Thirty Years after Venezuela’s ‘Caracazo’: A Conversation with Livia Vargas

Cira Pascual Marquina Livia Vargas-Gonzalez teaches social theory at the School of Sociology in Caracas’ Universidad Central de Venezuela. She has published essays and books, including Entre libertad e historicidad (Between liberty and historicity, El Perro y la Rana, 2007). She is currently completing a doctorate at the Universidad Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP) in…

Betraying Human Rights: From Ivory Coast to Nicaragua

Stephen Sefton Events in Venezuela this year have exposed more than ever the crisis of competence and credibility in the global institutional structures charged with upholding and defending human rights . In January, Idriss Jazairy the UN Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on the effects of economic sanctions reinforced the condemnation of US policy against…

Jorge Rodríguez: Paramilitaries Trained in Colombia Seek to Destabilize Venezuela

Liliany Martínez “I have been commissioned by President Nicolás Maduro to share with you some of the important information derived from the investigation of the terrorist acts that have been organized by the Venezuelan ultra-right,” the Vice President of Communication, Culture and Tourism, Jorge Rodríguez, said this Saturday. From the Miraflores Palace, Rodriguez reported: “We…

No Revolution Without Feminism: Weaving Together Venezuela’s Feminist Movements

Ricardo Vas Alejandra Laprea speaking in Plaza Bolívar on March 8. The banner seen on the left was woven together collectively during several days of meetings and discussions. (Ketsy Medina Sifontes) International Working Women’s Day, March 8, landed this year in the midst of a complex scenario in Venezuela, with an ongoing coup attempt and…

Revolutionaries or Surly Gophers?

Fernando Buen Abad Just as reason assists us, so joy does too. If we are full-time militants, as we should be, then the good sense of good ideas we trust encourages us because we know them and can perfect them via the rhythm of struggle and the rigor of science. Which is also a joy….

Prosur or Protrump?

Manuel Cabieses In Chile, rulers of the right-wing “new wave” meet with the apparent purpose of creating a forum for the progress and development of Latin America. Why do the organizers hide the true intentions of this initiative? Consider its origin. The Colombian Iván Duque announced Prosur in January and immediately captured the somnambulist of…

Ser Viles (To Be Vile)

Javier Tolcachier Presumably they have brought it from the past. Perhaps from their elders’ acts of violence. Or the product of cultural or monetary inheritance. Perhaps the early childhood influenced by films of superheroes and villains based on the American way of life… and death. Perhaps raised in environments of dual morality, in which transgressing…

Coordinator of Movement of People Affected by Dams Killed in Northern Brazil

Brasil de Fato Dilma Ferreira Silva (right) and the then president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff / Handout/MAB Movement reported that other activists were also assassinated; motive is unknown A regional coordinator of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) was assassinated in northern Brazil, the movement reported Friday. Dilma Ferreira Silva, a regional coordinator…

Welcome to Hell: The Peruvian Mining City of La Rinconada

Andre Vltchek Magestic approach to La Rinconadsa – through garbage © Andre Vltchek While the West attacks Venezuela, a country that improved the lives of many of its citizens, it overlooks horrors that are taking place in Peru and other ‘pro-market’ countries in Latin America. La Rinconada, which lies at over 5km above sea level,…

Nicaragua: Steps Towards Victory

Carlos Fonseca Terán If peace triumphs, the country’s people triumph. If the people triumph, Sandinismo triumphs. If peace triumphs, the attempted coup d’état loses. Let’s remember, there is no Revolution without Peace, and there is no Peace without Nicaraguans reaching an understanding with each other. The right wing, given its lack of popular support, has…

Media Censors Bolsonaro CIA Visit With Justice Minister

Brasil Wire On March 18, on his first official visit to the United States far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro visited the Headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency. It was outside the President’s official agenda. None of his predecessors had visited the agency, and indeed very few foreign heads of state ever have. The scandal briefly…

Chilean Activists, Social Movements Protest Against Prosur

Chilean social and political organizations were holding demonstrations Friday against the Forum for the Latin American Progress and Development (Prosur), a meeting convened by the right-wing Latin American governments which are coordinating actions to dissolve the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and consolidate the U.S. interventionist agenda against Venezuela. The citizen rejection of Prosur…