Zibechi: Extractivism staggers
EXTRACTIVISM STAGGERS
Conflicts over Tia Maria Mine have left 4 people dead in Peru.
By: Raúl Zibechi
Resistance to extractivism [1] is sweeping the Latin American continent, from north to south, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, involving all the countries, forcing governments to put its military in the streets and decree states of emergency to terrorize populations that no longer yield, because they are suffering the consequences of the model.
Open sky mega-mining, large public works like hydroelectric dams, mono-crops fumigated with glyphosate and real estate speculation are being responded to as never before in intensity, extension and duration. The peoples are obtaining pueblos important victories in recent years: paralyzing the planting of Monsanto seeds in Malvinas Argentina; stopping the Barrick Gold, Pascua Lama bi-national project; postponing the construction of dozens of dams, as happened with La Parota, in México.
In recent weeks it has been the population of…
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The Marlin Mine and Women’s Resistance
Nancy and Crisanta
Español By Nancy Sabas, the Connecting Peoples Coordinator for MCC Guatemala/El Salvador, originally from Honduras.
Was it you who sent the miners?
They violate the womb of Mother Earth
They take the gold, destroying the hills.
One gram of blood is worth more than a thousand kilos of gold.
What about my people?
And you, my God, where are you hiding?
Fear paralyzes us
My people are sold and they do not realize it.
-Portion of a song written by the Parish of San Miguel Ixtahuacán.
A few weeks ago, I organized a learning tour for North American participants to discuss the mining industry in Guatemala, On the tour, we visited the department of San Marcos and surrounding communities that deal with this problem.
Mining operations in Guatemala are not a recent issue. In 1998, two years after the signing of the peace agreement following a…
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Rest in Power, Eduardo Galeano
Dedicated to The Nobodies
The nobodies: the sons of no one, the owners of nothing.
Who don’t speak languages, but rather dialects.
Who don’t follow religions, but rather superstitions.
Who don’t make art, but rather crafts.
Who don’t practice culture, but rather folklore.
Who are not human, but rather human resources.
Who have no face but have arms.
Who have no name, but rather a number.
Who don’t appear in the universal history books,
but rather in the police pages of the local press.
The nobodies,
the ones who are worth less than the bullet that kills them.
Los Nadies, by Eduardo Galeano
Salvadoran General Deported from U.S. for Command Role in Human Rights Crimes During El Salvador Civil War
![General Vides Casanova] Credit: Latin America News Dispatch.](https://chrmaria1.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/vides.png)
General Vides Casanova. Photo Credit: Latin America News Dispatch.
Violations Cited in Justice Department Ruling Include Torture of Salvadoran Citizens, Murder of Four American Churchwomen, Among Others
By Alexandra Smith
Thursday, April 9, 2015—Gen. Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, former chief of El Salvador’s National Guard and then Minister of Defense from 1979-89, was deported from Florida yesterday as a result of a precedent-setting decision by the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals, following 16 years of legal efforts by human rights groups against him.
In 1999, The Center for Justice and Accountability filed a case against Vides Casanova and another former defense minister, Gen. José Guillermo García, charging them with liability for the torture of three Salvadoran civilians under the “command responsibility” doctrine illustrating intellectual authorship. The case, Romagoza et al. v. Generals Garcia and Vides Casanova, cemented the legal authority of the command responsibility doctrine with a verdict demanding…
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José Ángel Navarrete González
Yo, Jan Nimmo, Glasgow, Escocia, quiero saber dónde está José Ángel Navarrete González. Digital Collage: Jan Nimmo ©
Emiliano Navarrete Victoriano was working away in the US when his son, José Ángel Navarrete González was born. He remembers the phone call from his wife back in Mexico. He describes the birth of his son as the best day of his life.
José Ángel, or “Pepe” likes playing football but his dad instilled in him that it was important to study too. His parents didn’t have money to send him to a private school so their only option was to get him a place in a Normalista School so he went to study in Ayotzinapa.
His father recalls an exchange with his son, two days before he disappeared, “I gave him a big hug and told him that I loved him. I said – I’m so proud of you son, I like the way you conduct yourself. Wherever you are I will always…
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Interviews on “poetry & refugees” – 2 – Diana Vallejo
Diana Vallejo 
was born in Honduras in 1969. She is an ICORN Cities of Refuge guest writer in Sweden.
Lyrikline Blog (LB):In your view, is it the task of a poet also to be a chronicler or witness of his/her time?
Diana Vallejo (DV): The poetry itself is a result of what you think, your reflections, your deep beliefs and fears, what you feel, those desires or hopes that we have. In certain social conditions this deep view of our humanity will have a certain line and shape, a map of what we are living or knowing about our surroundings, even the geography will be an influence in that poem. For me the written poem is the last result of our vulnerability like a human being. In my case it is not a task, but it is inevitable that I show or tell that special place or chronicle that…
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Hip-Hop for Social Justice: MC Lethal from San Isidro Cabañas, El Salvador
MC Lethal of El Salvador raps to protest Pacific Rim, a Canadian and U.S. mining transnational. Pacific Rim is currently suing the state of El Salvador in international court, arguing that their investment “rights” were violated when the Salvadoran government refused to grant it a permit. Popular opposition to mining has grown in El Salvador, due to concerns about economic exploitation, environmental and health concerns.
Mexican army faces questions over fate of 43 missing students
Omar Garcia suffered a black eye and a bloodied face in a clash outside the army base in Iguala last week.
Four months on from the abduction and probable massacre of 43 students in southern Mexico, the survivors and the victims’ families have turned the focus of their relentless fight for justice on the Mexican army.
At least 97 suspects, including scores of corrupt police officers, gang members and the local mayor and his wife, have been arrested in connection with the disappearance of the students in the town of Iguala, in Guerrero state, on 26 September.
The Mexican government has questioned but not charged 36 soldiers, and repeatedly denied allegations of the army’s involvement in the disappearance of the students. Yet their families are demanding a deeper investigation as well as unrestricted access to the military bases where they suspect the 43 young men may have been held.
Omar…
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Justice and Solidarity 