World Watch: Protest vs. Repression

* Ethiopia: According to Amnesty International at least ninety-seven people have died and hundreds were injured over the weekend after security agents fired against anti-government protesters in the Oromia and Amhara regions.

* Turkey: Turkish authorities detained at least ten foreign nationals as part of a crackdown after a failed July 15th coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

* Japan: Regulators in Japan raided the offices of online retail giant Amazon as part of an antitrust investigation.

* World: Oil futures closed at their highest point in two weeks as a result of speculation over an “informal” meeting next month of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries member states.

YouTube Source – France 24 English

Online Sources – UPI, CNBC, USA TODAY, The Independent

Daily Headlines: September 11, 2014

* Brazil: New government data indicated that deforestation in the Amazon rainforest increased for the second consecutive year due to illegal logging and the expansion of major infrastructure projects.

* Central America: Panama’s president claimed that a major expansion of the Panama Canal is expected to be completed in December 2015 while construction of a planned interoceanic waterway in Nicaragua will reportedly commence later this year.

* U.S.: Homeland Security senior officials denied rumors of ISIS terrorists trying to cross the border from Mexico into the U.S.

* Haiti: Over one million doses of a treatment for the chikungunya virus as authorities worry that the rainy season could worsen the outbreak of the disease.

Video Source – YouTube user EarthOutreach

Online Sources – BBC News; ABC News; Inside Costa Rica; TVNZ; New York Daily News

Daily Headlines: August 29, 2014

* Brazil: Federal police thwarted “the largest deforestation gang in Brazil's Amazon rain forest” responsible for destroying 38,000 acres of land worth an estimated $222 million.

* Mexico: Mexico’s crackdown on undocumented migrants may have reportedly led to a decreased flow of Central Americans trying to reach the U.S. but it could lead to an increase of migrants opting to stay in Mexico.

* Nicaragua: At least twenty-five workers are trapped after heavy rains caused the landslide of a gold mine located in a “remote” part of northern Nicaragua.

* Ecuador: President Rafael Correa rejected claims that plans to create the world's first government-issued digital currency will replace Ecuador’s current currency, which is the U.S. dollar.

Video Source – YouTube user The Daily Conversation

Online Sources – teleSUR English; NBC News; The Guardian; ABC News

Daily Headlines: April 28, 2014

* Vatican: Pope John II was officially declared a saint yesterday partly due to the reported healing of a brain aneurysm that affected Gloribeth Mora Diaz of Costa Rica.
 
* Panama: According to the latest polls the election for Panama’s next president on May 4th could be a neck-and-neck race between Jose Arias representing the ruling conservative party and “moderate leftist” candidate Juan Navarro.

* Brazil: Brazil’s civil aviation minister admitted that Rio de Janeiro’s main international airport could be hit by blackouts during the World Cup of soccer that begins in roughly six weeks.

* Peru: Some five hundred members of the Achuar indigenous group occupied Peru’s biggest oil field in the Amazon rainforest in order to call for the cleanup of oil that has spilled over the last few decades.
  
Video Source – AFP via YouTube

Online Sources – BBC News; ABC News; Reuters; Bloomberg; The Guardian

Daily Headlines: November 15, 2013

* Latin America: A Pew Research Center concluded that remittances to Latin America has more than doubled since 2000 despite a decrease in money orders to Mexico.

* Brazil: The Brazilian government reported a 28% increase in Amazon rainforest deforestation after four years of declining rates.

* Bolivia: A new study found that three in ten Bolivians nsume coca leaves for traditional and medicinal purposes.

* El Salvador: Armed men reportedly tried to destroy the records of a non-profit group investigating the disappearances of thousands of children missing during the Salvadoran civil war.

Court Orders Retrial in Dorothy Stang Murder Case

Brazil’s top court ordered a retrial of a rancher convicted of masterminding the murder of U.S. nun and environmentalist Dorothy Stang.

"The right to a defense is a value that must prevail, because it is fundamental for the development of a fair trial," Supreme Court justice Ricardo Lewandowsky said regarding the annulment of a 30-year prison sentence against Vitalmiro Vastos de Moura.

The 73-year-old Stang was gunned down in February 2005 as she was returning home from a community meeting in the state of Pará.

In 2007 de Moura was convicted of planning the murder of Stang, a tireless campaigner for the preservation of the Amazon and for the rights of poor landowners. One year later, a jury overturned de Moura’s conviction much to the disappointment of then-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and human rights groups.  In April 2010, however, de Moura was again convicted and sentenced to thirty years behind bars after several of his co-conspirators testified against him.

De Moura will remain in prison awaiting a third murder trial, which could commence as soon as the end of May.  In the meantime, land rights activists in Brazil decried the Supreme Court’s ruling:

Daily Headlines: November 29, 2012

* Colombia: A recent International Court of Justice on Colombian territory and public doubts over peace talks with the FARC have caused the approval rating of President Juan Manuel Santos to plummet by fifteen points in two months.

* Latin America: A U.N. report concluded that poverty levels in Latin America and the Caribbean decreased to its lowest levels in three decades due to an increase in wages and more jobs.

* Brazil: According to new government data deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has hit a record low yet the deforested area is still three times the size of Sao Paulo.

* Argentina: A U.S. appeals court froze a ruling made last week that would’ve obligated Argentina to pay about $1.3 billion in debt to foreign creditors.

Video Source – YouTube via teleSUR English (“The Minister of Foreign Relations of Colombia, Maria Angela Holguín, was summoned by the Senate of her country to explain the scope of the judgment of the International Court of The Hague that subtracts maritime possessions from this country in favor of Nicaragua”).

Online Sources- Bernama, Colombia Reports, CNN, Huffington Post

Daily Headlines: October 3, 2012

* Bolivia: Scientists in Bolivia have reportedly been able to use tree ring samples to more accurately measure rainfall levels in the Amazon basin.

* South America: The U.N.’s economic body for Latin America estimates that the regional economy this year will grow at a slower pace than initially estimated.

* Mexico: U.S. and Mexican immigration officials announced a pilot program that would use air travel to repatriate Mexican nationals.

* Costa Rica: Legislators voted overwhelmingly for a proposal that would make Costa Rica the first Latin American country to ban hunting as a sport.

Video Source – YouTube via user WWFunitedkingdom
 
Online Sources- UPI, MSNBC, LAHT, Reuters

Daily Headlines: December 7, 2011

* Brazil: According to Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research deforestation in the Amazon rainforest dropped to its lowest level since record-keeping began in 1988.

* Honduras: Luz Marina Paz became the seventeenth Honduran journalist killed since 2010 after she was gunned down and murdered yesterday.

* Venezuela: Plans for a government-backed housing initiative have slowed down due to labor unrest at Venezuela’s largest steelmaker.

* Chile: Colo Colo, one of Chile’s most popular soccer teams, was the fifth-most popular sports topic on Twitter in 2011 according to the social networking service.

Image Source – Flickr via CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Online Sources – MarketWatch, Fox News Latino, Twitter, CNN

Daily Headlines: September 29, 2011

* Bolivia: The backlash against a police crackdown on protesters continued yesterday when tens of thousands of demonstrators marched down the streets of La Paz.

* Haiti: President Michel Martelly is running into stiff opposition against alleged plans to rebuild the military that was dismantled in 1995.

* Cuba: A government decree issued yesterday will permit Cubans to buy and sell their cars "without any prior authorization from any entity."

* Brazil: A judge ordered the suspension to construction of a major dam project in the Amazon rainforest.

Video Source – Al Jazeera English via YouTube

Online Sources- BBC News, NPR, Reuters, The Guardian

Brazil: Rancher convicted in murder of activist/nun

Justice may finally have been served in the case of a U.S. nun murdered for her social activism.

Dorothy Stang was slain in 2005 due to her relentless campaigning in favor of land rights and protecting the Amazon rainforest. Vitalmiro Vastos de Moura and Rayfran das Neves would later be convicted for her masterminding her murder yet in 2008 a judge controversially overturned de Moura’s punishment. Last April another tribunal ordered that de Moura be retired for his role in Stang’s death and on Monday a guilty verdict was delivered against him:

Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, 39, was given the maximum term by a jury overnight in the northern Brazilian city of Belem for the assassination of Dorothy Stang, a 73-year-old missionary who was fatally shot six times as she walked down on a remote jungle track.

The two men who carried out her murder, Rayfran das Neves Sales and Clodoaldo Batista, are already serving 28-year and 17-year terms, respectively, while another, Amir Feijoli, was also behind bars for 18 years for acting as an intermediary.

Neves Sales, Batista and Feijoli all testified against Bastos de Moura, who maintained his silence throughout the trial.

Brazilian land rights groups welcomed the verdict though Land Pastoral spokeswoman Cristiane Passos noted that it’s “still far from the end of the violence” against activists. One such activist was labor union chief Pedro Alcantara de Souza who was killed last week in the same region where Stang was slain.

Image- MSNBC (2004 image of Dorothy Stang)
Online Sources- BBC News, Washington Post, The Latin Americanist, AFP

Brazil Looks to "Gringos" to Save the Amazon

A little over a month ago, we reported that Ecuador was asking Europe to pay to halt drilling in the oil-rich Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian region of the Amazon. Now Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (more commonly known as Lula) is saying that "gringos" should pay to help preserve the Amazon.

"I don't want any gringo asking us to let an Amazon resident die of hunger under a tree," Silva said. "We want to preserve, but they will have to pay the price for this preservation because we never destroyed our forest like they mowed theirs down a century ago."

Lula has stated that since Western nations have already destroyed their own forests, they should pay to help preserve the Amazon. He also said that Western nations contribute more toward environmental destruction than other loggers and farmers. Lula mentioned the false notions that people have about the Amazon and the lack of understanding that about 25 million people live in the Brazilian portion of the Amazon. Sixty percent of the Amazon is in Brazil and the country has been working to reduce destruction in the area. The Amazon absorbs carbon dioxide and is thought to be the world's greatest natural defense against global warming.

Online Source: Associated Press
Image Source: Wikimedia

Today's Video: Swine Flu Hits Amazon

Seven members of the Yanomami tribe have died recently after contracting Swine Flu. With little resistance to outside diseases, health officials fear the disease could wreak havoc among the isolated tribe that lives in the jungle border area between Venezuela and Brazil.

One outstanding issue remains: if the tribe is so isolated, how did its members contract swine flu in the first place?



Online Source: Reuters

Ecuador asks Europe for billions to help preserve the Amazon

The Amazon Rainforest, the largest on earth, covers 40% of South America and encompasses parts of nine countries. It is rich in biodiversity, and includes hundreds of indigenous groups. One of these indigenous groups, the Tageri, are especially threatened by the oil drilling and development in Ecuador. Ecuador's president Rafael Correa is proposing that Europe pay Ecuador 3 billion to halt drilling in the oil-rich Yasuni National Park in the Amazon region of Ecuador.

"This is the first time the government of a major oil-producing country has voluntarily offered to forego lucrative oil extraction in order to help combat climate change," said Dr. Matt Finer, staff scientist for Save America's Forests and author of a study on Correa's initiative.

Drilling would be blocked in three oil fields in Yasuni National Park, which was declared a biosphere reserve by the United Nations and is home to many indigenous groups. In Ecuador, drilling is allowed in national parks if the president gives approval because of national interests. Ecuador depends on oil for a third of its national budget and the three oil fields in Yasuni represent 20 percent of its crude oil reserves.

Correa is asking the international community to come forward and also take responsibility for preserving the world's natural resources by covering the cost of income that Ecuador would lose for not going forward with drilling. Companies like Repsol and Texaco (Chevron) are keys players in drilling for oil in the Ecuadorian region of the Amazon.

Online Sources: Associated Press, Mongabay.com, The Wall Street Journal, Amnesty International USA
Photo: Mongabay.com

Daily Headlines: August 13, 2009

* Latin America: According to a newly released report by the Inter-American Bank remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean are expected to nosedive by 10% this year.

* Peru: Prosecutors brought up homicide charges against two police generals and fifteen other officers for their supposed role in last June’s deadly clashes with protesters in the Amazon.

* Mexico: Citing “illegally obtained evidence” and other irregularities, the country’s top court overturned the convictions of twenty people accused in a 1997 massacre in Chiapas.

* Bolivia: Authorities are looking into who is behind the mailing of two explosive envelopes that have injured seven people including the wife of a pro-government union leader.

Image- La Plaza
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, AFP, MSNBC, Guardian UK, CNN

Peru’s Garcia in damage control mode

The violence from last month’s confrontations between indigenous protesters and police is surely still ringing loud in the minds of Peruvian officials. Eager to avoid further problems from upcoming protests and declining popularity, President Alan Garcia is trying to take preventative measures:

Peruvian President Alan Garcia bowed to opposition pressure on Tuesday and said he will reshuffle his cabinet following deadly clashes last month between police and indigenous groups.

Garcia and his cabinet have been sharply criticized for botching negotiations with protesters who were demanding the government strike down laws designed to open their ancestral lands in the Amazon to foreign mining and oil companies…

"He needs to choose a cabinet that would give him breathing room and put him in a better negotiating position," said political analyst German Munoz. "If he does the opposite, he will have more problems."

Prime Minister Yehude Simon announced weeks ago that he would resign from his post though it remains to be seen who else follows him out.

While Garcia tries to avoid damage on one end, he may be opening another can of worms by permitting a major energy project in the Amazon by European firm Perenco.

Image- AFP (“Natives armed with spears set a roadblock at the entrance of the Amazonian town of Yurimaguas” last month.)
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, Living in Peru, Vivirlatino, Reuters

Peruvian Prime Minister Planning to Quit

The Prime Minister of Peru, Yehude Simon, stated today that he is planning on quitting, Reuters reported.

His announcement comes as opposition leaders are calling on President Alan Garcia to fire Simon for failing to stop the recent clashes between police and members of Peru's indigenous communities. The unrest began after the Peruvian Congress passed two laws that would make it possible to increase foreign investment in the Amazon. On Monday, Simon asked Congress to revoke the new laws.

At least 34 people have died after police raids tried to break up blockades.

"Obviously, I am going to go for sure as soon as all is calm, in the coming weeks," Simon told RPP radio, a day after apologizing to indigenous leaders and saying the government failed to win their support before passing the laws.

Online sources: Reuters
Image: LivinginPeru.com

Solidarity protests held throughout Peru

Numerous marches in unity with protesting indigenous communities were held throughout Peru yesterday.

An estimated 20,000 people rallied in the streets of Lima calling on President Alan Garcia and the government to permanently revoke a series of controversial land-use edicts in the Amazon. "The jungle isn't for sale," chanted some marchers who also accused the government of covering up what really occurred in a series of violent confrontations last weekend between police officers and protesters in northern Peru.

Though most of yesterday’s nationwide protests were peaceful, Lima police launched tear gas at some marchers who threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the Congress building.

The country’s legislature voted on Wednesday to temporarily lift the presidential decrees yet there’s still plenty of tension in the Peruvian Amazon. While indigenous groups worry that they will lose their lands in the name of energy exploration and development, the impoverished region’s economy has been virtually paralyzed:

Online Sources- YouTube, New York Times, AP, Los Angeles Times

Retrials ordered in Dorothy Stang case

It may have taken longer than expected but justice might finally be served in the murder of Dorothy Stang.

Originally from Ohio, Stang was a nun and environmentalist who strongly defended the Amazon rain forest from illegal logging and encroaching land developers. In 2005, she was brutally killed by gunmen who prosecutors believed were hired by local ranchers. In 2007, Rayfran das Neves and supposed mastermind Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura were convicted for murdering Stang yet a court shockingly overturned de Moura’s punishment last year. That decision led to outrage from Stang’s family and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Yesterday a Brazilian tribunal ordered the arrest and retrial of das Neves and de Moura. The judges found irregularities in the previous decisions and officials are confident they will be definitely convicted:

Three judges voted unanimously on Tuesday to have a jury retry both Moura and Neves, the gunman who confessed to killing Stang.

The judges annulled the acquittal on grounds that the jury voted contrary to the evidence, according to a statement from the Para state judiciary.

They also said that defense lawyers had presented illegal evidence attempting to show that Neves acted alone and did not receive orders from Moura. Neves originally admitted to having been hired by Moura but later changed his story.

It remains to be seen if the other accused mastermind in Stang’s murder- rancher Regivaldo Galvao- will soon stand trial. In the meantime, the retrials of das Neves and de Moura will be a welcome step in the right direction.

Image- BBC News
Online Sources- BBC News, LAHT, Reuters, The Latin Americanist, Commondreams.org

Ecuador: Chevron wants dismissal of environmental case

Lawyers for oil giant Chevron asked an Ecuadorian judge to drop a case involving the illegal dumping of chemicals in the Amazon jungle.

According to a filing with the court, Chevron reiterated its argument against the firm being liable for up to $27 billion in damages. The company claims that a report from geological engineer Richard Cabrera was biased and in favor of the plaintiffs. "Judging by Mr. Cabrera's undeniable disdain for science, transparency and Ecuadorian law, he cannot be seen as an unbiased adviser to the judge," said Charles James, Chevron's general counsel in a press statement emitted by the company.

The plaintiffs in the case are Ecuadorian natives and peasants who argued their health was damaged after Texaco dumped billion of gallons of contaminated water into the jungle over a 20-year period. (Texaco was purchase by Chevron in 2001).

As we mentioned in November, Chevron’s actions caused it to be named one of the world’s ten worse firms of 2008 by progressive news website alternet.org.

Image- Time
Online Sources- The Latin Americanist, MarketWatch, Reuters, alternet.org