During these pandemic times, everything seems to indicate that the socio-environmental crisis is getting worse in Latin America, especially in the Amazon.
The May 15th and 16th elections in Chile, which encompassed concurrently the vote for the 155 delegates to the Constituent Assembly as well as the vote for municipal officials and regional governors, has exposed the dismal failure of the government and rightwing parties while sanctioning the triumph of the independent candidates.
In less than a week, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and his Legislative Assembly have managed to lock in full political power in El Salvador, dismissing sitting Supreme Court justices and de facto naming new ones as well as a new attorney general, while passing legislation that grants immunity to loyal functionaries linked to irregular purchases during the pandemic.
This Earth Day, four women defenders from four countries came together to reflect on their struggles defending the body-territory. They emphasized that the relationship of women’s bodies with the earth, its natural resources, and the mutual care that this implies, is reflected in the types of threats and forms of violence against women’s bodies and against the earth that emanate from the same capitalist-patriarchal system that seeks total domination of both territories.
The situation in Latin America is serious. Only enough doses are available to vaccinate 5% of the population during a period of high infection rates and a rising death toll that have forced many countries in the region to reimpose confinement orders in the face of a collapse of its hospital services capabilities.
The Escazú Agreement is the first treaty in the world to contain specific provisions on human rights defenders in environmental matters.
“A crime against humanity” and “a disgrace to our great country”: that’s how 99-year-old Benjamin Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor of the Nazis at the Nuremberg war-crimes trials, characterized the Donald Trump administration’s coercive separation of thousands of immigrant children from parents seeking asylum.
Femicide is a crime foretold, warns lawyer Karla Micheel Salas. Announced, frequently by the victim herself, in denunciations and desperate cries for help that are ignored by the authorities and society. Announced by the conditions of discrimination, threat and vulnerability in which so many women live. Announced, by the numbers of femicides that increase daily. Announced, because of the capitalist-patriarchal system in which we all live, a system that devalues the life of women, especially if they are poor brown migrants with disabilities.
At the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), the organization that Berta Cáceres founded, they have a saying “Berta did not die: she multiplied”; that March 2nd was not the date…
After 30 years, the government of El Salvador continues to ensure impunity for those responsible for the worst massacre in modern Latin American history, in which 986 people were killed by the Salvadoran Armed Forces.