Feature Archives

President Bush stopped in countries where he would meet the least opposition: Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia and Mexico. He nonetheless encountered criticism and protest at every step. In Colombia, demonstrators turned out in Bogotá despite massive numbers of police and soldiers who tried to enforce a ban on protest. Indymedia Colombia writes: "The more than 3,000 protesters here, in one of the most important crossroads of the presidential tour, demonstrated the resistance with which this unwanted visit was met."

When Fr. Roy Bourgeois of SOA Watch was in Sacramento and Davis last week, he gave a number of riveting presentations to colleges, high schools and community groups on the organization's Latin American Initiative and the campaign to get Congress to close the school this year.

Women have not only acted as participants in the ongoing popular movement in Oaxaca, but have also profoundly shaped the course of its history. They have created some of the most powerful stories and moments in the past nine months, and have helped tell them. Stories of women who have built the movement are everywhere in Oaxaca.

Hugo Chávez was re-inaugurated as Venezuela’s President for a six-year term on January 10, after soundly winning a December 3 election with 63% of the vote. His regime first came to power in 1998, and he has consistently made efforts to use oil profits to better the lot of the Venezuelan poor and working class, while forging links with other left-wing Latin American governments. In a January 8 speech, he announced that he will nationalize electrical and telecommunications businesses.

Los Pueblos Zapatistas have organized their first Encounter with the Pueblos of the World, for December 30th through January 2nd in Oventik, Liberated Territory (Chiapas), Mexico. The EZLN. has welcomed thousands of visitors with workshops & meetings designed, to "speak on the experiences we have had these past years with our autonomous governments.... It is time to organize ourselves and to see how together, we will confront this evil that is Neoliberalism and which attacks humanity."

On Sunday December 10th 2006, Chile’s former military dictator Augusto Pinochet died. The news sparked spontaneous demonstrations in Santiago and other Chilean cities as thousands poured into the streets to celebrate. The retired army general, who was 91 years old, came to power in a CIA-backed coup against the elected government of Salvador Allende in 1973. Pinochet’s regime was responsible for the murder or disappearance of thousands of left-wing activists, trade unionists, students and others.

Deaths and disappearances continue in the state of Oaxaca. Participants in the Oaxacan social movement only expect the conditions of repression to worsen, especially with the entrance of Felipe Calderon of the PAN (National Action Party) into presidency. The PFP conducted a massive roundup of people on Saturday night, which resulted in at least 3 people killed and another 25 disappeared. In the same twenty four hours, a hotel worker said that he came across a group of PFP officers who boasted to him that they had already killed 13 people, and that the press would never know because the bodies had been disappeared. Read more
December 6th: Reportback: Oaxaca: A Portrait of Rebellion, San Francisco