The small town of Quedas do Iguaçu, in southern Brazil close to the border with Paraguay, awoke to the sound of helicopters on November 4 last year. After eight months, a police investigation aimed at an alleged criminal conspiracy within the Landless Workers' Movement (MST) was about to come to fruition. Sixteen arrest warrants were issued - 14 of them against...
As peace activists, we have become too accustomed to share bad news. However, on this occasion I’m glad to be able to say that, while there are still many challenges, we are on the right path towards building peace in Colombia.
The oldest insurgent group in the Americas, FARC-EP (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia- the People’s Army), no longer...
On 27 August, Guatemalan president Jimmy Morales made a special TV broadcast to the nation.
In the broadcast, he declared that Iván Velásquez, the head of the UN-appointed CICIG (Commission against Impunity in Guatemala) was ‘persona non grata’ in the country, and that the ‘competent authorities’ would see that Velásquez was immediately deported.
Morales’ move came less than 48 hours after...
Vitória lives in a small two-room house with her baby son Lucas and mother Laura in Jardim Guarani, on the northern periphery of São Paulo, Brazil. She welcomes us for a coffee in her small kitchen that also serves as a lounge. The family store their belongings next to a bunk bed in the only bedroom, where they all...
Aug 14 2017
What is President Temer's weapon for fighting corruption charges? Why, corruption of course.
In his relentless battle to stay in power, President Michel Temer has appealed to the very methods he stands accused of by the Attorney General’s investigations: bribery and corruption, or as Theresa May might say, confidence and supply.
This enabled him to win last week’s crucial...
The article was published (in Portuguese) by MST here. Translated and with additional material by Mike Gatehouse, for LAB.
2016 turned out to be the second most violent year for land conflicts in Brazil in the last 25 years, only just behind 2003. That reality is made up of 61 murders, including those of 16 young people between 15 and...
This article was originally published by Mongabay on 28 July 2017.
This week, Brazil’s internationally recognized Landless Workers Movement (MST) launched a coordinated protest against corruption, with thousands of its members occupying six farms affiliated with government officials and Brazil’s wealthy elite.
Farms were occupied by hundreds of protesting landless families in the states of Mato Grosso, Piauí, Rio...
Pretty Faces, Grisly Interests
This article was published on the website of Canadian progressive magazine Briarpatch. LAB has added titles and images.
Main image: Banner at peaceful protest near Escobal mine. Guatemala’s Constitution states that resistance is legitimate when done to protect and defend human rights. Photo: Sandra Cuffe/MiningWatch Canada
Though Mexico was a punching bag throughout Donald Trump’s successful campaign...
On 12 July ex-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sentenced to 9 years and 6 months imprisonment by Judge Sérgio Moro. In contrast to his practice with the others found guilty in the lower courts in Operation Car Wash, Moro avoided remanding in custody Brazil’s most high-profile political leader. He argued: ‘Prudence recommends that the accused should remain...
After helping Aécio Neves and Michel Temer avoid conviction, Judge Sergio Moro uses shaky evidence to prevent Ex-president Lula’s candidacy on the day that the Brazilian Senate wipes 70 years of labor rights gains off the board.
On Wednesday, July 12, Judge Sergio Moro sentenced ex-president Lula to serve 9.5 years in jail for passive corruption and money laundering. The...