday’s elections were not monitored by international organizations such as the Organization of American States, we are encouraged by reports from civil society organizations that there was a strong turnout for the elections, that they appear to have been run freely and fairly, and that there was no major violence." I direct your attentions to this link http://www.petitiononline.com/helect/petition.html Honduras is a country besieged. it is being ignored in all ways possible by media now. Our "Conservative" government is more than complicit in encouraging this state of affairs to continue. I came across this blog post recently.. http://canadiandimension.com/blog/2609/ quote: Honduras today is like an Orwellian nightmare. A façade of calm as soldiers patrol the streets with automatic weapons; a theatrical production of democracy in a state that no longer has a functioning code of law; a discourse of peace that so completely fails to convince, it almost seems like it is intended to mock its victims. Indeed, one placard yesterday read, “2 + 2 = 5? Do not insult us, golpistas.” And Canada is already falling all over itself to recognize the ‘elections’ as fair, free and legitimate. ..." Peter Kent is falling all over himself.
Tue, 2010-01-05 17:38
#3
Killing Organizers in Honduras
http://www.counterpunch.org/shansky01052010.html
"The bodies of slain activists are piling up in Honduras.."
Tue, 2010-01-05 19:40
#4
I almost gagged when I read that article.
I have no words in me regarding that. Thank you for pointing it out.
Perhaps I will be able to string a sentence togaether later.
Tue, 2010-01-05 20:08
#5
Note that Honduras is in Central America.
As to the country itself it's always been a nasty morass, I remember reading a figure of something like 129 Govt's in 140 years, been next door many times but never felt like visiting.
Thu, 2010-01-28 09:34
#6
World Powers Set to Normalize Relations with Honduras
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/world-powers-set-normalize-relations-hond...
"Earlier this week it was also announced thaqt Manuel Zelaya would leave the country and live in exile in Dominican Republic..."
Thu, 2010-01-28 10:12
#7
omit
Thu, 2010-01-28 14:47
#8
This coup in Honduras has been a bloody nightmare, and to see North American nations supporting the illegal coup leaders is a disgrace.
Central and South America is a real hotbed of political angst. Illegal drugs dominate politics and economies. Some of those nations have allready abandoned the "war on drugs" by making possession of small amounts legal. Columbia continues to partner with the USA ["plan Columbia"] and that is driving a wedge between Columbia and other S. American nations [esp. w/ Venezuela].
It is a near certainty that the Honduras political situation has something to do with illegal drugs.
Sat, 2010-01-30 16:27
#9
Chavez Denounces New Honduran Leader
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117339§ionid=351020704
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called new Honduran President Portino Lobo illegitimate, criticizing countries that recognize the new government. "The United States, Colombia, Peru, Panama and Canada were applauding the inauguration of an illegitimate president.."
Wed, 2010-02-03 16:21
#10
US Intelligence Report Classifies Venezuela as 'Anti-US Leader'
http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/us_intelligence_report_classifies_venez...
"Eva Golinger breaks down the Annual Threat Assessment of the USss Intelligence Community to show how President Obama's administration formally views Venezuela a threat in the same class as Al Qa'ida'"
Wed, 2010-02-03 20:26
#11
ceti
Good article about the US moving its chess pieces into the forward position by repossessing its pawns:
Why Washington Cares About Countries Like Haiti and Honduras
Add to that the corporate campaigns by billionaires in Panama and Chile to take back those countries for neoliberalism, we are seeing the Empire Strike Back. If the US succeeds, then any hope for another world in this possibly terminal phase of human civilization will be dashed. Barbarism will have triumphed and we should expect a very dark near future.
Sat, 2010-02-06 12:13
#12
Consolidating the Coup in Honduras
http://www.counterpunch.org/webber02052010.html
"The new Lobo regime and the golpista press are presenting the transfer of power as a return to democracy and thus an end to the coup. Lobo they claim, marks a new beginning for a democratic Honduras under a new government of national reconciliation. Unsurprisingly, this position is being echoed by US and Canadian imperialism.."
Wed, 2010-07-28 23:17
#13
Panama: General Strike Rejects Killings, Anti-Labor Laws
By Frederico Fuentes
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Quote:
The trigger for the recent protests was the June 12 approval by the National Assembly, behind closed doors and under heavy police protection, of the anti-worker Law 30.
Handed down by the executive, Law 30 is commonly referred to as the “sausage law”. It is ostensibly a law to reform the civil aviation sector, but is packed full of anti-union provisions implying big changes to the labour law and penal code.
This includes dramatic restrictions on the right to strike, provision of payments for strike-breakers and the ability to fire striking workers, the elimination of obligatory payment of union dues, and immunity for the police to use force against strikers.
Another recent law penalises workers that take part in street protests with possible 2-5 year prison terms.
These new laws have given bosses a green light to drive down wages and conditions.
This comes as the government is pushing to further hand over more of Panama’s natural resources to transnationals and carry out neoliberal education reforms — moves which have ignited popular anger.
The first sign of rising anger was a 10,000-strong march on June 29.
On July 2, 4500 mostly indigenous workers belonging to the powerful Banana workers union (Sitribana) began a strike at the Bocas Fruit Company in the province of Bocas del Toro.
Workers from nearby farms quickly joined the strike. Other workers set up road blockades and occupied the airport. Employees on the project to widen and deepen the Panama Canal also downed tools.
In response, the government mobilised 1500 police to brutally repress protesters....
http://www.zcommunications.org/panama-general-strike-rejects-killings-an...
Sat, 2010-08-28 21:56
#14
Media Pornography - by Eva Golinger
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20803
"Millions of dollars from US State Department to Venezuelan media groups.."
Mon, 2010-08-30 23:28
#15
Costa Rica: The Lowest Form of Military Aggression (and vid interview with Eva Golinger)
http://www.voltairenet.org/article166851.html
"The Legislature has now authorized the entry of 12,207 US soldiers and 46 military vessels, 45 armed with artillery...The agreement also grants permission for aircraft carriers such as the 'Wasp amphibious attack' which are specifically assault ships. Everything on the list of ships, aircraft, helicopters and troops detailed above is designed and intended to be used in a war..."
Is the US buildup intended to be used against Venezuela?
Tue, 2011-05-31 15:10
#16
Venezuelans Mobilize Against Obama's Sanctions
By Shamus Cooke, May 31st 2011
CARACAS, May 30, 2011. Seeing is believing. Any hope that Venezuelans had in the Obama administration has been shattered against the recent U.S.-imposed sanctions on Venezuela's state-owned oil company, PDVSA. Two massive rallies were held in one week in Caracas against this U.S. foreign intervention. Many of the speakers and many in the audience with their homemade signs expressed the motive behind the sanctions: they are nothing less than an attack on the Venezuela revolution itself and the inherent potential the revolution has to not only push away U.S. power in South America, but transform the economic system on which this power is based.
Sunday's (May 29, 2011) rally was enormous. People represented their role in the revolution by their clothes or signs: there were countless PDVSA oil workers with hardhats and overalls; middle-aged women wearing t-shirts of their neighborhood-run, state-funded food cooperatives; students proudly waving signs about their state-funded school; mothers with children carried signs about their local health-care clinic -- all born from the revolution....
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/6229
Fri, 2011-06-03 07:46
#17
Elections in Peru: A Battle Over Memory and Justice
June 03, 2011
By Benjamin Dangl and Jesse Strauss
When Peruvian presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori arrived at a plaza in the city of Cajamarca for a recent campaign speech, she was met by a barrage of eggs thrown by activists who opposed her candidacy and called her a “murderer and thief.”
Quote: On Thursday, May 26, thousands of people took to the streets in Lima, to march against Keiko Fujimori, and the political Fujimorismo that she embodies. “Keiko Fujimori represents the worst period in our history,” Silva Santisteban, a human right leader participating in the march, told La Republica newspaper. “We don't want this dark period of our history to return and that's why we're in the the streets.”...
http://www.zcommunications.org/elections-in-peru-a-battle-over-memory-an...
Mon, 2011-06-06 09:08
#18
Mon, 2011-08-08 00:17
#19
Ecuador: The Construction of a New Model of Domination
Written by Raúl Zibechi
Friday, 05 August 2011 14:27
Translation by Alex Cachinero-Gorman
Ecuadorian politics show clear signs of schizophrenia. The government employs a revolutionary rhetoric, appealing in all its pronouncements to the “Citizens' Revolution”, but the executors of that very process—the ones who, with their struggles since the revival of Inti Raymi in 1990, delegitimized neoliberalism and caused three presidents to step down—are now accused of being “infantile” and of being “terrorists”. The same indigenous and trade union leaders that fought for Rafael Correa to become president now suffer trials and prison sentences. More than 180 indigenous leaders have been accused of “terrorism and sabotage”, among them the president of CONAIE, Marlon Santi, and the Ecuarunari Delfin Tenesaca, who head up the two most important social organizations in the country.
The president is accusing personalities like Alberto Acosta, ex-president of the Constituent Assembly and ex-friend of Correa, who worked to include concepts like Buen Vivir (Sumak Kawsay) and the “rights of nature” in the Constitution, of being “traitors”. On the other hand, when he was interviewed by Ignacio Ramonet, Correa never referred to those police who were—according to him—intent on carrying out a coup d'etat and assassinating him as terrorists. Correa, allied with traditional, right-wing businessman, reserves his most poisonous darts for the Left, something that shouldn't be news for anyone who is familiar with the history of workers' and socialist movements.....
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/ecuador-archives-49/3152-ecuador-the-con...
Sat, 2012-06-16 08:54
#20
Boom Boom
I think CBC is airing this Sunday night - but I'm not 100% sure. Check your local listings.
excerpt:
One of these properties is in the Colon province of Panama, where a number of indigenous peoples and peasant farmers, backed by a national consortium of environmental groups are trying to stop two Canadian mining companies from developing a gold mine and one of the last known major copper reserves in the world. They are concerned these mines would strip thousands of hectares of rain forest, deplete and contaminate water supplies, and displace the communities that have made the area their home for centuries, including the Ngobe people, Panama's largest indigenous group.
excerpt:
Canadians, in the meantime, are largely oblivious to this new role, still considering themselves peacemakers on the international stage, despite the fact that the Conservative government recently rejected a bill in Parliament that would have made Canadian mining companies more accountable for their activities abroad.
ETA: From a friend on another forum: It will air next Tuesday, the 19th, after The National. A shortened version is on Monday, the 18th during The National.
Sun, 2012-07-01 04:13
#21
And now we have a coup in Paraguay.
Sun, 2012-07-01 04:31
#22
glad somebody else here noticed...
Sat, 2012-07-14 22:03
#23
This article http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/657.php which you linked to was very interesting.
Sat, 2012-07-14 22:18
#24
their upcoming book on Canadian imperialism in the Caribbean and South America looks like a must read as well..
Mon, 2013-02-18 03:26
#25
President Rafael Correa Declares Victory in Ecuador's Election
http://rt.com/news/ecuador-vote-correa-victory-438/
"Ecuadoreans have reelected President Rafael Correa in Sunday's presidential vote, according to the first official exit poll. Correa has declared victory in the country's election..."
Mon, 2013-02-18 07:02
#26
A good victory too! http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/18/ecuador-president-heralds-ci... That is a spot of good news!