Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalWhen Two Worlds Collide – people vs corporate greed
When Two Worlds Collide – people vs corporate greed
By Vanessa Baird
In 2007 Peru’s President, Alan Garcia, declared his country open to foreign corporations for extraction of its natural resources – mineral, gas, oil, timber.
And within the first few minutes of When Two Worlds Collide, a tense documentary directed by Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel, we see Garcia courting US capital and signing a free trade agreement with President Bush.
What Garcia did not reckon on, however, was the clarity and strength of the resistance that would come from the indigenous communities of the Peruvian Amazon. The people who, as this film shows, are so often dismissed by the metropolitan elite as ‘primitive’, ‘savage’ or in Garcia’s words ‘obstacles to progress’; and ‘dogs in the manger’.
These people soon cottoned on to the fact that the new laws passed by the Garcia administration to make their ancestral lands ‘open to business’, without consulting them, were unconstitutional and contrary to international accords (ILO 169, chiefly.)
More:
https://newint.org/blog/2016/09/21/when-two-worlds-collide/
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(Bagua Massacre, Pres. Garcia also brought in helicopter gun ships to fire on the citizens)
Leader, Alberto Pizango
Our Terrorists in Colombia: Death Squads as “Freedom Fighters”
Our Terrorists in Colombia: Death Squads as “Freedom Fighters”
September 20, 2016
by Dan Kovalik
A recent article in The New York Times entitled, “The Secret History of Colombia’s Paramilitaries & The U.S. War on Drugs,” contains useful clues as to the U.S.’s true views towards the Colombian death squads and their massive war crimes and human rights abuses. [1] In short, it reveals a high-level of tolerance of, and condonation by, U.S. policy-makers for the suffering of the Colombian people at the hands of our long-time friends and allies, the right-wing paramilitaries.
The gist of the NYT story is that, beginning in 2008, the U.S. has extradited “several dozen” top paramilitary leaders, thereby helping them to evade a transitional justice process which would have held them accountable for their war crimes and crimes against humanity. They have been brought to the U.S. where they have been tried for drug-related offenses only and given cushy sentences of 10 years in prison on average. And, even more incredibly, “for some, there is a special dividend at the end of their incarceration. Though wanted by Colombian authorities, two have won permission to stay in the United States, and their families have joined them. There are more seeking the same haven, and still others are expected to follow suit.”
That these paramilitaries – 40 in all that the NYT investigated — are being given such preferential treatment is shocking given the magnitude of their crimes. For example, paramilitary leader Salvatore Mancuso, “who the government said ‘may well be one of the most prolific cocaine traffickers ever prosecuted in a United States District Court,’” has been found by Colombian courts to be “responsible for the death or disappearance of more than 1,000 people.” Yet, as a result of his cooperation with U.S. authorities Mr. Mancuso “will spend little more than 12 years behind bars in the U.S.”
Another paramilitary, the one the article focuses on most, is Hernan Giraldo Serna, and he committed “1800 serious human rights violations with over 4,000 victims . . . .” Mr. Giraldo was known as “The Drill” because of his penchant for raping young girls, some as young as 9 years old. Indeed, he has been “labeled . . . ‘the biggest sexual predator of paramilitarism.” While being prosecuted in the U.S. for drug-related crimes only, Mr. Giraldo too is being shielded by the U.S. from prosecution back in Colombia for his most atrocious crimes.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/20/our-terrorists-in-colombia-death-squads-as-freedom-fighters/
US Bill Seeks First Native American Land Grab in 100 Years
Source: Telesur
US Bill Seeks First Native American Land Grab in 100 Years
Protesters demonstrate against the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux
reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, Sept. 9, 2016. | Photo: Reuters
Published 19 September 2016
. . .
Two Republican congresspeople are seeking to pass a controversial bill through the U.S. House of Representatives that would seek the first land grab of Native American lands in 100 years, members of the Ute nation have warned.
The Utah Public Lands Initiative was proposed by Utah Congressperson Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz and seeks to “roll back federal policy to the late 1800s when Indian lands and resources were taken from tribal nations for the benefit of others,” the Ute Business Committee said in an article for the Salt Lake Tribune Saturday.
Bishop and Chaffetz will present the bill to the House in few weeks, and if passed it would see 18 million acres of public lands in Eastern Utah downgraded from protected lands and turned into oil and gas drilling zones that are exempted from environmental protections, Think Progress reported earlier this year when the bill was unveiled.
“The actions of Bishop and Chaffetz would seek to divest the Ute Indian Tribe of their ancestral homelands,” the committee added while also bringing back “failed policies of tribal land dispossession that have had a devastating and lasting impact upon tribal nations for the past century.”
Read more: http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/US-Bill-Seeks-First-Native-American-Land-Grab-in-100-Years-20160919-0029.html
Inconsistencies Surface in Accusations Against Brazil's Lula
Inconsistencies Surface in Accusations Against Brazil's Lula
Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva talks to the journalists during a press conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sept. 15, 2016. | Photo: Reuters
Published 19 September 2016 (13 hours 58 minutes ago)
Supporters of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva argue that corruption accusations against him are a ploy to block his run for president.
Inconsistencies are beginning to surface in the allegations ofcorruption hurled at Brazil’s former President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, as prosecutors' assertionscontradict with the witness statements of one of the main informants in the case, the Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported Monday.
But Costa, targeted for fraud as part of Operation Car Wash beginning in 2014, denied in his 2015 testimony that he had conspired with Lula to get the position.
“I never even talked with the current president (now ousted President Dilma Rousseff), or with the (former) President Lula on this subject,” Costa said in his May 5, 2015 statements, according to Folha. “I never talked!”
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Inconsistencies-Surface-in-Accusations-Against-Brazils-Lula-20160919-0011.html
The Incredible Cloud Forests of Mexico
The Incredible Cloud Forests of Mexico
A journey into the fragile ecosystem threatened by coffee, logging and climate change.
by Erik Vance, Dominic Bracco II / Prime, and bioGraphic
September 19, 2016
Mexico is a land of dazzling landscapes. From the jungles of Chiapas to the deserts of Sonora, from the freezing 18,500-foot peak of Orizaba to the tortilla-flat Yucatán, from forests filled with butterflies to the underwater abundance surrounding Baja California, Mexico’s ecosystems are easily as diverse and wondrous as those of its northern neighbor.
But there is one landscape I had long wanted to see more than any other—the cloud forest. I’d seen photographs: bizarre and hypnotic places, worlds of mist and mystery, haunted landscapes forever cloaked in fog and secrets. Places where, if you allowed your mind to drift, you could easily imagine trolls and forest sprites wandering under primordial boughs. And yet, beyond these forests’ appearance, I couldn’t really say much about them.
Year after year, I tell myself I will visit the fireflies of Tlaxcala, climb Orizaba and see the cloud forest during the rainy season—and each year, I run out of time. This year, determined to experience these fantastic foggy forests once and for all, I bought a ticket to the city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, in Chiapas, for the beginning of the rainy season in May. What I learned shocked me. When it comes to this enchanting ecosystem, it seems I am not the only one running out of time.
San Cristóbal, located at an elevation of 2,200 meters (7,200 feet), is perfectly situated for cloud forests, and was once famously surrounded by them. My plan is to explore the forest around Huitepec, an extinct volcano outside town, so I meet up with Paula Enriquez, a biologist at the nearby College of the Southern Border, and the two of us head up the mountain. A sharply intelligent woman with unruly black hair, Enriquez studies the population dynamics of cloud forest birds, especially owls.
More:
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-incredible-cloud-forests-of-mexico
Ecuador's Correa Says Right-Wingers 'Don't Respect Democracy'
Ecuador's Correa Says Right-Wingers 'Don't Respect Democracy'
Published 17 September 2016
. . .
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said on Saturday that Latin America is dealing with a new imperialist plan set to destroy progressive governments, comments that came as he attended the 17th Non-Aligned Movement Summit on Venezuela’s Margarita Island.
"We are dealing with a new Plan Condor," Correa said in an interview with teleSUR, referring to the U.S.-backed effort in the 1970s to topple democratic governments in the region.
Correa said imperialists and their right-wing allies in the region "are on a quest to destroy progressive governments."
The president of the Andean nation went on to express support for the government of Venezuela and its president, Nicolas Maduro, saying he's been subjected to a double standard: right-wing governments criticize Venezuela's economic and political crisis but had nothing to say about the parliamentary coup against Brazil's last elected president, Dilma Rousseff.
More:
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Ecuadors-Correa-Says-Right-Wingers-Dont-Respect-Democracy-20160917-0032.html
A terrific site for archeology, except for all the things that could kill you
A terrific site for archeology, except for all the things that could kill you
By Roberto Lovato September 18, 2016
Roberto Lovato
NUEVOS CASAS GRANDES, MEXICO
“We just ran over a snake,” says Eduardo Gamboa, as I steer my rental car along the rocky road leading to the Cueva de la Olla cliff dwellings, high in the Sierra Madre mountains. Summer monsoons here often force rattlers out of their normal habitats. True to the cliche, narrow paths really do define life and death in northwestern Chihuahua, Mexico.
The arid region’s unusual topography and weather — desert grasslands, sky islands (isolated mountain ranges with forests), snowy winters, and wet summers — make it a land of unique intersections, a place where physical extremes blur expectations. Native to the region are zone-tailed hawks, which confuse their prey by mimicking the appearance and flight patterns of nonpredatory turkey vultures.
A few miles out of Nuevo Casas Grandes, home to the storied Paquimé ruins and the main city in the vast agricultural area 170 miles southwest of El Paso, we pass trucks crowded with Mexican troops wearing black facemasks. The military, despite infiltration by the narcos, is often charged with policing the area. The government sees few alternatives. The entire police force of the nearby town of Ascencion, which reportedly serves as a cartel training camp, quit after being threatened by hitmen.
But the army is a blunt, often brutal instrument. Earlier this year, a judge sentenced the commander and seven soldiers from the 35th Infantry Battalion in Nuevo Casas Grandes to 33 years in prison for human rights violations, including torture, murder, and the clandestine burial of two civilians.
More:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/09/17/dig/mOlXxfVbgjjJGkI4Q6qRwJ/story.html
Colombia accepts role in 1980s killings of leftist politicians
Source: Associated Press
Colombia accepts role in 1980s killings of leftist politicians
Fri Sep 16, 2016 | 2:49am BST
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Thursday acknowledged the state's responsibility in the killing of thousands of members of a leftist political party three decades ago and pledged to prevent such assassinations again.
Santos' statement comes less than two weeks before he will sign a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), whose members were killed following a previous peace agreement in the mid 1980s when they formed the Patriotic Union (UP) political party.
Some 5,000 UP members and supporters were killed by right-wing paramilitary groups, often working with state backing.
"That tragedy should never have happened, and we must recognise that the government didn't take sufficient measures to impede and prevent the assassinations, attacks and other violations even though there was evidence the persecution was taking place," Santos said during an event where 200 survivors and family members of UP victims were present.
Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-colombia-rebels-idUKKCN11M04C?rpc=401
Bolivian Couple Lead the Way in Conserving, Caring for Rare Flamingos
Bolivian Couple Lead the Way in Conserving, Caring for Rare Flamingos
by Monica Olivera
Sep 14 2016, 8:57 am ET
Flamingos have been Omar Rocha's passion ever since he saw them for the first time in Laguna Colorada, Bolivia 25 years ago.
"I felt extremely emotional to see them up close, thousands of flamingos together feeding in the wetlands, forming part of the desolate landscape of the high-Andean region," Rocha said. "I marveled at the sight of them, attracted by their colors, behavior, and elegance. In that moment, I knew I wanted to study and focus my studies and research on these beautiful and charismatic birds."
Bolivia is unique in that it is one of only four countries that is home to the Chilean flamingo and two other species — the James flamingo and the Andean flamingo, which are the rarest species of flamingo in the world.
Today, the Bolivian is a leader in the conservation of these rare species and is doing all that he can to ensure their survival.
More:
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/bolivian-couple-lead-way-conserving-caring-rare-flamingos-n644016
Brazil Launches Ambitious Program To Auction Off Oil, Power, And Infrastructure Concessions
Source: Bernama (Malaysia)
Brazil Launches Ambitious Program To Auction Off Oil, Power, And Infrastructure Concessions
BRASILIA, Sept 15 (BERNAMA-NNN-MERCOPRESS)--Brazil on Tuesday launched a multibillion-dollar plan to auction off oil, power rights and infrastructure concessions, in an attempt by the new government to bolster private investment in a moribund economy.
The government will sell operating licenses for airports in the cities of Porto Alegre, Salvador, Florianopolis and Fortaleza by the first quarter of 2017. It also plans to sell rights to operate federal roads in the center-west and south regions later next year.
Conservative president Michel Temer has vowed to shift economic policy away from the interventionist policies of his predecessor, Dilma Rousseff, that marred investors' confidence in the once-booming economy.
Rousseff, a populist in her second term as president, was ousted by the Senate in August for breaking budget rules to conceal a massive deficit as the economy spiraled deeper into recession. Brazil is facing its worst recession in eight decades.
Read more: Brazil Launches Ambitious Program To Auction Off Oil, Power, And Infrastructure Concessions
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