Geography Archives: Peru

  • An Alternative Vision of Healthcare:The People Before Profit Community Healthcare Project Visit to Venezuela: An Interview with Netfa Freeman

    In June, the People Before Profit Community Healthcare Project visited Venezuela in order to assess the state of its healthcare system.  The People Before Profit Community Healthcare Project models itself on the Cuban community-based approach to healthcare, and has established a project along those lines in a small neighborhood in Washington, DC.  The visit was […]

  • Naxalites for Dummies

      Dear Indian Reader, Not that I would ever, ever consider you to be a dummy — heaven forbid!  After all, you are no US citizen of the (George Dubya) Bush years now, are you?  🙂  You are no placid ignoramus, incapable of pointing to ‘Eye-rack’ on a map, utterly untouched by any knowledge of […]

  • Obama’s Deafening Silence on Honduras

    Seven weeks after the Honduran military overthrew the democratically elected president of Honduras, the divide between the United States and Latin America continues to grow — although you might not get that impression from most mainstream media reports. The strategy of the coup regime is obviously to run out the clock on President Zelaya’s remaining […]

  • Riding the “Green Wave” at the Campaign for Peace and Democracy and Beyond

    There are many problems with the Campaign for Peace and Democracy’s “Question & Answer on the Iran Crisis,” issued by the CPD on July 7, and widely circulated since then.1 The CPD adopted this format, it tells us, because “some on the left, and others as well, have questioned the legitimacy of and the need […]

  • The PRI’s Election Victory: A New Political Era in Mexico

    Back to the past — and with a landslide.  The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) which for 70 years, from 1928 to 2000, ruled Mexico as a one-party state won a decisive victory in the mid-term elections on July 5.  The PRI’s victory represented a defeat both for the conservative economic and social policies of President […]

  • Interview with Argentine Economist Claudio Katz: “The Solution to the Crisis of Capitalism Has to Be Political”

      The exit from the systemic crisis of capitalism needs to be political, and “a socialist project can mature in this turbulence.”  So says the Argentine economist, philosopher, and sociologist Claudio Katz, who also warns that the “global economic situation is very serious and is going to have to hit bottom, and now we are […]

  • Anatomy of the Golpe in Honduras: Interview with Manuel Antonio Villa

    On my last day in Tegucigalpa, I conducted an interview with writer/documentarian Manuel Antonio Villa, 37, who for the last seven years has traveled through his country studying the economic circumstances of the peasantry and the workers.  For Villa, Honduras has entered a new, revolutionary era, while the golpe against Mel Zelaya has commenced a […]

  • Hondurans Resist Coup, Will Need Help from Other Countries

    The military coup that overthrew President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras took a new turn when Zelaya attempted to return home on Sunday.  The military closed the airport and blocked runways to prevent his plane from landing.  They also shot several protesters, killing at least one and injuring others. The violence and the enormous crowd — […]

  • Honduras: The Moment of Truth for the Obama Administration

      The military coup currently underway in Honduras is a hard coup accompanied by various vain attempts to make it appear soft and “constitutionalist.”  Behind the coup are diverse social, economic, and political forces, of which the most important is the administration of President Barack Obama.  No important change can happen in Honduras without Washington’s […]

  • It’s Not about Zelaya

    Manuel “Mel” Zelaya is a rancher and business owner who wears large cowboy hats and, in November 2005, was elected president of Honduras, an impoverished Central American country with a population of 7.5 million.  On June 28 of this year the Honduran military, backed by the country’s elite, removed Zelaya from power.  He instantly became […]

  • Ideas for the Struggle #4 Should We Reject Bureaucratic Centralism and Use Only Consensus?

    This is the fourth in a series of articles on “Ideas for the Struggle” by Marta Harnecker. 1.  For a long time, left-wing parties were authoritarian.  The usual practice was bureaucratic centralism, very much influenced by the experiences of Soviet socialism.  All criteria, tasks, initiatives, and courses of political action were decided by the party […]

  • Peru’s Amazon Indigenous Peoples Need You to TAKE ACTION Now!

    60 Die in Peru Rainforest Protest Send a Message to the President of Peru June 5, 2009 URGENT ACTION ALERT Peru’s Amazon Indigenous Peoples need you to TAKE ACTION now! Tell the Peruvian Government: Immediately suspend violent repression of indigenous protests and the State of Emergency Repeal the Free Trade Laws that allow oil, logging, […]

  • Solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian Amazon!

    Washington DC, 8 June 2009 Washington DC, 8 June 2009 Washington DC, 8 June 2009 Washington DC, 8 June 2009 Washington, DC, 5 June 2009 Washington, DC, 5 June 2009 Lima, 5 June 2009 Lima, 27 May 2009 Los Angeles, 26 May 2009 Los Angeles, 26 May 2009 United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, […]

  • Ideas for the Struggle #3 To Be at the Service of Popular Movements, Not to Displace Them

    This is the third in a series of articles on “Ideas for the Struggle” by Marta Harnecker. 1.  We have said before that politics is the art of constructing a social and political force capable of changing the balance of forces in order to make possible tomorrow what appears impossible today.  But, to be able […]

  • Ideas for the Struggle #2 Not to Impose But to Convince

    This is the second in a series of articles on “Ideas for the Struggle” by Marta Harnecker. 1.  Popular movements and, more generally, various social actors who are engaged in the struggle against neoliberal globalization today at the international level as well as in their own countries reject, with good reason, actions that aim to […]

  • Ideas for the Struggle #1 Insurrections or Revolutions? The Role of the Political Instrument

      This is the first in a series of articles on “Ideas for the Struggle” by Marta Harnecker. 1.  The recent popular uprisings at the turn of the 21st century that have rocked numerous countries such as Argentina and Bolivia — and, more generally, the history of the multiple social explosions that have occurred in […]

  • Peru: Indigenous People Declare the Real State of Emergency

    On May 9, 2009, the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency in the regions of Loreta, Amazonas, Cusco, and Ucalyali — where thousands of indigenous people have mobilized against several new laws that threaten to strip away their indigenous land rights. In effect, the state of emergency (SoE) is a “declaration of war” against […]

  • Troubled Assets: The IMF’s Latest Projections for Economic Growth in the Western Hemisphere

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has published its latest projections for economic growth around the world.1  At first glance, the IMF projections for Latin America seem unlikely.  The IMF has a lengthy record of biased projections of growth in the region2 and has been consistently underestimating growth in countries such as Argentina and Venezuela, which […]

  • Patterns of Adjustment in the Age of Finance: The Case of Turkey as a Peripheral Agent of Neoliberal Globalization

    Abstract Following the 2000-01 crisis, Turkey implemented an orthodox strategy of raising interest rates and maintaining an overvalued exchange rate.  But, contrary to the traditional stabilization packages that aim to increase interest rates to constrain domestic demand, the new orthodoxy aimed at maintaining high interest rates to attract speculative foreign capital.  The end result was […]

  • The G20 and the HIRCs

      A group of seven highly indebted rich countries (HIRC) of the world have organized a meeting of twenty nations in London in order to discuss the future of the world’s finances.  They have invited some creditors among developing countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, some Arab countries, China, and India, leaving aside all the […]