Across the Americas - Americas

Ecuador Defaults on Foreign Debt

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:27:26 -0800

Written by Daniel Denvir, 12 December 2008 *

Rafael Correa declared on Friday that Ecuador would not make a $30.6 million interest payment on $510 million in bonds due in 2012, calling the debt illegal.

The default on the Global Bonus 2012 bonds means that Ecuador is also defaulting on Global 2015 and 2030 bonds. The default totals $9.937 billion, 19 percent of the country's GDP. Ecuador has assembled a legal team to fight expected lawsuits and hopes to use the default as leverage to renegotiate the debts.

Indigenous People Rising: Historic Changes Across Latin America

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:35:51 -0800

By James Cockcroft
Counterpunch, Weekend Edition, November 28-30, 2008

Indigenous peoples in Indo-Afro-Latin America, especially Bolivia and Ecuador, are rising up to take control of their own lives and act in solidarity with others to save the planet. They are calling for new, yet ancient, practices of plurinational, participatory, and intercultural democracy. They champion ecologically sustainable development; community-based autonomies; and solidarity with other peoples locally, regionally, and internationally – what they describe as “unity in diversity.” Their values are often different than those of the United States or Europe. One indigenous leader has stated: “We give what money we have not to banks to collect interest but to others – and their gratitude is the interest we receive.”

Bush Seen As Out of Touch on Latin America

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:37:38 -0700

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 Andean Forum in Response to Large Mining: Community, Indigenous and Worker Alternatives

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:27:59 -0700

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:

The Battle Over PEMEX

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:44:16 -0700

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.

PROPUESTA DE LEY DE COMERCIO

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:42:00 -0700

PROPUESTA DE LEY DE COMERCIO
(VERSIÓN DE LA CÁMARA DE REPRESENTANTES DE EUA)
Traducción No oficial al español de A. Villamar/ 06-06-2008

110 CONGRESO
2da SESIÓN

Para exigir una revisión de los acuerdos comerciales vigentes y la renegociación de los acuerdos comerciales vigentes sobre la base de la revisión, para fijar los términos de futuros acuerdos comerciales, para expresar el sentido de la Cámara de Representantes sobre el papel del Congreso en las políticas comerciales que deben ser fortalecidas, y para otros fines.

HSA Bulletin June 23, 2008

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:08:43 -0700

HEMISPHERIC SOCIAL ALLIANCE
ALIANZA SOCIAL CONTINENTAL
http://www.asc-hsa.org

1. Europe Raises Its Wall: Parliament Approved Anti-Immigrant Law
2. CAOI (Coordinadora Andina de Organizaciones Indígenas - Coordination of Andean Indigenous Organizations): No to the "Flexibilization" of Decision 486 of the CAN (Andean Community)

Regarding "The Return Directive"

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:55:50 -0700

by Evo Morales Ayma, President of the Republic of Bolivia

Until the end of the Second World War, Europe was a continent of emigrants. Tens of millions of Europeans came to the Americas to colonize, escape
hunger, financial crisis, wars, European totalitarianisms and the persecutions of ethnic minorities.

Today, I am following with deep concern the approval process of the so-called "Return Directive". The text, validated on June the 5th by the Home Affairs Ministers of the 27 European Union countries, has to be voted on June 18th in the European Parliament. I consider that it drastically hardens the detention and expulsion conditions of undocumented immigrants, regardless of the length of their stay in the European countries, their employment situation, their family ties, their will or their achieved integration.

HSA Bulletin June 6, 2008

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:42:43 -0700

HEMISPHERIC SOCIAL ALLIANCE
ALIANZA SOCIAL CONTINENTAL
http://www.asc-hsa.org

1) The new referendums in Bolivia were marked by a high level of abstention
2) Peru’s proposal about Decision 486 will be voted on June 21st
3) Ecuador: An audit of the external debt continues
4) Mexico: Food for Mexico’s campesinos: Hunger doesn’t wait
5) Central America: U.S. objectives move forward in Plan Puebla Panama and the Mérida initiative
6) Colombia: Government represses indigenous social mobilization with lethal weapons

Evo Morales’ 10 Commandments to save the Planet

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:17:11 -0700

(PL and ABI New York, April 21, 2008) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales said today that to save the planet requires putting an end to the capitalist model and for the North to pay its Ecological Debt. This was the first of 10 points presented by Morales at the inauguration of the UN’s VII Indigenous Forum, in a long address acclaimed by participants at this annual gathering.

Morales Ayma proposed 10 commandment to save the world, life, and all of humanity, making reference to respect for the earth, renouncing war, bilateral relations without impositions, water and land as human rights, clean energy, no to biofuels, basic services, prioritizing what is produced locally, promoting cultural diversity, and the notion of "living well" through communitarian socialism and in harmony with mother Earth.

The president affirmed that there remain two paths toward saving humanity, life, and the plant Earth: either recovering a way of life in harmony with mother Earth and all of life, or following the path of capitalism and death.

Morales insisted that the only way to save the world is to put an end to this way of thinking that promotes individualist selfishness and a thirst for profits. He asked indigenous peoples, peasants and governments of the world to consume what is necessary, giving priority to what is produced locally and avoiding waste and luxury.

What does "NAFTA-gate" mean for social movements?

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 10:27:59 -0700

by Blair Redlin March 13, 2008

On March 5 – the day after the Ohio Democratic primary in which the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was such a vote determining issue – activists, legislators and academics from Mexico, the U.S. and Canada gathered at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C. to take a critical look at NAFTA and the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and what might be done about them.