The Primer George Bush Should Have Read!

Book Review:

Understanding Iraq
by William R. Polk
Harper Perennial, 2005

by Vilosh Vinograd

What are we to make of a book subtitled "The Whole Sweep of Iraqi History, From Genghis Khan's Mongols to the Ottoman Turks to the British Mandate to the American Occupation," which nonetheless clocks in at just over 200 pages of fairly large print?

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

On the evening of Sept. 19, in front of an overflow crowd of public spectators, the No. 1 Federal Oral Court in the Argentine city of La Plata, Buenos Aires province, sentenced former police investigations director Miguel Osvaldo Etchecolatz to life in prison for the crimes of wilful homicide, illegal privation of liberty and application of torture. Etchecolatz must serve his sentence in a common prison; he will continue to be held at the Marcos Paz prison, where he has been detained since shortly after the trial began in June.

The court treated the charges as crimes against humanity in the context of genocide, ruling that the kidnappings, torture and murders carried out by Etchecolatz were part of a systematic extermination plan by the state. It was the first official court recognition that the actions of Argentina's military regime (1976-1983) constituted genocide. An estimated 30,000 people were detained and disappeared by the regime, and presumably murdered, though most of the bodies were never found.

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

On Sept. 11, Peruvian police agents entered the community of Sion, San Martin department, in the Alto Huallaga region, and physically attacked a group of campesino coca growers (cocaleros). The agents fired tear gas canisters, shot weapons into the air and beat residents. At least 30 cocaleros were injured, one of them seriously. Sion mayor Nestor Sallago Mateo said three community members were detained by police and their whereabouts are unknown.

Initially, the government blamed the cocaleros for the clash in Sion, but on Sept. 14 Nancy Obregon, Peru's top cocalero leader and member of Congress with the Union for Peru party led by Ollanta Humala Tasso, gave reporters a videotape of the incident showing clear evidence of excessive force on the part of police.

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

from Weekly News Update on the Americas

BOLIVAR: ARMY KILLS MINING UNION LEADER

On Sept. 19 troops from the Colombian National Army's Nueva Granada Anti-Aircraft Battalion murdered campesino leader and [independent, small-scale] mining union activist Alejandro Uribe in a rural mining area in the south of Bolivar department. Uribe was president of the Community Action Board of the village of Mina Gallo, in Morales municipality, and a member of the Agromining Federation of the South of Bolivar (Fedeagromisbol). He was killed while returning to Mina Gallo from the rural community of Las Culebras, in Montecristo municipality. Uribe had gone to the mining association's farm in Las Culebras that morning with Emiliano Garcia, an official with the Agromining Federation and legal representative of the Mina Gallo Association.

Canadian Mining Project Tainted by Rights Abuses

by Cyril Mychalejko, Upside Down World

"Welcome to Ascendant Copper, a socially responsible corporate citizen," states the Canadian mining company's website. Ascendant also boasts of being a member of the UN Global Compact. Ironically it was officially accepted into the group on July 12, the same day that several hundred residents of the village of Intag marched in Quito to protest the company's mining project.

The Global Compact is a voluntary initiative developed by the UN to streamline the human rights agenda into the day-to-day practices of global corporations. There is no monitoring or enforcement of declared standards, which relegates the compact to nothing more than a public relations tool for corporations, helping to put a human face on often inhumane business practices, such as those carried out by Ascendant.

An Interview with Pachakutik Presidential Candidate Luis Maca

by Rune Geertsen, Upside Down World

The powerful Ecuadorian indigenous movement faces one of its biggest challenges yet in the October 15th presidential elections—for the first time they are presenting their own candidate. For them it is not about winning, it is about continuing the indigenous struggle after a great crisis. When the Ecuadorian indigenous movement backed a candidate in the last presidential elections, it was a huge victory that quickly turned into a disaster.

In 2002 Pachakutik, the political arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), formed an alliance with Lucio Gutierrez, former coup leader, military man, and a fierce anti-neoliberal. Gutierrez won. Four Pachakutik members were appointed ministers, most notably the indigenous foreign minister, Nina Pacari. Yet only a few months after taking office, Gutierrez shifted to the political right and signed deals with the IMF, thus continuing the country's neoliberal track. At the same time, he began to subvert the indigenous movement from within.

Revolution or Populist Theater?

by Dan La Botz, Mexican Labor News & Analysis

Two months after Mexico's contested July 2 presidential elections, the Federal Electoral Tribunal recognized Felipe Calderón as president-elect, while a massive National Democratic Convention has proclaimed Andrés Manuel López Obrador to be the "legitimate president of Mexico." He is now creating an alternative government, and says he will call a constituent assembly that will write a new constitution. What is happening here? Is this a radical fight for reforms? A potentially revolutionary movement? Or a spectacular piece of populist theater?