Redes sociales: blessing or curse?
Social media outlets, such as Twitter and WhatsApp, played a major role in the protests that spread across the Americas in 2019. In Chile,...
Bananas boom while workers pay the price
Despite Latin America having some of the highest COVID-19 death rates in the world, the ‘essential’ banana export industry has thrived, while workers have...
Brazil on the edge: LAB Newsletter 24 October 2018
24 October 2018
Dear LAB Supporter and Friend,
Brazil on the edge
With all eyes on Sunday (28 October)’s second round of Brazil’s presidential elections, LAB...
Ecuador: the Napo goldrush and the rise of the narco-garimpeiros
When large mining companies such as TerraEarth withdrew from gold mining in Ecuador's Napo province, they paved the way for smaller scale illegal miners to move in in force, financed by cocaine money, with terrible consequences
Mining: ISDS – a licence to plunder
The iniquitous ISDS system allows mining companies to sue Latin American governments for massive amounts of 'compensation' every time their mining activities are blocked by local community opposition or environmental concerns.
Ecuador: the rights of nature and the rights of people
President Correa's cancellation of the fund to protect ... is a blow both to the environment and to people everywhere. It will do nothing to reduce poverty.
Amazon frontier: The Third Bank of the River
BOOK REVIEW
Chris Feliciano Arnold, The Third Bank of the River. New York: Picador 2018
This book has been classified as ‘travel-writing’, but it is much...
Ecuador: Cuenca vs the miners
Residents of Cuenca, in Azuay province, voted overwhelmingly in a 'consulta popular' to ban mining that would affect key water resources. Incoming president Guillermo Lasso may find it hard to ignore this result.
Indigenous Amazonians in New York for climate week
“A number of indigenous leaders from the Amazon were at the forefront of climate action events in New York 19-28 September 2019. The protests,...