The recent meeting of UNASUR Defense ministers and the Brazilian parliamentary debate on defense reveal that the region has made the decision to defend itself in the face of the intensifying global climate of war.
Colombia, traditionally Washington’s best ally in the region, is cozying up to Brazil and building a solid commercial, financial and political network with its neighbor while Washington becomes more and more isolated as a result of the geopolitical restructuring taking place globally and regionally.
A production model based on soy monoculture results in economic growth, but also causes social instability that can lead to political crises. The temptation is to use armed force to resolve them.
China is at the top of Brazil’s agenda for international relations due to the possibility of increasing exports at a time when prices for its products are high, strategic diplomatic relations between the two counties through the emerging economy agenda of the BRIC, and China’s growing influence as an investor in Latin America.
Chilean students have mobilized massive segments of the population once again, and they have Chile at their feet. The student movement leaves no doubt that efforts to privatize education in Chile have led to a full-blown crisis. The students have shown that the transition institutions conceived to preserve the dictator Pinochet’s unjust social and economic model are obsolete and must be changed.
Diana Gomez, is the daughter of Jaime Enrique Gomez Velasquez, a union leader and member of the political opposition who was disappeared and murdered in 2006. As a member of “Sons and Daughters for Memory and Against Impunity” (Hijos e Hijas por la Memoria y Contra la Impunidad) Diana has never stopped seeking justice.
Nearly two thousand activists explored extractivism over three days in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador, at the Continental Conference for Water and Pachamama, debating the problems created by the extractive model and possible alternatives. The Conference Ethics Tribunal condemned militarization and the criminalization of protest, which are integral parts of the extractive model.
