Chapter 8 - State violence, policing and paramilitaries

My Imaginary Country, which premiered to standing ovations at Cannes this year, is perhaps the documentary Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán has always wanted to make. 

Peruvian coca farmers are actively recruiting Brazilian indigenous workers from the Alto Salimöes region to harvest and transport coca. Violence and exploitation are rife.

At least 58 indigenous people were killed in the Brazilian, Colombian, Ecuadorean and Peruvian Amazon between 2016 and 2021. In this article, Mongabay outlines the patterns, the involvement of state actors and the cloud of impunity surrounding these crimes

Recalling the famous 1977 Letter for Democracy, the 2022 Carta pela Democracia has gathered more than a million signatures from lawyers, academics, trade unionists, black leaders, business leaders and trades unionists -- all warning against any attempt by Bolsonaro to stage a coup if he should lose the presidential election

Jair Bolsonaro has launched a frontal assault on the same electoral system which brought him to the presidency. This is part of a three-pronged strategy to discredit Brazil's democracy and refuse to accept any outcome other than his own victory

Anti-Black violence by the Police targets young men in Brazil's favelas and makes their mothers 'orphans'. Their trauma and spectacular resistance are highlighted in this new film, reviwed for LAB by Jessica Pandian

How a short-lived rebellion in 1922 by a tiny group of army officers inspired the 'tenentes' movement, influenced the 1964 military coup, and is still remembered today in street names, monuments and, perhaps, by a military debating its position in the 2022 elections.

Following the murder of Colombian Indigenous leader Albeiro Camayo Güetio in January 2022 by FARC dissidents, independent digital media outlet 070 interview a human rights activist and a researcher at Conflict Responses Foundation to understand the crime and the government’s and FARC dissidents’ responsibility for it.

A mural by street artist Kapo in London’s Stockwell Hall of Fame was painted in honour of one of the many protestors killed in Colombia during the national strike of 2021.

Honduran environmental defender Berta Cáceres was brutally murdered in 2016 because of her opposition to the construction of the Agua Zarca dam, which threatened indigenous Lenca communities. This podcast series examines her life and death.