Latin America

Energy Decline in Latin America Already a Reality in 2017

Erasmo Calzadilla, Havanna Times, June 28, 2017

The annual BP Statistical Review of World Energy report has come to light, and this is a time when several friends and I take advantage to try and understand and communicate what is happening with the energy sector in our continent (excluding the US and Canada)*.

Ecuador's government wants to sell its rainforest to Chinese oil companies

Amazon Watch, Planet Experts, January 31, 2016

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.”

Amazon's female defenders denounce 'macho' repression and demand rights

Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, October 20, 2015

Hoping to shed light on how Ecuadorian Indigenous and mestiza women are subject to systemic criminalization and repression for their work protecting the Amazon rainforest from fossil fuel exploitation and

Guaraní people turn to the law to fight latest battle with Bolivian authorities

Toby Stirling Hill, The Guardian, October 12, 2015

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.

Guatemalan activist murdered after court suspends palm oil company operations

Sandra Cuffe, Mongabay, October 5, 2015

A palm oil company remains at the heart of conflict in northern Guatemala, months after a mass fish die-off. A day after company operations were suspended pending further investigation into the incident, three community leaders were abducted and threatened by company workers and an outspoken local teacher was murdered by unidentified assailants in broad daylight.

Uruguay shows the way by leaving secret trade deal

Viviana Barreto, Common Dreams, September 19, 2015

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.

Agroecology as a tool for liberation: transforming industrial agribusiness in El Salvador

Beverly Bell, Upside Down World, August 20, 2015

Excerpts from an interview with Miguel Ramirez, National Coordinator of the Organic Agriculture Movement of El Salvador.

"We say that every square meter of land that is worked with agro-ecology is a liberated square meter. We see it as a tool to transform farmers' social and economic conditions. We see it as a tool of liberation from the unsustainable capitalist agricultural model that oppresses farmers.

Why climate change is about women: Bolivia in a global context

Carey Averbrook, Democracy Center, May 18, 2015

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.

Urban agriculture contributes half of Cuba's vegetable production

ACN staff, Cuban News Agency (ACN), April 17, 2015

HAVANA, Cuba, Apr 17 (acn) Urban and family gardening contributes 50 percent of the country´s vegetable production with over one million Cubans involved in this developing initiative.

During the closing session of the Second International Congress on Urban and Family Gardening, held in Havana, Cuban Agriculture minister Gustavo Rodriguez said that the initiative has helped create more than 300 thousand jobs.

Brazil -- from the droughts of the Northeast to São Paulo's thirst

Mario Osava, Common Dreams, March 11, 2015

Six million people in Brazil’s biggest city, São Paulo, may at some point find themselves without water. The February rains did not ward off the risk and could even aggravate it by postponing rationing measures which hydrologists have been demanding for the last six months.

The threat is especially frightening for millions of people who have flocked here from Brazil’s poorest region, the semi-arid Northeast, many of whom fled the droughts that are so frequent there.

Latin America

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