http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/latin+america/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4252/resource_wars_in_ecuador/ QUITO, Ecuador--In January, this country was shaken by mass protests against large-scale mining. Indigenous people and campesinos--or peasant farmers--in Ecuador have long called for nationalization of natural resources. These days, many are demanding that they not be exploited at all and are blockading highways to make their point. President Rafael Correa responded by calling the protesters "nobodies" and "extremists." The government detained a number of protest leaders, charging some of them with terrorism. One leader in the Amazon was briefly disappeared only to show up in a hospital in the Amazonian city of Macas with a gunshot wound to the head. Police officers were also injured in attempting to clear blockades. In September, Ecuadorian voters approved a new constitution backed… latin america environment Rachel Jefferson Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:00:02 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4308/uncovering_haitis_hidden_history/ A congressional bill that would create a truth commission to explore the U.S. role in the 2004 regime change in Haiti is languishing in the House Foreign Affairs Committee with only 12 co-sponsors. But Rep. Barbara Lee's (D-Calif.) H.R. 331 has sparked hope among some Haitians who think the bill might pass under a friendly Obama administration and bring needed change to the indebted island nation. Lee introduced the bill Jan. 8 without fanfare. She has brought the same bill to the U.S. House almost every year since 2004. It has never advanced out of committee. The commission's task would be to determine what happened on Feb. 29, 2004, and the months leading up to the removal of Haiti's President… congress international latin america Rachel Jefferson Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:00:53 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4391/the_cuban_revolution_and_the_american_left/ For countless leftists who came of age politically sometime between the late 1950s and the early 1990s, the Cuban Revolution represented a beacon of hope. Cuba symbolized so many inspirational qualities: a serious commitment to economic and social egalitarianism; a fierce opposition to the decadence and inequality of capitalism; and a principled, anti-imperialist solidarity with the Third World. But while the recent thaw in the U.S.-Cuba relationship has generated widespread support among progressives, there has been a noticeable lack of the kind of romanticism that characterized the way that so much of the left related to Cuba in the past. The end of the left's overall romance with Cuba can be traced to a number of things. For some, it… latin america Rachel Jefferson Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:59:59 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4357/playing_the_gringo_wild_card/ One part political report, one part self-confident travelogue, Gringo: A Coming of Age in Latin America (Scribner, April) is Chesa Boudin's sensitive and elegantly written memoir about his near-decade-long personal journey through Central and South America between 1999 and 2007. The author is the son of incarcerated political activists David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin (Boudin was freed in 2003 after serving 22 years in prison for felony murder associated with armed robbery), and the adopted son of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn--former Weather Underground members known for their antiwar bombings in 1969 and the early '70s. During his travels, Chesa Boudin encountered myriad complications merging his ideals and gringo identity. Crossing more than 25 Latin American national borders--polishing his Spanish… books latin america Rachel Jefferson Fri, 01 May 2009 11:00:58 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4359/an_inconvenient_woman/ You could call Isabel Garcia an inconvenient woman. Inconvenient because she speaks her mind--like it or not. She has raised the ire of anti-immigrant groups and the Mexican government alike. In 2006, after Garcia was recognized for her work as the Pima County, Ariz., public defender with a prestigious award from Mexico, she refused to accept it publicly so as not to provide a "photo op" for Mexican President Felipe Calderón. She had requested five minutes when she was to accept the award to talk about death, militarization and criminalization on the border and the complicity of his government, and how the Mexican elite had to do more to to foster economic justice. But the government refused to let her… latin america immigration Rachel Jefferson Sun, 03 May 2009 11:00:24 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4399/flower_power/ If you buy flowers for Mother's Day this year, think for a moment about Amanda Camacho. Camacho, a diminutive single mother with long black hair, works on a carnation plantation on the outskirts of Bogota, Colombia, the country that provides the United States with 60 percent of its cut fresh flowers. After leaving her small rural birthplace at age 11, Camacho worked as a nanny in Bogota before getting her first flower plantation job at age 17. "That was all that was available in the savanna of Bogota," she says, "especially for women with no education and no real resources." Camacho, now 34, plants, tends, harvests and packs carnations, working 8-hour days--up to 10 hours during peak periods--in plastic greenhouses… latin america labor Rachel Jefferson Wed, 13 May 2009 11:00:42 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4417/reinventing_demons/ At an April 7 press conference, President Barack Obama's special advisor for the Summit of Americas Jeffrey Davidow announced the administration's new plan to provide U.S.-funded "public safety" programs to other governments throughout the Western Hemisphere. U.S. public safety programs are necessary now, Davidow said, because "Latin America [and] the Caribbean are witnessing an increase in criminality and are having difficulty confronting this because of judicial and police systems that need assistance, need more training, need more equipment." The United States has pursued similar policies in the past--with disastrous results. The first such projects were organized in the wake of the Spanish-American War, when the United States was keen on policing its newly won satrapies in the Caribbean and Pacific.… latin america international Rachel Jefferson Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:00:42 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4799/ignoring_local_outrage_obama_set_to_expand_pentagon_presence_in_colombia/ Imagine that you live in a nice house in a tense neighborhood. Your neighbors haven't been too pleased with you lately, and you have a terrible roach infestation running havoc in your house. But perhaps there's hope. A big, strong guy lives down the street, and is offering to help out. He has big guns and says he has just the spray to get rid of those pesky roaches if you just let him crash at your place. I'm not the first to have used the tough-neighbor analogy when discussing a current proposal for seven U.S. military bases in Colombia, but others have failed to mention all the problematic side effects of inviting the neighbor to stay. This neighbor has… Rachel Jefferson Wed, 09 Sep 2009 06:00:10 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4864/militarizing_latin_america/ The United States was founded as an "infant empire," in the words of George Washington. The conquest of the national territory was a grand imperial venture. From the earliest days, control over the hemisphere was a critical goal. Latin America has retained its primacy in U.S. global planning. If the United States cannot control Latin America, it cannot expect "to achieve a successful order elsewhere in the world," observed President Richard M. Nixon's National Security Council in 1971, when Washington was considering the overthrow of Salvador Allende's government in Chile. Recently the hemisphere problem has intensified. South America has moved toward integration, a prerequisite for independence; has broadened international ties; and has addressed internal disorders--foremost, the traditional rule of a… Rachel Jefferson Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:00:07 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4904/snapshot_after_the_coup/ TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS—Supporters of ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya demonstrate on August 28, 2009. The United States pressured Honduran coup leaders after they rejected a settlement, with plans in the works to cut off nearly $150 million in U.S. assistance. (Photo by Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images) Rachel Jefferson Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:00:27 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5015/no_such_thing_as_a_free_putsch/ TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS—The military junta in Honduras has failed to achieve international recognition, and is unable to win the hearts of la gente at home, but it does seem to have one great talent: arresting and torturing unarmed, peacefully demonstrating civilians. The Committee for Detained and Disappeared Persons of Honduras (COFADEH) has so far documented more than 9,650 illegal detentions. Hundreds of people have been beaten with about 60 requiring long-term hospitalization from their wounds. Some female protestors have been gang-raped by police and soldiers. And there have been at least a dozen deaths, including a journalist, a teacher and a syndicate leader. Several of those murdered in the name of "protecting democracy" are the country's youngest citizens. Nineteen-year-old activist Isis… Rachel Jefferson Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:01:14 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5084/casualties_of_the_bloodless_coup/ TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS—Many apologists for the thuggish takeover of the elected government in Honduras still claim that what happened last June 28 was a "bloodless" coup. In a Wall Street Journal editorial on October 10, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) went one step further, denying there even is a political crisis here, and referring to the ousting of President Mel Zelaya as a "supposed military 'coup.'" But the hundreds of peaceful demonstrators who have been brutally beaten since the putsch might disagree with adjectives like "supposed" and "bloodless." As might the family of Jairo Sanchez, the most recent victim of government-sponsored violence, who after weeks of drifting in and out of consciousness, died in the capital on Monday, October 19. According… international latin america Rachel Jefferson Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:37:13 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5180/blood_and_fire_in_honduras_an_interview_with_mel_zelaya/ TEGUCIGALPA, HONDURAS--In late September, ousted President Manuel "Mel" Zelaya slipped back into Honduras and took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy with about sixty supporters and his family. Zelaya has been besieged there ever since, the compound surrounded at all times by more than 400 soldiers and riot police, all waiting to arrest him should he set foot in public. The U.N. has documented the use of chemical and sonic weapons against those inside, and Honduran forces continue to keep out visitors and the press. A wealthy rancher known for his trademark vaquero hat and eloquence, Zelaya returned to his country after three months in exile. Just after dawn on June 28 of this year, the democratically-elected leader was awakened by… Rachel Jefferson