:: Latin America
U.S. Venezuelan Relations: Imperialism and Revolution
01.05.2010Historically Latin America has been of great importance to the United States on numerous counts: the region has in the past, provided the US with a trade surplus; its outflows of licit and ill-begotten funds to US banks, numbers annually in the tens of billions; the US has been, up to recently, the major trading partner in the region; Latin America has provided a lucrative outlet for US buyouts of oil, telecoms, banking and related strategic mining companies during the golden age of imperial pillage (1975 1999).
Imperial Globalization and Social Movements in Latin America
James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer :: 10.16.2009The unimpeded growth of Euro-American capitalism following the collapse of Soviet and European communism, the conversion of China and Indochina to state capitalism, and the rise of US backed, free market military dictatorships in Latin America give new impetus to Western empire building, labeled globalization.
Latin Americas Twenty-First Century Socialism in Historical Perspective
10.11.2009The electoral victory of center left regimes in at least three Latin American countries, and the search for a new ideological identity to justify their rule, led ideologues and the incumbent presidents to embrace the notion that they represent a new 21st century version of socialism (21cs).
Separatism and Class Politics in Latin America
09.21.2009Throughout the world there is an upsurge of regional, sub- national movements whose demands range from greater autonomy to complete independence. Many analysts have commented on the apparent paradox of increasing global integration of economies and the increasing fragmentation of nation-states.
Latin America and the End of Social Liberalism
09.08.2009The current world recession and the potential recovery of some countries reveals all the weaknesses of the traditional export market free trade - comparative advantage doctrines. Nowhere is this more evident than in the recent experience of Latin America.
Latin America: Social Movements in Times of Economic Crises
08.12.2009The most striking aspect of the prolonged and deepening world recession/depression is the relative and absolute passivity of the working and middle class in the face of massive job losses, big cuts in wages, health care and pension payments and mounting housing foreclosures.
Latin America: Energy Workers in Time of Crisis
07.17.2009The situation of the energy sector in Latin America is determined by both internal and external correlations of political forces, the level of class organization and power within the ruling and the working classes, the condition of the world economy and the strength and weakness of US imperialism.
Peru: Blood Flows in the Amazon
06.10.2009In early June, Peruvian President Alan García, an ally of US President Barack Obama, ordered armored personnel carriers, helicopter gun-ships and hundreds of heavily armed troops to assault and disperse a peaceful, legal protest organized by members of Perus Amazonian indigenous communities protesting the entry of foreign multinational mining companies on their traditional homelands.
Latin America: Perspectives for Socialism in a Time of a World Capitalist Recession/Depression
01.20.2009A serious discussion of the perspectives for socialism in Latin America today requires several levels of analysis, moving from world economic conditions, to US-Latin American relations, to their specific impact on Latin America.
Venezuela: Socialism, Democracy and the Re-Election of President Chavez
01.08.2009On February 15, 2009, Venezuelan voters will go to the polls in order to vote on a constitutional referendum, which would allow for the indefinite re-election of the President.
Victory for Venezuelas Socialists in Crucial Elections November 2008
11.25.2008The pro-Chavez United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won 72% of the governorships in the November 23, 2008 elections and 58% of the popular vote, dumbfounding the predictions of most of the pro-capitalist pollsters and the vast majority of the mass media who favored the opposition.
The Larger Meaning of the Venezuelan Elections of November 23, 2008
11.19.2008The Venezuelan gubernatorial and municipal elections, taking place on November 23 of this year, are the most polarized and significant in the countrys history.
Latin Americans New Left In Crises as the Free Market Collapses
10.27.2008Latin America is entering a period of profound economic recession, financial crises, collapsing stock market quotations, prices, deep devaluation of its currencies, growing unemployment, declining revenues and the prospect of a prolonged socio-economic recession.
Haiti: In Solidarity with its Five Freedoms
10.03.2008Today the acid test for all democrats in North and South America is the issue of the military occupation of Haiti ,the economic pillage and denial of elementary political and human rights of the Haitian people.
Human Rights Watch in Venezuela: Lies, Crimes and Cover-ups
09.27.2008Human Rights Watch, a US-based group claiming to be a non-governmental organization, but which is in fact funded by government-linked quasi-private foundations and a Congressional funded political propaganda organization, the National Endowment for Democracy, has issued a report A Decade Under Chavez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela (9/21/2008 hrw.org).
Bolivia: Fascism Seizes Power - Morales Complains
09.16.2008Bolivian fascists have seized power in five of the richest states in Bolivia, forcefully ousting all national officials, murdering, injuring and assaulting leaders, activists and voters who have backed the national government with total impunity.
Colombia, Laboratory of Witches: Democracy and State Terrorism
08.12.2008Hernando Calvo Ospinas recent book, Colombia, Laboratorio de Embrujos: Democracia y Terrorismo de Estado is the most important study of Colombian politics in recent decades and essential reading in light of the Western medias and politicians celebration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
Fidel Castro and the FARC: Eight Mistaken Thesis of Fidel Castro
07.07.2008I have been a supporter of the Cuban Revolution for exactly fifty years and recognize Fidel Castro as one of the great revolutionary leaders of our time. But I have never been an uncritical apologist: On several crucial occasions I have expressed my disagreements in print, in public and in discussions with Cuban leaders, writers and militants.
President Chavez and the FARC: State and Revolution
07.03.2008When President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela called on the FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, to end their armed struggle and declared the guerrilla war is history, he was following a path taken by many revolutionary leaders in the past.
The Paradoxes of Latin American Development
06.30.2008Latin American development presents us with a rich array of paradoxes, which befuddle the predictions, prescriptions, and commentaries of writers and academics from the right and left. Abrupt changes and shifts in the political correlation of forces is matched by striking structural continuities.
Homage to Manuel Marulanda
05.26.2008Pedro Antonio Marin, better know as Manuel Marulanda and Tiro Fijo (Sure Shot), was the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-Peoples Army (FARC-EP). He was without a doubt the greatest revolutionary peasant leader in the history of the Americas.
Salvador Allende and Hugo Chavez: Similarities and Differences on the “National Road to Socialism”
05.14.2008I have known and advised three left wing president including President Papandreou (Greece 1981-85), President Salvador Allende of Chile (1970-73) and President Hugo Chavez.