Latin America

Quito, Ecuador – The Ecuadorian government has announced imminent plans to sign contracts for two controversial Amazonian oil blocks which are facing adamant opposition from local indigenous people residing within the roughly half-a-million acre concessions and beyond. The blocks, known as 79 and 83, overlap with the territory of the Sápara indigenous people, a small threatened group of only 300 which has official recognition by UNESCO as an “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.”

The history of Bolivia’s Guaraní, an indigenous people living in the country’s southern lowlands, is one of struggle in defence of their territory. In 1892, an uprising against local landowners ended with the massacre of more than 2,000 Guaraní.

Last week the Uruguayan government decided to end its involvement in the secret negotiations of the Trade in Services Agreement TISA, signifying an important victory in the global fight against bad trade deals.

Doña Rosa reaches for several old plastic Coca-Cola bottles filled with dehydrated onion, spinach, carrot, and a variety of other vegetables. She empties a little of each into a bowl and, after a few minutes, adds several handfuls of these vegetables to the pot of boiling water on her stove.