Interviews


Relatives of people disappeared by the dictatorship in Uruguay launch software to recover military files

“We want to have a basis of information about the recent past without intermediaries”, said Patiño about LUISA* (Spanish acronym for Reading Together to Interpret Files), a software that aims to voluntarily recover the illegible texts of the files created by the military intelligence during the Uruguayan civic-military dictatorship (1973-1985). Any person, anywhere in the world, can participate in this…

“Duque´s administration has no political will to comply with the Peace Accords”

Vía Campesina´s 3rd Solidarity Mission will take place from March 29 to April 2 in three Colombian regions: Cauca, Tolima and Sumapaz. Nury Martínez, member of the Agricultural National Union Federation (FENSUAGRO) and the Political Coordination of La Vía Campesina South America, shared details about the Mission with Real World Radio. In order to verify if -and how- the Peace…

“Water fosters mobilizations against looting”

Water is more than a basic need: it is a right. In the struggle for this recognition there are many communities facing governments and corporations that attempt to take away this common good from them. Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean (ATALC) published at the end of 2018 the report Public Policy and the Fundamental Right to Water in…

Plantations are not forests

March 21 marks the International Day of Forests. This date was chosen by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in order to raise awareness about the importance of forests. This year, the theme is “Forests and Education”. However, for the World Rainforest Movement (WRM) the first who needs to be educated is the FAO, since its…

Outrage over assassination of Sergio Rojas in Costa Rica

On March 18th, Sergio Rojas, a Bribri indigenous leader, was murdered after being shot 15 times in Yeri, Salitre area, in southern Costa Rica. As a member of the National Coordination of the National Front of Indigenous Peoples (FRENAPI), Rojas fought for the restitution of ancestral lands and the conservation of native ecosystems. Local organizations condemned this “vile murder” and…

Life cannot be dammed

March 14th marks the International Day of Action against Dams and for Rivers. Mobilizations around the world denounced the socioenvironmental impacts of these construction works that operate in hydroelectric and mining projects. The Climate Justice and Energy Program of Friends of the Earth International expressed its solidarity with the communities affected by hydroelectric dams, especially the Lenca indigenous people defending…

Let us organize ourselves, humankind!

That night of March 2nd, 2016, when a group of hitmen broke into Berta´s home in La Esperanza (Intibucá), Gustavo Castro was there because he had traveled to present a workshop for the members of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). The hitmen shot and killed Berta, and injured Gustavo and left him for dead.…

“Berta put her body and soul into each and every one of the words she said”

March 2nd marks the third anniversary of the murder of Berta Cáceres, a political femicide that attempted to silence the struggles led by this Honduran defender together with the Lenca people and the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). With this crime, they tried to silence the struggle against the installation of extractivist projects such as Agua…