This Special Bulletin from Bolivia Information Forum was issued on 17 November 2019
A right-wing government has taken office in La Paz representing the most conservative forces in Bolivian society. The new cabinet hails, in large measure, from Santa Cruz and the east of the country. They include people close to the radical civic committee leader, Luis Fernando Camacho. The...
The recent announcement by Iván Márquez – the second highest commander of the original Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) – that sections of South America’s largest demobilised guerrilla movement are returning to war, should come as little surprise to some observers of Latin America. In a recent video, Márquez, whose real name is Luciano Marín, said that the...
11 August 2019, São Paulo.
Each day the list of outrageous, insulting, untruthful comments by the president grows longer as President Jair Bolsonaro takes aim at scientists, environmentalists, lawyers, foreigners, gays, indians, civil servants, anyone who crosses his sights, while at the same time declaring his ‘passionate’ love for Donald Trump. Murdered political activists are insulted, dead torturers are praised. ...
Written by Nathalie Mercier, Christian Aid’s Programme Officer in Guatemala
Decision day is fast approaching
for Guatemalans awaiting the result of the country’s presidential elections.
Neither of the two front-running candidates
- Sandra Torres from the centre party National Union for Hope (UNE), and
Alejandro Giammattei from the far-right party Vamos - achieved the majority needed
for victory in the first round (in June)....
Dear LAB Supporter and Friend,
31 July 2019
Migration
and Displacement at crisis point
In addition to our website, LAB’s Facebook page provides a daily stream of summaries and links to articles published elsewhere. In this and future newsletters we will mention some of these, with the rubric ‘Read FB’ to distinguish them from posts on LAB’s website 'Read more'.
Migration
Costa Rica has...
Film by Judy Jackson, 2019
The migrant crisis through the eyes of Pastor Ignacio Martinez, the founder of ABBA safehouse in Celaya. It started when Ignacio and his family took food to migrants jumping freight trains Some were sick, there was nowhere to wash or sleep. So he founded ABBA, where they can rest, receive food and medical and psychological...
São Paulo, April 5: ‘If he sees a banana skin on the pavement across the road, he will cross over to slip on it’, said columnist Elio Gaspari, describing the Brazilian president’s unerring capacity to provoke self-inflicted crises.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QHDGdzFyY8
The latest example of the Bolsonaro boomerang effect
was his order to all military establishments to commemorate the 55th
anniversary of the 1964 coup,...
Charles Beach, in Cúcuta, witnessed Branson’s concert and the halting of the aid convoy
On 22 January Richard Branson came
to the Colombian border city of Cúcuta, a place that I’ve called my home and
PhD field site for the last year, to organize a
fundraising concert for the people of Venezuela. The British business magnate
and creator of the Virgin empire, inspired by...
This article is based on a letter submitted in February 2019 to the European Commission and to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The author is Victor Álvarez R., a Venezuelan economist and winner of the Premio Nacional de Ciencia 2013. He was Minister of Basic Industries and Mining during the Chavez presidency
The English translation...
It’s well known where Hillary Clinton stood on regime change in Iraq and Libya, but what often gets forgotten is that she threw her support behind the 2009 Honduran coup that ousted democratically-elected Manuel Zelaya. In this week’s Reality Check, Mehdi Hasan highlights how Clinton backed regime change in the Latin American country.
Video: Al Jazeera English 1 October 2016