Transnationals in Mexico: depeasantization and Walmartization*

The Mexican diagnosis of government policies that have allowed and promoted the advance of transnational corporations, produced by Otros Mundos Chiapas - Friends of the Earth Mexico, is centered on the agri-food sector and is in line with the rest of the countries of the region at a pivotal moment: the 1990s, neoliberal policies and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). In…

Brumadinho: 3 years of impunity amid heavy rains and floods

Three years ago, on January 25, 2019, at 12:28 noon, the Dam I of the mine Córrego do Feijão, run by the company Vale SA, collapsed. It contained 12 million cubic meters of mud with toxic waste that spilled over #Brumadinho and continued its course through the Paraopeba River and the San Francisco River. This mud spill killed 272 people,…

MNP-CONPAREV

Honduras: President of the National Committee for the Prevention of Torture threatened

Lawyer and human rights defender Glenda Ayala Mejía is the commissioner and president of the National Committee for the Prevention of Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Honduras (MNP-CONAPREV). Since the end of 2021, her and her family's physical integrity have been at risk after receiving a series of threats. Although Ayala has been working for the administration of…

Honduran peasants suffer violent evictions in Aguán

Last year, between December 16 and December 21, various social and peasant organizations denounced the violent evictions that thousands of peasants were suffering in Aguán, Honduras. The situation was repeated a week later against members of the Cooperativa Remolino cooperative, who were evicted by private security guards and the COBRA squad who shot them with firearms, leaving at least 7…

Historic elections in Chile towards a new plurinational Constitution

Over the weekend, fruit of the popular struggle, the Chilean people elected their Constitutional Convention to draft a new Constitution to put an end to the one that has been in force since the Pinochet dictatorship. The event was divided into two days to comply with health protocols, and the results were historic. Simultaneously, regional governors, mayors and councilors were…

“We are in a hurry for concrete and real actions, because it is our dreams which are being shattered, our families dismembered, victimized by this racist project”

One month after the murder of João Alberto Silveira Freitas by the security guards hired by Carrefour supermarkets in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Patrícia Gonçalves, member of the Board of Directors of Friends of the Earth Brazil and activist in the Front in Defense of Quilombola Territories in Rio Grande do Sul, analyzes the measures taken by the company and the…

Ecuador will appeal Chevron’s arbitration award

At the last minute, the State Attorney General's Office of Ecuador informed the Union of People Affected by Texaco (UDAPT) that it had begun the appeal process of the arbitration award in favor of Chevron in The Hague. In November, UDAPT warned in a statement that the arbitration award issued ordered the Ecuadorian State "to violate judicial autonomy and interfere…

Colombia: Arbitrary detentions of peasant representatives denounced

The Latin American Coordination of Rural Organizations (CLOC-LVC) denounced the "arbitrary detention" by the Attorney General's Office of Colombia of three well-known leaders of the National Agricultural Coordination (CNA) on December 15. They are Adelso Gallo, a recognized peasant and social leader from the central-eastern region of Colombia, a member of the National Board of the CNA, detained in the…

Water: a fundamental human right on Wall Street

Since December 7, water has been listed on the Wall Street “commodity futures market”, as well as oil, gold, wheat or soybeans. Buyers do not purchase physical products at the time of the futures transaction, but acquire rights to a quantity of water in the future, at a fixed price. This is commonly called "financial speculation". The index called NQH2O…

It’s settled: fumigation is a death sentence

Horticultural producer Ricardo Prieto was sentenced this Monday, December 14, to three years in prison for the manslaughter of Nicolás Arévalo and injuries to Celeste Estévez in Lavalle, in the Argentinian province of Corrientes. The 4-year-old boy died on April 4, 2011 from acute poisoning followed by death, as confirmed by the autopsy, due to the presence of endosulfan in…