Tag: Latin America

Driving out the rainforest invaders: crackdown on illegal mining brings hope after Bolsonaro

 Jonathan Watts in Altamira Like mechanised Valkyries, nine helicopters filled with armed men and women in camouflage uniforms swoop over dense forests and remote rivers – but this is not a scene from Apocalypse Now, it is a Brazilian government mission to forestall catastrophe in the Amazon rainforest. The aircraft from the country’s two main environmental agencies,… Read More Driving out the rainforest invaders: crackdown on illegal mining brings hope after Bolsonaro

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How corruption and gang warfare transformed Ecuador

the high-profile assassination on Wednesday of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio could be a turning point for the country Tara John Ecuadorians have found themselves in the middle of a bloody turf war as rival criminal organizations mete out brutal and often public shows of violence, battling to control drug trafficking routes that cross the Andean nation. Reports of dismemberments,… Read More How corruption and gang warfare transformed Ecuador

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Mexico vigilante leader’s killing highlights failure to curb violence

Hipólito Mora’s death in a hail of bullets is just the latest murder as the country’s brutal crime conflict shows no sign of abating More than 150,000 people have been murdered since Mexico’s current president took power and Hipólito Mora suspected he would join them. “I knew this day would come,” the lime farmer turned… Read More Mexico vigilante leader’s killing highlights failure to curb violence

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Chris Hedges: Mexico’s Epidemic of Murdered Journalists is an Ominous Warning to the Press

Over 100,000 people have been disappeared in the course of the destructive drug war waged in Mexico over the past two decades. Among the deceased are more than 150 journalists murdered for their work to expose the dense network of corruption and violence that links government officials, police, and the military with organized crime. The… Read More Chris Hedges: Mexico’s Epidemic of Murdered Journalists is an Ominous Warning to the Press

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Brazil: A dangerous cocktail of violence and lies

Philipp Lichterbeck Repairing the physical damage following the rampage of the Bolsonarist fanatics will likely cost millions, which will have to come from Brazil’s taxpayers. The harm done to Brazil’s democracy and to the country’s collective psyche, however, is far greater. A fanatical and violent minority went on a rampage in the capital, Brasilia, on camera. While the… Read More Brazil: A dangerous cocktail of violence and lies

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Brazil protests: Lula vows to punish ‘neo-fascists’ after Bolsonaro supporters storm congress

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has toured the wreckage of his presidential palace after an extraordinary day of political violence in the capital, Brasília, saw thousands of far-right extremists run riot through the country’s democratic institutions in a failed attempt to overthrow his week-old government. The massed attack by supporters of the ex-president Jair Bolsonaro was a… Read More Brazil protests: Lula vows to punish ‘neo-fascists’ after Bolsonaro supporters storm congress

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Victory Speech of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party, President-Elect of Brazil

(Translated from Portuguese) “No one is interested in living in a divided country, in a permanent state of war“ “Now, let’s fight for zero deforestation of the Amazon. Brazil and the planet need a living Amazon” “When an Indigenous child is murdered by the greed of the exploiters of the environment, a part of humanity… Read More Victory Speech of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party, President-Elect of Brazil

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Brazil’s Indigenous peoples mobilise against encroachment on their lands

Deni Farm, owner Edilson Pereira Duarte”; “Mato Grosso Farm, owner Vanderlei Martins de Oliveira”. These two signs, incorporating the Brazilian flag, are nailed to trees on either side of the road leading to Kapot village, in the Capoto/Jarina Indigenous Land, northern Mato Grosso state. A barrier spans the road leading into Kapot. Drivers must get… Read More Brazil’s Indigenous peoples mobilise against encroachment on their lands

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The great Amazon land grab: how Brazil’s government is turning public land private

Imagine that several state legislators decide that Yellowstone National Park is too big. Also imagine that, working with federal politicians, they change the law to downsize the park by a million acres, which they sell in a private auction. Outrageous? Yes. Unheard of? No. It happens routinely and with increasing frequency in the Brazilian Amazon. The most… Read More The great Amazon land grab: how Brazil’s government is turning public land private

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Tom Phillips: Tens of thousands of Brazilians march to demand Bolsonaro’s impeachment

Tens of thousands of protesters have poured on to the streets of Brazil’s largest cities to demand the impeachment of President Jair Bolsonaro over his catastrophic response to a coronavirus pandemic that has claimed nearly half a million Brazilian lives. The demonstrators turned out in more than 200 cities and towns for what is the biggest anti-Bolsonaro… Read More Tom Phillips: Tens of thousands of Brazilians march to demand Bolsonaro’s impeachment

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