Across the Americas

Faced with the situation generated by the declaration of a State of Emergency [lit. Interior Commotion], the CUT has met with trade unions and social organizations and as a result concluded that once again the Uribe Government seeks to take away the minimum democratic guarantees and, especially, strike down the trade union movement and other social organisations.

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Former hostage Ingrid Betancourt made an emotional appeal to EU lawmakers Wednesday to work for the release of other captives, saying nations must drop long-held taboos against talking with terror groups.

She said isolating such groups made no sense anymore and did little to address root causes of terrorism such as poverty.

Betancourt said that seeking "dialogue was indispensable" to ending conflict. "When I say we have to negotiate with terrorists, I say it's the best way to save lives."

by Ali Gharib

(IPS) -The policies of the George W. Bush administration lag behind public opinion on a host of issues relating to Latin America, according to a new poll of likely voters across the U.S.

The poll, released Friday by Zogby International, polled over 2,700 people and found that most of them are in favour of revising policies towards Cuba and think the "war on drugs" is a failing effort.

The Bogotá Declaration, September 27 2008

Following a broad debate, peoples and indigenous communities from the Andean and Amazonian region, mining workers, small and medium miners in Colombia, together with social movements and fraternal organizations from Guatemala and the United States, who have coexisted ancestrally with mountains and clear waters according to ways of life founded on a good life for all that is both complementary and values reciprocity and who are today affected by mining and brought together by the Andean Forum in response Large Scale Mining, declare:

by Rick Arnold, Common Frontiers coordinator *

Mexicans vote to continue their public ownership

On July 27th more than one and a half million Mexicans in nine states and the capital city voted on proposed legislation that would see Mexico’s nationalized energy sector opened up to foreign investment. Over 80% voted against President Calderon's privatization plans in the first of three consultations, with the next two scheduled for August 10 and 24. In Mexico City 826,000 people cast their ballots at some 5,600 voting booths. In the nine participating states, with results still trickling in from remote areas, a similar number of voters had turned thumbs down on the government's pending legislation.