» Americas

December 01, 2006

Andean Region

After an indigenous march to the captial city, Bolivia's MAS government has passed, among other things, its bill for the redistribution of land. In Ecuador, leftist candidate Rafael Correa has won a surprise victory. In Peru, unrest and disaffection with the ruling party of president Allan Garcia have permeated regional elections throughout the country.

October 05, 2006

"Why Chávez is so mad"

Jess Hunter-Bowman: "While politicians from across the political spectrum and editorial pages throughout the United States have been taking their shots at Venezuela's Hugo Chávez since his now infamous 'devil' comment at the United Nations, no one is asking what made him so mad."

The credibility factor is pretty low for those who criticize Chávez for calling Bush the devil, but didn't say anything when US-backed thugs kidnapped the democratically elected president of Venezuela, suspended all elected representatives, and declared themselves the new government.

September 24, 2006

Canadian Mining Occupation in Guatemala

In contrast to an August demonstration in the capital city on behalf of the mining industry, Guatemalan Mayan communities have recently undertaken the occupation of a proposed mining site. Canadian based Skye Resources appears as a common player throughout, in a role familiar to many Canadian mining corporations operating throughout the region.

July 25, 2006

Mexico's [Ongoing] Electoral Fiasco

James K Galbraith: Doing maths in Mexico

The thunder from America, citadel of democracy, was overwhelming. Nothing mattered more than to see the vote annulled, a new election held. The subsequent installation of Viktor Yuschenko as President of Ukraine was widely celebrated as a great triumph for democracy.

But that, of course, was in another country. Two weeks have now passed since the presidential vote in Mexico, pitting Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the party for a Democratic Revolution (PRD) against Felipe Calderón of the ruling National Action party (PAN). The candidate who trailed, López Obrador, has explicitly charged that the count was cooked. He has challenged the result in court. No final resolution is due before September.

Yet the stalwarts of democracy outside Mexico are silent. Bush has congratulated Calderón, not waiting for the court to rule. Reuters and Bloomberg echo the confidence of the elites that Calderón will win in court - never mind whether he won at the polls.

July 19, 2006

When you drink Soy Milk...

Paraguayan farmers aren't happy about the growth of the soy industry, or at least not with the way it's growing: by taking their land.

Paraguay is the fourth-largest producer of soy in the world. As this industry has expanded, an estimated 90,000 poor families have been forced off their land. Campesinos have organized protests, road blockades and land occupations against displacement and have faced subsequent repression from military and paramilitary forces. According to Grupo de Reflexion Rural (GRR), an Argentina-based organization that documents violence against farmers, on June 24, 2005, in Tekojoja, Paraguay, hired policemen and soy producers kicked 270 people off their land, burned down fifty-four homes, arrested 130 people and killed two.

Documented Fraud in the Mexican Election

Narc News: "Video, audio and photographic evidence of election fraud surges daily. It is the dominant news story in Mexico. Obrador released a similar video of election officials in PAN-controlled Querétaro changing the vote tallies to create more votes for its candidate. The PAN does not deny the facts. It simply claims that those cases amounted to normal, allowed, functions by election officials. The public temper rises with every such justification."

The article goes on to detail Bush's backpedalling with regard to his official recognition of Calderón as the winner. Now that it looks like Mexico will implode unless they actually count the votes and account for all the ballot-box-stuffing that has been caught on film, it seems more and more likely that it will turn out, officially and in actuality, that López Obrador actually got more votes.

Are Canadian journalists going to ask Harper similar questions? Given that they never reported that he recognized Calderón in the first place, the odds aren't great.