March 19, 2013
This is what Imperialism looks like….  Thanks, South America, for giving this the middle finger. antoine-roquentin: US military construction sites in Central America. Note that Honduras has the largest concentration, a result of the 2009 coup. However, also note that there are still 3 sites (one labelled “renovate damaged pier”, one “ops center/boat ramp” and one “pier and barracks”) in Sandinista-controlled Nicaragua, a result of that party lessening its strident leftist stance in the decades since the revolution. Not pictured: a single site in Peru, the sole US military presence in South America outside of Colombia.

This is what Imperialism looks like….  Thanks, South America, for giving this the middle finger.

antoine-roquentin:

US military construction sites in Central America. Note that Honduras has the largest concentration, a result of the 2009 coup. However, also note that there are still 3 sites (one labelled “renovate damaged pier”, one “ops center/boat ramp” and one “pier and barracks”) in Sandinista-controlled Nicaragua, a result of that party lessening its strident leftist stance in the decades since the revolution. Not pictured: a single site in Peru, the sole US military presence in South America outside of Colombia.

(via fuckyeahmarxismleninism)

1:00pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZiWeSygdivVX
(Notes: 31)
  
Filed under: United States Imperialism Latin South Central America Capitalism Militarism Resistance 
January 29, 2013
"

A judge in Guatemala has ordered the trial of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt for genocide in a case relating to the killings of more than 1,750 indigenous people during his 1982-83 reign.

Relatives of some of the victims lit firecrackers outside the Supreme Court to celebrate the decree.

“There were hundreds of witness testominies and forensic reports for this case, that has been nearly a decade in the making,” Mercer said.

“This decision is unparalled in Guatemala - this is Guatemala’s Pinochet. Activists say that he managed to escape justice for many years”.

This is the first time that genocide proceedings have been formally initiated in the Central American country over the 36-year civil war that ended in 1996. The war left an estimated 200,000 people dead, according to the UN.

Rios Montt is known for his “scorched earth” campaign against people the government claimed were leftist rebels but were often in fact members of indigenous Maya communities who were not involved in the conflict.
Human Rights Watch called the decision to prosecute Rios Montt a “major step forward for accountability in Guatemala.”

“The fact that a judge has ordered the trial of a former head of state is a remarkable development in a country where impunity for past atrocities has long been the norm,” said the group’s Americas director, Jose Miguel Vivanco.

"

— http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/01/201312823657688765.html

11:00am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZiWeSycwnczs
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: Guatemala Central America Latin Progress Resistance Anti Imperialism Human Rights 
January 3, 2013
Leaving Honduras and Entering 2013

I kind of hate how pretentious it sounds to say things like this, but I’ve traveled to a fair number of places.  All the continents except Antarctica, a lot of the Middle East and South America, and even, when I was 14, Costa Rica and Nicaragua on a family vacation (which I know doesn’t really count as travel, it was more tourism.  But still, it was pretty sweet.)  This trip to Honduras for 10 days represented, then, my first time solo-travelling Central America.  I was a little bit hesitant about Honduras, firstly because I have been so busy with teaching that the trip was virtually unplanned, and also because violence in Honduras has been on a major upswing since the 2009 coup, earning San Pedro (where I am currently sitting at the air terminal) the dubious title of world’s most dangerous city.

But Honduras is also fucking exceptional. It’s got the beach and the jungle, yeah, but it also has some of the most exceptionally friendly, genuine people I have ever met in my life (which is saying something, because I’ve been pretty damn lucky in terms of the people I’ve met too). The diversity of the peoples of this country, and the way in which literally everywhere I went I was treated with a certain amount of interest, respect, and genuine friendliness really blew me away.

I seriously cannot say thank you enough to all of the friends, old and new, who made this trip possible… those who let me crash at their houses, invited me to parties, kept me company on long bus rides, and all the rest.  To everyone who shared their stories with me, whether it was their experience of what it was like taking trains and buses for 6 weeks to make it into the United States for a chance at a better life, or the stories about life in different parts of this country, you’re awesome.  I honestly believe that love for humanity comes from sharing the experience of others.

The same goes out to those I probably couldn’t class as friends yet, the people who smiled at me on buses and gave me a bit of their food, who negotiated local prices for me on everything from drinks to bus tickets, and everyone else.  I am not sure that I have ever left a country and found it to be as absolutely perfect, welcoming, genuine, open, and undamaged by mass tourism, as I have Honduras.

This is my first short trip in quite a while, but I really feel like I am going back to NYC focused on creating the change I believe in in the world, and truly in love with a country.  It’s hard to go back.  I know I’m lucky to be able to.  And, even though I guess I could use just a bit more rest before teaching all day tomorrow (considering that I wont be home till 3:30 AM) I’m as committed as ever to making the change I want to see in the world happen, working hard, and getting ready for the next steps in life.

Happy New Year to everybody.  Lets move a few steps closer to a world where everyone is truly equal.

Andrew

7:00pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZiWeSyaujutF
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: Travel Wanderlust Backpacking Central America Honduras New Years 
February 25, 2012

(Source: steezpavez, via socialuprooting)

6:01pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZiWeSyH1Nrsv
(Notes: 56)
  
Filed under: Latin South AMerica Central Anti Imperialism Capitalism 
December 13, 2011
Cuba plans deep-water oil drilling - Jazeera

6:00pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZiWeSyDDVuAe
(Notes: 16)
  
Filed under: Cuba Communism Socialism Oil Petro Politics Money Energy Sustainability Latin South Central America Obama 
December 11, 2011
Rwanda gives DR Congo back tonnes of smuggled minerals

fyeahafrica:

About 82 tonnes of smuggled minerals seized by Rwandan police has been handed back to the Democratic Republic of Congo in a sign of improved relations between the two neighbours.

The minerals include cassiterite, or tin ore, as well as coltan, used in devices such as mobile phones.

The return of the materials follows new international regulations aimed at cleaning up the mineral sector.

DR Congo’s mineral wealth has been a major factor in years of conflict.

Armed groups - local and foreign - have seized control of many mines in the east, bordering Rwanda and few Congolese have benefited from their country’s vast mineral wealth.

Rwanda has twice invaded DR Congo saying it was fighting rebel groups based there but its army has been accused of looting minerals during the conflict in which an estimated five million people died.

Rwanda’s Natural Resources Minister Stanislas Kamanzi handed the minerals - loaded in five lorries - to Congolese authorities at a ceremony in the border town of Gisenye.

BBC East Africa correspondent Will Ross says the handover is a sign of the greatly improved relations between two countries that have often been bitter enemies.

“I think it [reflects] the spirit of cooperation between the two countries,” DR Congo mining ministry adviser, Paul Mabolia Yenga, told the BBC’s Network Africa programme.

Rwanda’s deputy director of natural resources Michael Biryabarema said Kigali wanted to end perceptions that it benefited from illegal mining in DR Congo.

“It’s a lie that has gone for a long time,” he said.

He said Rwanda and DR Congo would work together to strengthen their mining sectors.

“We are more interested in… the development of our industry, bilateral relations and the establishment of proper trade relations,” Mr Biryabarema said.

Rwanda has for years been a major conduit for conflict minerals from DR Congo, correspondents say.

It long denied any involvement but now supports efforts to make the trade more transparent.

Any seized minerals without the sign would be returned, Mr Biryabarema said.

[read more]

(Source: )

11:45am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZiWeSyD6cAU9
(Notes: 32)
  
Filed under: Rwanda DRC Congo Democratic Republic of Congo Coltan Mineral Rights War Exploitation Sustainability Africa News Wanderlust Travel Politics Central East Eastern 
December 6, 2011
fuckyeahlatinamericanhistory: babylonfalling: Cuban exiles fly the flag of Castro’s 26th of July Movement from the crown of the Statue of Liberty. Photo by Roberto Salas (just 16 years old at the time), 1957. “Caribbean political exiles have used the US to plot their return, publish newspapers, hold banquets and run guns in and out of their respective islands since the last century…[T]he 26 of July Movement’s stateside network…broke the insular pattern of émigré organizing by cannily staging a series of dramatic ‘media events’ designed to appeal to North America’s sense of moral superiority and enjoyment of novelty: running up the 26 of July Movement’s flag at Rockefeller Center or the Statue of Liberty while singing the Cuban national anthem, special masses held by the ‘Catholic Ladies of Cuba’ at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, ‘in memory of all the victims massacred in Cuba under the Batista regime,’ and constant pickets and protests, even breaking into a televised World Series game at Yankee Stadium by showering the stands and fields with leaflets—it is not incidental that this last, most spectacular incident was dreamed up by a young Staten Islander, Donald Soldini, while nursing wounds won in battle with Raúl Castro’s column in the Sierra Cristal.” —Van Gosse, Where the Boys Are: Cuba, Cold War America, and the Making of the New Left (1993).

fuckyeahlatinamericanhistory:

babylonfalling:

Cuban exiles fly the flag of Castro’s 26th of July Movement from the crown of the Statue of Liberty. Photo by Roberto Salas (just 16 years old at the time), 1957.

“Caribbean political exiles have used the US to plot their return, publish newspapers, hold banquets and run guns in and out of their respective islands since the last century…[T]he 26 of July Movement’s stateside network…broke the insular pattern of émigré organizing by cannily staging a series of dramatic ‘media events’ designed to appeal to North America’s sense of moral superiority and enjoyment of novelty: running up the 26 of July Movement’s flag at Rockefeller Center or the Statue of Liberty while singing the Cuban national anthem, special masses held by the ‘Catholic Ladies of Cuba’ at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, ‘in memory of all the victims massacred in Cuba under the Batista regime,’ and constant pickets and protests, even breaking into a televised World Series game at Yankee Stadium by showering the stands and fields with leaflets—it is not incidental that this last, most spectacular incident was dreamed up by a young Staten Islander, Donald Soldini, while nursing wounds won in battle with Raúl Castro’s column in the Sierra Cristal.”

—Van Gosse, Where the Boys Are: Cuba, Cold War America, and the Making of the New Left (1993).

(via fylatinamericanhistory)

9:00pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZiWeSyCvkZlY
(Notes: 32)
  
Filed under: Cuba Latin South Central America AMericas Communism Anti Imperialism New York United States of 
December 4, 2011
fyeahafrica: Charles Ingabire, a Rwandan journalist and politcal refugee, has been shot dead in Uganda after he was gunned down outside a bar in the capital city of Kampala.   Ingabire was the editor of Inyenyeri News - an online news publication that was highly critical of the government of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. (source)

fyeahafrica:

Charles Ingabire, a Rwandan journalist and politcal refugee, has been shot dead in Uganda after he was gunned down outside a bar in the capital city of Kampala.  

Ingabire was the editor of Inyenyeri News - an online news publication that was highly critical of the government of Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

(source)

(Source: )

4:15pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZiWeSyCpGB6-
(Notes: 57)
  
Filed under: Rwanda Central East Africa Repression Censorship Kagame Journalism 
December 3, 2011
selucha: The Slogan is Literacy! From revolutionary Nicaragua, early 1980s. The illiteracy rate in the country dropped from around 50% to around 12% in the first 13 months after the 1979 Sandinista Revolution. NOTE: The verb alfabetizar doesn’t have a direct English translation and means “to make literate.”

selucha:

The Slogan is Literacy! From revolutionary Nicaragua, early 1980s. The illiteracy rate in the country dropped from around 50% to around 12% in the first 13 months after the 1979 Sandinista Revolution.

NOTE: The verb alfabetizar doesn’t have a direct English translation and means “to make literate.”

(via fylatinamericanhistory)

5:22pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZiWeSyCmR9ID
(Notes: 93)
  
Filed under: Communism Socialism Latin Central America Nicaragua Anti United States of America Policy Socialism Communism Antifascism Anti fascist 
November 25, 2011
Wanted Congo rebel leader holds public rally

Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, accused of orchestrating mass rape campaign in DR Congo, stages election rally as police look on.

2:11pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZiWeSyCPEwt2
(Notes: 17)
  
Filed under: Africa Democratic Republic of Congo DRC Kinsasha Human RIghts Central 
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